Three signings that clearly improve the team and a more flowing brand of football. I would go for CM, right winger, and perhaps RB. I do not expect us to challange for the league yet.
Summer 2019 - What’s Acceptable?
- Thread starter Lentwood
- Start date
3-4 starters in priority positions. My list is in order of positional priority.
RW: Sancho (if not possible Zaha for less than 45m)not need to panic and spend big until a proper rw is available. Gamble on Adnan as a back up if buy back clause is low 20-25m
CM: Neves he could improve our midfield same way Carrick did when he arrived. It's quiet sad that Pogba is the only accomplished passer in our midfield. Add Rabiot on a free as feel we need two new Cm's .
RB: Pereira from Leicester looked good early on in the season , haven't watched him in the past couple of months though. Keep dalot and young as back ups with dalot being priority.
Get rid : Juan Mata ( played well over the weekend) but our wage bill needs serious stream lining. His wages are too high for a squad player.
Sanchez: I think we are gonna have to throw cash at him to get him off the books. He will probably be 6th choice if we get RW
Rojo: has been surplus to requirements under Ole so far
Darmian should be allowed to walk
Valencia same as Darmian
Mactominay loan. He was impressive when we had injury problems. Needs to gain experience playing regularly could end up as a very good squad player
Andreas should go if we get two new cm's
RW: Sancho (if not possible Zaha for less than 45m)not need to panic and spend big until a proper rw is available. Gamble on Adnan as a back up if buy back clause is low 20-25m
CM: Neves he could improve our midfield same way Carrick did when he arrived. It's quiet sad that Pogba is the only accomplished passer in our midfield. Add Rabiot on a free as feel we need two new Cm's .
RB: Pereira from Leicester looked good early on in the season , haven't watched him in the past couple of months though. Keep dalot and young as back ups with dalot being priority.
Get rid : Juan Mata ( played well over the weekend) but our wage bill needs serious stream lining. His wages are too high for a squad player.
Sanchez: I think we are gonna have to throw cash at him to get him off the books. He will probably be 6th choice if we get RW
Rojo: has been surplus to requirements under Ole so far
Darmian should be allowed to walk
Valencia same as Darmian
Mactominay loan. He was impressive when we had injury problems. Needs to gain experience playing regularly could end up as a very good squad player
Andreas should go if we get two new cm's
Club captain needs sorting out, someone who can lead by example and inspire the players around them, should never have been Ashley Young just because hes been with the club and has "experience". None of the current team really stand out for one reason or another, maybe Herrera.
CB - Sell Rojo and one of Smalling or Jones, preference on Smalling sold but both feel like a penalty waiting to happen, especially with VAR next season. We need to bring in an established CB who can play alongside Lindleoff, probably older/wise variety more so than De Ligt but any club would be nuts not to bid for him that could afford him
RB - Young phased out to squad place or sold, Dalot behind Wan B
Midfield - Fred isnt working out and Matic & Mata are past it, i'd get rid of both and bring in players suited to the style of midfield we want to be, Neves with his PL experience would be nice, looks very tidy. As much as i've loved Pogba's resurgence pre PSG i am not convinced he's the man for our future and i'm also not a huge fan of either the circus or the Real Madrid comments, cant help but think he'll end up going anyway so if we see a big offer come in take it and just start again.
RW - Sancho, no brainer
Lingard - i think we'd see him operating through the middle with his runs, Ole likes him and to be fair so do a lot of fans, he's the sort of player Fergie used to use that looks right at home mixed in with the worldies however also the type of player who looked bang average when the team was having a bad day
Sanchez - has to go at all costs, not only is he a massive waste of space but he's impacting other contracts and could cause us to lose other players as a result.
CB - Sell Rojo and one of Smalling or Jones, preference on Smalling sold but both feel like a penalty waiting to happen, especially with VAR next season. We need to bring in an established CB who can play alongside Lindleoff, probably older/wise variety more so than De Ligt but any club would be nuts not to bid for him that could afford him
RB - Young phased out to squad place or sold, Dalot behind Wan B
Midfield - Fred isnt working out and Matic & Mata are past it, i'd get rid of both and bring in players suited to the style of midfield we want to be, Neves with his PL experience would be nice, looks very tidy. As much as i've loved Pogba's resurgence pre PSG i am not convinced he's the man for our future and i'm also not a huge fan of either the circus or the Real Madrid comments, cant help but think he'll end up going anyway so if we see a big offer come in take it and just start again.
RW - Sancho, no brainer
Lingard - i think we'd see him operating through the middle with his runs, Ole likes him and to be fair so do a lot of fans, he's the sort of player Fergie used to use that looks right at home mixed in with the worldies however also the type of player who looked bang average when the team was having a bad day
Sanchez - has to go at all costs, not only is he a massive waste of space but he's impacting other contracts and could cause us to lose other players as a result.
