Why is it so hard for Utd to get transfers done in and out?

croadyman

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Because not got proper football people in place who are capable of negotiating deals, hence why we lost out on Klopp
 

steffyr2

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The constant player bashing in the press can't help. Prospective players have got to notice that it's hot in the Utd kitchen, and maybe they'd rather go to a team like, say, Liverpool that has a whole cadre of buddies in the press.
It's always been that way, but if you're not winning, it's just a bridge too far.
We have to start making the players at Utd look better, as well as the managers and coaches.
 

croadyman

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Decent players do not want to come to a club that has the cancer of the Glazers.
The cancer has to be removed one way or another.

EDIT:
No player wants his carrer destroyed at a club like ours with these scum owning it.
Yeah I would run a mile too
 

ole@thewheel

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Because we have a very archaic structure on the way we approach our club football side management, and our 'business side' dictates all of our decisions.

First of all, we just recently started the division between football 'side' and business 'side' on our club management,especially when it comes to transfers. As we know, our rivals and majority of succesful clubs around Europe have figured that out decades ago. Our business side evidently weights way more for our club hierarchy, as we operate more as coorporate than a sport club, and that hinders and slows down our decision making process when it comes to player decisions.

Secondly, our structure starting from bottom up (scouting) to decision making (manager?) to negotiating (Woodward/Arnold) is clearly not coordinated properly, as it is evident in our transfers last 10 years. There is no unified plan that every gear in the club mechanism is working towards, and when you dont have a plan you can't have a strategy.

Thirdly, we have developed a 'naive rich club' reputation around the sport, which makes our incoming transfers way more difficult and expensive, given other clubs want to milk on that.
 

steffyr2

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Decent players do not want to come to a club that has the cancer of the Glazers.
The cancer has to be removed one way or another.

EDIT:
No player wants his carrer destroyed at a club like ours with these scum owning it.
You're bonkers, and I assume you meant "career". Manchester United is a well-run, very wealthy, very well known club. Who would care who the owner is? (Maybe if your owners are the Saudis? But I'm not even sure that would matter to most players.)
Perhaps the Glazers should fire all the people who actually run the club, then start over? But that's a different story -- plus MUST et al would squeal like stuck pigs if that happened.
 

croadyman

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Because we have a very archaic structure on the way we approach our club football side management, and our 'business side' weights heavily in all of our decisions.

First of all, we just recently started the division between football 'side' and business 'side' on our club management,especially when it comes to transfers. As we know, our rivals and majority of succesful clubs around Europe have figured that out decades ago. Our business side evidently weights way more for our club hierarchy, as we operate more as coorporate than a sport club, and that hinders and slows down our decision making process when it comes to player decisions.

Secondly, our structure starting from bottom up (scouting) to decision making (manager?) to negotiating (Woodward/Arnold) is clearly not coordinated properly, as it is evident in our transfers last 10 years. There is no unified plan that every gear in the club mechanism is working towards, and when you dont have a plan you can't have a strategy.

Thirdly, we have developed a 'naive rich club' reputation around the sport, which makes our incoming transfers way more difficult and expensive, given other clubs want to milk on that.
We have a medieval structure and it's exactly why we missed out on Guardiola due to not being willing to accommodate Barca backroom staff, Klopp due to how the place is run by Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck
 

fergiewherearethou

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For a number of reasons:

- People in charge of transfers are incompetent
- There is no coherent vision of what we want to achieve in the transfer market and there is no correlation between what the manager actually wants/needs and what Man Utd football culture is all about
- Our stature as a top club has declined drastically for the last 9 years (no major trophies, missing out on CL a couple of times)
- I also believe our transfer budget got reduced because we have spent a lot in the last few years, we are one of the biggest spenders around Europe with one of the biggest salaries but nothing to show for on the pitch
- Competition for the top players is huge, there are always 7-8 clubs ready to make a move for a player at any time
 

Jeppers7

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I don’t think there is the appetite at board level to get a transfer done. The appetite is to get the best value for the deal, however long it takes.
 

Red Dreams

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You're bonkers, and I assume you meant "career". Manchester United is a well-run, very wealthy, very well known club. Who would care who the owner is? (Maybe if your owners are the Saudis? But I'm not even sure that would matter to most players.)
Perhaps the Glazers should fire all the people who actually run the club, then start over? But that's a different story -- plus MUST et al would squeal like stuck pigs if that happened.
:lol:

You mean as a business that benefits the owners right?
 

Oldtraffordboy

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All starts from the top and having no strategy and knowledge of how to run a club.

