Poll - What are realistic ambitions next season if we spend 200m?

What is a realistic ambition next season if we spend 200m?


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    573
  • Poll closed .

AndyJ1985

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Half our squad is dross, and we can't replace half a squad in one transfer window. I'd expect top 4 again, but to be closer to 1st and 2nd
 

stubie

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We will probably spend more if the Saudi’s buy us

Then you can be talking players like Mbappe for starters
 

Kapardin

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Comfortable 3rd in the league. Attacking, easy-on-the-eye football. Ability to go toe to toe with Liverpool and City, ie, even if we don't challenge for the title, we don't look like huge underdogs when we face them in games. CL QF or win the EL based on what we qualify for. Maybe a domestic trophy.
 

duffer

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You're in a top for challenge now, after an incredibly disrupted season.

If you spunk 200 mil then I'd be disappointed with anything other than a title challenge.
 

Carl

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Can this be a poll? 200M 1) Title challenge 2) Top 4 ambitions

Of course there are various factors but we've not gone for out-of-the-blue signings we've scouted on the sly in ages, so we'll likely be competing for the known talent with a host of other clubs. And we've got a recent history of paying premium and using the press in a very counter-productive way.

I'm curious to know if people think the rumoured "biggest transfer spend the club's history" (200m) is enough for a title challenge or if it's just enough for a top 4 challenge.
Depends if we spunk that 200mil up the wall on shit signings, as we've done for the last 5 years.
 

Kaivalya

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First thing that has to happen is a mass clear out. Woodward seems to be shaping up for that with so many contracts now running down. The likes of Mata, Herrera, Sanchez, Rojo, Valencia, Darmian already should be on their way out. I really don't think it's unreasonable to expect United to move on from these players this summer. 3 of them barely even play anyways. Valencia has also been zoned out .I'd also like Young moved on eventually but he should be fine as back up for another season.

United will invariably sign a RW and CB it increasingly looks like. Dortmund will keep Sancho this year and that's a tough deal for Woodward, because of Dortmund's demands post Dembele plus Sancho being English, nothing under 100-120m will be likely.

We were strongly linked with Bergwijn and I think he's a real possibility. Similar to Samcho in style and will come cheaper. Let's say it's him or someone on the level. (Chiesa, Bailey)
I also think the spectre of Bale cannot be ignored. Woodward has wanted him in the past and will try again. So that's a 60-70m for either of them I believe.

As for CB, looks more and more likely we'll get Alderweireld who's a solid option for a cheap price. Doubt United will spend 100m+ on Koulibaly.

These are the bare minimum signings that have to happen. Let's say United then chose to strengthen the RB and CM positions. I believe if we can get someone like Eriksen, Ndombele or Bruno we will be fit to challenge. This is where Woodward has to be astute because this will make or break the season.
In my opinion the main problem United have right now is an inability to control the game. Were either attacking or being pummeled. We start every half with our hatches battered down for the first fifteen minutes and then get into the game as the opponent recedes into their own half. A real playmaker on the level of Eriksen would really help United across the game and the season controlling the game better.

I believe 200m is more than enough to turn this team into challenging team, no doubt. And after the last few windows Woodward has to get this right.


TL;DR- CB and RW bound to happen but will not fundamentally transform play. A real gamechanging signing like a world class playmaker might.
 

AndersB

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Fred, di Maria, Schneiderlin, Mata and Bailly cost us roughly £200 million combined. If that's how we spend it this summer we're going to be stuck in the same mess as the last six years. Woodward has a lot to answer for considering how grotesquely he's failed at hiring managers and signing players since he took the job. He's the biggest reason we're currently so far behind where we should be, imo.
Those players cost 200m at a time when 200m bought you a helluva lot more too. It really boils down to making the right transfers and employing them in the right way. Which is not easy, but entirely possible. It's not that hard to imagine us being transformed into a much more consistent unit by buying two players that fit the bill perfectly (whilst also adding a couple of good squad players)
 

VP89

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Liverpool improved massively from one summer of big transfers. Pep did with City too.

