Wot, no LB? (2026)

[Redlyn]

We hopefully get a decent LB and DM then the summer would have been alright. Right now barely any improvement on last season after losing casemiro and ugarte injured.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

Come on guys we just signed Orozco!!

 

[Artimities]

I am not a fan of Spence, and I’m an American. Robinson any day of the week would be my preference.

 

[astracrazy]

It's about £45m right now.

Behind the likes of Everton, Ipswich, Brentford, Bournemouth, Coventry, Spurs and of course all of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and City.

You think this isn't about money, but actually we have just fecked up every target we had?

 

[windycityfan]

Yeah, I still think we will spend another 80m on spence/Robinson and Adams/Berge so will end up £130m net

On Spence, where are these links coming from? Hadn’t heard anything about him until today.

That aside, how good is he? (he did stand out vs Argentina). He’s blocked by Mickey Van de Ven isn’t he?

 

[sp_cgb]

You think this isn't about money, but actually we have just fecked up every target we had?

Like I said in the other thread; just go and get Hall at this point. Even if we overpay at £70m+ that should still be within our budget, considering we saved money on midfielders, and it takes some weight off next summer as well, when he won't be much cheaper either. After that maybe try for Berge, if the price is actually below £40m.

Napkin math says £70m Hall, £35m Berge. £150m net as usual. That would still be an alright window overall.

 

[P-Nut]

This thread has almost doubled in size just today. Itchy feet are starting

 

[sincher]

Like I said in the other thread; just go and get Hall at this point. Even if we overpay at £70m+ that should still be within our budget, considering we saved money on midfielders, and it takes some weight off next summer as well, when he won't be much cheaper either. After that maybe try for Berge, if the price is actually below £40m.

Napkin math says £70m Hall, £35m Berge. £150m net as usual. That would still be an alright window overall.

I feel like we can do better with £105m than that. That's if we are able and willing to spend it, which I doubt.

 

[The White Pele]

Worth remembering that this time last season we had 2 critical positions (striker and GK) that we absolutely had to recruit for and still hadn’t done so. In fact, in recent history we have quite often been in that position at this point and found ourselves backed into a corner and having to pay big money for players we’re not completely sure on.

I don’t really feel like that at all this time around. We obviously still have some areas that require improvement but in terms of a starting XI I think we have all positions at a good level with decent depth in most places.

My biggest concern would be left-back as I don’t fancy Shaw to play twice a week and Dorgu is a bit of an unknown quantity still under Carrick.

A physical DM would ideally be added and another option in attack to hopefully replace an outgoing. I’m by no means panicked by this situation though as I think the club have shown they are able to pivot quickly to alternative targets so I expect them to do so.

It also helps that we (touchwood) have a bit of a gentler start to the PL campaign and with almost a fully fit squad we should be in a good place to get a couple of wins. That will ease the pressure a bit on the incomings that hopefully come in during the final weeks of the window.

The other thing is that while we have a good XI we lack any real world class individuals (maybe Bruno aside). So I think we should be prepared to react to any situation that may arise should a top player become available, regardless of what position that is. Our relatively low net spend should hopefully allow for that.

 

[ron86]

On Spence, where are these links coming from? Hadn’t heard anything about him until today.

That aside, how good is he? (he did stand out vs Argentina). He’s blocked by Mickey Van de Ven isn’t he?

I don't really rate him, been through a lot of clubs, struggled at Spurs, was poor for most of the world Cup but played well last couple fo games. Which much rather Robinson but he's not a long term answer

 

[CM]

This thread has almost doubled in size just today. Itchy feet are starting

We do need two or three more players in but I don't really feel the same urgency as some previous transfer windows. Maybe having a coach who doesn't set up like a lunatic and two newly promoted sides in our first two fixtures has contributed to that feeling.

It might be wishful thinking, but I'd like to believe it's because we're taking a patient approach and waiting for the right dominoes to fall before making moves later in the window. Our net spend is really low so we should have the capacity to go back in if the right players become available. There are also risks if that doesn't work out, but I find it hard to believe we don't have the intention to sign anyone else this window.

