Rate our (extended) Summer 2020 Transfer Window

[RC89]

Our squad at the end of the season needed the following to be competitive (in roughly this order of importance):
1. CB (Starter)
2. RW (Starter)
3. LB (Starter)
4. CM
5. DM
6. CF

Of course we weren't going to get all 6 in one window. 4 of the above would have been a very good window, 3 though is maybe the minimum from a pure numbers POV.

However, add to that, only 1/3 first team signings (Telles) is maybe bought with the intention of starting (maybe 0/3). 1 of the 3 (Cavani) is a desperation signing we had no ambition to sign even a week ago. Add to that, we didn't address our 2 most important areas in need of improvement. Add to that, we missed out on our main target who we all knew wanted to come here. Who we all knew was available for a set price...

It's been a very poor window. The two kids don't factor, happy to see us investing in youth but they're for the future and will make very littler difference to our immediate ambitions.

Moyes summer was a 1/10. This summer I'd say is a 4/10.

 

[Irwin99]

Not sure. I thought last summer was horrible (two very pricey defenders, a youth prospect and STILL no number 10 or RW) but it was rectified somewhat by Bruno in January and we managed to squeeze top 4 in the end. Looking back I still can't believe how risky that summer transfer window was.

This summer's extended window, i'm not sure. The Sancho mess was another absolute failure by the board. Still think Cavani could be a good signing if he can get fit. Don't know enough about the rest. Squad depth has been added but I guess we will see

 

[TheLord]

2/10
Nothing spectacular - most are last minute panic buys.

 

[Ikon]

3/10 - Poor Window

Sancho was #1 priority, we huffed and puffed for months on end, and still failed to sign him, again. Wasted far too long, no proper alternative, and looked like total mugs.
Donny & Telles, very good business done there. Two quality players and very reasonably priced. Happy.

Cavani, smacks of desperation. We could have signed him months ago, the fact we didn't, and only signed him on final day, tells me he was never really wanted. Will cost nearly £30m quid in fees, wages and add ons. Did Solskjaer have any say at all, I really do wonder..?

Traore, interesting one. Can't play until January, only played 3 senior games and cost potentially £28m, have seen some reports saying more like £40m plus. So jury is out, an expensive gamble, but could be inspired...

Pellistri, don't see him getting any where near the first xi for years, if at all.

Where is the top class RW?
Where is the top class CB?
Where is the top class DMC?


Jones & Rojo are STILL stealing a wage here.
Romero, how have we not managed to shift him baffles me.
Perreira loan only, no cash, no obligation to buy.
Dalot loan only, no cash, no obligation to buy.
Sanchez gone, but cost £10m to send him packing.
Smalling gone, finally, and for enough Cash to buy Telles.
Lingard still here, will probably get a bumper new contract too...FFS..!

So, I don't see the first team being improved but at least there are decent squad options, but as always, too little, too late, and it all feels like there was no real plan and it all just descended into a panic.

 

[RedRonaldo]

VDB for 40m - 7/10 (good squad player)
Cavani for free - 5/10 (reliable backup for Martial, but he is old and past it)
Telles for 15m - 6/10 (attacking fullback, squad rotation with Shaw)
Traore for 20+20m - 5/10 (potentially a 7/10 in long term, we’ll see)
Pellistri for 9m - 4/10 (he has potential but too raw to give any future prediction, maybe in 2 years time we’ll see)

So overall we’ve spend 84m+20m add ons for 5 players (around the same amount for Sancho). We’ve recouped around 15-20m from Smalling? So net spending up front is around 70m.

3 of them should be in first team squad rotation or backup, another 2 of them is for future potential.

We still haven’t buy any CB or DM, which I feel is the biggest issue in our squad currently.

And of course we’ve wasted our whole summer failing to buy our first target, Sancho. But I am ok with MMM in attack, with Cavani and Traore/Ighalo as backup.

Can’t say I am very excited, but at least we have added more depth to our current squad, with some future potentials too. But failing to sign Sancho is really a huge disappointment.

Overall a 5/10.

 

[MrBest]

Telles scores 1 point DVB scores 1 point and Cavani 0.5 points and the two young wingers, 0.5 each so 3.5/10. Getting sancho would of scored 4 alone and i feel we needed a cb too. Awful window, one to forget. All we can do now is back what we have and hope and pray we are in the mix.