Everything spirals from there and has a domino effect.
Before you don't know what you're doing or why you're doing it, because there is no plan to link it back to.
 

steffyr2

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:lol:

You mean as a business that benefits the owners right?
Is there some universe where clubs don't benefit the owners?

All starts from the top and having no strategy and knowledge of how to run a club.

Everything spirals from there and has a domino effect.
Before you don't know what you're doing or why you're doing it, because there is no plan to link it back to.
I prefer the "jobs for the boys" theory of mismanagement. This theory is based on the fact that people (like Fletcher) keep popping up in positions that a) didn't exist before, and b) they don't have obvious experience at.
BTW, till yesterday, people said Arnold and Murtaugh DID have some knowledge and experience...I guess that was overstated?
 
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redIndianDevil

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Decent players do not want to come to a club that has the cancer of the Glazers.
The cancer has to be removed one way or another.

EDIT:
No player wants his carrer destroyed at a club like ours with these scum owning it.
I dont like the Glazers but this is far too much. They are only idiots for appointing poor people to run the club.
 

redIndianDevil

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1. Blind devotion to managers.
2. Favouritism in giving out important jobs.
3. No idea how to run a club. Usually when someone like SAF leaves an organization, its essential to cull all of the people from previous and starting from scratch. And that involves freezing out SAF and his acolytes too. A clean slate is what is wanted.
 

redIndianDevil

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I don’t think there is the appetite at board level to get a transfer done. The appetite is to get the best value for the deal, however long it takes.
No we have agreed fee a long time ago. What should happen is Murtough and Arnold telling EtH to accept alternate midfield signings or get the feck out.
 

Brophs

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Time difference, apparently. Holy God.

 

Josep Dowling

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You give a 33 year old a 3 year contract, probably on double what he earned in annual salary during his career, and see how easy it is to shift him when he’s surplus to requirements at 35.

The club hasn’t changed at all. It can’t be difficult for them to find out market rate of salaries. Every single player at our club could have their wages halved right now and they still would be on above average wages for their quality. That’s how overinflated these salaries are.
 

Sylar

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Am I right in thinking the window has been open for 2 months? (June?)
And ETH joined in April.
So even if ETH is reviewing United for the first time, you would think it wouldnt need more than two months to review the players from previous seasons, trends, reports, and training. And then deciding where it needs to improve.

Its a shambles whichever way we look at it. I probably would have been better thinking were not going for scraps but instead because our primary targets are not yet possible, we will look to pursue it (even if it takes longer - eg how Liverpool waited a window before getting VVD)

We havent changed from what it looks like, and yes we should review when the window closes (september which is almost a month away), but the league has actually started. We should have the bulk of our transfers done by now and looking to add maybe one or two at most.
I try to stay positive, but this all seems desperation and more cheap / free signings to fill out a squad with more aging players and then possible contracts we will struggle to end and thus keeping them around for longer than we should.

Have any signings from big teams like Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Juve ever worked out for us?
Its astonishing weve gone away from getting that level below player who needs the platform to step up, whether its in the league or from abroad.
 

Big Ben Foster

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Time difference, apparently. Holy God.

Remember hearing something similar last season, that a lot of important decisions kept getting held up because approval was needed from the owners in Florida.
 

Big Ben Foster

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Am I right in thinking the window has been open for 2 months? (June?)
And ETH joined in April.
So even if ETH is reviewing United for the first time, you would think it wouldnt need more than two months to review the players from previous seasons, trends, reports, and training. And then deciding where it needs to improve.
Even then we would've been left behind most other clubs. Realistically, the bulk of our transfer activity should be 90% done by March or April.
 

Red Dreams

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Is there some universe where clubs don't benefit the owners?
Tell me. Are you new to supporting Manchester United?
A proper football board reinvests most of its earning into the club.
Of course they do not expect to lose money.
If there is a profit it is aside from the goal of producing a winning team.
Have you seen the state of Old Trafford?
 

Red Dreams

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I dont like the Glazers but this is far too much. They are only idiots for appointing poor people to run the club.
Really?

They are not idiots in their goal which is to profit from the club without having any knowledge of the game. Which is why they made stupid appointments and stupid transfer decisions in as far as football is concerned. They have not spent a single penny on the club.
They loaded it with a huge debt when it was debt free.
They make sure to take out their dividends.

After the monumental debacle of the last season they appointed a top manager but set him up to fail by not backing him in his transfers.
The glazers are toxic. That is why ten Hag has primarily gone for players he has worked with. They trust him not the Glazers. The club has been soiled by them.

So I stand by what I said about them.

Get rid.
 

Spark

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Football is all about networking and having connections with all the clubs, something that Gill was utterly fantastic at (as was Kenyon, which massively helped Chelsea).

