Our Summer Signings gave Alarm Bells

[Josep Dowling]

I know I wasn’t the only one who was perplexed by the Mount signing. Everything about that signing was wrong. Spending £55m plus £5m on a player with 1 year left on his contract. Being the first signing of the summer and taking a big chunk of the budget when our priority was always a top class CF. A player out of form for 12 months and dropped by Southgate for England. Ultimately though a player who’s favoured position is CAM so we’d need to drop Bruno to put him in the team. That is unless Ten Hag thinks he can play a midfield 3 with Bruno and Mount. He tried this in the first 2 games and we were calved open in midfield.

On top of this we sign Onana. Played for Ten Hag at Ajax. Amrabat, played for Ten Hag at Utrecht. Even Mount played in the Netherlands at one stage. This continues the trend of us allowing the manager full control of signings for the club. What happens if Ten Hag doesn’t work out as manager? Yes managers should have a say in who we sign but surely there has to be a club direction as well. If we’re not careful we are going to end up with an expensively assembled Ajax team.

After spending significant funds on Mount and Onana we then chase a young striker in Hojlund. I have nothing against the player and appreciate the market means you pay significant sums for potential but he isn’t what we need right now. We need a world class striker that could start every game. Instead we have a young striker who now has the pressure to deliver and fans expect to start. The manager was already getting booed at the weekend for bringing him off early. Regardless of the score line Hojlund is getting match fitness and can’t be expected to play 90 minutes every week. He wasn’t even doing that at Atalanta. There’s going to be expectation that he scored 15-20 goals in the league and the pressure will rise if he doesn’t get his first goal soon.

The mains points I’m trying to make:

We have no transfer strategy other than sign who the manager wants. This is exactly what we have done since Fergie retired causing us to waste millions and require a rebuild every time a manager leaves.

Ten Hag doesn’t know what’s needed to improve the squad. The fact he thought Mount was a priority really concerns me. I always said we needed two CF, CM, back up CB and a GK. we got 3 out of 5 but a top class CF was the priority we didn’t get.

Lack of common sense with transfer strategy. One of the best strikers in the world has one year left on his contract and we don’t even make an attempt to sign him. You’re telling me Levy would have turned down £120-£130m? It would have made more sense to have pooled the Hojlund and Mount money to sign him.

Still wasting money on transfers and wages, We could have signed Onana on a free transfer last summer saving £47m. We should have waited until January to get Mount on a free. Mount is reportedly earning £300k a week as well.

Lack of sales once again. I know the club is stuck in some respects due to players overinflated salaries. Maguire should have been forced to go West Ham. We should have agreed to pay off his contract. I would have been happy with his going on a free transfer because it’s never going to work for him at United now. He needed to go. We definitely needed a new CB option. The likes of Lindelof, Martial and McTominay are 3 more that need to be shifted as well. I don’t think they should have sold Fred just yet, particularly for the transfer fee. He was the only CM we had that could press effectively.

This summer we were meant to kick on from last season. With 4 signings and spending £200m the only player that arguably strengthened our starting 11 is Hojlund, and that’s only because we didn’t have a CF!

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

There is some truth in what you’ve said but:

Mount has missed 3 of the 5 games through injury.
Hojlund has missed 3 of the 5 games through injury
Amrabat hasn’t even played yet

So it’s hard to fully blame this year’s signings. I think we are suffering a lot from previous signings, particularly the two wingers Sancho and Antony who are now unavailable for the foreseeable but before that were incredibly underwhelming for the money paid. They should be like Liverpool’s wingers or better, scoring 10+, 10 assists in the league, beating their man but we’ve not seen that at all. Given they cost £170-180 million between them, that has been so costly.

 

[Gordon Godot]

I know I wasn’t the only one who was perplexed by the Mount signing. Everything about that signing was wrong. Spending £55m plus £5m on a player with 1 year left on his contract. Being the first signing of the summer and taking a big chunk of the budget when our priority was always a top class CF. A player out of form for 12 months and dropped by Southgate for England. Ultimately though a player who’s favoured position is CAM so we’d need to drop Bruno to put him in the team. That is unless Ten Hag thinks he can play a midfield 3 with Bruno and Mount. He tried this in the first 2 games and we were calved open in midfield.

On top of this we sign Onana. Played for Ten Hag at Ajax. Amrabat, played for Ten Hag at Utrecht. Even Mount played in the Netherlands at one stage. This continues the trend of us allowing the manager full control of signings for the club. What happens if Ten Hag doesn’t work out as manager? Yes managers should have a say in who we sign but surely there has to be a club direction as well. If we’re not careful we are going to end up with an expensively assembled Ajax team.