 

[MrBest]

Partey 45m, DVB 35m, Telles 15m, Sancho 100m and a Gabriel 30m would have been the perfect window.

 

[RikRuud]

7/10 We salvaged it, should not have messed around with the Sancho deal.

 

[snk123]

People are pissed off we didn't get the overhyped English talent who nobody fecking knew a year ago.

 

[KcB32]

5/10 for me, but it's tough to judge.

• VDB seems to be a good player, but he's not someone I would have prioritized as he plays the same position as Bruno and Pogba.
• Cavani is good business. He may be past his prime, but he's a top class player that can provide depth and different option from the bench.
• I don't know much about Telles, but we do need cover at LB and apparently he's a good attacking full back. No complaints here.
• I won't pretend to know anything about Diallo or Pellistri, but they seem to be highly rated young players. If they realize their potential this will be very good business.

I don't rate Lindelof, and I think Maguire is awful, but from a business perspective I think it's tough to expect us to buy yet another CB having spent damn near 180M on CBs over the previous 3 seasons. At some point we need to expect our coaches to figure out how to raise the level of the players we have.

 

[sdb4884]

3/10 - No fecking Centre Back to replace the shit ones we have? and this Sancho business, pathetic.

 

[OneUnited24]

I wonder if our plan assumed a second wave would hit which would affect clubs more next year.

 

[Osobia]

Partey 45m, DVB 35m, Telles 15m, Sancho 100m and a Gabriel 30m would have been the perfect window.

Do you really think all that is reasonable with today's climate?
People who expected a window THAT good were bound for dissapointment.
7/10 window. I'm happy and I think Telles and Cavani are excellent additions. Cavani is going to be Ibra 2.0 and will help the attacking youngsters in the team.

 

[Morpheus 7]

3/10
Needed a CB, didn't get one. Sold one.

Needed RW, had the opportunity to get the best about in Europe. Free run and player wanted to come, didn't pay up. Publicly embarrassed and dragged out.

DVB- A quality addition, the only one I'm truly confident that will succeed.
Telles- Attacking player from Porto, could go either way. Simply not sure.
Cavani- A shit panic buy that's a reminder of mistakes of the past. Another South American number 7 here for the money, nobody wanted him. A joke.
The rest- One is a January signing and the other I don't know.

You know you had a bad window when Woodward ups the security of his home. No ambition, we had a chance to progress and compete. We have went backwards and our manager will be sacked this season. It's regressed with no chance of us getting back for a while. If we bought Upamecano, Sancho and DVB. Sold a few like Romero, Lingard ect would have been a positive route forward. Embarrassment and hurt coming again. Qualifying for Champions League meant nothing, laughing and mocked rightly so across Europe in the market.

Any team that brings so many in the last day is in trouble, poor planning. Be a riot in Old Trafford if fans were there. I'm furious but ultimately disappointed with the reality that the club won't win big honours for a long long time.

 

[DevTheRed]

2/10

Incomings
Where better to start than Sancho, he was our main target, the man we’ve wanted for the last 6-12 months and we didn’t get him. Not only didn’t we get him, we wasted the majority of the window trying to sign him, still failed and completely embarrassed ourselves in the process.

We panic bought Cavani (Falcao mk2), and dressed him up to be our big marquee signing, even rumoured to be getting the No. 7 shirt which in itself is a disgrace.

We did buy some good looking youngsters for the future which is all well and good, but they’re not going to improve us now, and ultimately that’s all that matters right now with our rivals all strengthening they’re first XI’s.

Telles and Donny are good players, but again where do they fit into our first XI. Possibly Telles, but with his rumoured defensive fragilities it’s still unknown whether or not he’ll be able to deal with the pace of the premier league.. I hope so but we shall see.

Outgoings
As for outgoings, we have 3 first team goalkeepers costing us over half a million pound a week in wages, Phil Jones and Rojo are still here for the foreseeable, you could argue that even the likes of Lingard and James should have been sold or loaned out for clearly not being good enough or needing to build confidence.

