You would also want to have a team that can "safely" get into the top 4. If we miss top 4 for a season and CL we might not be able to attract the players we want.
What do we still need? Aka The never ending story
- Thread starter Devil may care
- Start date
Turtle brothres?
I think £100M for Eriksen would be a bargain in today's market even if he's in the last year of his contract, he's that good.I’m going to join in...
Sancho - £140m
CHO - £60m
Rice - £60-70m
Alderweild - £25m
Of course, if Eriksen was somehow available, you go all out for him.
I also wonder if Kroos would be interested in a new challenge.
Sancho - £140m
CHO - £60m
Rice - £60-70m
Alderweild - £25m
Of course, if Eriksen was somehow available, you go all out for him.
I also wonder if Kroos would be interested in a new challenge.
Why would you pay 60m for someone who has a year left on their contract, but expect to pay 60m for Rice who has 5 years left on his?
There are two things.
1) buying a right back at the age of 29 or above.
Or
2) buying a right winger with right foot who offers creativity on the width like Sancho means we can stick with Young, Dalot & Darmian.
80-90 m, we should do it, Sancho needs another year to develop I feel. He will take a year or so to get to grips with this league and its physical football, that's my feeling. Also because Dortmund players rarely fit anywhere else almost instantly specially those lacking engine .Turtle brothres?
Not the quickest of CB partnershipsTurtle brothres?
Amazing player for sure, but he's entering the last year of his contract though.
We really do need another creative player and IMO Eriksen is the best we can get. Turned 27 seven days ago, knows the league, last year of his contract. I don't think Levy would turn down 80 mill for him as no other club would pay that much for him.
Pogba - Eriksen with Herrera as DM against weaker teams and Eriksen in the RW against stronger teams,playing the Lingard role.
Creativity, crossing and corner kicks which go beyond the first man.
Lets get this done
Pogba - Eriksen with Herrera as DM against weaker teams and Eriksen in the RW against stronger teams,playing the Lingard role.
Creativity, crossing and corner kicks which go beyond the first man.
Lets get this done
Seems it may now be difficult to take players from Chelsea during their ban, absent other overriding factors like transfer requests etc. Share the view that one or more of CHO, RLC and/or Kante would otherwise have been interesting.
What I'd like to see in a (I hope at least relatively!) realistic couple of transfer windows:
RB: Promotion of promising youth to cover Young / Dalot. Darmian moved on.
CB: Someone able to make an immediate impact needed, departures to make room for Tuanzebe's return as backup - De-Ligt / Koulibaly / Milenkovic / Skriniar
LB: Top young talent brought in to push Shaw for first team spot - Tierney / Telles / Mendy?
CM: Two top young talents brought in to provide competition & smooth transition. Pereira moved on - Dembele / Pellegrini / Neves / Barella / Tonali
RW: Promotion of Greenwood & Chong alongside, you guessed it, a top class talent to push Lingard for his place. Sanchez & Lukaku sold - Sancho / Pepe / Suso
Easy peasy. Love that game.
RB: Promotion of promising youth to cover Young / Dalot. Darmian moved on.
CB: Someone able to make an immediate impact needed, departures to make room for Tuanzebe's return as backup - De-Ligt / Koulibaly / Milenkovic / Skriniar
LB: Top young talent brought in to push Shaw for first team spot - Tierney / Telles / Mendy?
CM: Two top young talents brought in to provide competition & smooth transition. Pereira moved on - Dembele / Pellegrini / Neves / Barella / Tonali
RW: Promotion of Greenwood & Chong alongside, you guessed it, a top class talent to push Lingard for his place. Sanchez & Lukaku sold - Sancho / Pepe / Suso
Easy peasy. Love that game.
It's a shame besause Willian for 60mil could be perfect for the RW.
Just kiddin'...calm down!
A proper right back and right winger. Get those and we will be a completely different team next season. We also need to start looking at bringing in someone who can eventually take over from Matic.
Part of the problem is that we have not seen enough of some players. Andreas Pereira, Scott McTominay and Fed. Are they good enough? We don't know because we've not seen enough of them. Without a doubt we need a center half. Koulibaly would be the dream. Skriniar would probably be best for business. He's experienced whilst still being young. De Ligt would be one for the future. Harry Maguire would be a good signing. Manolas isn't good enough. Alderweireld would also be good business. 25 million in the summer. I think we may need to sign a full back. Aaron Wan-Bissaka is the stand out candidate. Dalot would still get plenty of game time as he can also play left back. We don't need a young attacker in my opinion. We have Chong, Greenwood and Gomes.
