Pessimistic view of the CAF when it comes to Transfers

[UnitedSofa]

What is it with the CAF and being so pessimistic when it comes to transfers?

I've said this in a number of threads now and feel as though it deserves it's own thread.

In a number of threads discussing players such as Kane, Grealish, Ronaldo and Sancho. There are lots of posts from users that just straight up dismiss the possibility of us signing anyone. Like Kane people are already writing him off to go to City, now a strange one is Sancho is all of a sudden a dead cert to go to Chelsea or Ronaldo back to Madrid.

The CAF has this weird juxtaposition of wanting the worlds best players at the club and wanting the club to challenge for honours. But at the same time, each time good and world class players are available, almost immediately write them off and say that they're going to our rivals.

So, I ask the question, why (and I know Glazers, don't trust them to shell out the money etc etc) but why in your view, do you think the CAF is this way? Why can't one of the world's richest clubs sign the world's best players. We got Bruno and beat City to the signing of both Bruno and Maguire! So it's not like we can't compete. So why is Kane a dead cert to be going to City?

 

[pascell]

We can't guarantee trophies, the career of a footballer is a short one, so they want to win as much in that time, we're still rebuilding.

 

[Plant0x84]

Bitter past experience mostly. We see the owners for what they are and it’s obvious they won’t fund a summer like Chelsea last summer, or City every summer. We see our CEO and transfer negotiators for the incompetent fools they are and we know we won’t be proactive and get business done early like others.

Edit - No, I didn’t read the whole post before I put this.

 

[Nick7]

why is Kane a dead cert to be going to City? Because they can also afford to pay a kings ransom for him and let’s be honest they’re in a better position for winning trophies right now.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Bitter past experience mostly. We see the owners for what they are and it’s obvious they won’t fund a summer like Chelsea last summer, or City every summer. We see our CEO and transfer negotiators for the incompetent fools they are and we know we won’t be proactive and get business done early like others.

Edit - No, I didn’t read the whole post before I put this.

We haven't seen Murtough/Fletcher in a transfer window yet, I'm quietly confident this Summer is going to be much better than the last few summers we've had.

why is Kane a dead cert to be going to City? Because they can also afford to pay a kings ransom for him and let’s be honest they’re in a better position for winning trophies right now.

We're in a final in 2 days and have just finished 2nd in the league and are in a great position to springboard into putting in a real fight next season.....with a 2 or 3 signings I can genuinely see us fighting for the league. Kane/Sancho would go a long ways into doing just that.

 

[Abraxas]

From my perspective I don't think it's the club's competitiveness (we are doing okay), I don't think it's climate or the city for most players. It is true we are not quite the stand out draw we once were but we are still in any discussion for these players.

I just don't see how with the latest financial results we can sign 2-3 players of this calibre. Maybe we can sign one, supplemented by a few sales. I do find the rather spoilt nature of some fans that want every new toy at the expense of our club's financial security to be rather sickening. We need to be smart for the next couple of seasons as things recover. Spend yes, but with caution.

 

[croadyman]

why is Kane a dead cert to be going to City? Because they can also afford to pay a kings ransom for him and let’s be honest they’re in a better position for winning trophies right now.

Yeah they are clearly in a much better position than us to win things but would be very surprised if Utd don't use Fergie & co to try and talk up the prospect of joining our striking legends and the chance of taking us back to the top once again

 

[Champ]

Pretty sure most football clubs forums and fans are exactly the same.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

State of the club

shows how far we have fallen

Accepting mediocrity

Blah blah

In this society, when we want everything NOW. it means when we don’t get everything NOW, we then think we will get nothing EVER.

No club gets all their targets, no club breaks the bank every summer.

some people need just to wait and see what happens, and don’t get stressed about it.

Ultimately we know very little about what happens with transfers until they happen - and most of the ‘speculation’ or ‘links’ or ‘leaks’ are BS.

Happens every summer (and winter).

we have as good a chance at getting most players as any other club. Some we won’t be interested in, some we will get, some we won’t.

 

[UnitedSofa]

From my perspective I don't think it's the club's competitiveness (we are doing okay), I don't think it's climate or the city for most players. It is true we are not quite the stand out draw we once were but we are still in any discussion for these players.

I just don't see how with the latest financial results we can sign 2-3 players of this calibre. Maybe we can sign one, supplemented by a few sales. I do find the rather spoilt nature of some fans that want every new toy at the expense of our club's financial security to be rather sickening. We need to be smart for the next couple of seasons as things recover. Spend yes, but with caution.

