Ole won't spend big![OP's inference, not Ole's words]

[minoo-utd]

Read he passed Ed his thoughts and plans for the next couple of years and declared that we don't need to spend big or land big names, instead we can improve what we have!

I fear he wants to follow a strategy somehow like SAF which Ed and Glazers will absolutely love it and give him the job.

I know we might not need a glactico kind of signings but we surely need 3 4 additions to the team no doubt about it.

Thoughts!

 

[Rish Sawhney]

If he's as successful as SAF following this strategy who here's gonna complain? The signings are just a means to an end.

If he's signing players and losing, he won't last.
If he's not signing players and losing, he won't last.

If he's winning.. who cares how much he's spending?

 

[JMack1234]

Source?

Anyway, if I desperately wanted the Man Utd job the first thing i'd say to Woodward is that I didn't want to spend much money.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Source?

Anyway, if I desperately wanted the Man Utd job the first thing i'd say to Woodward is that I didn't want to spend much money.

Thats what I was thinking. Once he gets the job he can do whatever he wants

 

[Rish Sawhney]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47180634

When asked how many players the club would need to sign to challenge for the title, Solskjaer said: "It is about who we've got here as well.

"If every single player can improve by 1-2% it is not about X amount of players.

"It's not just buy a superstar and that will fix things and suddenly we go from challenging to be among the top four to being champions."

The former striker added that he hoped United, who face Fulham at 12:30 GMT on Saturday, will be ready to contend for the title next year.

"I came in from Molde, they were 10th in 2010, and in 2011 we won the league, so you can never say never," he said.

What a yes man. Don't want. He should have said this squad is shit and we need to replace Jones, Young, Valencia with 3 50m signings.

Poe's Law

 

[Davicho]

We need spend in a RW a CM and a MCD and we are solved for years. Dalot, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw, Pogba, Martial and Rashford will improve naturally because they have real potential. Matic, Herrera and Lingard is where we need upgrade if we want to become a world class team in the next few years.

 

[Pscholes18]

So he will resign the likes of Jones? Should of just kept Fellaini

 

[Gandalf]

He is talking perfect sense. In no way does he say that no signings are needed, he is simply stating that improving what we have can get us close and how can you argue with him? Martial, Rashford, Pogba, Lindelof etc all getting better under Ole. Of course we will buy new players in the summer but if you just keep throwing money around that is not a sustainable solution, proper coaching and a plan to develop your squad is the right way forward.

 

[RooneyLegend]

I'm all for us making the right signings instead of expensive ones but we do need players. He'd be crazy to think otherwise.

 

[Harry190]

What a silly, silly, silly reaction.

 

[VeevaVee]

Following the SAF strategy means signing two quality CBs, a fullback on the brink of becoming fantastic and a world class striker, plus plenty of sharp looking youngish talent.

 

[MikeKing]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47180634




What a yes man. Don't want. He should have said this squad is shit and we need to replace Jones, Young, Valencia with 3 50m signings.

Hope you aren't serious. Ed is going to do what he does regardless so the only thing you can do as an employee is work with what you have in front of you. Hasn't even gotten the job yet and you want him to argue and be difficult with his boss

People really do not want the circus to end.

Also, what he is saying is just realistic. We might surpass that, or we might fail heavily depending on our work in the transfer market but desperately signing expensive people like Sanchez on huge wages for the short term is not sustainable tactic. If you are impressed by Pochettino how is he not a bigger yes man in this scenario. Being a yes man isn't something inherently bad. If you say yes to terrible ideas too then thats one thing but the only proof we have to speculate in is resigning Jones, and he even said in the press conference that he doesn't have control over every contract extension.

 

[Bastian]

We've spent money and we'll likely continue to spend money. But we need to be a lot more ambitious especially when taking stock of our own players. And we need to spend wisely, for a change. Which is where the DoF comes to the fore.

We obviously need a full back once Tony leaves, preferably a left back who can push Shaw or improve on him (Tierney would fit the "value in the market" profile). We need a first-name-on-the-sheet centre back. And a right sided attacker. I could see the club going for Sancho and an expensive defender.

I've had the worries that Ole could be a yes-man, but the way he's navigated the last couple of months makes it really hard to criticise him. He's done a great job so far and everything he says now should also be viewed from the POV that he's trying to motivate our players for the rest of the season (which was Mourinho's biggest flaw).

 

[ManRed]

Considering how most big signings have failed at United in the past few years (Falcao, Di Maria, Sanchez, Mata etc) I wouldn't mind if he gets decent, hungry players who will improve our overall play and depth.