All in all it has been an absolute mess, a complete embarrassment and really highlights just how poorly we are run as a club, and just how incompetent the board are. Possibly the saddest thing of all is that all of the optimism and excitement from scraping 3rd and securing Champions League for the season seems to have gone, and we are only 3 games into what could be a very long season for us.

I am glad it is over. Apologies for the negativity, but right now it’s hard to see the positives when we seem to be going round in circles every couple of years.

 

[Cloud7]

We added some much needed squad depth, which is good, albeit the first team didn’t improve that much. I can see VDB being first choice by the end of this season, which may or may not be an improvement.

I will say though, him aside, I feel a bit sorry for Cavani and the other four transfers that we made today. For the most part our fanbase are just going to look at them as “Not Sancho” and they’re going to be judged very harshly, and perhaps unfairly so.

 

[Bondi77]

Exciting times

 

[Mockney]

Potentially our worst ever PL transfer window, comparable to what we actually needed and the gulf we’re trying to reduce.

Other famously bad windows like Valencia & Owen to replace Ronaldo & Tevez, or the nadir of Moyes’ last gasp Fellaini summer; were both In the context of adding bodies to squads that had just won the league, so could at the very least be justified in their low key approach at the time.

We finished 33 points behind the champions last season, and added no first team players... and our first team just lost 6-1, at home, to our previous manager.

It’s all sorts of random chaotic energy, and Neville is right to point out that such a high profile incompetent window has created a cloud of negatively that has fecked any positive momentum we had going into the season. Regardless of the actual acquisitions made, the very nature of making them (or failing to) has managed to do considerable damage in itself, which is mental when you think about it...

It’s absolutely irrelevant whether paying Dortmund’s price for Sancho was prudent business in COVID times, because the issue was never refusing to pay it, it was spending the entire window trying to call their bluff over It without any semblance of a plan B should we fail to sign the only player we seemed to be looking at. A position we identified as important 2+ years ago, which we left to rest entirely on an imbecilic game of chicken with a club who had openly agreed to sell, proving we met their terms...

Sure a 33 year old Cavani is better than former Watford Chinese league import Ighalo... All our rivals are stronger to a power much greater than that.

3/10 would not bang.

 

[NJM78]

2/10 shambles.

 

[RedSky]

This post sums it up nicely. Awful, awful window from us. Complete farce.

3/10 - Poor Window

Sancho was #1 priority, we huffed and puffed for months on end, and still failed to sign him, again. Wasted far too long, no proper alternative, and looked like total mugs.
Donny & Telles, very good business done there. Two quality players and very reasonably priced. Happy.

Cavani, smacks of desperation. We could have signed him months ago, the fact we didn't, and only signed him on final day, tells me he was never really wanted. Will cost nearly £30m quid in fees, wages and add ons. Did Solskjaer have any say at all, I really do wonder..?

Traore, interesting one. Can't play until January, only played 3 senior games and cost potentially £28m, have seen some reports saying more like £40m plus. So jury is out, an expensive gamble, but could be inspired...

Pellistri, don't see him getting any where near the first xi for years, if at all.

Where is the top class RW?
Where is the top class CB?
Where is the top class DMC?


Jones & Rojo are STILL stealing a wage here.
Romero, how have we not managed to shift him baffles me.
Perreira loan only, no cash, no obligation to buy.
Dalot loan only, no cash, no obligation to buy.
Sanchez gone, but cost £10m to send him packing.
Smalling gone, finally, and for enough Cash to buy Telles.
Lingard still here, will probably get a bumper new contract too...FFS..!

So, I don't see the first team being improved but at least there are decent squad options, but as always, too little, too late, and it all feels like there was no real plan and it all just descended into a panic.

 

[Giggsy13]

5/10. We certainly invested heavily with young players this summer. Traore and Pellistri could be lauded as brilliant signings in a few years, if they live up to their potential. These signings on their own aren’t bad but in the overall grand scheme of things are undermined by the fact we haven’t addressed 2 of 3 most glaring needs in the squad (CB and RW).

We haven’t had a decent RW since Nani and Valencia before he switched to RB. It’s been a gaping hole in our line up for years, which we’ve tried to cover up by playing Mata, Rashford and Martial out of position. James is just not good enough to hold his own and Greenwood again is better suited to play centrally.