This I 100% agree with too. But I just find the fact that every player lots of fans write us off as having any real chance, but at the same time call for Ole's job if he doesn't make the team perform. Yet we don't have the players that they want, but at the same time they write them off to join other clubs. You can see where I'm going with this. Rinse and repeat...

 

[Gog]

What is it with the CAF and being so pessimistic when it comes to transfers?

I've said this in a number of threads now and feel as though it deserves it's own thread.

In a number of threads discussing players such as Kane, Grealish, Ronaldo and Sancho. There are lots of posts from users that just straight up dismiss the possibility of us signing anyone. Like Kane people are already writing him off to go to City, now a strange one is Sancho is all of a sudden a dead cert to go to Chelsea or Ronaldo back to Madrid.

The CAF has this weird juxtaposition of wanting the worlds best players at the club and wanting the club to challenge for honours. But at the same time, each time good and world class players are available, almost immediately write them off and say that they're going to our rivals.

So, I ask the question, why (and I know Glazers, don't trust them to shell out the money etc etc) but why in your view, do you think the CAF is this way? Why can't one of the world's richest clubs sign the world's best players. We got Bruno and beat City to the signing of both Bruno and Maguire! So it's not like we can't compete. So why is Kane a dead cert to be going to City?

I'm not a pessimist in general.

I think the Glazers are a big factor in our sometimes lack of faith.

We nearly didn't get Bruno, because of the messing about, (he gives the ball away too easily etc.), it was as if we didn't really want or need him.

In the case of Kane specifically, getting him (if we can) will affect so many other deals and areas we need to address, if we are to challenge for the title.

Only City or Chelski, can afford to spend such money on one single player, and not just because they already have more of their bases covered, or it is COVID times.

Roman Abramovich is an emotionally invested fan as well as owner.

Cities owners seem to put no limit on backing Pep.

Ours, are well, different.

And that is often why, we are pessimistic about whether they will go the extra mile for the team, when push comes to shove.

 

[Nick7]

We haven't seen Murtough/Fletcher in a transfer window yet, I'm quietly confident this Summer is going to be much better than the last few summers we've had.



We're in a final in 2 days and have just finished 2nd in the league and are in a great position to springboard into putting in a real fight next season.....with a 2 or 3 signings I can genuinely see us fighting for the league. Kane/Sancho would go a long ways into doing just that.

And City are in a final later in the week and just finished 1st in the league.

 

[TrueRed1999]

What is it with the CAF and being so pessimistic when it comes to transfers?

I've said this in a number of threads now and feel as though it deserves it's own thread.

In a number of threads discussing players such as Kane, Grealish, Ronaldo and Sancho. There are lots of posts from users that just straight up dismiss the possibility of us signing anyone. Like Kane people are already writing him off to go to City, now a strange one is Sancho is all of a sudden a dead cert to go to Chelsea or Ronaldo back to Madrid.

The CAF has this weird juxtaposition of wanting the worlds best players at the club and wanting the club to challenge for honours. But at the same time, each time good and world class players are available, almost immediately write them off and say that they're going to our rivals.

So, I ask the question, why (and I know Glazers, don't trust them to shell out the money etc etc) but why in your view, do you think the CAF is this way? Why can't one of the world's richest clubs sign the world's best players. We got Bruno and beat City to the signing of both Bruno and Maguire! So it's not like we can't compete. So why is Kane a dead cert to be going to City?

As much as I like Kane and he would guarantee goals with his injury record and our injury curse that has fallen us the last few years we need to act smart, we need a RW, A CMD/CM and a CB. We also need to move on some of the players that are not fit for use anymore like Jones, Mata (Love him but age), Martial (Injury Prone and been given plenty of chances to deliver), Lingard (Done well at West Ham but where was that when he played for us last few years?). This season when played was abysmal), Bailly (Love him but Injury Prone). Sancho should 100% be our main priority we have needed someone like him on the RW for years. A Really Good CB to help Maguire as when him out it proved he was carried that defence single handed throughout this season, Kalidou Koulibaly - 29 but now Napoli no longer in the Champions League next season his price will be lower or Varane. And a CM/CDM who can bring balance we cannot go into next season with McFred in midfield. Also deciding what will be happening with Pogba which will depend on who is brought in and if we win tomorrow night too. De Gea or Hendo for next season. It is critical the club FINALLY get as transfer window correct as the toxicity surrounding the club and with a few of the main sponsors looking at their future with us too with serious doubt its imperative the board act and give Ole full support. We need to be real in terms of who we can get and should be going for. If we want to compete with City, Liverpool and Chelsea next year and move a step closer we need to complete these deals within the next few weeks.