 

[shamans]

To me, that's the sign of a good coach.

Just as a good software developer, you don't cry about the RAM or CPU power before you truly optimize your code unless of course your CPU is garbage. Yes we need to spend but Ole knows that the key thing we lack(ed) is cohesion and free flowing football. That is what he wants to build and as part of that puzzle we'll need other players, but we don't need to spend big.

 

[cyril C]

Read he passed Ed his thoughts and plans for the next couple of years and declared that we don't need to spend big or land big names, instead we can improve what we have!

I fear he wants to follow a strategy somehow like SAF which Ed and Glazers will absolutely love it and give him the job.

I know we might not need a glactico kind of signings but we surely need 3 4 additions to the team no doubt about it.

Thoughts!

So you think we should spend 150m on a CB? This club need a top CB, a good MF to backup existing 3, and possibly a LB or RB to replace Valencia and Young. That is it. Unless you think we should go and buy another LW to replace Martial, or another striker to replace Rashford, or another AMF to replace Pogba. We have got enough fire power upfront with only RW needing to replace Mata. So 200m is enough to buy 3-4 players.

 

[nangis]

Following the SAF strategy means signing two quality CBs, a fullback on the brink of becoming fantastic and a world class striker, plus plenty of sharp looking youngish talent.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeees!

 

[Red Royal]

Hopefully part of what he is saying is to stop us getting mugged off for the extra 20% clubs charge as a Manchester United tax!

 

[minoo-utd]

So you think we should spend 150m on a CB? This club need a top CB, a good MF to backup existing 3, and possibly a LB or RB to replace Valencia and Young. That is it. Unless you think we should go and buy another LW to replace Martial, or another striker to replace Rashford, or another AMF to replace Pogba. We have got enough fire power upfront with only RW needing to replace Mata. So 200m is enough to buy 3-4 players.

I think we will not spend 200m. Part of me feels Ole is happy with what we have.

 

[An Irish Red]

We need spend in a RW a CM and a MCD and we are solved for years. Dalot, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw, Pogba, Martial and Rashford will improve naturally because they have real potential. Matic, Herrera and Lingard is where we need upgrade if we want to become a world class team in the next few years.

I disagree about us needing to upgrade on Herrera. In a pressing, counter-attacking, team (which we are trying to be) he's exactly the type of player you need alongside someone like Pogba.

 

[Rish Sawhney]

I think we will not spend 200m. Part of me feels Ole is happy with what we have.

What does that even mean.. sign no one? Thats not even remotely a possibility.

 

[MikeKing]

Are we going to complain if we do sign someone like Robertson, Trippier, Alli, Mané or Kante?

 

[MikeKing]

I think we will not spend 200m. Part of me feels Ole is happy with what we have.

Why? He is a United-man, he wants the best players possible that fit in his image of the club and his team.

 

[ecantona7]

Considering the run we're on, you can't say he's wrong, if the report is true.

 

[An Irish Red]

Are we going to complain if we do sign someone like Robertson, Trippier, Alli, Mané or Kante?

The club always used to sign domestically based players with high potential when we were successful. It's also a large part of why Liverpool (Mane, Robertson, Van Dijk) have done well recently.

We've stopped doing that as of late, and it's something we should get back to.

 

[Isotope]

Are we going to complain if we do sign someone like Robertson, Trippier, Alli, Mané or Kante?

Any United fan who won't be happy with those type of signings is following the wrong club. Imho.

 

[Davicho]

I disagree about us needing to upgrade on Herrera. In a pressing, counter-attacking, team (which we are trying to be) he's exactly the type of player you need alongside someone like Pogba.

Yeah

I disagree about us needing to upgrade on Herrera. In a pressing, counter-attacking, team (which we are trying to be) he's exactly the type of player you need alongside someone like Pogba.

Yeah he is doing a great job, but thinking in the future i think he will need upgrade in a few years due his age and style of football. Dont think he has the vision o range of passing to adapt into a new role once his legs are gone

 

[MikeKing]

The club always used to sign domestically based players with high potential when we were successful. It's also a large part of why Liverpool (Mane, Robertson, Van Dijk) have done well recently.

We've stopped doing that as of late, and it's something we should get back to.

I agree. Not for the sake of it though because we might end up with just English dross. We do have the money to go out and choose the better player when we need to so we should absolutely do that, but we have to make these tidy, cheaper scouted signings as well in conjunction to update the squad along the way. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you sell them after a couple of years.

