And will return after the transfer window has closed.
I do remember last season when Jose was moaning about the lack of transfer activity - he suggested that Woodward was on holiday, which he may as well have been.
Why has nothing happened yet? | Things are now happening
- Thread starter Dr Fink
- Start date
I do remember last season when Jose was moaning about the lack of transfer activity - he suggested that Woodward was on holiday, which he may as well have been.
Added to that we've been only seriously linked with quite average players like Maddison, James, etc, this adds to the panic to be honest.
Something else that adds to the panic is Jose not being backed last summer and Ole recently coming out and saying : we're going after young "manchester united" players. I'm afraid that can be translated into "i'm not being backed or we don't really have the money".
On the positive side, there are only two situations here, the one that we've negatively discussed above and the normal one in which we're working on transfers. One of them will unfold before July the 1st and we'll see where we stand.
Youth International Tournaments occurring right now. Then the senior internationals. It's just a pretty shit time to do business right now as most players are focused on internationals.
Think we're all annoyed about the lack of DoF that should have been done months ago, no matter its structure. Lots of talk of having a committee but has it been finalised yet?
Think we're all annoyed about the lack of DoF that should have been done months ago, no matter its structure. Lots of talk of having a committee but has it been finalised yet?
RB?
We have Ashley Young who will play most of the matches and we will gradually let Dalot take over that spot.
I think that a lot of you are going to be disappointed if you think that we are going to make many signings. We are fighting for 4th place and will do so by spending as little as possible. That's Woodward's aim - to make the club as much money as possible.
Why?
Because Glazers don't want to pour in money into a club which will be sold to Saudis next year.
......I'll get my coat
Because Glazers don't want to pour in money into a club which will be sold to Saudis next year.
......I'll get my coat
Keep telling that to yourself.
I remember when we were in for Lukaku or Morata.
Morata was our priority and negotiations were under way while Morata was on his honeymoon.
Madrid messed us around too much on a transfer fee and we bought Lukaku because Everton were straight-forward.
To summarise, deals happen while players/agents are on holidays.
The excuse of "deals won't be done during holidays" is used when Woodward doesn't want to spend money (Summer 2018) or is completely incompetent at making a deal (Summer 2013, when we bought Fellaini for above his release clause, at the last minute).
I remember the days when it would take us months to prepare a bid, while Liverpool prepare the bid, submit it and complete the signing of a player in a single day (Fabinho).
In truth, you probably would be.
I said when we bought Moyes in that Woody will base his model around Arsenal, finish 4th every season or better and you make just as much money as the other top 3 clubs. Can't see that going on for too long though, as soon as the sponsors start drying up the glazers sell up Woody will get he's P45
Incompetence and the fact our owners don't care.
We need like 5 players after doing nothing last season.
We won't get them. Our board just doesn't care.
We need like 5 players after doing nothing last season.
We won't get them. Our board just doesn't care.
Can't help thinking about LVGs interview and then Ed's own bold claim:
LVG: "I thought Manchester United could buy every player"
Ed: "We can do things in the transfer market that only other clubs can dream of. Watch this space"
LVG: "I thought Manchester United could buy every player"
Ed: "We can do things in the transfer market that only other clubs can dream of. Watch this space"
And the cycle continues.....
Thread designed to attract negativity is opened.
Negativity is attracted and a series of negative/whiny posts are posted.
This continues ad nauseum till another similar thread is opened and the exact same occurs over and over again.
I think an area within the site should be opened ‘WhineFest2019’ where all these can go.
Anybody putting them anywhere else should be banned.
Everybody needs a place to vent, a moan I more than agree. But in the end it changes nothing and just causes more negativity. Maybe just maybe we should try being a bit more positive, who knows we may inspire it in others..
I love you Ashley Young, you may suck a bit but you try
Thread designed to attract negativity is opened.
Negativity is attracted and a series of negative/whiny posts are posted.
This continues ad nauseum till another similar thread is opened and the exact same occurs over and over again.
I think an area within the site should be opened ‘WhineFest2019’ where all these can go.
Anybody putting them anywhere else should be banned.
Everybody needs a place to vent, a moan I more than agree. But in the end it changes nothing and just causes more negativity. Maybe just maybe we should try being a bit more positive, who knows we may inspire it in others..
I love you Ashley Young, you may suck a bit but you try
That never happened so it's quite amazing that you remember that, Fabinho said that he was in contact with them weeks before the move.
