This pretty much. Those are the only two real answers and selling at least one would indicate we are actually serious about heading in a new direction.
What/who is the biggest statement player sale the club could make this summer?
- Thread starter Fortitude
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I think obviously Rashford or Fernandes would be the biggest 'statement' sales for footballing reasons, given their ages and current importance (as regards always starting, being the captain, big name academy product, etc).
Opting to sell one of them for, presumably, pretty big money to the level of club who could afford their fee and wages, would be a big call and quite a surprise.
However, I don't see either of those happening. So I'm expecting 'smaller' statements - unsurprisingly selling players who are out of the picture like Greenwood and Sancho, or who are injury prone / past their prime like Casemiro and Varane.
I guess selling a big money failure like Antony quite quickly would count to an extent, though it's a similar scenario to Sancho (without the falling out and loan).
Opting to sell one of them for, presumably, pretty big money to the level of club who could afford their fee and wages, would be a big call and quite a surprise.
However, I don't see either of those happening. So I'm expecting 'smaller' statements - unsurprisingly selling players who are out of the picture like Greenwood and Sancho, or who are injury prone / past their prime like Casemiro and Varane.
I guess selling a big money failure like Antony quite quickly would count to an extent, though it's a similar scenario to Sancho (without the falling out and loan).
Yep, thread doesn’t seem obviously engineered to slag them off again at all.In before Bruno or Rashford
Rashford, and it really should happen. I think he’s hardly worth more than 40 million, so if some team wishes to pay double that, we’d be insane not to accept.
Boring answers but Bruno would make the biggest statement about a shift in play style to something more progressive - away from counter attack, no control in possession, no patterns of attacking play.
Selling Rashford would set the tone for no longer tolerating fair weather footballers who care more about their PR and marketing than the scoreline.
Selling Rashford would set the tone for no longer tolerating fair weather footballers who care more about their PR and marketing than the scoreline.
Rashford or Bruno.
Rashford and Bruno hopefully.
Andre Onana
Mason Greenwood. It would tell the world, unequivocally, that we will not house violent sexual deviants for any longer than three years.
Shockwaves.
Shockwaves.
Hopefully he can stop getting injured as well yet another calf strain so he’s out for the Liverpool and other games, if he doesn’t he’ll be gone too !
Rashford
Bruno and Rashford should both go
You forgot the two soft boys, Lindelof and McTominay
This and we would be better for it imo.In before Bruno or Rashford
Maybe a leftfield choice like Garnacho to Madrid as an example, but cant see that happening...yet.
Rashford....Would keep kBruno as a squad player based on effort,injury record and professionalism.
Rashford strolls around the f..ing field as if he is doing us a favour.
Rashford strolls around the f..ing field as if he is doing us a favour.
Rashford and Shaw.
Get us a new left side please.
Dalot and Garnacho competition can be added to the right side, but we really need top players or potential for the left side.
Get us a new left side please.
Dalot and Garnacho competition can be added to the right side, but we really need top players or potential for the left side.
Club just needs to be ruthless in it's quest for success, don't think there's a player at the club that's important enough or good enough to be cause that much of a stir or would be missed all that much.
It's just about setting a direction and letting the casualties fall naturally, set standards that must be met on the pitch and training pitch and those who aren't good enough will be weeded out.
It's just about setting a direction and letting the casualties fall naturally, set standards that must be met on the pitch and training pitch and those who aren't good enough will be weeded out.
Hahaha
Rashford & Bruno would have shades of the 93 summer when SAF got rid of all those players and replaced them with class 92. Also we already have Mainoo, Hujland , Garnacho, Amad so four young players would would benefit with more playing time and playing together.
I’d be more inclined to keep him if we could find the formula that saw him be so successful in the first year and a half. What happened?
Out goings, Rashford and/or Bruno.
For incomings, 5 really good, if not spectacular "names". And continued advancement over the summer for Dalot, Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund stepping up more. Keep Martinez, Mason Mount and Shaw fit and Onana continues his form, and that would do me. We dont need a superstar. We need to bring together the players we have with some smart signings.
For incomings, 5 really good, if not spectacular "names". And continued advancement over the summer for Dalot, Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund stepping up more. Keep Martinez, Mason Mount and Shaw fit and Onana continues his form, and that would do me. We dont need a superstar. We need to bring together the players we have with some smart signings.
Has it got this bad that you're talking about a 'statement sale' (lol) in the transfer window? I like this new phrase and Chelsea need about 20 of them.
Fergie invented statement sales. Paul McGrath, Paul Ince, Mark Hughes, Ruud Van Nistelrooy. He tried his best to help Moyes out by publicly trying to kill off Rooney before he retired. Sometimes you had to have balls and draw a line under a player to start the new era.
Possibly Rashford. But then again, there's no need to sell anyone just for the purpose of "making a statement". We need a better manager who instills a winning ethos. Once that happens, everything else will fall into place.
Sell Rashford, Varane and Martial.
What’s a “winning ethos” and how do you instil it? Because ETH certainly instilled whatever it is at Ajax. I do think we need a new manager but this whole winning mentality stuff was such a hot phrase back in the Jose days and it led to very little as the recruitment, coaching / tactical set up and player development were sub par.