 

[golden_blunder]

So Is this thread really about Kane?

because realism, and based on previous spending would assume that it’s Kane and little else or spend on improving multiple areas we need. That’s the bottom line.

so do I think we’re after Kane? No, not unless the Glazers are prepared to put back some money out of their own pocket to the tune of at least 100m. That will be a no then.

I could ask the reverse of your question- why do United fans have such unrealistic expectations? It’s like reading a football manager shopping list for some people!

 

[Gary_Walsh_Nou_Camp_Hell]

We haven't had a good transfer window since 2007. 14 years of shit.

 

[bosnian_red]

Probably a mixture of realism looking at our squad building the last few years and our squad needs for some cases, along with previous transfer dealings in others. Ronaldo, Kane and Grealish don't make sense for squad building. We just extended Cavani, are stacked at LW, and need deeper mids, a CB and a RW.

With Sancho people are just pessimistic after last summers failure, but we are easily the favourites to land him.

 

[Abraxas]

This I 100% agree with too. But I just find the fact that every player lots of fans write us off as having any real chance, but at the same time call for Ole's job if he doesn't make the team perform. Yet we don't have the players that they want, but at the same time they write them off to join other clubs. You can see where I'm going with this. Rinse and repeat...

True, I think it comes down to the player.

Clubs are different draws for different types of player. It depends on background and nationality, the club they're at, who is actually in the race (not who the papers say is in the race), the money on offer. Then there are the competitive elements.

I think it stands to reason we are a pretty big draw for players like Sancho and Kane as English players. We may be less of a draw than Real and Barca for some players.

Within England Maybe City or Chelsea will occasionally offer more money, sometimes they won't, by all accounts we have outspent on wages for certain players. Maybe they want to play for Pep. There are so many variables I'm not sure it's worth obsessing over, as long as we are in a position to be in the race, there are enough players out there to be bought. At the moment we're second in the league, offer gigantic pay packets, have a young team, history, there's enough there to sell for somebody competent at his job. Pretty logical we are in the mix, we won't win every battle (and actually I think head to head transfer battles are rarer than papers make out for the sake of hyperbole) but we can win enough.

 

[Speako]

Because it’s the hope that kills you, so we kill the hope first. Self preservation.

 

[OleBoiii]

It's been a long time since the hottest players on the transfer market could expect to end up in United.

Even under Fergie, after the Glazers took over, we rarely made superstar signings. I reckon we've made 3 superstar signings since 2005: Van Persie, Di Maria and Pogba. The first was dirt cheap and only wanted United. The other two came during a time where United's status still was high and the club was expected to bounce back at any moment. Also, I don't think we had much competition for these players.

Generally speaking: superstar + competition from stronger clubs = forget about it.

 

[redrobed]

Because despite generating more revenue than any of them we’re regularly outspent by City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Leicester and even Spurs. Players used to play for the love of a club and it’s history now they all just follow the money except Cavani.

 

[UnitedSofa]

So Is this thread really about Kane?

because realism, and based on previous spending would assume that it’s Kane and little else or spend on improving multiple areas we need. That’s the bottom line.

so do I think we’re after Kane? No, not unless the Glazers are prepared to put back some money out of their own pocket to the tune of at least 100m. That will be a no then.

I could ask the reverse of your question- why do United fans have such unrealistic expectations? It’s like reading a football manager shopping list for some people!

Not particularly no, because now people have written Sancho off as going to Chelsea. Just the stand out thread at the moment for me, personally is the Kane thread where people are adamant that he's going City. There's a good chance he'll go City yes, and they may just edge it. But I'm not going to straight up dismiss any chance of him joining us. Rice is another one, oh he'll go Chelsea? Why? It's been reported he's been talking with the United lads about what United is like and what it's like to play for them etc etc. So surely there's some for lack of a better term 'hope'.

I honestly believe we could sign 3 or 4 players this summer, even more so since the ESL debacle, Glazers want to make a statement and bring some sort of trust back to the fans.

Kane - £120M
Sancho/Rice - £80M
Varane/Pau Torres - £40M
Trippier - £15M

Either Kane + 3 of those players or all of the other players for a summer of £250M spent on players. I can see Martial leaving alongside a bunch of smaller squad players leaving such as Pereira, Bailly, Romero, Dalot, Lingard, Matic - around £80-100M on sales. Which brings down our spending to £150M so it's not as bad as you'd think.

