Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United

[Borys]

We should be aiming to get great strikers, or that will be great in the future. Who other than Kane and Osimhen are great that would realistically be available to us if we had the cash?

I never thought this is the way to build a squad. I think we're missing on many good players with potential because we only want "world class" (I remember no value in the market days). Are Mount and Antony great players?
Also I have no answer for the question you're asking, I really don't watch much football outside of united. I just find it hard to believe there's Kane, Osimhen and nothing between them and Hojlund.

 

[Crimson King]

I never thought this is the way to build a squad. I think we're missing on many good players with potential because we only want "world class" (I remember no value in the market days). Are Mount and Antony great players?
Also I have no answer for the question you're asking, I really don't watch much football outside of united. I just find it hard to believe there's Kane, Osimhen and nothing between them and Hojlund.

There are probably players between them, but you're probably talking about the likes of Toney and Watkins, at least in the EPL. Both of them are late 20s and playing at their maximum right now, so are never going to get to Kane's level. With Højlund there's a chance he could get there. I would expect him to at least surpass the other two I've mentioned, barring anything like severe injuries.

Not to mention, Villa and Brentford would also want a king's ransom for either of those too. Toney couldn't play until January with his ban anyway.

Some of the other players mentioned like Muani, Balogun, David, etc, are all expensive punts as well. The club are going for the player they most believe will justify the price tag one day.

 

[Bertie Wooster]

Back then most were happy with that decision, including me. Because we didn't want to be a stepping stone. In hindsight of course that's a bad decision but back then we still had Greenwood you know.

I was generally in favour of addressing things like agents fees / United tax, etc. But at the time I definitely didn't agree with missing out on Haaland because of it - as he was so clearly such a quality #9 coming through - and I always felt we could address the release clause in time when his goals had, hopefully, helped restore us back to challenging for major titles again.

Dortmund are a stepping stone, and seemingly happy to be so for now - recognising they don't have the funds to compete at the top table. So they weren't going to remove that release clause as they want players to see they can sign, improve, and will then be allowed a big move. But we can compete at the big table, and with Haaland's goals would probably be doing so. So I always felt we could look to renegotiate that part of the deal in time, and that the key thing was to make sure we get him in the first place.

As regards Hojlund, as I've posted, I'm happy to go along with ETH and hope we get him while he's his first choice. None of the available young strikers seem as 'generational talent' as Haaland, but they could still end up good signings who help improve us. And if ETH thinks Hojlund is the best of those - or the best that's attainable at our budget - then I hope we don't miss out and ETH gets another of his primary targets.

 

[CG1010]

I trust the manager who has our team playing the best football we have played since SAF with a proven track record of developing and nurturing young talent over a bunch of faceless people on a message board arguing from their basements.

I am onboard with Hojlund signing as he seems to be an entertaining player. But ETH is not prone to mistakes - there are questions about Antony's case as of now.

 

[A-man]

But we're obviously also buying him for now, he can't be just for the future. This is the team that finished 3rd but had one of the worst striker options in the league for most of the season. We can't have a situation next season where this guy looking way off being ready for the PL while we're hoping for Martial to get fit.

Exactly, now is not the time for a young talent. We need someone who has high probability of scoring 20+ PL goals in the 23/24 season.

 

[zaafi]

Exactly, now is not the time for a young talent. We need someone who has high probability of scoring 20+ PL goals in the 23/24 season.

It's getting really tiresome seeing the identical post after post when there are so many posters explaining why that is not going to happen.

Who is this striker who has a high probability of scoring 20+ goals in PL? Last season, only Kane and Haaland did who are both world class.

 

[Abraxas]

Exactly, now is not the time for a young talent. We need someone who has high probability of scoring 20+ PL goals in the 23/24 season.

Only Kane and Osimhen are "high probability" in my opinion. The rest are possibly..maybe.

Feels like we go over this again and again. It's well established the manager wanted that as well but he can't get it for budgeting reasons.

 

[Crimson King]

I agree with your reasoning, like I said I understand we're getting him for the future. I just find it hard to believe the bolded part is true.
If he's the one with the potential then fair enough.


Always makes me chuckle a bit when I see posters speaking with moral authority about others that they should keep quiet and trust the manager better than your own opinion. Like you said, discussing this stuff is what this board is made for.