Not sure why we suddenly can't.
 

Lentwood

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GK - De Gea, Romero (£0)

RB - SIGNING/Dalot £40m-£50m
LB - Shaw/Young £0
CB - Smalling/Lindelof/Jones/Bailly
CB - SIGNING £60m-£80m
CM - Matic/Fred/McTominay/Herrera(?)
CM - Pogba
CM - SIGNING £60m-£80m
AMR - SIGNING/Rashford £60m-£80m
AML - SIGNING/Martial £60m-£80m
ST - SIGNING/Lukaku £100m

So I make we need to spend about £400m to seriously challenge, assuming one of Lindelof/Smalling will do as our second CB and Matic/Fred/McTominay will do as our 3rd CM

That's also on the assumption that we actually get all six signings right, something I've no faith we'll do

PLAYERS OUT - Mata, Darmian, Rojo, Herrera, Sanchez, Pereira
 

ManchesterYoda

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We don't need to spend £200 million to challenge for the title, we need to buy the right players to challenge for the title.
 

Lentwood

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Is this net spend? That will be title challenge. At least have decent period of time challenging the title.
How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signings

Liverpool improved massively from one summer of big transfers. Pep did with City too.

Not sure why we suddenly can't.
One summer? How do you work that out? That's like saying I built a house in 15 minutes because that's how long it took my to lay the last row of bricks. City and Liverpool have been 'building their houses' for years.

Liverpool are a good team who are having great season but the notion we or other teams like Tottenham , Chelsea are miles away from them is simply laughable they are more likely to come back into mix then have similar season like this one we can certainly catch them with some smart additions.
Laughable? Have a look at the league table...not sure you'll be laughing then! You don't fluke a season like Liverpool are having they are miles and miles ahead of us
 

The holy trinity 68

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With City on course to have the 2nd highest points total in PL history, 2nd only to themselves, I think it will be impossible to get close to them next season if they keep up this level for a 3rd season.

The quotes from Pep with looking to further improve their squad, I can’t see us getting close at all.

We could get lucky and do what liverpool are doing this season, which is performing far beyond their level. It’s doable but unrealistic and improbable.

We need to try and strengthen regardless and just improve on this season. If we end up challenging for the title then it’s a bonus.
 

Neil_Buchanan

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We would have to spend it perfectly and hope that our rivals have an off year in order to do it next season. Two summers of $200million+ should get us back challenging in all competitions though.
 

The holy trinity 68

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How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signings



One summer? How do you work that out? That's like saying I built a house in 15 minutes because that's how long it took my to lay the last row of bricks. City and Liverpool have been 'building their houses' for years.



Laughable? Have a look at the league table...not sure you'll be laughing then! You don't fluke a season like Liverpool are having they are miles and miles ahead of us

Liverpool finished 4th last season on 75 points, they are now on 82 with 5 games left so could finish on 97 which is 22 points ahead of last season.

They bought VVD, Allison, Fabinho and Keita and now look where they are compared to last season.

United finished on more points last season than Liverpool did, but we only bought Fred and a kid in Dalot. The lack of investment has effected us negatively and them positively.

No wonder Liverpool are doing better than us this season.
 

norm87cro

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Don't think it's a money issue. If we manage to qualify for the CL I would excpect a top 4 finish and say a QF od the CL depending on the draw. If we miss out on the CL we have all our ambitions in one basket and I would excpect us to have a serious go at the title meaning at least second
 

gajender

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How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signings



One summer? How do you work that out? That's like saying I built a house in 15 minutes because that's how long it took my to lay the last row of bricks. City and Liverpool have been 'building their houses' for years.