1 Star signing and 3 other smaller signings isn't that bad of a summer in all honesty. Wouldn't call Sancho a star signing either. A fantastic signing but no the Star ready made signing that Kane would be.

In all honesty out of all of them barring the obvious (Kane/Rice/Sancho) I'd love the club to sign Trippier we really need some quality on that right hand side and someone to give AWB some competition. Trippier is the right signing for that.

 

[stefan92]

We can't guarantee trophies, the career of a footballer is a short one, so they want to win as much in that time, we're still rebuilding.

That is a cheap excuse. Every club is always rebuilding, no club is keeping their squad unchanged from season to season. And how should a rebuild bring you back to the top, when you don't sign top quality players? And it's not like clubs that are lacking ultimate success are not able to buy top quality players - if the players trust the club and themselves to be able to compete for that together.

Regarding the actual topic: It's perfectly normal that these discussions happens. There are magnitudes more players discussed than will actually transfer, so most of them will indeed fail inevitably. So let's say on average 95% of speculations don't result in a real transfer, therefore 95% negative comments and 5% optimistic ones would be the realistic distribution.

 

[Karel Podolsky]

It's Alexis Sanchez's all over again...

Also, didn't City refuse to pay £80M for Maguire and then United did?

 

[UnitedSofa]

It's Alexis Sanchez's all over again...

Also, didn't City refuse to pay £80M for Maguire and then United did?

No

There were discussions with City, Harry just chose us over them. He even had a chat/meeting with Pep. (17:02)

 

[Zlatattack]

What is it with the CAF and being so pessimistic when it comes to transfers?

I've said this in a number of threads now and feel as though it deserves it's own thread.

In a number of threads discussing players such as Kane, Grealish, Ronaldo and Sancho. There are lots of posts from users that just straight up dismiss the possibility of us signing anyone. Like Kane people are already writing him off to go to City, now a strange one is Sancho is all of a sudden a dead cert to go to Chelsea or Ronaldo back to Madrid.

The CAF has this weird juxtaposition of wanting the worlds best players at the club and wanting the club to challenge for honours. But at the same time, each time good and world class players are available, almost immediately write them off and say that they're going to our rivals.

So, I ask the question, why (and I know Glazers, don't trust them to shell out the money etc etc) but why in your view, do you think the CAF is this way? Why can't one of the world's richest clubs sign the world's best players. We got Bruno and beat City to the signing of both Bruno and Maguire! So it's not like we can't compete. So why is Kane a dead cert to be going to City?

Idk, people act like we never sign big players. I remember several quite exciting windows.

LvG when we got AdM,Falcao, Schweinsteiger, Depay

Mourinho when we got Pogba, Mikhi, Zlatan and then the year after got Lukaku and Sanchez the next year.

Admittedly they were mostly flops - but it's nice to have an bright outlook - even if it just lasts till September.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Recent history of transfers Bruno aside has been really poor.

We also drag every transfer deal out for months & it turns into a saga, while City & Liverpool sign players quietly in a matter of days. Makes us pessimistic.

 

[golden_blunder]

Not particularly no, because now people have written Sancho off as going to Chelsea. Just the stand out thread at the moment for me, personally is the Kane thread where people are adamant that he's going City. There's a good chance he'll go City yes, and they may just edge it. But I'm not going to straight up dismiss any chance of him joining us. Rice is another one, oh he'll go Chelsea? Why? It's been reported he's been talking with the United lads about what United is like and what it's like to play for them etc etc. So surely there's some for lack of a better term 'hope'.

I honestly believe we could sign 3 or 4 players this summer, even more so since the ESL debacle, Glazers want to make a statement and bring some sort of trust back to the fans.

Kane - £120M
Sancho/Rice - £80M
Varane/Pau Torres - £40M
Trippier - £15M

Either Kane + 3 of those players or all of the other players for a summer of £250M spent on players. I can see Martial leaving alongside a bunch of smaller squad players leaving such as Pereira, Bailly, Romero, Dalot, Lingard, Matic - around £80-100M on sales. Which brings down our spending to £150M so it's not as bad as you'd think.

1 Star signing and 3 other smaller signings isn't that bad of a summer in all honesty. Wouldn't call Sancho a star signing either. A fantastic signing but no the Star ready made signing that Kane would be.

In all honesty out of all of them barring the obvious (Kane/Rice/Sancho) I'd love the club to sign Trippier we really need some quality on that right hand side and someone to give AWB some competition. Trippier is the right signing for that.