It’s a pity our signings won’t be appreciated because of the toxic mess the club has created by failing to get business done early. Telles, VDB and Cavani are decent business but the failure of Sancho just overwhelmingly overshadows anything decent we’ve done.

 

[Van Piorsing]

Pellistri and Traore typical Mejbri style search for future's best footballers, decent job from scouting team, so really happy with this.

Donny will help in Champions League, already scored vs Juve & Chelsea and assisted vs Bayern in Ajax. Value for money was found with this one and most of all executed with haste, without saga & drama.

Telles, this can be important signing to unlock more of attacking football which is the key for Ole to thrive here. Another good value signing.

Cavani is a great player because we always remembered him as one of the best in the world in the past. Really can't say for sure he'll nail it, but winner's mentality is with him.

Right Winger... What a massive pile of banterwank this is, artificial saga without conclusion and absolutely no closure even on a deadline day. Nothing but repetitive drama. No Sancho, no Dembele, United are relaxed to this day still playing Lingard, Mata and James on the right in case of fatigue and injuries... and injuries are inevitable, happens every motherf*ckin season and still we'll be haunted by this another year in a row.

Lots of players acquired for a typical United window and also lot of gambling with no bigger push for neuralgic positions. CB, RW and CDM criminally ignored. Poor start in the league is telling, Woodward's and Glazer condescending stance undermining Ole's authority over his team. It's damaging the club and Glazer brothers were never made to own MUFC in the first place.

10/10 for Casey Stoney's window, I'm gonna enjoy the living hell out of women's season. Russo already destroying teams, while Heath and Staniforth is a priceless addition of experience to midfield and when Christen Press will activate her beast mode then top of the table can get close to reality... but that's actually not the end of signings: Fuso from Basel and Batlle from Barca are there to complete massive overhaul.

WTF/10 for Ole's window. Too many question marks about organization of things when addressing positions, very risky approach to last day which absolutely erased any time and hope for RW alternative while trying to sign four players at once. Former players & legends coming out and roasting officials at the top, almost preparing to go on a war with them, probably biggest social media meltdown since Moyes window. Hiding behind covid crisis, while teams milking the market (Partey, Havertz, Torres, Thiago, James Rodriguez etc) ... United can't have one normal summer window since few good years and it's supporters who are being blamed for negativity.

 

[Mark Pawelek]

All we needed for a successful window to build momentum from last season was a single world-class signing: Sancho.

We have clutched defeat from the claws of victory.

Happy. £85m on 5 players. 6/10. Deduct 1 point each for Sancho saga, last minute signings (saved by working FAX machines!), Cavani, not selling deadwood. I don't expect Cavani will score more than 5 per season because I expect he'll be injured most of the time. Plus 9 youth players (16 to 17) signed from other clubs:

Joe Hughill
Willy Kambwala
Charlie McNeill
Radek Vítek
Logan Pye
Isak Hansen-Aaröen
Marc Jurado
Alejandro Garnacho
Alvaro Fernandez Carreras

All the unhappy fans are Sancho fanatics. They only wanted Sancho. He's their magic talisman.

 

[Castia]

VDB will prove to be a good signing and so will Telles. I’m excited at the signing of our 2 18 year old wingers too.

Cavani is purely a panic signing that we shouldn’t have made. He was available 2 months ago, why the feck we signed him with 2 hours on the transfer window I’ll never know.

Everything just feels like a disappointment after not signing Sancho.
6/10

 

[bosnian_red]

How we conducted ourselves in the window and sending a positive message - 1/10
Atrocious in terms of squad planning, providing the team with what they need in a timely manner to have a good start, building off a good ending to last season to give optimism this season. Momentum is huge in football and we missed all our chances to sort that side out.

Sales - 3/10
Got rid of Sanchez at least. Loaned out Garner which was good. Dalot and Pereira as well. Smalling sold which is fair for what he wanted, but I still think he should probably be starting for us so that's a random weird one. Romero/Grant/Rojo/Jones/Mata/Lingard/Ighalo all here with basically extremely limited roles at best though... isn't great.