This really.
Newcomers especially need the preseason to integrate into the team before the season starts. No time to fanny about in the market.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same as usual, however. And it would, again, illustrate a big reason why we are stuck where we are.
Many of you are missing the point. The media know nothing, we all read the stories every day, we all get taken in by it, but the reality is this is just speculation, and because nothing concrete is happening we get vexed. The Portugese papers in particular are posting rubbish daily.
The worrying thing for me is the lack of effective scouting, we cannot spot potential and when we eventually do show interest, the price is inflated and the whole world wants to sign them as well.I actually think our scouting system is that poor that Ed relies on agents and media highlights to drive up our interest. I am sure this was how we ended up with Fred. Why didnt we get De Ligt 12 months ago we all knew about him and his potential, we saw how good Ziyech was when he played against us for Ajax and in lead up to that final. Maguire at Hull is another example as is Maddison at Norwich, Van Dijk at Celtic, Koulibaily after his first season at Napoli, the list goes on. These are all players we could have signed.
Our scouting is a big problem IMHO.
The worrying thing for me is the lack of effective scouting, we cannot spot potential and when we eventually do show interest, the price is inflated and the whole world wants to sign them as well.I actually think our scouting system is that poor that Ed relies on agents and media highlights to drive up our interest. I am sure this was how we ended up with Fred. Why didnt we get De Ligt 12 months ago we all knew about him and his potential, we saw how good Ziyech was when he played against us for Ajax and in lead up to that final. Maguire at Hull is another example as is Maddison at Norwich, Van Dijk at Celtic, Koulibaily after his first season at Napoli, the list goes on. These are all players we could have signed.
Our scouting is a big problem IMHO.
I know signings get people excited, but it would also be nice to start hearing about some of our players being moved on as well. We have some real dross clogging up our squad and so far all we have lost is our retiring club captain and probably our second best midfielder.
Even if the club had competence and intent I wouldn’t have expected lots to have happened by now or everything to be done before we start pre season.
It’s the same people running the show so I can’t see it being any different but at this point it’s not a crisis we haven’t signed anyone yet.
It’s the same people running the show so I can’t see it being any different but at this point it’s not a crisis we haven’t signed anyone yet.
Normally I’d agree, or I do agree, but looking back at the last few years I can understand fans feeling uneasy. I mean, rationally I know it’s way too early to panick, but I really am restless about the situation
Why didn't Liverpool buy VVD from Celtic or better yet Groningen and save themselves the fee they paid? Its because its one thing to spot talent its a whole other thing to take a risk on bringing that talent through the ranks to being a world class player. VVD would have had minimal game time at Liverpool and potentially would have developed differently. Playing for and proving himself at smaller teams built character and Liverpool were paying world record fees for a proven leader instead of someone who might become world class under the right conditions. Same with all other players you mentioned, they showed promise but no one else thought to buy De Ligt 12 months ago either.
Especially in our current state we need closer to the finished product if we want to get back to the top of the league.
Commercially they will lose a lot more money if we don't make CL next season, so it's in their interest to invest.
A lot of the players the club targets are playing international games, and the club won't do any deals until they know the player has not injured himself. A lot of signings will happen late June I predict.
We should expect Daniel James to sign very soon, he'd probably already be confirmed if not for the sad passing of his father.
Outside of that, many of the players we're targeting are very very hard to get, Sancho wants to play CL next season, Felix has a 120M euro buyout clause and is also targeted by City, koubaily won't be sold unless 150M Euro are put on the table pr. the Napoli president, De Ligt is undecided, but a longshot, James Maddison is rumoured, but at 60million but Leicester has no reason to sell. Wan-Bissaka is valued at fantasy money by Crystal Palace who also have no reason to sell and so the list goes on.
The transfer market is incredibly hard when you cant offer Champions League, and your two biggest stars are causing internal issues (DDG not signing a contract, Pogba openly flirting with other clubs) on top of targeting players in clubs that has no financial motivation to sell their players unless fantasy money come on the table.
Some of you are being outright incredibly unfair when you criticise the club for lacking ambition. Blame the players that landed us outside of top4 and made the job that much harder, not the club that now has to go out in the world and spend top dollar to simply outbid the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City for players (Bruno Fernandes for example) since we cant offer the same international competition.