Fergie, Pep, Klopp, even Arteta, have managed it. Whatever ETH is doing clearly isn't working and he seems out of ideas beyond throwing vast sums at players we didn't need and not buying a striker. Ajax seems about his ceiling.
I’m not pining for ETH. It wasn’t clear what you meant by instilling a winning ethos and still isn’t. Based on the above, it appears that you just meant that the manager should “do well” rather than anything specific.
I'd say Sancho.
He is clearly over payed & selling him would be very good business even if Ten Hag gets sacked.
It's near impossible to do so that would make a statement on a business level.
Selling Greenwood would make a more professional maybe even a theological statement.
He is clearly over payed & selling him would be very good business even if Ten Hag gets sacked.
It's near impossible to do so that would make a statement on a business level.
Selling Greenwood would make a more professional maybe even a theological statement.
Making a big statement sale or signing before Wilcox and Ashworth are in place would be a statement that the new owners might not be doing things all that differently to the Glazers and want to get involved and make headlines themselves.
The smartest sales and replace we could do are selling Casemiro, Varane, and Maguire or Lindelof and replacing them with players at least 5 years younger and who can stay fit. But that's logical and should happen.
The smartest sales and replace we could do are selling Casemiro, Varane, and Maguire or Lindelof and replacing them with players at least 5 years younger and who can stay fit. But that's logical and should happen.
Winning Ethos don't manifest out of thin Air you need personnel with Talent to deliver that onfield and things don't fall into place by themselves either you need to put in concerted effort and work towards it continuously .
Ten Hag is bust but that doesn't mean we continue to ignore the fact we really do have some fairly limited players in key positions with limited upside even with more competent coach .
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To be fair to him, De Gea's demands priced him out the market - he could have found a new club pretty quickly if he had lowered them, but yes, the fact nobody wanted to entertain him at the rate he set with him effectively pricing himself out the market, tells its own story.
Lingard is in South Korea getting chastised by the manager of the club he's playing for.
Both cases strengthen the point you're making as they highlight something being out of wack here that we paid them so much for their dwindling services; we've repeated that trick for years now and probably have the most overpaid players - relative to their output - in football.
It's equal and opposite to a marquee signing, isn't it? How is it in any way revelatory when clubs having been doing it for decades? Pogba became the figurehead and whipping boy for Jose and declared everything that was wrong at our club. His sale would have been absolutely huge in terms of a statement and change of direction. Fergie, as @FujiVice stated, was renowned for them and kept order with them to a degree.
Binning off players who have or are considered secure or enmeshed in whatever the fabric of a club is at the time is a huge statement of intent.
This is surely what we will do. Maybe one of McT or Maguire will leave along with all the more obvious ones who simply aren’t being used by us. It’s always going to be a gradual thing with incomings which is sensible. We will probably bring in Tosin on a free, Branthwaite, a midfielder (hopefully 2!) and a backup striker. That’s a much different looking squad then all of a sudden. Eventually we need to go hard on the hunt for Shaws replacement, we can afford to wait until a perfect long term candidate emerges. In regards to selling Rashford or Bruno the new guys are surely going to want to work with our most productive players and see if they can break any new ground. I don’t expect to see too many minds blown this summer.
I’d go with Antony, will show that we’re not putting up with crap no matter how much they cost. We’ll be lucky to get halve the money back though.
Easily Rashford. Highly paid, lazy, shit performances, shit attitude, lots of PR baggage. Would certainly send a statement.
I agree, I feel the same way. I believe the only way Bruno (and Rashford) can play at their best is in a 4-3-1-2 formation (similar to Real Madrid). For that, we need at least 2 more midfielders. Bruno behind Garnacho/Rashford and Hojlund.
This is some weird Ed Woodward thinking... "statement sale"? Deary me
Fully agree with this. Why should we try acting like we're the shit? A better statement would be clearing out the deadwood that we try to do every bloody year but can never seem to purge all at once. Selling 8 - 9 hangers on who have no business here would be more effective for a club of our stature.
Greenwood, Martial and Sancho, for very different reasons, need to be off the books.
For purely footballing reasons, from how we want to play to paying premium wages to players who are seldom fit for selection, you could make a case for any of Rashford, Bruno, McTominay, Casemiro, Varane, Martinez, Shaw and Antony.
The problem is getting a squad capable of consistently controlling games isn't going to happen overnight and the transition period will be extremely ugly if recruitment isn't 100 per cent right away.
If we were a team trying to make that final leap to contenders then selling Bruno, for an upgrade, would probably make more sense. However, I think our problems are deeper than that and there are other areas that need addressed first.
For purely footballing reasons, from how we want to play to paying premium wages to players who are seldom fit for selection, you could make a case for any of Rashford, Bruno, McTominay, Casemiro, Varane, Martinez, Shaw and Antony.
The problem is getting a squad capable of consistently controlling games isn't going to happen overnight and the transition period will be extremely ugly if recruitment isn't 100 per cent right away.
If we were a team trying to make that final leap to contenders then selling Bruno, for an upgrade, would probably make more sense. However, I think our problems are deeper than that and there are other areas that need addressed first.