We are in trouble now. Relying on Martial is a terrible, terrible idea. On the other hand, we can't afford to buy anyone. And the loan market is a shambles. Felix, Morata, Depay, Thuram... if these are the names we are relying on to put us in the CL next season, then we might as well prepare for another season of Europa League. But we absolutely need the CL money. We haven't been sold to anyone yet. What a mess...
The centre-forward market...
- Thread starter Rozay
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
He also knows we need numbers
They might not be the best options but at least it would allow us to rotate Martial
I can only repeat what I wrote in the Ten Hag thread. Thuram. Cheap enough to be done even while saving up to whatever you're saving up to (be it a sale or a big transfer), good enough to improve you massively. And available.
And he is versatile but when he is bad, he is really bad.
Maybe, but then Gladbach as a whole had a bad last year. Difficult to pin it on too strongly on individual quality.
what we can't afford to do is allow the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and/or Spurs to strengthen and not do the same in january....that would just be gifting them a chance to over take us for the top four
we don’t have a choice. there is no money - we spent it all this summer.
only a take over with new sponsorships will allow us to spend again next summer too.
One day we were the front runners the next we had no money. How could we be front runners if we had no money? One day he is a perfect 9 for us the next day he is a winger for Liverpool. Its just bullshit paper talk. Im pretty sure United weren't in for him.
Yes. Also very important to get a striker in the next few days and not on January 31st.
Yeah don't want to see us just react after poor results against City and Arsenal. We need to bring someone in before those games.
Whilst paper reports are ignored by myself as 99.9999% throwing darts at a board. The emergence of the link with Jonathan David again forces me to declare ,Please No , just stop and say no.
Don't do it to yourselves. January is gonna be drier than Prohibition.
Gosh I’d take any of those you mentioned! Look at what we’re left with. They’re all better than Ronaldo in different ways so we’d actually be improving.
It's baffling to see people frown at Depay and Morata. What quality are you really expecting for a loan deal of a striker in January. Last time we were in this position we ended up with Ighalo from China and were linked with Rondon and Josh King
Ideal scenario:
Brentford lose their nerve and sack Toney, next day he's cleared of all charges with Murtough and Eriksen (for vibes) waiting outside the courthouse, he signs for us on a free before he gets to his car. Simples
Brentford lose their nerve and sack Toney, next day he's cleared of all charges with Murtough and Eriksen (for vibes) waiting outside the courthouse, he signs for us on a free before he gets to his car. Simples
If that was the case I would have thought that Erik would have been briefed by the club that we would not be buying anyone and to stop saying we need a striker.
I would expect the line 'We have players in the squad that can play as a striker and I am very happy with the squad I have' if that was the case but we won't know until the end of January anyway as nothing is going to stop the media linking us with every striker they can link of.
I would expect the line 'We have players in the squad that can play as a striker and I am very happy with the squad I have' if that was the case but we won't know until the end of January anyway as nothing is going to stop the media linking us with every striker they can link of.
Yeah, I updated the data after some helpful input, but it still doesn't look pretty: https://www.redcafe.net/threads/a-l...ir-play-rules-on-man-utd.474688/post-29916453
Facts are that what we can spend in the summer of 2023 -- i.e. when we determine our costs for the 23/24 season -- will be decided by the new FFP rules stating that we may only have an aggregated loss of 60m during the 22/23 and 23/24 season. In 21/22 we made a loss of 115m. After that we lost the revenue of playing in the CL and we spent a record 240m on transfers in the summer before the 22/23 season. We of course don't know exactly what the result for this season will be, but it is abundantly clear that if we don't get massive new sponsor money from a new owner, we need to cut costs next summer, increasing them won't be an option. Not even if we finish top 4 (while that of course helps a lot).
Without a new owner pumping in a lot of money and if we don't finish top 4, we must basically (be able to) sell Maguire, Fred, Henderson, AWB and Donny -- just to afford to be able to buy one player in the Jadon Sancho range. I.e. that would not include replacing Maguire, Fred, Henderson, AWB and Donny with any new signings. That is based on a rough forecast, we could perhaps also afford a Martinez level of signing, or signing like a 120m striker. But that is about it.
So in any event, even if we get top 4, even if we get a new owner -- we must cut costs and start using cheaper players. Even if we make a lot of money, we are also overpaying so many of our players, the math just don't add up and the new FFP rules are stricter and will be much harder to circumvent. And the other teams going deep in the CL finishing top 1-2 in the PL just make more money than us. If we sell Maguire, Fred, AWB and Donny we open up 4 glaring holes on the squad besides at the striker position. If we sign an expensive striker, we cannot fill all those wholes with players from the outside. Think we must bring in at least two guys from the Academy. Maybe we can't carry 4 CBs. Maybe Lindelof plus Shaw as an emergency solution have to do.