Laughable? Have a look at the league table...not sure you'll be laughing then! You don't fluke a season like Liverpool are having they are miles and miles ahead of us
Our league is littered with some really poor teams not so great teams can get points total beyond their actual strength, Chelsea won the league with record points total not so long with Conte so you already have an example of team who weren't that great getting ridiculous point total ,Liverpool for me looks closer to that then real deal who would continue to challenge regularly I may be wrong but I will wait before putting Liverpool in category of teams who can't be reeled in next season.

Liverpool finished whopping 29 points behind City last season and now they are challenging them ,so I would say it is quite possible for us to challenge next season if things go well .
 
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200mil could be enough but we would need to make some shrewd signings for example activating low release clauses Brandt and Alderweireld both have clauses set at 25mil. These are the kind of deals we should be looking at it.
 

Sambob

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Can only see battle for top four again, we are a few seasons behind the other teams. I can't see the players available in the market that could make us better than the teams around us. We could potentially get a prolific finisher and then a quality winger to sort the supply which would get us a lot closer but we are too far behind the current top two to catch up in one window, needed to do a lot more last summer.
 

john moran

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We need more than 200mil to get the quality players that is needed to replace the dross in the team chrrently.
Maybe its 200 billion which would be much more realistic considering the crap at the club currently .
 

Havak

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My opinion is that we are too far off to mount a realistic challenge next season. If we finished third and less points being the top two, that would be acceptable if we invested the money wisely etc.

I honestly believe we could spend £500m and not win the title. It's deeper than just buying top players and expecting to get back to the top. It's a process, we need stability and consistency. I won't be surprised if we don't win the title even the season after, but as long as the club is seeing noticeable improvement I will personally be content.

This ideology that "We're Manchester United we have to be the best" is quite far from the truth now. It's our period of mediocrity and we have to get used to it. Most teams in the country would be over the moon with what we've done post-Fergie though, our mediocrity is good for most teams, just not compared to what we've done for the 20 or so years prior.
 

Leftback99

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It's completely unrealistic to expect a title challenge with £200m, there's too many holes to fill. Fulham spent £100m last summer and are going down.
 

PaulRich

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Do you genuinely believe this current Liverpool team is capable of regularly breaching 90 points barrier because thats what they are on course for this season, combined 11 would always favour teams who are doing well currently we finished ahead of scousers last season. I concede that they are a good team but with our resources and some good coaching it's not that unreasonable to expect us to finish ahead of them even if they strengthen in Summer.
Yep - I genuinely believe that this Liverpool team is going to be a title contender for at least three seasons without major overhaul - I also expect us to be at that position within 2 seasons.
 

willhse456

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I just want us to get to the stage, for now, in which we don't have to worry about whether or not we're going to qualify for the Champions League every season.
 

Bestietom

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It is all down to what players we bring in. We need players who will give 110% every time they put on that Jersey.
The wage structure and contract extension talks here is pathetic, and is causing all sorts of problems in the club.
Herrera on 75k a week and Mata on 140k a week. I won't even mention Sanchez, who is causing all this problem.

These are all problems that must be sorted within the club and not all left to the manager who has an enormous job sorting out this team. Whoever gets the Job as DOF will have a huge job on his hands after the mess that has been caused by Woodward who has destroyed the wage structure here.

IMO, this is the main problem, and the first thing that has to be sorted to get a good dressing room with players UNITED in playing for this great club.
 

Keefy18

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Top 4.

Everyone needs to be patient, let Ole and Mike have the full 3 years baring an absolute meltdown akin to Jose this season or worse.

The summer will tell us a lot of where we are going as a club. If we sit still and stagnate further then we are in trouble and I genuinely fear we will lose our better players in De Gea & Pogba.

If we have a productive and busy summer off loading at least 6 players and get in 4 whilst making Greenwood, Chong / Gomes and McTominay more regular starters for next season then top 4 is certainly possible.
 

pacifictheme

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Easily title challenge, if spent wisely. Our issues are mainly due to coaching and not players .