Incomings - 6/10
At the end of the day, we addressed the attacking depth with Cavani, who can provide experience, leadership and a really good squad option as a different type of striker. We FINALLY addressed our shite fullback situation in terms of on the ball quality, and I think Telles will be a very good signing. Van de Beek we signed a very good depth midfielder who I think will kick Pogba out of the starting 11 once we get past reputations and look at actual balance. And then we signed 2 young right wingers, 1 especially the fee suggesting we think he's nailed on to be a star. No Sancho, but we have to put our faith into what we have/will have now. Diallo/Traore whatever he wants to go by is presumably our next big thing, based entirely on the fee. And I say that because if he doesn't amount to much than serious questions would need to be asked about everything involved in this transfer, as it's a feck ton of money to spend, during a covid window, when we chose not to stump up the cash for Sancho, but are going 30-40m for this guy with no experience. So from the clubs perspective, he better be nailed on as a stud.

 

[ManRed]

At the start of the window RW 2.5/CB 2.5/ WB 2/ CM backup 1 / Get rid of deadwood 2 pts

Our window
RW 0/2.5 Failed to get a top quality RW
CB 0/2.5 Failed
WB 2/2 Good LB with a lot of assists
CM 1/1 A decent purchase will give us necessary depth
Deadwood 0.5/2 - Still have Rojo, Jones, Lingard, Romero in the squad

3.5/10

 

[BlueHaze]

Can't for the life of me understand why we signed two young completely unproven RW when they could just have went for Sarr instead. Not saying he's a phenomenal talent or anything but at least with Sarr we have seen he could do fairly decent in the prem.

 

[sullydnl]

Didn't strengthen the positions most here would have deemed key before the summer.

Didn't strengthen as much as our direct rivals.

The positions we did strengthen, we did so only to a limited degree, with few if any of these players immediately improving our starting 11.

Nearly all that strengthening took place at the last minute, thus reducing its impact as much as we possibly could.

Didn't sell as much of the deadwood we would have wanted to.

Very effectively punctured any sense of momentum we brought into the summer, leaving the club yet again surrounded by stories of inept transfer dealings, failing managers and structures in need of repair.

Looking at all of that, I'd say it was one of our more decent transfer windows in recent years.

 

[Yagami]

Sold our 2nd best CB with no replacement.
No DM/DLP which means we're still going to have to rely on Matic.
Average cover/competition for Pogba and Bruno in Donny. So average that Ole will still run the likes of them into the ground than start Donny over a clearly unfit Pogba.
Going from an overpaid striker in Ighalo to one who can't stay fit and an obvious panic buy in Cavani.
No starting quality forwards after wasting 99% of the window chasing one which means MMM will have to be run into the ground again, too.
Still have plenty of deadweight. Didn't even manage to sell Romero despite Henderson clearly taking his role in the team.

9.5/10

 

[Jibbs]

Scatter gun approach to signings.
We needed a proven RW... we did not get it. Signed unknown youngsters instead for a hell lot of money, they may well be next Messi and Ronaldo but what about our immediate need of a reliable RW.
We needed to sell Jones, Rojo, Bailly along with Smalling and sign a CB like Upamecano, we did not do it.

Also, hopefully in Jan we get rid of Pogba and sign a proper DM like Ndidi.

 

[dabeast]

2/10.

 

[sglowrider]

6/10
. Brought in midfield depth with DVB
. An experienced striker who can actually score goals.
. An offensive Leftback and
. A couple of talented kids who look like they are really talented

But
. No Sancho
. No CB

I think the club's leadership would have been wary of stretching themselves financially in this COVID era so all in all we finally have some depth. A lot will depend on how the likes of Telles and Cavani take to English football because I think both have the capacity to add another dimension to our attack, suddenly we have a striker that can score off crosses and someone who is good at whipping them in.

The shambles in midfield and defense is worrying. In midfield I think we can change a lot by just returning to that pre restart workmen midfield that had Bruno, Fred and Matic/McTominay. The defense is really worrying but hopefully with better protection from midfield we will see it settle.

Not signing another CB gives Tuanzebe another chance to claim a role in the squad or even fight for a starting spot as last season was a right off for him. Hopefully he rises up to the challenge and stakes a claim because another youth graduate playing a big role in the team will be gratifying.