Well that is an interesting point to discuss. He was spot on with Martinez, also did very well getting Eriksen on a free. Casemiro was a no brainer. Antony and Wout have not been far off from a failure. Sabitzer was a mistake but we were probably in panic mode so I wouldn't blame it on ETH. All in all his offensive choices have not been impressive so far.

I think it's unfair to include Wout and Sabitizer at all. They were both emergency loan signings and did ok at what they were supposed to do. Wout ended up playing a lot more then anyone expected because Martial got injured straight away. As soon as he was fit he went straight back in, despite being fairly useless himself for the run in.

Signing Antony was fine, we needed a RW. The price was too much, obviously, but there weren't actually that many ready made options for that position. The best around was probably Saka, Salah and Mahrez, who all play for rivals and out of reach. After that the best option probably would have been Raphina, who only wanted Barca and Leeds would have done anything not to sell to us anyway.

The only real alternative to Antony at the time was probably someone like Diaby, but he's a completely different profile to what EtH wanted. I think there's also a reason why the only club seriously interested in him at the moment is Aston Villa.

EtH signings have been fine so far, and at the very least are all players with a high technical level that have pushed the club closer to where it should be.

 

[Edwards6]

Exactly, now is not the time for a young talent. We need someone who has high probability of scoring 20+ PL goals in the 23/24 season.

Who would you sign then if Kane and Osimhen aren't available

 

[Sarni]

Exactly, now is not the time for a young talent. We need someone who has high probability of scoring 20+ PL goals in the 23/24 season.

And we would most certainly sign one if this was possible. There are just no strikers available that would fit that description so we have to go for the best one available, even if it's a punt. We already have a forward capable of getting us 20 in Rashford anyway.

 

[Fabio Rochemback]

I do wonder about the leadership at the club when Greenwood's return is even being considered. The squad is clearly clueless so it would be ridiculous from a PR standpoint to leave it in their hands in anyway as I'm sure he'd be back today if you did. Bruno's support of Mendy turned my stomach and made me realise that even the guys you think have a brain are corrupted by footballer privilege and don't see themselves as anything but victims in these incidents.

You have to take a broader outlook on this and consider the female fans, staff and players that you alienate when you make a decision to allow a violent woman abuser back into the club. I'm not a woman but I'm disgusted by the club's lack of leadership on this issue in recent years from Giggs being made to feel welcome in executive boxes after serious and credible allegations being made about him by his former partner, Ronaldo being brought back despite not being able to visit America due to a rape accusation, the ongoing allegations against Antony and how the United medical team may have even had to treat his ex-girlfriends injuries. Not one of these cases do I have any shred of doubt that the allegations being made were untruthful. I almost expect it from footballers but how is this behaviour in anyway palatable to the club's sponsors and by extension the executive team?

Good post, I 100% agree.

 

[Bertie Wooster]

Only Kane and Osimhen are "high probability" in my opinion. The rest are possibly..maybe.

Feels like we go over this again and again. It's well established the manager wanted that as well but he can't get it for budgeting reasons.

Yeah, that's how I see it as well.

The small number of players that can, likely, get 20+ goals are all either not for sale or way out of our budget for this summer.

We are clearly shopping in the same price range - £40-60m - as our other signings. But that doesn't buy you a ready made, guaranteed 20+ goal striker. So all the players we're realistically linked with are gambles, and mostly prospect players - who'll improve the squad in the present, but hopefully get even better in the next few seasons.

Any striker in that price range comes with some negatives, otherwise they'd be in the elite price range. Hojlund seems as good as anyone else we can get for that fee, and as he's ETH's main target for that role then it would be good to get him.

 

[Borys]

There are probably players between them, but you're probably talking about the likes of Toney and Watkins, at least in the EPL. Both of them are late 20s and playing at their maximum right now, so are never going to get to Kane's level. With Højlund there's a chance he could get there. I would expect him to at least surpass the other two I've mentioned, barring anything like severe injuries.

Not to mention, Villa and Brentford would also want a king's ransom for either of those too. Toney couldn't play until January with his ban anyway.

Some of the other players mentioned like Muani, Balogun, David, etc, are all expensive punts as well. The club are going for the player they most believe will justify the price tag one day.