Take for e.g. todays line up - 3 CBs, 1 B2B, 3 attacking mid, 2 strikers and 1 wing back.

Talk about having a balance!
Easily?
 

TheRedDevil'sAdvocate

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The two best managers in the world right now have had the time and their respective boards' absolute trust to build their teams according to their own image. Moreso, they both seem to be the perfect fit for their clubs: Pep with unlimited funds in order to produce his type of possession football which is the most demanding brand of football in the last decade and Klopp as the manager of an underdog with lots of history, a huge fanbase and a lot of dynamic once things start kicking in.

We don't have one of the best managers in the world (in the absence of truth to the contrary), the general consensus on here is that our board will not grant all the manager's wishes (but will reward golden mediocrity with contract renewals instead), the rebuilding job (what we must do) is always more costly and more difficult than adding bits of quality here and there in an already well-functioning side (where the deficiencies can be spotted easier and with more certainty) and, sorry, but the "he understands the United way" narrative is just an appeal to sentiment until we see a clear plan from Ole (the bits and pieces we've witnessed thus far look promising but there's still a long way to go).

Top-four and i believe it will remain so as long as the title challenge will be decided on 90+ points.
 

-Supreme-

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We need a net spend of £200m as we also need to get rid and replace some of our squad players that simply aren't good enough.

But even with this kind of budget we can't expect the team to gel instantly, but the league won't allow any teams to have any slow start to the season (unlike before) so realistically it won't happen next year.
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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What concerns me more is the application of the players we have, and are likely to stay, get this right, and add a few with quality who are committed to giving their all for us, then of course we should be challenging.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signings
City has a squad of winning the title not title challenge. Liverpool’s squad is only title challenge. You also need to consider that we finished 2nd last season, while this season the big gaps was created by Mourinho’s disaster job. This also depends on what players we sign, we need to sign players in the position that we need the most to improve or upgrade.
 

daveskimufc

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After watching the games against Barca and west ham, I am so embarrassed with the state of our squad, the players we give renewals to, the reliance on Ashley young our CAPTAIN ffs!

We need to try and get rid of half the squad and essentially start again. Mata, pereira, Valencia, Jones, rojo, young, darmian, lingard, can all go.

We need to get players in who want the ball and are comfortable on it. De Jong would have been perfect.

Angel Gomes has been on the fringes for a few seasons now, is he ever going to get a run of matches?

In all honesty we need 2 cms a RB, a rw, a top CB.

De Gea
New/dalot NEW lindelof shaw
NEW/FRED MCTOM/MATIC/NEW POGBA
NEW RASH MARTIAL
 

deadrevelz

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Bizarre that people think £200m will get us challenging for the title next season. We're much further behind than City were when Pep took over and it took them a year and massive turnover in players. Their club was set up in preparation for their manager well in advance and they allowed Pep to sell expensive and highly rated players. Ole won't get that backing from us. Neither would Poch. Nowadays £200m gets you 3 top class players maximum.

Realistic aims for next season:

New contracts for DDG and Rashford
Appoint technical director
Sell /release majority of deadwood INC. SANCHEZ
Buy only quality players and promising youth
Play consistent good football
Domestic cup final
Top four
 

Cockney Phil

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I think the poll should include a top 6 option and the Emmerdale Cup.

What was on show yesterday was frankly awful. The indecision from Phelan and the questions over players’ contracts is only adding to the general malaise. Realistically, we could lose 11 players from the present squad and it would make little or no difference. Is £200m enough? I don’t think we have the transfer money available for the radical changes we need to rebuild the squad into a title challenging team.
 

Ødegaard

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I think we would see progress with 200 million. Doubt they'll spend it on fading stars after the failure and problem Sanchez has become.
I don't think we'll see enough progress to take us up to Liverpools or Citys first eleven, let alone squad in Citys case.