After spending significant funds on Mount and Onana we then chase a young striker in Hojlund. I have nothing against the player and appreciate the market means you pay significant sums for potential but he isn’t what we need right now. We need a world class striker that could start every game. Instead we have a young striker who now has the pressure to deliver and fans expect to start. The manager was already getting booed at the weekend for bringing him off early. Regardless of the score line Hojlund is getting match fitness and can’t be expected to play 90 minutes every week. He wasn’t even doing that at Atalanta. There’s going to be expectation that he scored 15-20 goals in the league and the pressure will rise if he doesn’t get his first goal soon.

The mains points I’m trying to make:

We have no transfer strategy other than sign who the manager wants. This is exactly what we have done since Fergie retired causing us to waste millions and require a rebuild every time a manager leaves.

Ten Hag doesn’t know what’s needed to improve the squad. The fact he thought Mount was a priority really concerns me. I always said we needed two CF, CM, back up CB and a GK. we got 3 out of 5 but a top class CF was the priority we didn’t get.

Lack of common sense with transfer strategy. One of the best strikers in the world has one year left on his contract and we don’t even make an attempt to sign him. You’re telling me Levy would have turned down £120-£130m? It would have made more sense to have pooled the Hojlund and Mount money to sign him.

Still wasting money on transfers and wages, We could have signed Onana on a free transfer last summer saving £47m. We should have waited until January to get Mount on a free. Mount is reportedly earning £300k a week as well.

Lack of sales once again. I know the club is stuck in some respects due to players overinflated salaries. Maguire should have been forced to go West Ham. We should have agreed to pay off his contract. I would have been happy with his going on a free transfer because it’s never going to work for him at United now. He needed to go. We definitely needed a new CB option. The likes of Lindelof, Martial and McTominay are 3 more that need to be shifted as well. I don’t think they should have sold Fred just yet, particularly for the transfer fee. He was the only CM we had that could press effectively.

This summer we were meant to kick on from last season. With 4 signings and spending £200m the only player that arguably strengthened our starting 11 is Hojlund, and that’s only because we didn’t have a CF!

THis is correct. There is the club big picture where our football management structure is awful as it seems is our scouting. Ole said we were lookign at players character yet we sign Sancho with a long history of discipline issues, seems we failed to even notice Antony had a serious police charge against him. Then we have gone all in on ETH, may have been what he asksed for but no other top club allows the manager free reign. 70% plus of his signings are ex Ajax or played against him there, which is crazy. It suggests a great insecurity or blind spot, as when he refused to meet Ralf when he could have learnt something.

Last summer we chased FdJ when it was never hapening, then a late panic buy of Casimero. We dont learn from Varanne that RM only sign players when they are done, as Fergie did with Stam. SOunness I hate to say it was right when he said that signing will cost us a fortune as we will need to replace him. Antony is a pedestrian player and will never merit the fee, MOunt may be OK but just not a priority given other holes. I

The TImes on Saturday noted United have gone all in on ETH, if it doesnt work we are in an even greater mess. At the moment its not working. He needs to do something. His reluctanec to try youth is also a concern.

 

[Roboc7]

I think if you look at signings of last two summers and what has been spent it just doesn’t make sense especially given our FFP issues and is just a continuation of what we did previously.

The other huge issue is of all the players we sold Fred was the only one who actually had any significant game time for us. We know loads of the players that make up our match day squad week in week out either aren’t good enough and/or don’t fit what the manager wants but only 1 left the club.

Until there is the competence and willingness to genuinely overhaul the squad, undertaken by competent people with a clear plan we are screwed. And the chances of that happening under this ownership are zero.

 

[tenpoless]

They need to send me one of those bells in my PO mailboxes.

 

[NZT-One]

Lack of common sense with transfer strategy. One of the best strikers in the world has one year left on his contract and we don’t even make an attempt to sign him. You’re telling me Levy would have turned down £120-£130m? It would have made more sense to have pooled the Hojlund and Mount money to sign him.

I'm not sure if this is serious or not... I mean, you would be happier, had we spent the money that brought us Hojlund AND Mount to bring in Kane? Thats absurd. The guy is 30, the chances are his best days aren't in front of him, he already had a negative effect on Spurs' pressing and you want him in a team that is already half ancient and to a degree cannot be arsed to fight. Obviously Kane balanced his deficiencies out with his goal contributions but still. Spend this much only to be at the exact same spot that we are in right now in one, two or best case scenario three years from now... We need young and hungry, yet some want to spend the whole budget on a 30yo because seemingly all we lack is a great striker...

This years transferwindow taught one lesson - it just isn't right to call our decision makers stupid when chunks of the fan base have even worse ideas... I applaud the stones though to say something like this and call it common sense

Apart from that, I agree with most of what you said. But 99% of the post could have been made in late July so it has a bit of a bitter taste reading it when we are down for many reasons, some of them not connected with this years transferbusiness.

 

[jesperjaap]

Not disgreeing with your sentiment as were alarm bells and nt happy with the window personally.