The board should be planning on a 200M net spend summer, give or take.
If we don't make CL, it could be argued spending more is even more important, but if it only gets us bargain players then I wouldn't be upset if they pulled back spending a bit.
If we secure CL and they keep net spend around 150M then it will feel like we've come up short again for sure.
If we don't make CL, it could be argued spending more is even more important, but if it only gets us bargain players then I wouldn't be upset if they pulled back spending a bit.
If we secure CL and they keep net spend around 150M then it will feel like we've come up short again for sure.
I'm not worried about the investment, if we can address the weak positions then it's all good.
We need to be smart in recruitment, last few seasons we have just wasted money.
CB, CM, RW is absolute must for this summer.
We need to be smart in recruitment, last few seasons we have just wasted money.
CB, CM, RW is absolute must for this summer.
Why impossible ? Real are rebuilding. They are interested in Hazard, Pogba, De Gea, Neymar. If we can sell Pogba and De Gea to them for 150m and get Kroos, Isco and Rodriguez in return, who are all rumoured to be offload this summer, why not? You think they won't come to utd?
Or is it you guys think is not worth it to swap our 'best' player?? And those 3 Real players won't improve our squad?
Our squad need a major shakeup, the likes of Matic, Herrara, Jessie, Andrea, McTom - all decent players good enough to play for the likes of Everton, West ham.. But not Utd. They are never going to win you titles...
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Pretty much agree with this. RW and RB are top priorities. Depends what the club's targets are for next year as to whether we see if McT, Fred and Bailly are going to work out long term or whether we need immediate upgrades.
Clearly we need to bring in some talent to push us up to the level required to compete for the title next year, but we don't know the finances available at the club. I think we'll sign RB, RW & a midfielder, and it wouldn't surprise me that much if all three were English. Wan-Bissaka, Sancho and Rice. I'd be happy with that. Alderweirald too maybe.
Signing up Herrera and De Gea is an obvious necessity. I think Mata will go and getting Sanchez off the books somehow would be a huge win. I'd give him away for free if it meant we didn't have to contribute anything towards his contract.
Signing up Herrera and De Gea is an obvious necessity. I think Mata will go and getting Sanchez off the books somehow would be a huge win. I'd give him away for free if it meant we didn't have to contribute anything towards his contract.
€250-€300m, RB, RW, replacement for Matic at CDM and 1 elite CB to partner Lindelöf.
Eddie's jobs just became a little harder and the budget will need to get a bit bigger if the news of Ander's departure is true. IMO, we'll need to drop a minimum £250m net if we want to challenge for the title next season. These are the positions that need an upgrade:
- A ball playing CB
- A LB or RB (depending on what Ole thinks of Dalot for next season)
- A holding mid
- A CM (If Herrera news is true)
- A Right Winger
- Another versatile attacker
- A ball playing CB
- A LB or RB (depending on what Ole thinks of Dalot for next season)
- A holding mid
- A CM (If Herrera news is true)
- A Right Winger
- Another versatile attacker
Sell United, buy Real
All the Alderweireld talk has died.
Not convinced on Wan-Bissaka.
Rice is such an obvious SAFesqe signing.
Not convinced on Wan-Bissaka.
Rice is such an obvious SAFesqe signing.
If we can manage to keep the important players, that is a sensible target for the summer. If those two are Sancho and Skriniar much is already done.
Don't think we need two. Matic, New holding mid, another CM, Fred, Pereira and McTommy should be good enough.
Edit: Actually that might be an overkill too given that Pogba always starts. We can may be sell Pereira or send McTommy on loan. Matic, DM, CM, Fred, Tommy/Pereira and Pogba for 3 positions is good enough.
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RB
CB
CM x 2
RW
CB
CM x 2
RW
- Keep Herrera (and De Gea and Pogba)
- Sign at least 2 of Sancho, Koulibaly/Skriniar, Neves and Wan-Bissaka.
- Get rid of Rojo, Darmian, Sanchez and Valencia (at least 3 of them).
The people saying we need 6 signings minimum (or more) are crazy.
A left-sided centre back should be the 1st priority. So someone like Koulibaly or Skriniar.
Sancho is a must as well, a RW is absolutely essential.
Now these are not absolutely essential but definitely without doubt next at the top of the list of priorities, they are really important, and that is CDM and right back. CDM I'm not sure who's out there but I very much like the idea of Neves at United. Young and already a leader. Wan-Bissaka is the only right back I'd want, from the sounds of it hes an amazing young player.
Agree with this, it can't be a coincidence that when we finish outside of the top 4, we spend heavily to ensure that we regain that Champions League position, once that is achieved we fall back into spending 50m net spend and happy to keep us at the level.