 

[Rooney1987]

This thread has almost doubled in size just today. Itchy feet are starting

Ever since Athletic deal sheet came out few days ago its been downhill ever since. Then the Mount 4th CM stories, we might to pick how we spend out funds story and then we can't afford Hall.

I've still confident we'll get some more in but can't lie and say Im not a little worried. Probably been spending too much time in here.

 

[BluesJr]

Market is generally a bit quiet and there’s still plenty time.

 

[ForeverRed1]

Market is generally a bit quiet and there’s still plenty time.

Our season kicks off in 15 days, that’s not plenty of time at all.

You would have hoped they’d get some form of pre-season integration.

 

[WYVERNUNITED99]

Reading some rumors about kaua Elias. Any good sources or information?

 

[P-Nut]

Our season kicks off in 15 days, that’s not plenty of time at all.

You would have hoped they’d get some form of pre-season integration.

I'd rather wait and get the better player, than go early and get an inferior one just so they have pre-season

 

[JustOneMoreRebuild]

We qualified for the Champions League, so I don't expect us to spend much. The goal isn't to win trophies; it's to qualify for the Champions League. This isn't a football driven club, it's a business. The objective is to make as much money as possible from it.

Winning the Premier League or the Champions League would require significant investment, and even then, there's no guarantee of success. The Glazers and INEOS seem to want to spend just enough to secure Champions League qualification. That way, revenues remain high, and the club retains its commercial appeal, since Manchester United is already one of the biggest sports brands in the world.

Anyone expecting us to spend heavily this season in an attempt to close the gap at the top is relying more on hope than on the evidence. We only spend big when we're trying to recover from a crisis. Finishing without trophies isn't viewed as a crisis as long as we qualify for the Champions League.

There's no urgency to invest because the objective isn't to win titles. Everyone on the board and in management can talk about "bringing the club back to where it belongs" or "competing for trophies, as Manchester United always should," but those are just empty words. Ambition isn't reflected in the decisions that actually matter. Time and time again, the club's actions have shown that it isn't truly serious about consistently competing for the biggest trophies.

Average transfer spending since 2013:
Without Champions League qualification: ~£176m
With Champions League qualification: ~£124m

 

[Womp]

I'd rather wait and get the better player, than go early and get an inferior one just so they have pre-season

We've spent all summer giving up on our first choice targets, so who are these 'better players'?

 

[Dominos]

Every summer it's funny to watch the same progression.

First it's calm down, the window hasn't even opened yet.
Then it's calm down, the lads aren't even back in training yet.
Calm down, the pre-season games haven't even started yet.
Calm down, the league games haven't even started yet.
Calm down, the window hasn't closed yet.

We're in the "the league hasn't even started yet" phase.

Soon to be "the window hasn't closed yet" phase when the league games start and we still have several signings needed.

 

[Dominos]

We qualified for the Champions League, so I don't expect us to spend much. The goal isn't to win trophies; it's to qualify for the Champions League. This isn't a football driven club, it's a business. The objective is to make as much money as possible from it.

The problem with this logic is we keep finishing outside the champions league spots after getting back in, and it will happen again if we don't invest seriously.

If their business model is to reliably get CL football every year but never win the league, this wouldn't even be a good strategy.

 

[AkaAkuma]

Market is generally a bit quiet and there’s still plenty time.

Looking at our rivals they are as slow as we are making moves and they have more visible holes in there squad.

Arsenal
They have solid depth across the team, but are facing first team fitness issues. They also desperately needed Vini to inject and sustain their progress.

City
If they lose Rodri the begin to look like a collection of players rather than peps cohesive team. They also have problems with depth as many of those players like Gonzalez and Marmoush havent been trusted.

Liverpool
Lack a reliable defense, plus depth there
Lack reliable attack and depth
Lack midfield depth

Chelsea
They’ve been the best in terms of transfers. Lacroix and Rogers go straight into thr first team. They need the squad and manager to gel. Whilst they have depth it looks like a significant drop from first team Henderson for Caicedo , Tosin for Colwill etc

Villa
New inexperienced first team players and very little squad depth.