However funny that lat season people considered our window a really good one due to our success and already people are considering this a bad one due to our start when we havent even seen half the players.

I thought last summer at the time we had failed to move on certain players, not bought enough players and long term probably not bought the right players, only Martinez was a good buy.

This summer we have failed to move on certain players, not bought enough players and probably not bought the right players, only Hoijlund I believe will prove a really good buy

Both windows were pretty similar

 

[frostbite]

I can't see a plan.

You don't build the defence around Varane, because he is injury-prone. You don't build the defence around Martinez because he needs a tall strong fast guy next to him.

You don't build the midfield around Casemiro because he is in decline.

You don't build the attack around a 20-year old unproven striker.

None of our lines has been fixed and we have already spent 400 million.

 

[marktan]

The biggest issue as you say is that we've allowed the manager to sign who he wants - largely players he has coached before or played against in Netherlands. It will be ETHs downfall - not his fault as the club should be structured better but it isn't.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

This was all abundantly obvious but if you questioned our transfer strategy at all during the summer, according to most of the Caf you would be a moaner, a knee jerker, a glory hunter, and an impatient fan who just wanted "shiny new toys".

 

[huyn]

The Mount signing was puzzling. I rate him as a player but as you said he can only play CAM which is kind of a deprecated position in today's football, not many teams play with one. You happen to be one of the rare teams that do but you already have a better player in that position in Bruno, and also Eriksen who plays lower down the pitch nowadays but used to be a CAM and could cover for Bruno if needed.

Onana signing was weird, a lot of money for a GK who wasnt pursued by any other team and was free last year, and he has a few discipline red flags in the past.

Amrabat could be a useful player for you, but it doesnt make sense why they waited for the very last second to pay what Fiorentina initially wanted just to have the player sit the whole summer and not train waiting for the transfer, and not being ready and match fit in late september. I know some transfers are tough to negotiate and conclude, but it didnt seem to be one of those and you could have had him fit and ready at the start of the season in august.

When it comes to sales, you hold on to your "assets" way too long, but the fans over here on the Caf always seem to be supporting that kind of strategy even though it always fails. You should get rid of unwanted players as soon as you can but you always try to hold on for a better offer that never comes.

 

[lex talionis]

If even just one of our summer signings works out I'll take that as a success. I have high hopes for Hojlund.

 

[LordSpud]

The thing with Mount is: he's rubbish

 

[joedirt87]

The only hope right now is ETH turning things around. Otherwise the post Fergie cycle continues again.

 

[Borys]

The alarms should be off once we bought Antony.

I would hold my judgment on Mount, I think he can take us to next level but we need to deploy him deeper and he needs to adapt. No chance in hell we pull off this "Mount playing as second striker" with current squad.

Onana will be fine, I think he's been a bit unlucky so far (I hope so). He isn't really the reason we're losing games considering how many chances we concede.

Amrabat is N/A, low risk anyway.

Hojlund I think was a mistake because the next 2 seasons will be very difficult environment to grow, and we did buy him as a prospect. I thought we should've brought another experienced striker, even on loan. It's the kind of transfer that if it doesn't work out, it will rather be on the club than on the player I fear.

 

[cyberman]

Our signings haven’t been given a chance yet. You’re looking too closely at it

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Murtough madness

 

[Scandi Red]

Who is this Alarm Bells? I can't find him on the transfer list.

 

[Josep Dowling]

If even just one of our summer signings works out I'll take that as a success. I have high hopes for Hojlund.

This view is why we fail. We can’t keep spending £200m hoping our success rate is a mere 25%. We can never recover the fees and most of the time can’t sell because the said player earns double the market value salary for their ability.

 

[Josep Dowling]

There is some truth in what you’ve said but:

Mount has missed 3 of the 5 games through injury.
Hojlund has missed 3 of the 5 games through injury
Amrabat hasn’t even played yet

So it’s hard to fully blame this year’s signings. I think we are suffering a lot from previous signings, particularly the two wingers Sancho and Antony who are now unavailable for the foreseeable but before that were incredibly underwhelming for the money paid. They should be like Liverpool’s wingers or better, scoring 10+, 10 assists in the league, beating their man but we’ve not seen that at all. Given they cost £170-180 million between them, that has been so costly.

I’m not blaming the individual players for their performances. It’s more the fact they should not have been signed by us. They are destine to fail because the club consistently choose the wrong players.

 

[lex talionis]

This view is why we fail. We can’t keep spending £200m hoping our success rate is a mere 25%. We can never recover the fees and most of the time can’t sell because the said player earns double the market value salary for their ability.

You misunderstand me. I’m not happy about our summer signings and expect only Hojlund to be the player who substantially improves us. Mount is questionable at best and Onana will in no way transform the squad.