The above is essentially my FM19 save for transfers.
I think that's very realistic and covers the positions we need to strengthen. I think just one other CM rather than two would suffice for the next window though.
Having seen the improvements made by the back four, I feel that the RW should be priority one as we don’t have one, followed closely by CM as we have no depth.
Having thought about it I would look for Sancho and then both Ndombele and Aouar.
Having thought about it I would look for Sancho and then both Ndombele and Aouar.
Sancho - Ndombele/Aouar (depends on how we want to build the midfield). Promote youth to replace deadwoods.
Fairly certain not many people would agree with me - but i'd love Deulofeu at United. He would be perfect on our RW, maybe as a backup to someone like Sancho.
De Ligt will go to Barcelona for the people mentioning him.
They just signed a certain defender from Seville .
I still think they will get De Ligt to. They are one of the elite teams that needs to freshen their squad with younger players. Similar to Real Madrid and Bayern.
Psg may be in for him as well. Silva ain't getting any younger.
It's encouraging how well we are playing considering there are still obvious improvements to be made. Quite exciting actually.
RB CB CM and RW are the positions to strengthen in no particular order.
I wouldn't go for a young RB simply because of Dalot and possibly Laird. Someone like Meunier would be ideal if possible.
Koulibaly would be my choice at CB.
2 completely contrasting styles so depends what Ole is looking for but Ndombele or Neves in at CM
Sancho if possible at RW. I could really see him staying for another year at Dortmund and couldn't blame him so maybe Pepe.
RB CB CM and RW are the positions to strengthen in no particular order.
I wouldn't go for a young RB simply because of Dalot and possibly Laird. Someone like Meunier would be ideal if possible.
Koulibaly would be my choice at CB.
2 completely contrasting styles so depends what Ole is looking for but Ndombele or Neves in at CM
Sancho if possible at RW. I could really see him staying for another year at Dortmund and couldn't blame him so maybe Pepe.
We need significant improvements this summer, that much is clear. Ole is doing the best he can with the players but the injuries have shown what our squad depth is like. A lot of average players who can do a job, but no-one who can come off the bench to change a game.
Make no mistake, all of our domestic and European rivals will strengthen and if we don't, the gap will just become bigger. That's if we actually want to win trophies of course, if top 4 and getting through the CL group stage is our ambition we should be ok.
Make no mistake, all of our domestic and European rivals will strengthen and if we don't, the gap will just become bigger. That's if we actually want to win trophies of course, if top 4 and getting through the CL group stage is our ambition we should be ok.
Necessity:
Striker
RW
RB
Luxury:
CB
CM
Striker
RW
RB
Luxury:
CB
CM
I read some rumours, thar Brandt has a €24m release clause in his contract.
He would be a nice option for our attack.
He would be a nice option for our attack.
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After reading through the page and some player evaluation I came up with my own summer signings. Would love us to get Koulibaly(80m) Rabiot(free) Munier(30m) and Sancho(120m). All together that's 230m and after getting rid of some of the deadwood we should have a net spend of 200m which is the rumoured summer budget.
Would also love a 4-3-3 formation with Martial Rashford and Sancho in attack then a midfield where Pogba is an attacking midfielder (sometimes gives the ball away in dangerous positions as a CM and clearly gets tired from all that running back and forth) right behind the forwards while Rabiot and Herrera are the other midfielders midfielder behind Pogba...Herrera being on the right CM/DM and Rabiot being one the left CM/DM.
For all Rabiot's talk about not wanting to be a DM the boy knows how to do it and also knows how to attack hold the ball and pick out a good pass and am sure Ole can handle his attitude plus he would probably love the United atmosphere. Saw some people arguing that Rabiot plays mostly on the left midfield which is why I think he would be perfect with a partner like Herrera on the right.
Then in defense I would say Shaw Koulibaly Lindelof and Munier. Do you guys think this team could challenge for the title and how do you think the style would be ...I think this team makes the most sense given our budget and need of quality.