My hunch is that our owners clear lethargy towards anything United related - whether it's repairing the stadium, having a proper management structure in place or actually speaking about the club ever - extends to building contacts with other clubs.

A very recent example, Boehly hosts a dinner for all other 19 prem clubs in July. Immediately taps up Brighton for Cucurella, as well as getting in that kid from Villa who's supposed to be amazing. Pretty proactive of Chelsea.

We are shit top to bottom, simply a fact.
 

DiceRoller

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We need to realize that we are at this point where Liverpool was when Klopp came in.
For the record, we are absolutely nowhere near when Klopp came in. There’s a well known story about how the data science team at Liverpool explained to Klopp how unlucky he’d been in his last season at Dortmund when he arrived at Liverpool as they’d done a full statistical analysis on it.

At that point Klopp realized how good the DS team and scouting structure Liverpool had in place.
And you’ve seen it play out in the brilliant transfers they’ve made.

We are utterly a million miles away. Don’t for one second fool yourself into thinking us now is a similar situation to Klopp arriving at Liverpool.
 

Denis79

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Selling players is hard for us because we give them way too high wages, way above their talent. Why it's hard getting players in is a mystery to me though.
 

Von Mistelroum

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This summer it's because clubs know that:

We're desperate.

We're run by amateurs who will pay over the odds / accept terrible terms for our overpaid players.

And players know that:

We're desperate.

We're very poorly run and the owners won't be changing, so that will continue indefinitely thus practically guaranteeing failure.

Players get worse playing here.

There are much better options that are far less likely to end in their careers taking a nosedive, and far more likely to end in them winning trophies.
 

redIndianDevil

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Really?

They are not idiots in their goal which is to profit from the club without having any knowledge of the game. Which is why they made stupid appointments and stupid transfer decisions in as far as football is concerned. They have not spent a single penny on the club.
They loaded it with a huge debt when it was debt free.
They make sure to take out their dividends.

After the monumental debacle of the last season they appointed a top manager but set him up to fail by not backing him in his transfers.
The glazers are toxic. That is why ten Hag has primarily gone for players he has worked with. They trust him not the Glazers. The club has been soiled by them.

So I stand by what I said about them.

Get rid.
What a bunch of crap.
Your problem is with capitalism as a whole which is what led to our leveraged takeover and our fans crying about majority shareholder taking dividends is laughable. I’m sure you all invest in stocks and get back dividends.

I didn’t like that the Glazers saddled the club with debt but that’s what rich people do all over the developed world. They use all the loopholes to get rich when common people like you and me struggle for everything.

The Glazers absolutely believed in SAF and let him pick the next manager. They backed Mourinho to the hilt maybe not to the level of Arab Princes but they did spend money. They are not running the club like Mike Ashley or those Blackpool owners. They are not passionate like Abramovich but they are decent in spending when needed. My only problem with them is not appointing people who know how to run a football club. That’s on them. They should have thoroughly researched on how clubs like Bayern operate and tried to emulate them by hiring competent people. Instead they have depended on dumb idiots and yes men to run the club this disastrously.
 

RedOrange

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It seems like the scouting department is either out of their depth or just not listened to, so this maybe a moot point, nevertheless:

The way to avoid being fleeced when buying players is to identify a need, develop a short list of players for that position and then enquire about purchasing all three, preferably before the transfer window even starts. This way the selling club and agents have les leverage over their respective fees, and you're more likely to end up filling the vacancy with an adequate player.

What has typically happened is that Woodward/Murtough publicly announce their intention to buy a particular high profile player from a club with a similar profile in European football sometime in June, and leak to journalists that they're not interested in anyone else.
 
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Red Dreams

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What a bunch of crap.
Your problem is with capitalism as a whole which is what led to our leveraged takeover and our fans crying about majority shareholder taking dividends is laughable. I’m sure you all invest in stocks and get back dividends.

I didn’t like that the Glazers saddled the club with debt but that’s what rich people do all over the developed world. They use all the loopholes to get rich when common people like you and me struggle for everything.

The Glazers absolutely believed in SAF and let him pick the next manager. They backed Mourinho to the hilt maybe not to the level of Arab Princes but they did spend money. They are not running the club like Mike Ashley or those Blackpool owners. They are not passionate like Abramovich but they are decent in spending when needed. My only problem with them is not appointing people who know how to run a football club. That’s on them. They should have thoroughly researched on how clubs like Bayern operate and tried to emulate them by hiring competent people. Instead they have depended on dumb idiots and yes men to run the club this disastrously.
You understand nothing.

Read post #192 which was actually posted by hp88.