Fact of the matter is that we: A) Don't actually know whats going on. Handshake deals can have already been made for several players or discussions are well unnderway and about to be finalized pending the nationals. B) Players are on holiday and might want to spend some days making a relatively big decision about their future. C) It's never been as simple as "Lets just buy this guy" D) There are barely any players being signed at the moment anyway, what's your hurry?
We should expect Daniel James to sign very soon, he'd probably already be confirmed if not for the sad passing of his father.
Outside of that, many of the players we're targeting are very very hard to get, Sancho wants to play CL next season, Felix has a 120M euro buyout clause and is also targeted by City, koubaily won't be sold unless 150M Euro are put on the table pr. the Napoli president, De Ligt is undecided, but a longshot, James Maddison is rumoured, but at 60million but Leicester has no reason to sell. Wan-Bissaka is valued at fantasy money by Crystal Palace who also have no reason to sell and so the list goes on.
The transfer market is incredibly hard when you cant offer Champions League, and your two biggest stars are causing internal issues (DDG not signing a contract, Pogba openly flirting with other clubs) on top of targeting players in clubs that has no financial motivation to sell their players unless fantasy money come on the table.
Some of you are being outright incredibly unfair when you criticise the club for lacking ambition. Blame the players that landed us outside of top4 and made the job that much harder, not the club that now has to go out in the world and spend top dollar to simply outbid the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City for players (Bruno Fernandes for example) since we cant offer the same international competition.
Fact of the matter is that we: A) Don't actually know whats going on. Handshake deals can have already been made for several players or discussions are well unnderway and about to be finalized pending the nationals. B) Players are on holiday and might want to spend some days making a relatively big decision about their future. C) It's never been as simple as "Lets just buy this guy" D) There are barely any players being signed at the moment anyway, what's your hurry?
Considering we want to have the bulk of the changes done by start of pre season (makes sense), and considering we knew we would have to make a feck ton of changes for about half a year now, it really doesn't look well. I'm rarely one to be annoyed at a lack of transfers early on in a window.... but look at Real Madrid. We're in a worse state then them, we knew how much shit we had to do for ages now, theres no excuse to not have some things sorted out. You always assume that the management aren't totally inept and actually do negotiations well in advance of the window, but sometimes I really get the feeling that we only start our negotiations once the season is over by which time we are already too late for some players, while we dither on others.
There are 5 starting 11 players that we all know we need, if nobody else leaves. That's half of our starting 11. Not having a single one of those sorted out (or seemingly close to it) a week into June, when the window ends early these days, and when we know we wanted to sort it all out all the known issues in time for pre-season (so not counting the replacements if Pogba/lukaku/de gea leave)... it just reeks of incompetence. Always felt that you should know your problem positions well in advance and you should start your negotiations for those positions well in advance, and those positions should get sorted out quickly enough and early in the window (like Real Madrid have done). The things that take longer or if you go til the end of the window should be simply the issues that pop up half way through the summer or things that you didnt expect.
So given all that, I really would expect us to have 4 big signings in (and most of the outgoings sorted) by the end of the month or very early into July. Not holding my breath though.
There are 5 starting 11 players that we all know we need, if nobody else leaves. That's half of our starting 11. Not having a single one of those sorted out (or seemingly close to it) a week into June, when the window ends early these days, and when we know we wanted to sort it all out all the known issues in time for pre-season (so not counting the replacements if Pogba/lukaku/de gea leave)... it just reeks of incompetence. Always felt that you should know your problem positions well in advance and you should start your negotiations for those positions well in advance, and those positions should get sorted out quickly enough and early in the window (like Real Madrid have done). The things that take longer or if you go til the end of the window should be simply the issues that pop up half way through the summer or things that you didnt expect.
So given all that, I really would expect us to have 4 big signings in (and most of the outgoings sorted) by the end of the month or very early into July. Not holding my breath though.
Well that was not my intention. I wanted to know if anyone had any ideas as to why nothing has happened so far. Yep, it's attracted some negativity. It was actually a genuine set of questions to be honest. I thought I wasn't "in the know".
It's not the end of the world but the trajectory of what we've heard thus far is catastrophic. Every player that the club targeted from clearly briefing the media has more or less publicly stated being happy at their respective clubs.
It doesn't mean we cannot sign them but it feels like we are going to have a transfer full of plan B signings. Which is telling because we need key players for key positions.
It doesn't mean we cannot sign them but it feels like we are going to have a transfer full of plan B signings. Which is telling because we need key players for key positions.