Good post!

 

[Faetheshire86]

Seen some very similar posts. But at the end of last season I felt we needing the following over the next two summers, to mount anything like a title challenge:

• Right Winger (first team)
• CB (first team)
• Matic Replacement (first team)
• Shaw Competition
• Striker (first team or backup)
• Mata/Lingard/Pereira Replacement

We needed to trim the squad considerably:

• Minimum 2 of Smalling/Rojo/Jones
• 2 of Mata/Lingard/Pereira
• One of Fosu Mensah/Dalot
• Romero

For our incomings we have ignored probably the 3 most important positions and missed out on our number 1 target. Outgoings we've managed 1 out of 6.

From that we are looking at about 2/10.

As a bonus a few of our outgoings have gone on loan and we have signed some exciting youth talent (not a comment on their ability, but more their profile/reputation).

So that probably bumps the score up to 4/10.

Lastly the way we have handled our business has been laughable. They backed themselves to make the Sancho deal happen and failed. Dembele was an option and they failed. Signed two young wingers on deadline day after apparent botched moves to other clubs. Signed a free agent on deadline day, who could have been here at the start of the season.

Drops score to 2/10.

The dreadful start we have made, feels in part due to the uncertainty around the club. As well as our existing unaddressed issues, we are starting to create new ones with players looking completely out of form and confidence. I don't think we have the personnel to put it right. Feels like a turning point after the great work Ole has done.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

2.

 

[croadyman]

Yeah I think 4/10 is very fair because we needed a starter RW & CB but got neither,how many more years without a proper right side we going to endure. I still cannot understand the naivety of only one DM in the squad too as well.

 

[MuFc_1992]

1/10

 

[croadyman]

Seen some very similar posts. But at the end of last season I felt we needing the following over the next two summers, to mount anything like a title challenge:

• Right Winger (first team)
• CB (first team)
• Matic Replacement (first team)
• Shaw Competition
• Striker (first team or backup)
• Mata/Lingard/Pereira Replacement

We needed to trim the squad considerably:

• Minimum 2 of Smalling/Rojo/Jones
• 2 of Mata/Lingard/Pereira
• One of Fosu Mensah/Dalot
• Romero

For our incomings we have ignored probably the 3 most important positions and missed out on our number 1 target. Outgoings we've managed 1 out of 6.

From that we are looking at about 2/10.

As a bonus a few of our outgoings have gone on loan and we have signed some exciting youth talent (not a comment on their ability, but more their profile/reputation).

So that probably bumps the score up to 4/10.

Lastly the way we have handled our business has been laughable. They backed themselves to make the Sancho deal happen and failed. Dembele was an option and they failed. Signed two young wingers on deadline day after apparent botched moves to other clubs. Signed a free agent on deadline day, who could have been here at the start of the season.

Drops score to 2/10.

The dreadful start we have made, feels in part due to the uncertainty around the club. As well as our existing unaddressed issues, we are starting to create new ones with players looking completely out of form and confidence. I don't think we have the personnel to put it right. Feels like a turning point after the great work Ole has done.

So basically of the six we needed over two windows,we got the cover positions but not the starter ones

 

[The Boy]

View from oppo fan

VdB is an excellent signing maybe not your top priority but a good player and a good price offering good depth in those attacking midfield roles.

Maybe this was the transfer windown when other clubs learnt that actually you wont cough up any price as you have in the past and wont sell for peanuts either, the refusal to buy Sancho at 100 M and the negotiations over Telles and Smalling show a different side to you guys that we haven't really seen before.

I can understand why Cavani was so late as you were waiting to see if the Sancho price would come down and if you could get Dembele. Is he what the club wanted, probably not, but he does bolster your front line well and it will be interesting to see how he does, he has a lot to prove after last season's injuries and arguments with PSG.

The two wingers I know feck all about, so just future potential there.

Telles, I don't know much about either, but it seems he has a good cross on him, tactically I imagine you'll push most attacks down the left (as you did last season) Telles crossing in for Cavani could be an interesting combo.

Crucially your right wing is still not locked up so I expect you to go back in for Sancho in Jan or next summer, he will still probably become a united player, he wants to come and you want him, it will happen, but maybe not at any price.