I would put it like this, last summer, since we missed the CL and had spent a ton on Sancho, Varane and co. -- if business were to continue as usual with our current retard owners, without a new owner/investor -- the only "financially responsible" thing to do this summer would have been to do the exact same thing as Leicester did. Sell players and not buy anyone. My point with this is just to underline that we actually acted like we had new owners this summer already, spent a record amount of 240m and didn't sell anyone. A new owner can only support us so much with fake sponsor deals etc. Like even if Qatar buys us and wants to pump in an unlimited amount of funds, we still will face some austerity next summer.
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We are skint so we need to be clever Fram Reykjavík rejuvenated a 31 year old striker who almost hasn't scored in the top flight to become a silver boot winner losing out on gold through games played.
Scored all kinds of goals bangers and tap ins.
That said I don't want United to sign him because my team in Iceland would be relegated but what is James Wilson upto these days?
Scored all kinds of goals bangers and tap ins.
That said I don't want United to sign him because my team in Iceland would be relegated but what is James Wilson upto these days?
Kind of annoying Endrick didn't want to come here and just negotiate a deal like Haaland did at Dortmund where we agree (presumably if not we pay a huge bonus to Endrick) that we won't sign a #9 for more than I don't know 20M until he comes, and then we just grab Memphis or Joao Felix or another solid loan option for 18 months, or even one for the next 4 months and one for next-year. We're in a place where delaying a year to get a top young striking prospect makes sense. Pressure is low, 2nd or 3rd place and CL knockouts would represent success and are possible with a stopgap 9 and Martial if either Martial stays healthy for the first (and it could even be last) period of his career, or the stopgap 9 has a Lingard at West Ham type run.
I guess the difference between us and Madrid (at present, we have an actual manager now) is that they probably didn't have to offer anything like that. Just said "you're our Benzema replacement, we're not sure when he's leaving but he's not getting any younger" and point to Vinicius and Rodrigo who star for Brazil and score goals in CL semis and finals.
I guess the difference between us and Madrid (at present, we have an actual manager now) is that they probably didn't have to offer anything like that. Just said "you're our Benzema replacement, we're not sure when he's leaving but he's not getting any younger" and point to Vinicius and Rodrigo who star for Brazil and score goals in CL semis and finals.
Never heard about Dortmund making such a promise. Is there any source for this part of the deal or is it just fantasy?
FFP is dead. We can spend whatever we want.
Thanks for this. Morning ruined.
How the hell are we in this position? Unbelievable.
Fantasy, but they got Paco Alcacer out immediately and said selling him was an easy decision. And Haaland did negotiate a release clause and clearly have more leverage than most players have. It's not crazy to think there were promises made about not recruiting other forwards, happens with the quarterback and point guard positions in American college sports all the time.
Yeah, I have of course always been Glazer out, but I got really pissed when going through the contracts we have signed and how expensive some of these signings have been. Eric Bailly was given a 13.8m deal like 16 months ago. Sancho was insanely expensive. Harry. AWB.
But honestly, I do think that the austerity needed could be a bit of a blessing in disguise if handled correctly. Part of the problem with Ole's signings are that they just aren't well suited for the "modern" possession oriented game. Teams will see Brighton's success in the PL and Burnley's in the Championship. Who want a CB or RB that aren't comfortable on the ball? We need to bring in new blood anyway. It will be hard for us to spend a ton of money even with a new owner. We just must sell some of these guys, there is no birth right to play for Manchester United and make a ton of money. If we sell Harry for 25m, Henderson for 20m, Donny for 12m, AWB for 10m, Fred for 7.5m and Pellestri for 5m we improve our revenue for 23/24 with more than 100 mil in accordance with the below (Transfer Fee - Remaining Book Value + Yearly Cost = Net gain/Year):
How do we replace them? Honestly, I am not sure if its even the end of the world if we do -- not -- replace them.
*We have four guys who can play CB, its Shaw, Martinez, Varane and Lindelof. In addition Casemiro can play there.
*Laird can replace AWB if given a full preseason to prepare. We still have Malacia who can play on both sides. Should be warmer in the cloth next season.
*Mejbri and Iqbal can replace Donny and Fred.
*Amad is definitely "ready" in the sense that he could back-up Antony and even fill in for Bruno depending on the game situation.