This is the strangest summer now... last year was weird but this one is even more weird. I thought we would just want to pay up, agree contracts, get ready, and go. But no...
Because we are the worst run club around.
Because we pay extortionate salaries to absolute garbage players, who are now very hard to sell.
Because we are out of CL more often than not.
Because we have a manager who's not fit for the job.
Because we have no ambition.
Because we have no structure/roadmap on where we want to be.
Because we have owners who have no interest in football matters.
Because we have a CEO who clearly suffers from narcissism and can't admit he's unfit to run the club and step away.
I could go on and on.
Because we pay extortionate salaries to absolute garbage players, who are now very hard to sell.
Because we are out of CL more often than not.
Because we have a manager who's not fit for the job.
Because we have no ambition.
Because we have no structure/roadmap on where we want to be.
Because we have owners who have no interest in football matters.
Because we have a CEO who clearly suffers from narcissism and can't admit he's unfit to run the club and step away.
I could go on and on.
Answer:
1) monitoring situation
2) preparing offer
3) showing interest
4) it is only June
Just pick one
1) monitoring situation
2) preparing offer
3) showing interest
4) it is only June
Just pick one
Sadly this is what I believe as well. We're in such a mess.
If nothing starts happening by next weekend at the latest then I'll start to worry. The Nations League and other International games are coming up soon so all players focus will be on those first, then maybe (I hope) we'll start signing players and letting players go as needed.
I expected a few statement of intent signings to be announced as soon as the window opened.
I expected us to get our managerial appointment right too and look how that’s gone...
I expected us to get our managerial appointment right too and look how that’s gone...
It's happening. We already signed Hayley Ladd!
I hope nobody mentions that the Copa America(14/06 - 17/07) and African Cup of Nations(21/06 - 19/07) where a lot of our supposed targets will play start shortly, or one or two posters will get themselves proper worked up.
I expect everyone who is saying g Just fecking sign them!!! Would be very satisfied if we just signed AWB for 80million because that's what palace asked for and the fans just want him fecking signed!! Thought not.
'No news is good news', isn't that what they say? I suspect they are all taking their holidays just now!
That's why Mourinho came in and did an immediate overhaul of our scouting system. We upped it to 50 scouts globally if I'm not mistaken.
Also big teams don't always take big risks on talent, they buy ready made or top potential youngsters, which De Ligt now is. Look at Renato Sanches we nearly signed him, but Bayern pipped us and now it seems we dodge a bullet even thou he seemed like a world beater.
Buying ready made or nearly there provides less risks. But I totally understand your points and I have asked myself even with VVD why we didn't sign him as he was on full radar.
United needs a overhaul upstairs. We need a structure in play asap, similar to that of Bayern M. Football men with experience running the club as G Neville says the best of the best in every position on and off the pitch.
Come on you know this thread will attract negativity. No one knows why deals haven’t been done, it’s just another bash Man United thread to go along with the others...
It's the new Manchester United way.
Get used to it. It's not changing anytime soon under this administration. This transfer window we will end up buying no hopers for huge fees on long contracts. Nobody of any great talent wants to come here and play for the ragtag team we will be putting out (again) The best anyone can hope for next season is finishing above the relegation zone, value of club falling and being bought out by oil rich sheiks from wherever (Saudi Arabia???) or Glazers losing interest. New board as well as new owners with an actual plan and then we can start planning all over again.
Does anyone believe that just a change of manager would change anything? No manager would be able to turn this club around without a massive clear out of the team, the board (especially) and the owners. It has taken seven years to get into this position, possibly even longer, and will take at least the same to get us back to challenging for major honours without restructuring and better finances being available to spend on the team rather than paying off debts.
Keep hoping, keep supporting Utd, not buying merchandise. We have been here before but finances were totally different then and it took us ages to get back to winning titles rather than occasional cups.
Does anyone believe that just a change of manager would change anything? No manager would be able to turn this club around without a massive clear out of the team, the board (especially) and the owners. It has taken seven years to get into this position, possibly even longer, and will take at least the same to get us back to challenging for major honours without restructuring and better finances being available to spend on the team rather than paying off debts.
Keep hoping, keep supporting Utd, not buying merchandise. We have been here before but finances were totally different then and it took us ages to get back to winning titles rather than occasional cups.
You will panic then
To be fair, the club only spends about 25 million pounds a year servicing the debt.