It's getting really tiresome seeing the identical post after post when there are so many posters explaining why that is not going to happen.

Who is this striker who has a high probability of scoring 20+ goals in PL? Last season, only Kane and Haaland did who are both world class.

In that case we have to be prepared to a tough fight for top 4 instead of challenging Arsenal/City, because (and I think we can agree here) Hojlund next season will not bridge the 30 goal gap between us and front runners. I hope everyone adjusts their expectations, I would be OK with another "transition" season but just to make sure this is how this will most likely pan out.

I think it's unfair to include Wout and Sabitizer at all. They were both emergency loan signings and did ok at what they were supposed to do. Wout ended up playing a lot more then anyone expected because Martial got injured straight away. As soon as he was fit he went straight back in, despite being fairly useless himself for the run in.

Signing Antony was fine, we needed a RW. The price was too much, obviously, but there weren't actually that many ready made options for that position. The best around was probably Saka, Salah and Mahrez, who all play for rivals and out of reach. After that the best option probably would have been Raphina, who only wanted Barca and Leeds would have done anything not to sell to us anyway.

The only real alternative to Antony at the time was probably someone like Diaby, but he's a completely different profile to what EtH wanted. I think there's also a reason why the only club seriously interested in him at the moment is Aston Villa.

EtH signings have been fine so far, and at the very least are all players with a high technical level that have pushed the club closer to where it should be.

Fair enough, although I do not agree about Antony. ETH went all in for him without considering any other options (Sancho wasn't even evaluated at the time we were chasing Antony). I believe we could've spend the money much better, but this is judgment after one disappointing season and my personal opinion about Antony, which might change if he actually turns into a decent attacker what I wish will happen.
BTW one year after we spend 100m on Antony we can't afford any proper striker, so that is why people moan so much about the club spending too much money.

 

[A-man]

Only Kane and Osimhen are "high probability" in my opinion. The rest are possibly..maybe.

Feels like we go over this again and again. It's well established the manager wanted that as well but he can't get it for budgeting reasons.

Yes I understand that but that doesn’t justify spending huge money on a future talent imo when the need is now(or actually it was already last season).

Who would you sign then if Kane and Osimhen aren't available

How does “what I would do” justify huge money on a future talent? Or change anything? It doesn’t matter what I would do.

 

[laughtersassassin]

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This journo was useless previous seasons but he had good info on Onana it seemed.

If he is correct, the bid versus valuation seems quite close so it should surely get done. Hopefully in the next two to three weeks

 

[Ronaldo's Love Child]

I get a bit mixed up with all the different reported details from the ITK's rather than any official announcements.

I can't remember why we didn't buy Haaland when he left Molde. But when he left RB Salzburg a year later, we definitely did try but wasn't it meant to be something about us at that time beginning to want to lay down markers about not pandering to agents demands, etc? And so when Haaland's agent demanded big money, and that he had a release clause put in, we wouldn't do it but Dortmund would. I always thought that was the wrong deal to make a stance about as it was obvious back then that Haaland was something very special.

The Caicedo one was also a tricky deal with something like a number of agents involved, all wanting a piece of the money. And I guess he wasn't as obviously a 'generational talent' as Haaland. But, yeah, in hindsight two very poor transfers to make that stance about given those fees were pretty low and the players young and very talented.

Also, let's not underestimate theimpact of who his dad is and who he played for AND the Keane incident.

It may well be that Haaland was never ever going to come to United.

 

[Pirlo'sBeard]

This is too close not to get done.

 

[UnitedSofa]

I get a bit mixed up with all the different reported details from the ITK's rather than any official announcements.

I can't remember why we didn't buy Haaland when he left Molde. But when he left RB Salzburg a year later, we definitely did try but wasn't it meant to be something about us at that time beginning to want to lay down markers about not pandering to agents demands, etc? And so when Haaland's agent demanded big money, and that he had a release clause put in, we wouldn't do it but Dortmund would. I always thought that was the wrong deal to make a stance about as it was obvious back then that Haaland was something very special.

The Caicedo one was also a tricky deal with something like a number of agents involved, all wanting a piece of the money. And I guess he wasn't as obviously a 'generational talent' as Haaland. But, yeah, in hindsight two very poor transfers to make that stance about given those fees were pretty low and the players young and very talented.