With that said, if we can sign two future core players, a striker and a MF preferably, next season, its of course more optimal. We need another striker sooner rather than later in any event. In addition, it would of course not hurt with just getting an emergency back-up at CB, like a 32 y/o Nacho Fernandez from Real Madrid should be available really cheap. The type of players that cost you 5m for one season, then its done.
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Agreed somewhat. I definitely think while we are stabilising not throwing money at ok players is a better choice here. We have enough players that can come in from loans to be squad players and we can focus on them improving the first XI.Yeah, I have of course always been Glazer out, but I got really pissed when going through the contracts we have signed and how expensive some of these signings have been. Eric Bailly was given a 13.8m deal like 16 months ago. Sancho was insanely expensive. Harry. AWB.
But honestly, I do think that the austerity needed could be a bit of a blessing in disguise if handled correctly. Part of the problem with Ole's signings are that they just aren't well suited for the "modern" possession oriented game. Teams will see Brighton's success in the PL and Burnley's in the Championship. Who want a CB or RB that aren't comfortable on the ball? We need to bring in new blood anyway. It will be hard for us to spend a ton of money even with a new owner. We just must sell some of these guys, there is no birth right to play for Manchester United and make a ton of money. If we sell Harry for 25m, Henderson for 20m, Donny for 12m, AWB for 10m, Fred for 7.5m and Pellestri for 5m we improve our revenue for 23/24 with more than 100 mil in accordance with the below (Transfer Fee - Remaining Book Value + Yearly Cost = Net gain/Year):
How do we replace them? Honestly, I am not sure if its even the end of the world if we do -- not -- replace them.
*We have four guys who can play CB, its Shaw, Martinez, Varane and Lindelof. In addition Casemiro can play there.
*Laird can replace AWB if given a full preseason to prepare. We still have Malacia who can play on both sides. Should be warmer in the cloth next season.
*Mejbri and Iqbal can replace Donny and Fred.
*Amad is definitely "ready" in the sense that he could back-up Antony and even fill in for Bruno depending on the game situation.
With that said, if we can sign two future core players, a striker and a MF preferably, next season, its of course more optimal. We need another striker sooner rather than later in any event. In addition, it would of course not hurt with just getting an emergency back-up at CB, like a 32 y/o Nacho Fernandez from Real Madrid should be available really cheap. The type of players that cost you 5m for one season, then its done.
Id rather give a Diallo a chance to deputise Antony and Laird a chance if that means we can invest in serious quality elsewhere.
United should be all over Thuram. Cheap, available and in the media were linked as being a club he wants to join. No brainer. He'll go to another big club if we don't sign him now.
Seems to be the only option with numbers to actually improve us this season. Lots of goals and assists. Always nervous of the German market though, apart from Haaland the goals never seem to transfer to the PL.
I reckon we could get Mehdi Taremi for a decent price. 18 months left on his deal, bangs in goals, didn’t cost Porto much so they wouldn’t expect a ridiculous fee.
Would be a brilliant option but don't see it
Yeh but his pace in that league stands out and he seems to have decent composure in front of goal with goals and assists. Hopefully that could transfer to any league.
Kagawa, Mkhitaryan and even Sancho never looked ridiculously fast in that league and they were pretty much exposed to be not up to it in the Premier League.
Atleast Thuram doesn't look physically limited.
I’m not sure what is more funny, a striker playing in Iceland or James Wilson of port vale. You’ve lost your mind
What would they want for him if he's going to be available on a free in the summer
You'd think it's gotta be under £20m. Otherwise all the clubs would just wait and sign him for free in the summer and they'd offer him higher wages if they save the transfer fee.
I doubt we win a bidding war in the summer, unless the club is actually sold by then. With his quality and us needing a Striker now I'd sign him and we could also still sell Martial in the summer if Ten Hag wanted two new strikers to compete up front.
If the club was sold by then we could get a more recognised striker in the summer.
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Played today against PSG - scored and assisted in a 3-1 win
3 or 4 years ago he would've actually been a good signing but I'm sure he (Aboubakar) was out for a very long time with a knee injury.
If that's the reason he left Europe then it has to be factored as a risk.
Heung-Min Song looked nothing special in Germany and plays quite well for Spurs, Aubameyang seems to have transferred his Dortmund form well to the PL (of course the latter now is history), so it's just the typical "you never know" how a player adapts to a new league and team, there is nothing special about the PL or the Bundesliga which should make you especially nervous (although of course you always have to be thoughtful about the impact a transfer can have on a player)
Tadic maybe?