Would also love a 4-3-3 formation with Martial Rashford and Sancho in attack then a midfield where Pogba is an attacking midfielder (sometimes gives the ball away in dangerous positions as a CM and clearly gets tired from all that running back and forth) right behind the forwards while Rabiot and Herrera are the other midfielders midfielder behind Pogba...Herrera being on the right CM/DM and Rabiot being one the left CM/DM.
For all Rabiot's talk about not wanting to be a DM the boy knows how to do it and also knows how to attack hold the ball and pick out a good pass and am sure Ole can handle his attitude plus he would probably love the United atmosphere. Saw some people arguing that Rabiot plays mostly on the left midfield which is why I think he would be perfect with a partner like Herrera on the right.
Then in defense I would say Shaw Koulibaly Lindelof and Munier. Do you guys think this team could challenge for the title and how do you think the style would be ...I think this team makes the most sense given our budget and need of quality.
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Rumours (from fairly crappy sources) that we are looking at Koulibaly, Wan-Bissaka and Rakitic for this summer.
Hope it isn't true, unless we are also signing a RW and CM. Koulibaly might cost 80MIL, Rakitic is yet another failed Barca / Madrid cast off who is 30 and will most likely be shit and cost a fortune. Bissaka would be good but casts doubt on Dalots future. Maybe we will play Dalot or Bissaka on the wing.
Hope it isn't true, unless we are also signing a RW and CM. Koulibaly might cost 80MIL, Rakitic is yet another failed Barca / Madrid cast off who is 30 and will most likely be shit and cost a fortune. Bissaka would be good but casts doubt on Dalots future. Maybe we will play Dalot or Bissaka on the wing.
Sancho
AWB
Ndidi
CB - who knows...
AWB
Ndidi
CB - who knows...
Like you said, crappy sources .Rumours (from fairly crappy sources) that we are looking at Koulibaly, Wan-Bissaka and Rakitic for this summer.
Hope it isn't true, unless we are also signing a RW and CM. Koulibaly might cost 80MIL, Rakitic is yet another failed Barca / Madrid cast off who is 30 and will most likely be shit and cost a fortune. Bissaka would be good but casts doubt on Dalots future. Maybe we will play Dalot or Bissaka on the wing.
I keep hearing that the club needs 6 or 7 players to be brought in this summer which would cost in excess of £350m, this simply is not going to happen. The reality is Ole has won 12 from 15 games with the same squad that Jose failed with, all of a sudden Pogba looks World Class, Luke Shaw the best left back in the league, Lindelof an elite level CB and Rashford, Martial and even Lukaku all looking like they have 1 or 2 goals per game in them.
My point is spending money for spending monies sake never works, yes we need key investment in the summer but I think we should also be looking at accelerating bringing through some of the youth to replace the Deadwood.
My plan of action would be as follows;
Finally we would have a young mobile talented squad, with genuine leaders that would not only challenge for the 2019/20 season but for the next 5 years after that!
My point is spending money for spending monies sake never works, yes we need key investment in the summer but I think we should also be looking at accelerating bringing through some of the youth to replace the Deadwood.
My plan of action would be as follows;
- Firstly resign key players like Marcus Rashford, David De Gea, Juan Mata and Ander Herrera so the players we want to keep are all signed on long contracts or 1 year recurring with Juan.
- Secondly move on those players who now offer very little or nothing to the first team squad. Darmian, Rojo, Eric Bailly, Valencia, Alexis Sanchez, James Wilson. We May get £85M but more importantly the wage bill will be reduced by £950k per week added to Feillani's probably saving the club £1.1m per week available.
- Thirdly all those players that are on the fringe of the squad, players like Fred, Andreas Pereirra, Phil Jones, Lukaku all given clear targets they need to achieve to remain at the club past 2020.
- Before we can decide on investment we also need to see if youngsters like Tim Fosu Mensah, Axel Tuanzebe, Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomez, Taith Chong and James Garner can step up. Some may still need PL loans, Some may be sold like TFM and at least 2 or 3 need to be upgraded to the first team squad, for me Axel, Mason and Angel.
