After our window closed yesterday and the signings were confirmed, I was taking in reactions from all of our supporters here and on social media. The majority of sentiment seemed to be ranging from lukewarm to completely pissed off at our transfer dealings this summer, and I don't blame anyone who had that reaction. It's been discussed at length what exactly is wrong with our club at the moment, but I came to a realization after yesterday that we only have one way in which I can see us turning back into a contending side in both England and Europe under our current regime: We have to take the route of a club that has less funds than we really do.
While our high profile transfer dealings have been quite embarrassing in recent times, United has quietly been stockpiling young talent from all over the world that hasn't yet broken into the first team. Pellistri, Diallo, McNeil, Jurado, Hansen-Aaroen, and Fernandez are all highly regarded prospects that we have either poached or beat out other teams for their signature. Add to that Meijbri, Mengi, and Laird are all current players that many academy watchers can confirm look fantastic and are only a year or two away from breaking into the first team. These are the type of signings that will bring us back to where we want to be among the elite. Many mocked us for signing Martial at £36m while he was just an 18 year old from Monaco, but now he's worth 2-3x that much and we would be pining over a saga with the club trying to lowball wherever he was at currently. Woodward and the Glazers clearly can't be trusted to conduct business efficiently or logically in the market, and as fans we shouldn't expect them to at this point unless we want to be let down. But it's clear we have the right mindset on our younger signings, and I would welcome spending 20m on world class potential from a 17-18 year old that we might have to bed in as opposed to embarrassing ourselves chasing that same player when he's 21 and lighting the league on fire.
Our best players in the squad: Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Bruno, Pogba. Three of those are academy players that we developed ourselves, Martial was a prodigy that we splurged on when he was 18, and then Bruno was a standard high profile signing. If we expect to actually return to glory, this will need to be the mindset we take with building out the squad to avoid watching Ed splash 80m on an average Maguire, or failing to secure top players when we clearly have a paper thin squad anyways. Continue to add to the academy with top youth signings, identify and take chances on the rising stars like the Bellingham's and Diallo's, and then supplement with high profile signings. This will save the Glazers money, save our sanity as fans that look at a squad and realize we need about 300m injected into it to compete, and give us the best shot of developing players into real superstars like the club has done with so many before. Managers will always come and go, but without building a well rounded squad it's difficult to accurately assess how well a manager is doing here.
While our high profile transfer dealings have been quite embarrassing in recent times, United has quietly been stockpiling young talent from all over the world that hasn't yet broken into the first team. Pellistri, Diallo, McNeil, Jurado, Hansen-Aaroen, and Fernandez are all highly regarded prospects that we have either poached or beat out other teams for their signature. Add to that Meijbri, Mengi, and Laird are all current players that many academy watchers can confirm look fantastic and are only a year or two away from breaking into the first team. These are the type of signings that will bring us back to where we want to be among the elite. Many mocked us for signing Martial at £36m while he was just an 18 year old from Monaco, but now he's worth 2-3x that much and we would be pining over a saga with the club trying to lowball wherever he was at currently. Woodward and the Glazers clearly can't be trusted to conduct business efficiently or logically in the market, and as fans we shouldn't expect them to at this point unless we want to be let down. But it's clear we have the right mindset on our younger signings, and I would welcome spending 20m on world class potential from a 17-18 year old that we might have to bed in as opposed to embarrassing ourselves chasing that same player when he's 21 and lighting the league on fire.
Our best players in the squad: Rashford, Martial, Greenwood, Bruno, Pogba. Three of those are academy players that we developed ourselves, Martial was a prodigy that we splurged on when he was 18, and then Bruno was a standard high profile signing. If we expect to actually return to glory, this will need to be the mindset we take with building out the squad to avoid watching Ed splash 80m on an average Maguire, or failing to secure top players when we clearly have a paper thin squad anyways. Continue to add to the academy with top youth signings, identify and take chances on the rising stars like the Bellingham's and Diallo's, and then supplement with high profile signings. This will save the Glazers money, save our sanity as fans that look at a squad and realize we need about 300m injected into it to compete, and give us the best shot of developing players into real superstars like the club has done with so many before. Managers will always come and go, but without building a well rounded squad it's difficult to accurately assess how well a manager is doing here.