Seems like we now just blame the manager for everything, too scared to risk signing dross so we spend our time acting fools trying to get "big players" and we end up desperately signing dross anyways, just more expensive. Fellaini transfer was a very transparent display of this problem. Bastian to some extent. Falcao. Di Maria. Zlatan. Sanchez. No doubt Zlatan made his way at this club but that was only thanks to himself refusing to not be the best, he made new goals even as old as he was. The others are just expensive dross with big names, no proof they will contribute more than any of the players we discarded as not good enough. More like not big enough name. I do prefer when we make our stars rather than buying them.

 

[Tarrou]

even if his intention was the opposite this is the correct thing to say

it motivates our current players to keep improving
and it shows other clubs we're not desperate to buy / have money to burn

 

[sam147]

On one hand OGS has played with top quality players in title winning teams so he obviously knows what is required. On the other hand he is saying players like Jones know what needs to be done to win titles and he doesn't want to spend big. Hopefully he mans up once he signs a permanent contract because this yes man attitude will not get him far. If he continues this act of nice guy to both the board and the players once he has a permanent contract then there will be issues. For one Woodward will have a new scapegoat. Also the nice guy attitude and putting average players on pedestals will last only so long till he gets walked over by them. Hopefully this is just him trying to best position himself for the job. Once he has it he knows fans wont turn on him quickly so he can demand more of Woodward.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

He is talking perfect sense. In no way does he say that no signings are needed, he is simply stating that improving what we have can get us close and how can you argue with him? Martial, Rashford, Pogba, Lindelof etc all getting better under Ole. Of course we will buy new players in the summer but if you just keep throwing money around that is not a sustainable solution, proper coaching and a plan to develop your squad is the right way forward.

Exactly, but people here just want us to spend big and be the galacticos of the EPL. They forget how we've run things for years and how we rarely buy ready made players (of course there are acceptions) but rather promote from within or buy a young player who makes their name at United. Personally, I would rather allow our own players a chance and go looking for the next "Ronaldo" than go out and waste money on a bunch of "Di Maria's"...

 

[meamth]

If he's as successful as SAF following this strategy who here's gonna complain? The signings are just a means to an end.

If he's signing players and losing, he won't last.
If he's not signing players and losing, he won't last.

If he's winning.. who cares how much he's spending?

Great post there. I don't really care how much he spends as long as he can deliver consistent wins.

Sign Sancho for 100 million and win the title? Great!
Sign unknown players and lost the plot? Caf will be in meltdown.

Regardless of what his vision is, DOF will control all the variables of signings. That's the key imo.

 

[meamth]

Exactly, but people here just want us to spend big and be the galacticos of the EPL. They forget how we've run things for years and how we rarely buy ready made players (of course there are acceptions) but rather promote from within or buy a young player who makes their name at United. Personally, I would rather allow our own players a chance and go looking for the next "Ronaldo" than go out and waste money on a bunch of "Di Maria's"...

The United identity goes way back to the Busby Babes. Sir Matt, who is obsessed with signing wonderkids instead of ready made stars.

Sir Alex is the same, although there was a lot of blockbuster signings, it was to cater to the modern times.

Thing is, Ronaldo was 18 million back then, now if want to take James Maddison to United, it would cost 30-40 million. Crazy.

Now It's impossible to not brand a wonderkid signing as "galactico" signing, and that's the difficult thing about the current market.

 

[Deleted member 101472]

Or maybe he wants to do business the proper united way. I.e. unexpected big, important signings. Other clubs appreciate business being done the right way, you start harping on about big signings and “war chests” and all of a sudden the media start linking you with players, the clubs aren’t sure whether to believe the rumours or not and the outcome is inflated prices.

Perfectly happy with everything OGS has said.

 

[tenpoless]

We had Wesley Brown and O'Shea.
We had Cleverly and Welbeck.
We had Evans and Gibson.

They all played a part in our tittle winning seasons. I hope We spend big on important first team players. But extending contracts of our back up players shouldn't be seen as a reluctance of spending. Also, I doubt Ole is as naive, He knows his competitors, spending big is unavoidable.

 

[langster]

Thankfully Ole understands more than anyone from personal experience that this isn't FIFA, and yet again he shows he understands the club better than anyone since Fergie.

Balance, talent, commitment, unity, desire, teamwork, harmony and skill and hard work will always be.more desirable than just buying galacticos and hoping for the best. I thought we would have learned that by now?

Ole is speaking perfect sense and if he can do it on a smaller budget then why should it matter? Was winning with the class of 92 any less satisfying? Actually, it was the exact opposite. Also, like it or not the club is a business owned and run by businessmen, you couldn't blame them if they thought Ole could get as much success as anyone else and with a smaller budget.