 

[philippexyz]

Ten Hag obviously has total control over transfers and he's not a good talent evaluator. He should cooperate with competent scouts and director of football and they should actually have the final say in recruitment. Famous example of Michael Edwards(director of football) bringing Salah to Liverpool instead of Brandt who Klopp wanted and overruling Klopp in the process for the better of the club.

Poor recruitment, which is only partially his fault because he doesn't have a proper football structure above him to rely on will be ETH's downfall. And for the next manager, whoever it may be, as well.

It will happen over and over and over again as long as incompetent, grotesque, pathologically greedy Glazers are owners.

 

[bosnian_red]

Think our transfer was quite good if you ignore timing of signings and not being able to sell some guys. Cost a bit high, but not a huge deal.

Bigger impact is they've been injured. Everyone shitting on the mount signing... the guy has been injured. Amrabat is injured. Hojlund was injured and can't play 90 minutes and needs his games managed. Reguillon is emergency signing to cover 2 long term injuries at LB. Onana is a class GK so no issue there. Altay is backup who we brought to replace another and got money out of the deal, who cares.

We've had far worse windows than this one. The problem has been injuries and not actually being able to use the new guys, as well as an insane amount of off the pitch issues.

 

[Cassidy]

I’m not blaming the individual players for their performances. It’s more the fact they should not have been signed by us. They are destine to fail because the club consistently choose the wrong players.

2+2=infinity

 

[SungSam7]

All this talk about Harry Kane, as if he would make a difference considering our game plan goes through Rashford who acts the hero rather than trying to pass to an open man.

Hojlund was open a few times against Brighton and Rashford preferred to hit the side netting time and time again. It's ETH to stamp that nonsense out.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

Think our transfer was quite good if you ignore timing of signings and not being able to sell some guys. Cost a bit high, but not a huge deal.

Bigger impact is they've been injured. Everyone shitting on the mount signing... the guy has been injured. Amrabat is injured. Hojlund was injured and can't play 90 minutes and needs his games managed. Reguillon is emergency signing to cover 2 long term injuries at LB. Onana is a class GK so no issue there. Altay is backup who we brought to replace another and got money out of the deal, who cares.

We've had far worse windows than this one. The problem has been injuries and not actually being able to use the new guys, as well as an insane amount of off the pitch issues.

100% agree.

Mount has played 2 games. Hojlund has played 60 minutes. Amrabat hasn't even played yet.

Let's wait until we have close to a fully fit squad to pick from before we start questioning our new signings.

 

[FriedClams]

Was everyone expecting the new signings to just gel together instantly? The team is a project at the moment, and we need to give it time to find its feet. People really need to stop expecting us to be successful this season, it was never going to happen.

 

[Gycraig]

All this talk about Harry Kane, as if he would make a difference considering our game plan goes through Rashford who acts the hero rather than trying to pass to an open man.

Hojlund was open a few times against Brighton and Rashford preferred to hit the side netting time and time again. It's ETH to stamp that nonsense out.

Needs the van persie conversation if you don’t pass to our striker you won’t play

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Was everyone expecting the new signings to just gel together instantly? The team is a project at the moment, and we need to give it time to find its feet. People really need to stop expecting us to be successful this season, it was never going to happen.

Funny how this bit never seems to be a problem for other clubs.

 

[The_Midfielder]

Funny how this bit never seems to be a problem for other clubs.

Have all our players played?
Hojlund played 1 game
Mount maybe 2
Anybody else played ?

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Have all our players played?
Hojlund played 1 game
Mount maybe 2
Anybody else played ?

The concerns around the Mount signing that have been expressed here have to do more with his role in the squad (being a natural number 10 when we needed a CM) and the farce that was the negotiation process (pretending to walk away only to come back and pay the asking price).

The number of games he's played for the team is irrelevant to either of those points. We're discussing our broader transfer strategy, not individual performances.

 

[bosnian_red]

The concerns around the Mount signing that have been expressed here have to do more with his role in the squad (being a natural number 10 when we needed a CM) and the farce that was the negotiation process (pretending to walk away only to come back and pay the asking price).

The number of games he's played for the team is irrelevant to either of those points. We're discussing our broader transfer strategy, not individual performances.

I guess we gotta wait to see how he does. He essentially got poty for Chelsea twice in a role we could well see him in soon. I for one look forward to seeing this in action, if we ever get to see it. Obviously defensive injuries currently but reguillon and Lindelof is fine. But that's got great workrate throughout (minus Rashford, but that's alright and more than made up for with mount and Amrabat in), but also has plenty of quality. Should have at least. Let's see if Ten Hag goes for it. Probably not the position he envisioned for Mount when we signed him, but he did want to sign Amrabat from the start so it could've been in the plan (or just rotate Amrabat and Mount depending on opponent in the middle).

Onana
Dalot Varane Martinez Shaw
Casemiro Amrabat
Mount Bruno Rashford
Hojlund​