- The Squad hopefully should look something like this GK - D De Gea, S Romero, L Grant Defenders - A Young, A Tuanzebe, D Dalot, P Jones, C Smalling, V Lindelof, L Shaw, *New FB, *New CBL Midfield - P Pogba, S McTominay, N Matic, A Herrera, Fred, A Perreira, A Gomez, *New BTB Strikers - M Rashford, J Lingard, J Mata, M Greenwood, R Lukaku, A Martial * New Marquee RW
Finally we would have a young mobile talented squad, with genuine leaders that would not only challenge for the 2019/20 season but for the next 5 years after that!
Just buy Alderweild and Rabiot and that leaves almost all our budget for
RW - Pepe (50/60) or Sancho (100)
RB - Wan Bissaka (40/50)
and then we try buy one or two top young players depending on availability/price and income from sales i.e. - De Ligt/Felix/Tierney/Rice etc
Yes koulibaly would be great but 100 mill plus! Would Rather Alderweild + Wan Bissaka for 75 - heck we could probably get Tierney for the extra 25.
Same as Sancho - If he is the best of the best sure lets spend 100 on him but over that is too much risk. I would rather spend it on Pepe(50), Felix (50) and Rice (50).
RW - Pepe (50/60) or Sancho (100)
RB - Wan Bissaka (40/50)
and then we try buy one or two top young players depending on availability/price and income from sales i.e. - De Ligt/Felix/Tierney/Rice etc
Yes koulibaly would be great but 100 mill plus! Would Rather Alderweild + Wan Bissaka for 75 - heck we could probably get Tierney for the extra 25.
Same as Sancho - If he is the best of the best sure lets spend 100 on him but over that is too much risk. I would rather spend it on Pepe(50), Felix (50) and Rice (50).
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RB:
LB:
CB:
RW:
CM:
In: Ricardo Pereira - impressed with him, start relegating Young to the bench/emergencies. Dalot and Pereira to rotate.
Out: Darmian
Out: Darmian
LB:
In: Sessengnon - Fulham are as good as down down so a cut price deal for a young talent.
CB:
In: ? With the better defence currently playing do we need people here - Mike and Victor look good. Eric as well combined with Phil are good reserve options. Perhaps a solid, bench option? I'm just not sure we can get that mk2 VVD almost guaranteed success CB...
Out: Rojo
Out: Rojo
RW:
In: Nicholas Pepe/Jadon Sancho - desperately look to build a team around PP, needs movement and runners off him to hit. Inventive and danger men to help push teams back and allow him time to do his thing. Players like JS and NP look terrifying.
Out: Sanchez - Another Falcao, can barely control a ball currently, cut loses, stopped City getting him, shame but that's football.
Out: Sanchez - Another Falcao, can barely control a ball currently, cut loses, stopped City getting him, shame but that's football.
CM:
In: Julian Brandt/Declan Rice - reinforcements should Ander get injured or Pogba. Good to Hoover up decent talent, more than happy for us to become like Bayern. Brandt release clause is a steal. Rice looks a good prospect for that 6 role in a 3.
Out: Andreas Pereira - unfortunately I don't see anything other than an average player here. Again shame but yeah, Everton beckons.
Push Greenwood and Chong through. See if they can swim.Out: Andreas Pereira - unfortunately I don't see anything other than an average player here. Again shame but yeah, Everton beckons.
We really need to get in a midfielder who's a composed,efficient passer of the ball.Someone who can give-and-go and make us tick.
We've still yet to replace Carrick,or Scholes for that matter.
That type of player is still at the forefront of priorities alongside a right sided attacker,in my opinion.
We've still yet to replace Carrick,or Scholes for that matter.
That type of player is still at the forefront of priorities alongside a right sided attacker,in my opinion.
Ins:
CB: Koulibaly: 90m
RB: Bissaka- 40m
DM: Rabiot- Free
AM/RW/LW: J Brandt - 25m clause
RW: Pepe- 50m
Out:
Valencia
Rojo
Darmian
Sanchez
Mata
Andreas
CB: Koulibaly: 90m
RB: Bissaka- 40m
DM: Rabiot- Free
AM/RW/LW: J Brandt - 25m clause
RW: Pepe- 50m
Out:
Valencia
Rojo
Darmian
Sanchez
Mata
Andreas
The thing for me is we are going to have to sell to buy when you look at how overstuffed this squad is, we can't just add more players and keep increasing the wage bill and that worries me a bit as we don't do all that well when it comes to clearing players out.