 

[croadyman]

View from oppo fan

VdB is an excellent signing maybe not your top priority but a good player and a good price offering good depth in those attacking midfield roles.

Maybe this was the transfer windown when other clubs learnt that actually you wont cough up any price as you have in the past and wont sell for peanuts either, the refusal to buy Sancho at 100 M and the negotiations over Telles and Smalling show a different side to you guys that we haven't really seen before.

I can understand why Cavani was so late as you were waiting to see if the Sancho price would come down and if you could get Dembele. Is he what the club wanted, probably not, but he does bolster your front line well and it will be interesting to see how he does, he has a lot to prove after last season's injuries and arguments with PSG.

The two wingers I know feck all about, so just future potential there.

Telles, I don't know much about either, but it seems he has a good cross on him, tactically I imagine you'll push most attacks down the left (as you did last season) Telles crossing in for Cavani could be an interesting combo.

Crucially your right wing is still not locked up so I expect you to go back in for Sancho in Jan or next summer, he will still probably become a united player, he wants to come and you want him, it will happen, but maybe not at any price.

Cannot see any way that Dortmund would let Sancho go halfway through the season,yes I know Liverpool got Van Dijk then but Southampton weren't in europe

 

[0161_UNITED]

So, I’ll try to give my balanced assessment of the transfer window.

Let’s start with the outs:

• Sanchez 10/10 – It’s a miracle we got him off the books.
• Smalling 9/10 – Got a decent price, maybe not what we’d get if he’d gone to a PL club, but his heart was set on Roma, and he was a good servant to the club and I don’t have a bad word to say about Mike, I mean Chris. All the best.
• 8/10 Loans for Chong, Periera and Dalot. I suppose some would’ve preferred permanents, but hopefully they’ll get some regular football, and improve and either we can sell them on for a decent fee or who knows maybe one impresses enough to come back and claim a slot.

Rating the not-outs (Unless a deal is made with championship teams):

• NR (Not Rated) – Lingard. I personally think he’s running down his contract to go out on free transfer and maximize his salary, fair play to him. He gets a lot of stick, but he’s far and away not the worst player on our bench (not saying he’s United quality for a title winning team, mind) and he’s on the salary he is because when he get it his career looked like it was really taking off. It just never did. I doubt clubs would’ve come in for him, they’d be waiting to get him on a free next year. Hard to fault United here, there was probably little to no interest, and he’s an ok squad player for one more year. If his contract is extended this rating becomes “Fire and Brimstone/10”
• NR - Phil. Poor Phil, injured again and apparently holding off on another surgery, in case he could recover and a buyer could be found. He was never going to end his contract, and it’d poor form for the club to terminate it (it’d cost a fortune and the club should support him and his recovery efforts to back up and playing again so it’s possible he could find a new club or fill in the squad). The real issue was his previous contract extension, which was the height of stupidity by the club and/or manager.
• 1/10 – Rojo. Now I’m starting to get a little bit annoyed with the club. Apparently he was happy in Argentina and wanted to stay there. We bloody well should’ve found a way to make that happen, even if we did have to negotiate a pay-off. He really should have gone. Maybe something can still happen with Chinese or MLS club. Again, the real issue was his previous contract extension, which was the height of stupidity by the club and/or manager.
• “Fire and Brimstone/10” – Romero. It makes absolutely no sense to keep a GK who won’t play, is obviously angry and upset with the club, and could possibly be disruptive or toxic. What’s the point here? Pay him and ask him not to show up for training because he could have gone to Everton or wherever. This makes no sense. We’re already paying close to half a million pounds a year for GKs in De Gea and Henderson (which is highly questionable in itself, mind). Maybe there will be a mutual termination or he’ll go to China, MLS or the Championship.
• Other people may have wanted more outs, but I disagree and won’t cover those. If anything, I’d have tried to sell Bailly, too. Yes, even more than Lingard.