For now, we desperately need more quality in the first team.
McTominay, Rashford, Martial & Dalot should be good youngsters being rotated. Instead we rely on 2 of them and should based on play rely on a 3rd because our captain is useless on the pitch (apart from having a good attitude).

Overall I think 200 million pounds would make us more capable of fighting for top 4. Hell, we might even say we'd be safe in securing it if the money was put to good use.

There is some luck in it, but there should be no question as to how well we've done under Solskjær results-wise. Looking at the table since Solskjær took over we're on top with City likely going past us with 1 point.
Liverpool & City are clearly better on the pitch in goals for and against, and especially on play, but Solskjær is squeezing as much points out of our team as it's possible to do, I think, and should be louded for that achievement more than he currently is.


If we invest 200 million, there are obvious holes in the squad that could be patched up, mainly the right-side. We could be more sure in 3rd and might push for second based on results but assuming that we'll play football at the level of City & Liverpool is unrealistic as we'll get a dud here and there for sure.

Mind, that 200 million pound is in somewhat isolation. City will strengthen if they can. Liverpool will strengthen if they can. Arsenal will strengthen if they can. Chelsea will if they can. The only team I'm sceptical about if will go on to sign new great players with immediate impact would be Tottenham due to the new stadium, but even then they have a knack for getting great talents in for cheap and already have a good first eleven.
 

charlenefan

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Top 4, no chance of a serious title challenge.
Surely this can't be right? Unless you mean comfortably top 4 but I'm not sure there is such a thing given how tight top 4 is the last few years

I can't believe the expectation after another 200m spent can be anything other than a title challenge
 

sp_107

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Looking at the way things are going I don't think we can hope to mount a serious challenge. Before signings, what is needed is work on our style of play. Our passing, movement, pressing, forward play, ideas in the final third - all need to improve from what we have seen so far. These things take time as we have seen with Liverpool & City. It took Pep one season to get used the league, develop City's style of play & get the squad he wants (He had three transfer windows before his second season begin). At Liverpool it has taken almost 3 seasons. I would say that our squad is in a much better shape than Liverpool's was when Klopp joined, so Ole should be able to do it in one season.

At time of joining, Ole and Klopp's mandates were different too. Ole is under pressure to get us a top 4 from what was a near impossible position. With games coming in quick succession & injuries he hasn't had the chance to fully implement his vision. He tried in the beginning but the players started dropping like flies after a few games. A few like Herrera and Matic, who were essential to our early form under Ole, have been on and off. These six months is basically an assessment period to judge which of squad is up for it.

I know we all want, me included, for us to drop £300m-£350m and improve the squad in one go to mount a title challenge. Thinking about it, it may be an unrealistic expectation. £200m + money from sales should be a good starting point for Ole to start improving the squad. Getting four players - a top CB, a top RB, a dominant midfielder & a versatile attacker - would be a fine start. Four is a good number of players to integrate in the first team and get going.

This is my expectation from the summer window:

Sold/Let go - Valencia, Mata, Herrera, Darmian, Rojo & Bailly.

In - CB, RB, CM & AM (preferably someone who can play on the right)

Squad -

De Gea/ Romero / Grant
RB/Dalot Smalling/Lindelof CB/Jones Shaw/Young
Fred/McTommy CM/Matic
RW/Lingard Pogba/Pereira Martial/Sanchez
Rashford/Lukaku
For me the most essential signing for us is getting a dominant midfielder who can free up Pogba to play in attack. Pogba does well in the midfield but he is at his best when he has freedom to join the attack and get in the box at regular intervals. It's not a coincidence that our uptick in goals and assists has dropped off since he has had to move deeper.

That squad should be good enough for a top three position and a good run in the cups, imo. If we are lucky Rashford and Martial will have breakout seasons and we will be able to achieve more.
Good Post...I know its too much to fix everything in one window but I wouldn't mind shipping out Sanchez and Lukaku if we get good offers and also replacements