Needs to change, hoping for 150m budget at least and I am assuming that we have maybe 100m from last summer left over (won't count my chickens), plus the money from the sale of Memphis, Schneiderlin & Fellani as that has not been spent.
So in theory, we should have excess of 300m to spend this summer, won't hold my breath.
Back Ole with the players he wants and keep hold of our best players.
As much as we want the ready made or obvious star signings we have to be realistic and know that sometimes we'll get average to good players and its upto our coaching staff to get the best out of them. There are key positions we obviously need to upgrade on but if we get not so well known signings because of a good reason and actually utilise them properly then i'll be satisfied. For me its less of which players and more of what position. But if we can get all those star name signings then why not
We need to bring out the warchest.
Tough to disagree with this, unless the club thinks Dalot can start 40ish times at RB next year but it's probably a year or even two years too early for that.
If Herrera is gone, I think the new order of priority is:
1. CM/DM 1
2. RB
3. RW/10 (we could play a diamond with a striker out right)
4. CM/DM 2
5. CB
but really the first 4 are all absolutely mandatory and CB is a big need but I think at this point I'd trust one of Bailly or Jones or Tuanzebe to have a good 3/4 of a season as one of our 3 centerbacks you really need more than I trust Fred, Matic, Mctominay or Dalot to start 40ish times and play well.
We need to keep the players who have responded well to ole. We need to bring in young players who can learn the utd way, players already settled in England. It's going to be a difficult time in the UK politically for the foreseeable future. Our currency is going to be worth less and less. We need playing staff who are happy building a career here. I can see us paying big money for Sancho or Zaha.
Lets take a look at our potential squad and their ages if no signings are made in the summer. The players in bold are whom we should build the squad around and could probably play on for at least 5 more seasons except for Herrera.
De Gea (29)
Romero (32)
Dalot (20) Smalling/Jones(29/27) Lindelof (24) Shaw (23)
Fosu-Mensah (21) Tzuanzebe (21) Bailly (24) Young (33)
McTominay (22)
Matic (30)
Garner (18)
Herrera (29) Pogba (26)
Fred (26) Mata (30)
Pereira (23)
Lingard (26) Rashford (21) Martial (23)
Lukaku (25) Greenwood (17) Gomes (18)
Chong (19)
With more than 15 players aged 26 or younger, we do really have a squad for the future. Although relatively young. many of them have also been first team regulars for about 2 seasons or more and have played in high pressure matches. That being said, we look really weak at the back and we should at least get a DM and a CB. Sure, you might say that Lukaku is not a RW, but with Rashford leading the line, are we really gonna let a 75 million signing warm the bench? He might not be the best, but in the few games which he played out wide, he looks pretty decent.
We should get someone in the mould of Varane/Koulibaily/Alderwierd along with Kante/Neves and the squad would be greatly improved. Afterall, didn't we won the league with kids?
De Gea (29)
Romero (32)
Dalot (20) Smalling/Jones(29/27) Lindelof (24) Shaw (23)
Fosu-Mensah (21) Tzuanzebe (21) Bailly (24) Young (33)
McTominay (22)
Matic (30)
Garner (18)
Herrera (29) Pogba (26)
Fred (26) Mata (30)
Pereira (23)
Lingard (26) Rashford (21) Martial (23)
Lukaku (25) Greenwood (17) Gomes (18)
Chong (19)
With more than 15 players aged 26 or younger, we do really have a squad for the future. Although relatively young. many of them have also been first team regulars for about 2 seasons or more and have played in high pressure matches. That being said, we look really weak at the back and we should at least get a DM and a CB. Sure, you might say that Lukaku is not a RW, but with Rashford leading the line, are we really gonna let a 75 million signing warm the bench? He might not be the best, but in the few games which he played out wide, he looks pretty decent.
We should get someone in the mould of Varane/Koulibaily/Alderwierd along with Kante/Neves and the squad would be greatly improved. Afterall, didn't we won the league with kids?
Herrara is leaving. If we finish outside top 4, De Gea most likely will leave too. Pogba is courting Real now, so can't see him staying without CL football. Sanchez and Mata definitely have to leave too. Lukaku will likely ask to leave if he isn't first choice.
Will be an interesting summer for Utd if they don't finish top 4.
Will be an interesting summer for Utd if they don't finish top 4.
A random 19-20 Starting XI squad d I felt like doing, based on the latest rumours:
De Gea
Alaba-Umtiti-Varane-Shaw
McTominay-Herrera
Pogba
Sancho-Lukaku-Rashford
De Gea
Alaba-Umtiti-Varane-Shaw
McTominay-Herrera
Pogba
Sancho-Lukaku-Rashford
While I think Poster 1 and Poster 2 are both right in the mentioned example in the OP, I think the real question is not how much. Just spunking 2-300m doesn't forbid us making the same mistakes again.