The Ins:

• Van der Beek (8/10): Looks a tidy player so far and good coverage for Pogba/Bruno. The only problem is he looks like a luxury signing compared to other signings. If there is a plan, its that we want to ensure we keep an attacking presence in the midfield.
• Telles (8/10): I personally think RB was a priority, unlike some, and he looks a really great option to challenge or replace Shaw.
• Cavani (5/10): I’m hedging my bets because, maybe he’ll be a hit, or maybe he’ll bust. I think he’ll be better than Falcao and Higuain, but not Ibrahimović. Best case, I’m actually thinking about Giroud at Chelsea (I’d bump it up to a six or seven). Worst case, another Falcao (zero).
• Traore (NR) – I simply don’t know enough. Will he be the next Ronaldo and we’ve played a blinder, or the next Memphis?
• Pellistri (NR) – Again, just don’t know enough to rate this.

The not-ins:

Now, to be fair, one of the things I do really like is that Ole established a pretty clear best 11 for us by the end of last season, the first we’ve had since LvG, and one to be excited about:

GK: De Gea

LB: Shaw

CB: Maguire, Lindelöf

RB: AWB

MF: Matic, Pogba, Bruno

FWD: Rashford, Martial, Greenwood



And I would have ranked our priorities as:

1. DM – Matic can’t (shouldn’t) play every week, and is getting older. We need a strong challenger here and I didn’t see Fred or McT filling it.
2. RB – Oooh, controversial. I don’t trust Shaw, he’s always getting hurt, and Williams struggled at times.
3. FWD – We needed someone to rotate with Greenwood, Rashford and Martial. I’m not so inclined to prefer a proper #10, as Ole has shown very little inclination to switch to a plan B (something that he can rightly be judged and criticized on)
4. AMF – We needed someone to cover for Bruno and/or Pogba. If they are injured, our ability to dictate attacking from midfield dries up and we lose our edge.

So how did we do addressing these positions?

• DM (“Fire and Brimstone/10”) – Nothing, nada, kaput. I’m very concerned about us going into the season with no clear backup or replacement if Matic gets hurt. This was poor, we have to hold our breaths and hope Fred, McT and Garner (is he still here or did he go on loan?) kick on.
• RB (8/10) – Golf clap. Shaw either kicks on and stays healthy or it’s the Telles show.
• FWD (6/10) – I avoided talking about it until now. Sancho would’ve made this a 9/10. Although I worry that some people were so convinced by Sancho that they’ve lost all perspective. Sancho is good, I’d have wanted him (still do), but … he’s not a sure thing like Ronaldo to Real Madrid yet. Heck, I’m not even sure he’s as sure a thing as Eden Hazard to Real Madrid. People have really gotten worked up and angry at this and some have lost all sense of perspective.
• The guy on Sky Sports today said something that made the most sense, apparently we got a price from Dortmund, pre-COVID, and we went back and tried to negotiate that price down after COVID, but Dortmund was having none of it.

So we didn’t get Sancho, but we did get Pellistri, Traore and Cavani. Pellistri seems to be longer term project, Traore doesn’t arrive until Jan, and Cavani is Option B, I guess? It’s really hard to judge this one, we did reinforce the positions at least.

• AMF (8/10) – Donny looks the business and should be a great rotation option for Bruno and Pogba, along with Fred and McT for Pogba.

However, something happened in the last few weeks… Our central defenders have seemingly crashed and burned. I think a lot of us went into the window after last season thinking, “Well, we have Maguire and Lindelöf, maybe we’ll get another young prospect to compete with Lindelöf, then we have Axel, Mengi, probably Bailly, maybe Phil can play a couple of games later in the season…”. We may still be over-reacting to the first few matches, but it looks like this could be really big issue. The club did not address it in the window, so far.

Other random thoughts:

• People getting all wound-up that we didn’t sign some players until deadline day means we’re desperate or panic-buying should calm down. It makes sense to make some moves very late, so we strike immediately and don’t let other big clubs catch wind of our moves and give the selling clubs and agents time to start up a bidding war. Not all deadline day activity is desperation, some of it is a tactical advantage.
• Cavani does look like a panic buy, though. Although who knows, maybe he and his agent were holding off til the last day to evaluate every option he had and choose the best for him.
• The Dembele stuff, if true, looks like a truly catastrophic sign of panic buying and poor judgment that makes me really question WTF this club is doing.

Overall rating (6/10): Hard to argue with the outs, some of the Ins are exciting, but we didn’t get a DM or CB.