Absolutely ridiculous post.

If we had taken the Haaland deal that Dortmund took, this place would have erupted at how poor the deal was. Imagine us getting Haaland for a couple seasons and then him going to Real for peanuts. We would look ridiculous. Ridiculous ridiculous suggestion to think we were wrong for not taking Haaland on such a stupidly low release clause.

Caicedo would have come here and gone the route of Amad, a few loans, he would not have gone into the first team. We simply cannot take the risks that the likes of Brighton take with these unknown talents.

 

[Crimson King]

In that case we have to be prepared to a tough fight for top 4 instead of challenging Arsenal/City, because (and I think we can agree here) Hojlund next season will not bridge the 30 goal gap between us and front runners. I hope everyone adjusts their expectations, I would be OK with another "transition" season but just to make sure this is how this will most likely pan out.

Fair enough, although I do not agree about Antony. ETH went all in for him without considering any other options (Sancho wasn't even evaluated at the time we were chasing Antony). I believe we could've spend the money much better, but this is judgment after one disappointing season and my personal opinion about Antony, which might change if he actually turns into a decent attacker what I wish will happen.
BTW one year after we spend 100m on Antony we can't afford any proper striker, so that is why people moan so much about the club spending too much money.

Antony didn't cost 100m, and whilst that fee probably is a factor, I think the main reason we can't afford a top striker is the Glazers and this protracted takeover. Signing Antony isn't the reason we're not spending £120m on Kane or Osimhen. That fee is insanely expensive anyway, and I'm not sure it would be wise to sign either of them for that sum, not in the long run.

Antony, did fine, he's already a decent attacker. If he doesn't improve at all then yeah, we can look back and say it was a failed transfer. He gets way too much hate from his own fans at the moment though. Frankly, it's pathetic.

The Sancho point is mute because he had to go and train alone in Holland for half the season, then was very average when he came back. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that EtH had already evaluated him, or had been informed of his troubles by the club.

I don't expect us to challenge City and Arsenal, not if they're anything like they were last season. I do expect us to improve though, and you have to remember that about 2/3rds of the way through last season we were 3rd, and only 3 points behind City. Unfortunately the wheels came off a bit for us then and a few injuries hit us, whereas City clicked into gear and we all know what happened...

I think if we're better equipped in most departments and get a bit of luck with injuries, there's no reason why we can't stay closer to the top 2 until the run in. If we can do that then there's every reason we could make a title charge. I'm not expecting it though, I'm just not getting upset about the fact that we're not making signings that would guarantee that scenario, like some are. Which is silly anyway, nothing can guarantee that, not even signing prime Messi and Ronaldo.

We just have to wait and see what happens.

 

[Abraxas]

Yes I understand that but that doesn’t justify spending huge money on a future talent imo when the need is now(or actually it was already last season).

How does “what I would do” justify huge money on a future talent? Or change anything? It doesn’t matter what I would do.

It justifies the fact that if the "guaranteed 20 goal+" striker you want is unavailable to us that we have two options.

We either throw our hands in the air, protest and buy nobody because we couldn't get exactly what we'd want in an ideal world.

Or we to to plan B. Within plan B there is a range of strikers of varying ages, profiles etc. There is no home run among them but the manager has alighted upon this option for his potential and age. Which to me seems as good a reason as any other. There are other selling points for other strikers, e.g. Watkins is "prem proven", or Toney is pretty good, or Muani is pretty good, but nobody is coming with any guarantees. They have their own strengths and weaknesses as a signing and are not within the category you describe.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Generic post about how he's not the finished article and we should be getting one of those.

Pre-empted response to the upcoming question from someone asking "who would you sign then?"; generic reply about how I'm not a United scout, or how we should buy Osimhen or Kane.

Pre-empting pre-empted finding another thread on the forum to complain about something else because I'm a miserable shit.

 

[Borys]

Antony, did fine, he's already a decent attacker. If he doesn't improve at all then yeah, we can look back and say it was a failed transfer. He gets way too much hate from his own fans at the moment though. Frankly, it's pathetic.

Just to make clear, I don't give Antony any "hate", I don't rate him but this is totally on whoever thought he is worth bringing in for that money. Based on what I saw in him when we got him (regardless of the fee), I didn't expect more than what I saw last season so he shouldn't be blamed.