The vital question is: What is the overall strategy? If a DoF needs to be the pivot of all this, why has he not been hired yet?
Surely it's not much time to take a thorough look at our setup and also find out who we need and who will be the optimal replacements, if we hire a DoF in may/june and the windows closes early.
To me it's clear this will be a very long process to get us back to a good setup that will last for years, and just spending some money now without an overall plan is like pissing in your pants to keep warm.
The vital question is: What is the overall strategy? If a DoF needs to be the pivot of all this, why has he not been hired yet?
Surely it's not much time to take a thorough look at our setup and also find out who we need and who will be the optimal replacements, if we hire a DoF in may/june and the windows closes early.
To me it's clear this will be a very long process to get us back to a good setup that will last for years, and just spending some money now without an overall plan is like pissing in your pants to keep warm.
I'm glad that we will know where we are going as a club this Summer. If we don't spend at least £200 Mill then we are clearly following the Arsenal model with CL qualification being the pinnacle of our ambition. In reality we will need a couple of £200 Mill transfer windows to compete on all fronts.
Agree with this. Must be 3 starters too.
My ideal:
Varane, Neves/Rice (slight preference for Neves), Sancho.
Probably costing £250m, but can be offset by getting rid of:
Sanchez
Darmian
Mata
Valencia
Rojo
Matic (keep him if Herrera leaves)
Dalot should be playing RB now, so I've no problem trusting him as first choice next year, but I think his future will probably be further up the pitch. If we can get a 4th starter then AWB is probably the best choice.
If we can be sure Rabiot isn't going to be a completely destabilising influence then him on a free would be good as well. From what I've read though he sounds like a disaster zone personality wise.
Get rid of Sanchez and bring in Sancho, I'll only have to change a couple of letters on my shirt 
£200m is probably less than half what it would take to get us to compete for the title.
CB, RB, 2 x MF, RW and a top, top striker.
Four players at the very least, Five if Ander leaves.
CB, RB, CM X 2 and a RW (Or a false 9, depending on how we decide to play).
In:
Varane £80m
Meunier £35m (contract ends 2020)
Rabiot Free
Ndombele £60m
Sancho £80m
£255m
Out:
Rojo, Ander, Perreira, Mata, Valencia, Sanchez
£50m
-----------DDG-------------
Meunier-VNL-Varane-Shaw
-Rabiot-Ndombele-Pogba-
Sancho--Rashford--Martial
----------Romero-----------
Dalot-Jones-Smalling-Young
-----Fred-Matic-Gomes-----
-Lingard--Lukaku--Chong-
CB, RB, CM X 2 and a RW (Or a false 9, depending on how we decide to play).
In:
Varane £80m
Meunier £35m (contract ends 2020)
Rabiot Free
Ndombele £60m
Sancho £80m
£255m
Out:
Rojo, Ander, Perreira, Mata, Valencia, Sanchez
£50m
-----------DDG-------------
Meunier-VNL-Varane-Shaw
-Rabiot-Ndombele-Pogba-
Sancho--Rashford--Martial
----------Romero-----------
Dalot-Jones-Smalling-Young
-----Fred-Matic-Gomes-----
-Lingard--Lukaku--Chong-
Its not how much we spend but to be any sort of serious challenge for top trophys we need 4 top players that will go straight in to the starting 11.
If we don't do the above then we will be just fighting for the CL places at best.
Over to the glazers in the summer to see what they want the club to be
If we don't do the above then we will be just fighting for the CL places at best.
Over to the glazers in the summer to see what they want the club to be
At least 3 players intended for the starting 11 would be nice. With some luck they will all be improvements and we can take a step forward next season.
But we need quite a few succesful windows until we are as strong as the best clubs in europe.
But we need quite a few succesful windows until we are as strong as the best clubs in europe.
If Ander and Pogba leaves we are screwed. Will need atleast 6 quality first team players then .
The case for giving Sanchez another season: If he leaves and gets back to his Arsenal form somewhere else it could come back to haunt us. He'll play the Copa America, if he does well there it could be good for us.
You don't just buy a player for a insane amount of money then stop insisting with him just because it didn't work out in one year.
You don't just buy a player for a insane amount of money then stop insisting with him just because it didn't work out in one year.
You do when he's playing a role he has never really excelled at for Arsenal. It's night and day his position on the pitch for us compared to them. Add to this a yard less of pace and it compounds the issue further. He's completely upset the dressing room in terms of our wage structure and even if he had banged in 5-6 more goals......would be wise of off load if anyone will take him.
And what if no one takes him, what role would he have here ?
We need a massive overhaul. Not sure 3/4 players are enough at this point. If we are persisting with three at the back then we need two starting CB's, Starting RW and two players to replace/cover for Matic and Herrera.