Spurs
They have improved the first 11. But are really lacking in attack. The drop off to bench quality also means they probably need to adapt tactically if there are injuries

 

[CasaStreets]

It's about £45m right now.

Behind the likes of Everton, Ipswich, Brentford, Bournemouth, Coventry, Spurs and of course all of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and City.

Yea though that’s generous, it’s only 44M if you count the full transfer value of Santos and Thompson, including all add-ons. More like 38M if you only include guaranteed fees.

I suspect we’ll be fairly active over the next few weeks

 

[irishguy]

We qualified for the Champions League, so I don't expect us to spend much. The goal isn't to win trophies; it's to qualify for the Champions League. This isn't a football driven club, it's a business. The objective is to make as much money as possible from it.

Winning the Premier League or the Champions League would require significant investment, and even then, there's no guarantee of success. The Glazers and INEOS seem to want to spend just enough to secure Champions League qualification. That way, revenues remain high, and the club retains its commercial appeal, since Manchester United is already one of the biggest sports brands in the world.

Anyone expecting us to spend heavily this season in an attempt to close the gap at the top is relying more on hope than on the evidence. We only spend big when we're trying to recover from a crisis. Finishing without trophies isn't viewed as a crisis as long as we qualify for the Champions League.

There's no urgency to invest because the objective isn't to win titles. Everyone on the board and in management can talk about "bringing the club back to where it belongs" or "competing for trophies, as Manchester United always should," but those are just empty words. Ambition isn't reflected in the decisions that actually matter. Time and time again, the club's actions have shown that it isn't truly serious about consistently competing for the biggest trophies.

Average transfer spending since 2013:
Without Champions League qualification: ~£176m
With Champions League qualification: ~£124m

Well said. Exactly this.

 

[Dominos]

I'd rather wait and get the better player, than go early and get an inferior one just so they have pre-season

We've spent all summer giving up on our first choice targets, so who are these 'better players'?

This is the mental gymnastics fans play to convince themselves we're competent. They'll conjecture that the players we sign late in the window could not possibly have been signed earlier in the window, for reasons that will never be explained.


The latest set of PR spin I've seen is the people in charge who have made so many poor decisions already are to be completely trusted because we've got a new data team now. Nevermind their decision to keep ETH, appoint Amorim, keep Amorim, horrendous signings of Ugarte and Zirkzee, questionable use of funds on 18 year old CB for £55 million, signing De Ligt who spends all his time on the treatment table instead of on the pitch, pursuit of Liam Delap as our main striker when he's really shite at football etc. - we've got a new data team now so they know exactly what they're doing and you shouldn't question it.

 

[KDilkington]

If there is no news tomorrow I'd say it's been left very late and most certainly will effect any signings getting a decent pre season in.

Is everybody from the WC back at their respective clubs now? Tomorrow we need news of Rashford out at a very minimum, ideally Zirkee also gets done. I don't think it is about us needing to raise money though at this point as we are talking small fees/loans for any outgoings anyway, we never sell for decent fees (Credit to INEOS for some good buy back and sell on clauses inserted in some outgoing deals the last few seasons, we have done well in that regard).

 

[KDilkington]

We qualified for the Champions League, so I don't expect us to spend much. The goal isn't to win trophies; it's to qualify for the Champions League. This isn't a football driven club, it's a business. The objective is to make as much money as possible from it.

Winning the Premier League or the Champions League would require significant investment, and even then, there's no guarantee of success. The Glazers and INEOS seem to want to spend just enough to secure Champions League qualification. That way, revenues remain high, and the club retains its commercial appeal, since Manchester United is already one of the biggest sports brands in the world.

Anyone expecting us to spend heavily this season in an attempt to close the gap at the top is relying more on hope than on the evidence. We only spend big when we're trying to recover from a crisis. Finishing without trophies isn't viewed as a crisis as long as we qualify for the Champions League.

There's no urgency to invest because the objective isn't to win titles. Everyone on the board and in management can talk about "bringing the club back to where it belongs" or "competing for trophies, as Manchester United always should," but those are just empty words. Ambition isn't reflected in the decisions that actually matter. Time and time again, the club's actions have shown that it isn't truly serious about consistently competing for the biggest trophies.