The Sancho point is mute because he had to go and train alone in Holland for half the season, then was very average when he came back. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that EtH had already evaluated him, or had been informed of his troubles by the club.

I think the last sentence is very unlikely to be true. On the bolded part - I would probably agree he was average, but he did have ("objectively") more goal contributions than Antony anyway, that's why I mentioned before he is the one who I expect to be more threatening on RW.

I don't expect us to challenge City and Arsenal, not if they're anything like they were last season. I do expect us to improve though, and you have to remember that about 2/3rds of the way through last season we were 3rd, and only 3 points behind City. Unfortunately the wheels came off a bit for us then and a few injuries hit us, whereas City clicked into gear and we all know what happened...

I think if we're better equipped in most departments and get a bit of luck with injuries, there's no reason why we can't stay closer to the top 2 until the run in. If we can do that then there's every reason we could make a title charge. I'm not expecting it though, I'm just not getting upset about the fact that we're not making signings that would guarantee that scenario, like some are. Which is silly anyway, nothing can guarantee that, not even signing prime Messi and Ronaldo.

We just have to wait and see what happens.

I agree with this part. Kane is out of our reach and he would take us close to challenging so we need to accept we will be fighting with the rest of the aspiring teams. Fine by me, I hope we focus a bit more on style of play this season (this is something I expected ETH to improve last season, he was surprisingly pragmatic though), and if we can get a proper striker next season we're good to challenge City/Arsenal.

 

[Santos J]

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This journo was useless previous seasons but he had good info on Onana it seemed.

If he is correct, the bid versus valuation seems quite close so it should surely get done. Hopefully in the next two to three weeks

Doesn't seem far off if this is the case then! Excited for this one.

 

[Bertie Wooster]

Absolutely ridiculous post.

If we had taken the Haaland deal that Dortmund took, this place would have erupted at how poor the deal was. Imagine us getting Haaland for a couple seasons and then him going to Real for peanuts. We would look ridiculous. Ridiculous ridiculous suggestion to think we were wrong for not taking Haaland on such a stupidly low release clause.

Caicedo would have come here and gone the route of Amad, a few loans, he would not have gone into the first team. We simply cannot take the risks that the likes of Brighton take with these unknown talents.

Well, each to their own. At least you voiced your disagreement in a polite and civilised way, so thanks for that.

I've already addressed the point about the release clause in a subsequent post, but the main gist was that while I was generally in favour of addressing things like agents fees / United tax, etc, even at the time I definitely didn't agree with missing out on Haaland because of it - as he was so clearly such a generational talent - and I felt we could look to hopefully address the release clause in time when his goals had, in all likelihood, got us back there or thereabouts for trophies.

Dortmund are seemingly happy to be a stepping stone, and weren't going to remove that release clause as they want players to see they can sign, improve, and will then be allowed a big move. Whereas there was a chance we could look to renegotiate that part of the deal in time, and that the key thing for me was to make sure we got him here in the first place and got us firing again.

 

[Crimson King]

Just to make clear, I don't give Antony any "hate", I don't rate him but this is totally on whoever thought he is worth bringing in for that money. Based on what I saw in him when we got him (regardless of the fee), I didn't expect more than what I saw last season so he shouldn't be blamed.


I think the last sentence is very unlikely to be true. On the bolded part - I would probably agree he was average, but he did have ("objectively") more goal contributions than Antony anyway, that's why I mentioned before he is the one who I expect to be more threatening on RW.


I agree with this part. Kane is out of our reach and he would take us close to challenging so we need to accept we will be fighting with the rest of the aspiring teams. Fine by me, I hope we focus a bit more on style of play this season (this is something I expected ETH to improve last season, he was surprisingly pragmatic though), and if we can get a proper striker next season we're good to challenge City/Arsenal.

Fair enough mate, I think we broadly agree on the same things. For what it's worth, I wasn't accusing you of hating on Antony. Your criticism was fairly measured, compared to some. I just wouldn't write him off quite yet.

One last thing I will say though, is that it's actually not surprising that EtH was so pragmatic. I think a lot of people have this sense that he follows some kind of tactical dogma, like many Dutch coaches seem to do. The opposite is actually true though, and he was very pragmatic at Ajax. He was a very un-Ajax coach, in many respects.