I genuinely think you need to lower your expectations or you are going to be disappointed. Our net spend had usually hovered around 85m. Do I expect more than that when we are losing money? No I haven’t eaten any magic beans yet

 

[Karel Podolsky]

No

There were discussions with City, Harry just chose us over them. He even had a chat/meeting with Pep. (17:02)

My point is that United are able and have had history of spending big on one player (Pogba, Lukaku, Maguire), dan pay massive wages (Alexis, DdG, Martial,...)

@Gog

 

[Abraxas]

Not particularly no, because now people have written Sancho off as going to Chelsea. Just the stand out thread at the moment for me, personally is the Kane thread where people are adamant that he's going City. There's a good chance he'll go City yes, and they may just edge it. But I'm not going to straight up dismiss any chance of him joining us. Rice is another one, oh he'll go Chelsea? Why? It's been reported he's been talking with the United lads about what United is like and what it's like to play for them etc etc. So surely there's some for lack of a better term 'hope'.

I honestly believe we could sign 3 or 4 players this summer, even more so since the ESL debacle, Glazers want to make a statement and bring some sort of trust back to the fans.

Kane - £120M
Sancho/Rice - £80M
Varane/Pau Torres - £40M
Trippier - £15M

Either Kane + 3 of those players or all of the other players for a summer of £250M spent on players. I can see Martial leaving alongside a bunch of smaller squad players leaving such as Pereira, Bailly, Romero, Dalot, Lingard, Matic - around £80-100M on sales. Which brings down our spending to £150M so it's not as bad as you'd think.

1 Star signing and 3 other smaller signings isn't that bad of a summer in all honesty. Wouldn't call Sancho a star signing either. A fantastic signing but no the Star ready made signing that Kane would be.

In all honesty out of all of them barring the obvious (Kane/Rice/Sancho) I'd love the club to sign Trippier we really need some quality on that right hand side and someone to give AWB some competition. Trippier is the right signing for that.

There is pessimism and then there is possibly unrealistic optimism and I think this falls into the latter.

Your idea relies on us finding willing buyers for a number of players that are not easy to sell through a combination of reasons that have always impacted the values we attain. People moan about our sale values but the fact is we are usually asking to sell players that are at a low ebb and are on relatively high money compared to actual value to buying clubs.

The only exception is Lingard, we should be positive about finding a buyer at a fair value. The rest are going to be difficult to extract much from or even to find a buyer that the player will agree terms with. Martial particularly stands out as being a massively hard sell. They're old players, underperforming players, players that have not excelled on loan, what can we expect in a possibly depressed market? Even if we shift one or two we never sell players with the efficiency people expect, i.e. wholesale departures.

Then on the other side of the coin you want us to outlay 250 million. What you are asking is not trivial and doesn't seem to account for huge revenue lost due to Corona.

 

[Bubz27]

If someone slapped you in the face every single time they saw you, it's safe to assume they'll slap you in the face next time they see you.

 

[BFernandes]

Not pessimism, it's realism.

 

[BFernandes]

If someone slapped you in the face every single time they saw you, it's safe to assume they'll slap you in the face next time they see you.

 

[Ikon]

I honestly believe we could sign 3 or 4 players this summer,.....
Kane - £120M
Sancho/Rice - £80M
Varane/Pau Torres - £40M
Trippier - £15M

Either Kane + 3 of those players or all of the other players for a summer of £250M spent on players. I can see Martial leaving alongside a bunch of smaller squad players leaving such as Pereira, Bailly, Romero, Dalot, Lingard, Matic - around £80-100M on sales. Which brings down our spending to £150M so it's not as bad as you'd think.

4 major signings in, plus 7 departures..?? And spending a quarter of a Billion...!!
That level of work would take United's recruitment team at least 3 years to accomplish, and you didn't even include Jones..!

I don't want to piss on your parade, but that's just delusional.
Personally I think there will be 2 in, possibly Sancho and one other, and perhaps 3 out. Window closed.

 

[UnitedSofa]

There is pessimism and then there is possibly unrealistic optimism and I think this falls into the latter.

Your idea relies on us finding willing buyers for a number of players that are not easy to sell through a combination of reasons that have always impacted the values we attain. People moan about our sale values but the fact is we are usually asking to sell players that are at a low ebb and are on relatively high money compared to actual value to buying clubs.

The only exception is Lingard, we should be positive about finding a buyer at a fair value. The rest are going to be difficult to extract much from or even to find a buyer that the player will agree terms with. Martial particularly stands out as being a massively hard sell. They're old players, underperforming players, players that have not excelled on loan, what can we expect in a possibly depressed market? Even if we shift one or two we never sell players with the efficiency people expect, i.e. wholesale departures.

