What/who is the biggest statement player sale the club could make this summer?

soapythecat

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Hopefully it’s Rashford. He’s down tools once too often and clearly doesn’t give a shit about performances. He needs bringing down a peg or two and it won’t happen at United. Bruno will see put his contract unfortunately.
 

Grylte

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Have Rashford and Bruno been mentioned yet?
 

Wonder Pigeon

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The idea of a "statement sale" would be just as indicitive of the psychodrama United have been caught in as any of the "statement signings" of the previous regime.

Selling a player primarily to punish them and teach everyone else a lesson would not be putting down a marker for a more strategic and intelligent football operation because strategic and intelligent football operations don't run on fan forum logic.
 

justsomebloke

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There can quite obviously only be two answers. Rashford is probably the right answer but Bruno for me would send the better signal, seeing as you’ll simply never play controlled possession football while having an agent of chaos as your playmaker. Bruno is a good player but we need to move on from him.
"Controlled possession football"? You mean like Portugal does?
 

Fortitude

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The idea of a "statement sale" would be just as indicitive of the psychodrama United have been caught in as any of the "statement signings" of the previous regime.

Selling a player primarily to punish them and teach everyone else a lesson would not be putting down a marker for a more strategic and intelligent football operation because strategic and intelligent football operations don't run on fan forum logic.
Where have you got the idea of punishment from? Going in a different direction is not a punishment or it certainly doesn't have to be framed that way.

The fans may be emotionally attached, it doesn't mean the decision is made along those lines.

A club making it clear it will no longer be run in a certain way can send a marker to players inside the club as well as those entering after the fact so too with agents and their approach.

Players bought or sold who were upper bracket when it comes to valuation cannot help but be part of "psychodrama" as you put it.

- Moving on a potential £100m asset this summer because of principles and moral obligation would be a huge statement. Not many clubs would entertain it, imo.

- Selling a marquee player who crossed the manager is a huge statement. The consequences for doing so then being set in stone with grey area removed.

- Moving on the golden boy and head of our advertising who seems to have stopped working for the team and has been deemed practically untouchable this season, would send shockwaves through the club and the support. The business aspects can be sound, but it doesn’t mean it would not be a seriously emotive sale.

The list goes on as there are a fair few others at the club whose sale would make waves.
 

Fortitude

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It’s just another bash Rashford thread because they were getting bored of the 20-odd live threads we already have on that subject… :rolleyes:
The displays of myopia when people hone in on a player or two as if everyone else even cares enough to do so, are incredible.
 

HisNameIsEarl

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Indicative of true change and a new era of zero tolerance and desire to move in a different direction to what we've been mired in for years now?
Sell Sancho, buy him again, and sell him once more.

Biggest statement I could think of, expressing the utter insanity of making statements with deals.
 

Ikon

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Just a reminder that Liverpool shipped out Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Oxlade & Milner from their Midfield, and brought in 4 new faces, Szoboszlai, MacAllister, Gravenberch & Endo, for a net spend of around £100m, and they are challenging for the Premier League title and on course for another European success too.

So if you focus on the right areas, make the smart signings, it doesn't necessarily have to be a transformation that takes years and years or cost another Billion..
 
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WouterWeghorst

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"Controlled possession football"? You mean like Portugal does?
Main difference in my opinion is that Portugal has calm and controlled passers throughout the pitch, while United have players who panic under pressure constantly. I'd say only a few players keep calm under pressure and can recycle possession well. Most of our attackers can't, Scotty can't, Case doesn't/can't, most of our defenders can't (Maguire, Varane, AWB)... in a squad that can keep the ball well, it's good to have a risk taker. In a team full of risk takers (due to lack of ability?), another risk taker might tip the balance to getting this gung ho stuff we're seeing.

Doesn't mean i'd like Bruno to leave. I'd like the other rubbish to leave. My leave list based on ability would mainly be:
- Varane (good defender when under pressure, bad defender when in possession)
- Maguire (same as Varane, maybe slightly better on the ball)
- AWB (ideally you'd utilize a player like him only against top 4 teams if that)
- Casemiro (far too rash and hasn't got the legs to cover anymore)
- Rashford (simply doesn't know how to press leading to the ENTIRE idea of how United wants to play football to collapse. I see him as one of the main culprits to this season's terrible openness. Also weak in duelling, doesn't track back and stopped producing G/A).
- McTominay (could be a good bench option if he'd like. He'd be useful when a goal is needed late on, but should never be part of any footballing 'plan' as he doesn't press/track back/close spaces at all)
- Eriksen (has it all football wise, just the body of an old man. No pressing, no running, no speed... Can't work anymore)
- Amrabat (would be an absolute star... in charity games. Premier League football is too quick for him. Should move to spain/Italy and not Germany/England).


Garnacho and Hojlund will come good i think, but they are also prone to losing the ball with sloppy passing and/or decision making. I think they'll develop well into players that can fit a modern attacking/pressing team. Many others would be 'unfit to play' due to them literally being.... unfit to play. Martinez this year, Shaw always...
 

Steve Bruce

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I don't need a big statement single sale. A bigger statement for me is selling/releasing many players that aren't good enough.

Donny
Brandon Williams
Martial
Ericsson
Evans
1 of lindelof or maguire
Malacia
Sancho
1 of Pellestri or Amad
Antony
Amrabat
Mctominay
Hannibal
Heaton
Greenwood

Obviously it's unrealistic and unreasonable to expect all them to go, but I'd like a sizable chunk of them to be gone.

There are others I've omitted from the list but not because I think they're great but more because I personally think the players I've listed need to go first and being honest, there's not many players in our squad I have faith in long term anyway.

Now if stupid money comes in for other players and seeing how we are struggling with fsp, anyone and everyone has to be considered although it would take ridiculous money for the 3 young lads.
 

Wonder Pigeon

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Where have you got the idea of punishment from? Going in a different direction is not a punishment or it certainly doesn't have to be framed that way.

The fans may be emotionally attached, it doesn't mean the decision is made along those lines.

A club making it clear it will no longer be run in a certain way can send a marker to players inside the club as well as those entering after the fact so too with agents and their approach.

Players bought or sold who were upper bracket when it comes to valuation cannot help but be part of "psychodrama" as you put it.

- Moving on a potential £100m asset this summer because of principles and moral obligation would be a huge statement. Not many clubs would entertain it, imo.

- Selling a marquee player who crossed the manager is a huge statement. The consequences for doing so then being set in stone with grey area removed.

- Moving on the golden boy and head of our advertising who seems to have stopped working for the team and has been deemed practically untouchable this season, would send shockwaves through the club and the support. The business aspects can be sound, but it doesn’t mean it would not be a seriously emotive sale.

The list goes on as there are a fair few others at the club whose sale would make waves.
The best way that a club can show that it's being run in a new way is actually running it in that new way and focusing on that rather than trying to send a message of "zero tolerance".

Getting rid of a marquee player who crossed the manager might sound like a huge statement, but it doesn't actually materially mean very much if the work around it isn't right. There's literally an example of this happening, at United, within the last 18 months, and it didn't seem to impact the other players' thinking about their own standing that much...