He still has a style he wants his team's try play though, in terms of attacking and creating plenty of goal scoring opportunities. He's just very pragmatic in terms of how he'll get the team to do that, depending on what he has available to him.

 

[Bertie Wooster]

Also, let's not underestimate theimpact of who his dad is and who he played for AND the Keane incident.

It may well be that Haaland was never ever going to come to United.

That's true. Hopefully they're the reasons, as there was nothing we could have done about that. A lot less frustrating than thinking we had a genuine opportunity three times (when leaving Molde, Salzburg, Dortmund) and didn't take them.

 

[Crimson King]

Generic post about how he's not the finished article and we should be getting one of those.

Pre-empted response to the upcoming question from someone asking "who would you sign then?"; generic reply about how I'm not a United scout, or how we should buy Osimhen or Kane.

Pre-empting pre-empted finding another thread on the forum to complain about something else because I'm a miserable shit.

Perfect

 

[GreatDane]

Absolutely ridiculous post.

If we had taken the Haaland deal that Dortmund took, this place would have erupted at how poor the deal was. Imagine us getting Haaland for a couple seasons and then him going to Real for peanuts. We would look ridiculous. Ridiculous ridiculous suggestion to think we were wrong for not taking Haaland on such a stupidly low release clause.

Caicedo would have come here and gone the route of Amad, a few loans, he would not have gone into the first team. We simply cannot take the risks that the likes of Brighton take with these unknown talents.

Yes, imagine us having a world class striker for a few years and then making a profit when selling him, the horror.

 

[Borys]

Fair enough mate, I think we broadly agree on the same things. For what it's worth, I wasn't accusing you of hating on Antony. Your criticism was fairly measured, compared to some. I just wouldn't write him off quite yet.

One last thing I will say though, is that it's actually not surprising that EtH was so pragmatic. I think a lot of people have this sense that he follows some kind of tactical dogma, like many Dutch coaches seem to do. The opposite is actually true though, and he was very pragmatic at Ajax. He was a very un-Ajax coach, in many respects.

He still has a style he wants his team's try play though, in terms of attacking and creating plenty of goal scoring opportunities. He's just very pragmatic in terms of how he'll get the team to do that, depending on what he has available to him.

For me this was surprising. I guess I was fooled by the bald head and I thought he will go down the my way or high way path to possession based football. His pragmatic approach and the way he handled so many difficult topics last season is very impressive. That said, I do think this team can play much better football so I am hoping we focus on that a bit more. On one hand ETH did mention we play tennis games too often, on the other he insisted on the same team with known flaws game-in game-out, so I guess I was somehow disappointed he didn't really try anything else (this concerns mostly away games). But I do think getting Mount is addressing some of the issues we had last season so I'm quite optimistic that we should at least challenge for 4th/3rd spot with current squad plus a striker like Hojlund.

 

[Dannn411]

That's true. Hopefully they're the reasons, as there was nothing we could have done about that. A lot less frustrating than thinking we had a genuine opportunity three times (when leaving Molde, Salzburg, Dortmund) and didn't take them.

Once he went to Dortmund it was over. That was the best chance and the club did try to get him at Salzburg but we didn't win. Think the ultimate reasons he didn't join us were down to the clownshow at the club both on and off the pitch at that time combined with his dad's preferences. If you had the choice of a dominant domestic powerhouse Manchester City, CL-winning Real Madrid, Barcelona or a Manchester United that was basically in disarray on and off the pitch at the end of last season, which team would you want yourself or your son to go to? That's why on-pitch success matters so much. But regardless of what he has done at City, i'm still not that disturbed we missed out on him. Just not my style of striker. Rather a Benzema type than Haaland.

 

[Remember the geese]

Yes, imagine us having a world class striker for a few years and then making a profit when selling him, the horror.

No. It is ridiculous. A release clause is incredibly small time. Unless its a something in the region of £200/300m.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Yes, imagine us having a world class striker for a few years and then making a profit when selling him, the horror.

£50M for Haaland is criminal, we moan we can’t sell players as it is, imagine selling Haaland for £50M and being happy with it. Easily worth north of 85M when he was at Dortmund.