He has to be given the chance imho. 2 experienced managers and millions spent haven't really worked, with everyone reminiscing about Fergie it would be moronic to ignore the most obvious like for like replacement we could find.

He also never said he wouldn't spend big, or buy world class players if they were available, he just said whoever comes in has to be the right fit. Nothing wrong with that at all and after being burned before and seeing many other clubs make the same mistake, I think he should be applauded for speaking sense and trusted he knows what he's talking about. I just hope he knows what he's doing and can back it up. So far, so good and long may it continue.

 

[Deleted member 101472]

Thankfully Ole understands more than anyone from personal experience that this isn't FIFA, and yet again he shows he understands the club better than anyone since Fergie.

Balance, talent, commitment, unity, desire, teamwork, harmony and skill and hard work will always be.more desirable than just buying galacticos and hoping for the best. I thought we would have learned that by now?

Ole is speaking perfect sense and if he can do it on a smaller budget then why should it matter? Was winning with the class of 92 any less satisfying? Actually, it was the exact opposite. Also, like it or not the club is a business owned and run by businessmen, you couldn't blame them if they thought Ole could get as much success as anyone else and with a smaller budget.

He has to be given the chance imho. 2 experienced managers and millions spent haven't really worked, with everyone reminiscing about Fergie it would be moronic to ignore the most obvious like for like replacement we could find.

He also never said he wouldn't spend big, or buy world class players if they were available, he just said whoever comes in has to be the right fit. Nothing wrong with that at all and after being burned before and seeing many other clubs make the same mistake, I think he should be applauded for speaking sense and trusted he knows what he's talking about. I just hope he knows what he's doing and can back it up. So far, so good and long may it continue.

Couldn’t agree more.

 

[Mr Smith]

I think we will not spend 200m. Part of me feels Ole is happy with what we have.

What evidence do you have to back that up? I'm constantly amazed that people take what managers say in press conferences as gospel. Of course he's going to play down signing a bunch of new players. For one thing, he doesn't have the permanent gig yet, and for another, he's got to work with the players he currently has for another 4 months! What's going to do? Tell the press they're not good enough and we need more signings? That's what Mourinho did and look at the effect that had on the squad!

 

[Freak]

Thankfully Ole understands more than anyone from personal experience that this isn't FIFA, and yet again he shows he understands the club better than anyone since Fergie.

Balance, talent, commitment, unity, desire, teamwork, harmony and skill and hard work will always be.more desirable than just buying galacticos and hoping for the best. I thought we would have learned that by now?

Ole is speaking perfect sense and if he can do it on a smaller budget then why should it matter? Was winning with the class of 92 any less satisfying? Actually, it was the exact opposite. Also, like it or not the club is a business owned and run by businessmen, you couldn't blame them if they thought Ole could get as much success as anyone else and with a smaller budget.

He has to be given the chance imho. 2 experienced managers and millions spent haven't really worked, with everyone reminiscing about Fergie it would be moronic to ignore the most obvious like for like replacement we could find.

He also never said he wouldn't spend big, or buy world class players if they were available, he just said whoever comes in has to be the right fit. Nothing wrong with that at all and after being burned before and seeing many other clubs make the same mistake, I think he should be applauded for speaking sense and trusted he knows what he's talking about. I just hope he knows what he's doing and can back it up. So far, so good and long may it continue.

Good post. It's funny reading some posters losing their shit.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

The United identity goes way back to the Busby Babes. Sir Matt, who is obsessed with signing wonderkids instead of ready made stars.

Sir Alex is the same, although there was a lot of blockbuster signings, it was to cater to the modern times.

Thing is, Ronaldo was 18 million back then, now if want to take James Maddison to United, it would cost 30-40 million. Crazy.

Now It's impossible to not brand a wonderkid signing as "galactico" signing, and that's the difficult thing about the current market.

There are plenty of deals to be had. Leicester bought Maguire for 17m last year. At the time I was calling for us to go after him but everyone was saying "he's not United quality". A year on and a world cup later and all of a sudden we were "apparently" looking at offering 70m for him? WTF? The key is to sign these players before they make the leap to the next level or before they catch everyones eye. We got Ronaldo because we played against him and everyone on the team went to SAF and said "sign this kid". A couple of years ago we played in the Europa League finals. DeLigt was 18 years old and captaining his team in a Europe League final. A bid should have been made for him the second the transfer window opened. Now he may go this summer and he will go for a hell of a lot more than what could have been paid for him then. Same goes for DeJong. He may not have started that match, but he was an impact sub off the bench at only 19 years old. Now he's going to Barca 2 years later for a ridiculous amount of money...