Then on the other side of the coin you want us to outlay 250 million. What you are asking is not trivial and doesn't seem to account for huge revenue lost due to Corona.

4 major signings in, plus 7 departures..?? And spending a quarter of a Billion...!!
That level of work would take United's recruitment team at least 3 years to accomplish, and you didn't even include Jones..!

I don't want to piss on your parade, but that's just delusional.
Personally I think there will be 2 in, possibly Sancho and one other, and perhaps 3 out. Window closed.

I get that and agree with both these posts, and maybe I am being a bit too optimistic, I don't want the club going out and spending loads of money and get the club into even more debt, but why can't we have a summer like Chelsea did last year? Maybe we may not see as many leaving as I laid out.

Maybe Sancho, Varane and Trippier would be more realistic!

I get the feeling that the club needs to get back into the fans good books and put their money where their mouth is. Spend money out of thier own pocket a la City/Chelsea and not use the clubs own revenue.

If the club bought all these players and then we went on to win loads of trophies over the next couple years, and started to show real change in fixing the stadium then maybe people would soon forgive and not forget about the ESL.

 

[pascell]

That is a cheap excuse. Every club is always rebuilding, no club is keeping their squad unchanged from season to season. And how should a rebuild bring you back to the top, when you don't sign top quality players? And it's not like clubs that are lacking ultimate success are not able to buy top quality players - if the players trust the club and themselves to be able to compete for that together.

Regarding the actual topic: It's perfectly normal that these discussions happens. There are magnitudes more players discussed than will actually transfer, so most of them will indeed fail inevitably. So let's say on average 95% of speculations don't result in a real transfer, therefore 95% negative comments and 5% optimistic ones would be the realistic distribution.

You clearly don't understand how a rebuild works then if you think all it takes is clubs buying one or two quality players. Post SAF we've had to change and improve everything, the academy, the training ground, the first team players and staff, that's a rebuild, not buying top quality players and expecting your team to be better than everyone elses.

I'm not Ole biggest fan but he's had an overinflated squad, with 75-80% of the players not being useful and had to reset that mindsets from the ones he's kept from what LvG and Jose have ingrained into them, that doesn't happen overnight buddy.

 

[Abraxas]

I get that and agree with both these posts, and maybe I am being a bit too optimistic, I don't want the club going out and spending loads of money and get the club into even more debt, but why can't we have a summer like Chelsea did last year? Maybe we may not see as many leaving as I laid out.

Maybe Sancho, Varane and Trippier would be more realistic!

I get the feeling that the club needs to get back into the fans good books and put their money where their mouth is. Spend money out of thier own pocket a la City/Chelsea and not use the clubs own revenue.

If the club bought all these players and then we went on to win loads of trophies over the next couple years, and started to show real change in fixing the stadium then maybe people would soon forgive and not forget about the ESL.

I'm not sure how cash rich the Glazer family are to be financing in the way you're imagining. Even if they wanted to, which there is no reason to think they do just for the sake of some grand gesture, I don't think they have the type of cash available without lending. They appear to be asset rich but not oil rich.

 

[sun_tzu]

I'm not sure how cash rich the Glazer family are to be financing in the way you're imagining. Even if they wanted to, which there is no reason to think they do just for the sake of some grand gesture, I don't think they have the type of cash available without lending. They appear to be asset rich but not oil rich.

A lot of their assets are thinks like office blocks and shopping centres where they lease space to people - I cant imagine Covid has been kind to that business model

 

[Drizzle]

Recent history of transfers Bruno aside has been really poor.

Exactly. And even Bruno was 6 months later than it should have been.

Last summer's transfer window was genuinely bad - we're lucky that a last minute gamble on Cavani on a free finally paid off.

 

[Roboc7]

The people in charge of transfers either lack experience or are tarnished by failure, until they prove themselves some level or pessimism is probably justified.

 

[The Firestarter]

It's been a long time since the hottest players on the transfer market could expect to end up in United.

Even under Fergie, after the Glazers took over, we rarely made superstar signings. I reckon we've made 3 superstar signings since 2005: Van Persie, Di Maria and Pogba. The first was dirt cheap and only wanted United. The other two came during a time where United's status still was high and the club was expected to bounce back at any moment. Also, I don't think we had much competition for these players.

Generally speaking: superstar + competition from stronger clubs = forget about it.

Berbatov