This would have made us look like fodder selling our best players to one of our rivals at a fraction of the price he is worth and before his prime. I’m sorry but I would have been incredibly disappointed if United took the Dortmund deal. We would have been taken for fools.

 

[Strelok]

Imagine us getting Haaland for a couple seasons and then him going to Real for peanuts.

Worse thing is he could go straight to City or Liverpool. Once he has a release clause we could do feck all. Imagine the horror if so.

 

[GreatDane]

£50M for Haaland is criminal, we moan we can’t sell players as it is, imagine selling Haaland for £50M and being happy with it. Easily worth north of 85M when he was at Dortmund.

This would have made us look like fodder selling our best players to one of our rivals at a fraction of the price he is worth and before his prime. I’m sorry but I would have been incredibly disappointed if United took the Dortmund deal. We would have been taken for fools.

It wouldn't have been perfect no, but imo better than us loaning Ighalo and Haaland ending up at City later.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Absolutely ridiculous post.

If we had taken the Haaland deal that Dortmund took, this place would have erupted at how poor the deal was. Imagine us getting Haaland for a couple seasons and then him going to Real for peanuts. We would look ridiculous. Ridiculous ridiculous suggestion to think we were wrong for not taking Haaland on such a stupidly low release clause.

Caicedo would have come here and gone the route of Amad, a few loans, he would not have gone into the first team. We simply cannot take the risks that the likes of Brighton take with these unknown talents.

And you call his post ridiculous? What a BS. Having top class striker for few seasons who can help you to win trophies is a good deal. Having that striker and making profit later is even better deal.
Also, who says that he will not sign new contract (without clause) while he is in your club?

Buying Haaland was win-bigger win situation for us but we were "too big to give release clause", eh?

 

[mufc_sd]

Our #9s MUST be competent in both enablement and goal-scoring to address existing deficiencies x ETH preference.

Kane/Lauturo & Kolo/Ramos (project)

Budget: Taremi/Rashford

Key point to note is that as things stand there’s a need to cater for deficiencies + enhance the traits of existing forwards i.e. Rashford and Antony. With less deficiencies from wide I would have included more traditional ETH #9 profiles to the mix e.g. Toney/Haller

For anyone wondering where Hojlund is, he hasn’t made my list due to lack of X factor and fear he develops meedi-ly. See reference points below: Dolberg, sorloth, luuk de jong.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Kane could maybe still become a Utd player next summer IF he actually has the guts to run down deal instead of joining Bayern. Sadly the Haaland ship sailed when Jose,Butt and the rest of the people at Utd just didn't want to know when Ole told them. £4 fecking million he was available for at Molde which still sickens me to this day.

Apparently, when he was in Molde, (DM run that story so it is maybe complete BS and sounds like it) we fecked up with time zones.
From DM article:
Haaland's agent Jim Solbakken had agreed to take a call from a representative of the English giants at 9am in mid-August to finalise the cut-price deal, which would have also included performance-related add-ons, the report claims.
However, Molde believed that United would ring at 9am Norwegian time (8am English time) rather than 9am Norwegian time, while Salzburg phoned at the correct time and tied up the transfer.

 

[Strelok]

Apparently, when he was in Molde, (DM run that story so it is maybe complete BS and sounds like it) we fecked up with time zones.
From DM article:
Haaland's agent Jim Solbakken had agreed to take a call from a representative of the English giants at 9am in mid-August to finalise the cut-price deal, which would have also included performance-related add-ons, the report claims.
However, Molde believed that United would ring at 9am Norwegian time (8am English time) rather than 9am Norwegian time, while Salzburg phoned at the correct time and tied up the transfer.

This would be one of the most hilarious shit in the history of transfers if true

 

[Andycoleno9]

This would be one of the most hilarious shit in the history of transfers if true

Sad part is that part of me believe in this.

 

[Lee565]

£50M for Haaland is criminal, we moan we can’t sell players as it is, imagine selling Haaland for £50M and being happy with it. Easily worth north of 85M when he was at Dortmund.

This would have made us look like fodder selling our best players to one of our rivals at a fraction of the price he is worth and before his prime. I’m sorry but I would have been incredibly disappointed if United took the Dortmund deal. We would have been taken for fools.

I think would have still taken the deal, at least we have actually got a good deal of money on a sale for once instead of the usual garbage we make on players or worse we have to pay them to leave for free