I'm no longer sure what we are going to do about midfield, the balance isn't right but nearly every CM brought up offers a part solution but a new imbalance. I am also starting to think that instead of a winger Ole might look towards bringing in another false 9/#10 type of player so we can really focus on the diamond given it suits our current 4 main forwards more than 4-3-3 does.
CB
Out: Rojo & Bailly
In: Koulibaly or de Ligt
RB
Out: Valenica & Darmian
In: Meunier
False 9/#10
Out: Mata
In: Eriksen/Dybala/Isco/Fekir/Joao Felix
Striker
Out: Alexis Sanchez
In: Timo Wrener or Luka Jovic
I'm no longer sure what we are going to do about midfield, the balance isn't right but nearly every CM brought up offers a part solution but a new imbalance. I am also starting to think that instead of a winger Ole might look towards bringing in another false 9/#10 type of player so we can really focus on the diamond given it suits our current 4 main forwards more than 4-3-3 does.
CB
Out: Rojo & Bailly
In: Koulibaly or de Ligt
RB
Out: Valenica & Darmian
In: Meunier
False 9/#10
Out: Mata
In: Eriksen/Dybala/Isco/Fekir/Joao Felix
Striker
Out: Alexis Sanchez
In: Timo Wrener or Luka Jovic
Juventus as well, lets face it every 'big' club will be in for him. I hope for his sake he chooses somewhere where he is going to get a lot of first team football rather than warming the bench at Barca.
Id like to see us clear out some dead wood first, Sanchez, Mata, Jones, Darmian, Valencia for starters, we need some real direction with our CB's, Rojo, Bailly, Smalling, Jones, one of these goes. Young is a tough one, he has been a good performer this season, but at 33 is it time to look to the future?
CB:
De Ligt/Koulibaly
RB:
Wan Bissaka
CM:
Rice
RW:
Sancho
250-300M? Won't happen but I'd be happy with 3 out of those 4. Hell, give me 2 and the magic sock comes out.
De Ligt/Koulibaly
RB:
Wan Bissaka
CM:
Rice
RW:
Sancho
250-300M? Won't happen but I'd be happy with 3 out of those 4. Hell, give me 2 and the magic sock comes out.
This season it could be possible, that some of the biggest talents are available. Sancho, DeLigt, Joao Felix and Dybala.
It's a little bit FM, but all of them would be great.
Maybe we can swap Lukaku with Dybala +30mio.
Buy Joao Felix for 70mio
Buy Sancho for 100mio and offload Sanchez maybe for about 20-30mio
Buy DeLigt for 70mio and sell Rojo and Bailly for 10mio + 30mio.
That would be a net spend approx. 210mio and we would have an amazing squad.
But I'm just dreaming.
It's a little bit FM, but all of them would be great.
Maybe we can swap Lukaku with Dybala +30mio.
Buy Joao Felix for 70mio
Buy Sancho for 100mio and offload Sanchez maybe for about 20-30mio
Buy DeLigt for 70mio and sell Rojo and Bailly for 10mio + 30mio.
That would be a net spend approx. 210mio and we would have an amazing squad.
But I'm just dreaming.
Apparently Ole talked about transfers in the embargoed section of the presser and said we want to promote youth but will look to bring 1 or 2 in, now hopefully like Fergie he's underplaying it, however if at best that means 3 and we are looking to build on the 4-4-2 diamond with the idea of 2 in each position then I expect more Ashley Young and we'll have to keep Darmian to cover LB here and there.
Sanchez, Bailly and Rojo sold, Mata and Pereira go on a free.
CB's
Lindelof/Smalling/de Ligt/Jones
FB's
Dalot/Shaw/Young/Darmian
CM's
Pogba/Herrera/Fred/Matic/McTominay/New signing
False 9/#10
Lingard/New signing
Strikers
Rashford/Martial/Lukaku/Greenwood
Sanchez, Bailly and Rojo sold, Mata and Pereira go on a free.
CB's
Lindelof/Smalling/de Ligt/Jones
FB's
Dalot/Shaw/Young/Darmian
CM's
Pogba/Herrera/Fred/Matic/McTominay/New signing
False 9/#10
Lingard/New signing
Strikers
Rashford/Martial/Lukaku/Greenwood
We need a RW, a CB, a CM, and an RB.