Average transfer spending since 2013:
Without Champions League qualification: ~£176m
With Champions League qualification: ~£124m

Right now I need two positives... You came to that conclusion based on the fact we spend £50m (on average) a year with/without CL football? That's crazy.

 

[JustOneMoreRebuild]

The problem with this logic is we keep finishing outside the champions league spots after getting back in, and it will happen again if we don't invest seriously.

If their business model is to reliably get CL football every year but never win the league, this wouldn't even be a good strategy.

It isn't a good strategy, but it's the way we've operated. If we hadn't qualified for UCL last season, do you think we'd be in the same position we are now? We probably would've made more signings or been willing to spend more.

Our main targets have gone to other clubs, yet there's no sense of urgency. Instead, we're happy to settle for our second, third, or even fourth choice options. We won nothing last season, but because we qualified for the Champions League, it's all positive vibes from the board: "We're building towards something," and so on.

Now watch us struggle next season, sack Carrick, bring in another manager, and then, without Champions League football, suddenly decide to spend big again.

 

[Dominos]

It isn't a good strategy, but it's the way we've operated. If we hadn't qualified for UCL last season, do you think we'd be in the same position we are now? We probably would've made more signings or been willing to spend more.

Our main targets have gone to other clubs, yet there's no sense of urgency. Instead, we're happy to settle for our second, third, or even fourth choice options. We won nothing last season, but because we qualified for the Champions League, it's all positive vibes from the board: "We're building towards something," and so on.

Now watch us struggle next season, sack Carrick, bring in another manager, and then, without Champions League football, suddenly decide to spend big again.

The point being, I actually wish it was true they were desperate to finish in the CL places and not beyond that.

If they were actually desperate to get the CL revenue, we might actually spend some money to stay in the CL, because we've consistently failed to do that. Surely someone in that boardroom must have realised by now you're actually better off improving the squad if you want consistent CL revenue.

 

[CasaStreets]

Our season kicks off in 15 days, that’s not plenty of time at all.

You would have hoped they’d get some form of pre-season integration.

We hear this every summer...

Sure, we'd all like this, but it's a desire that's totally untethered from the market

The fact is that 40% of all transfer business happens in the last 25% of the window. We still have 33% of the window to go.

There are real reasons why this is the case. We are not exempt from those reasons, and pretending that we should be exempt from those reasons is just a waste of time

 

[Eplel]

I'd rather wait and get the better player, than go early and get an inferior one just so they have pre-season

That's a nice sentiment, hope you got an explanation for why we're about to end up with Tyler Adams.

 

[McLvnsMuse]

We hear this every summer...

Sure, we'd all like this, but it's a desire that's totally untethered from the market

The fact is that 40% of all transfer business happens in the last 25% of the window. We still have 33% of the window to go.

There are real reasons why this is the case. We are not exempt from those reasons, and pretending that we should be exempt from those reasons is just a waste of time

This has to be a crime against stats Or the kind of over-optimism this platform sorely lacks. That said, later integrations are a sign of poor planning.

 

[Eplel]

The fact is that 40% of all transfer business happens in the last 25% of the window.

Not by well run clubs. We literally had to start dropping points before the board realised we need a proper GK, and our main striker was not ready till the end of October. Stop making excuses for Glineos.

 

[CasaStreets]

This has to be a crime against stats Or the kind of over-optimism this platform sorely lacks. That said, later integrations are a sign of poor planning.

Not by well run clubs. We literally had to start dropping points before the board realised we need a proper GK, and our main striker was not ready till the end of October. Stop making excuses for Glineos.

No and no, good effort though guys

Those numbers are PL-wide statistics over the last 15 years

I made a longer post about this earlier today...

Since we're now precisely 2/3 through the transfer window, here's your friendly reminder that (over the last 15 seasons)

1. United complete just under 50% of our overall business in the last 1/3rd of the window
   
   • To break this down a bit, it's about 55-60% of our outgoings and 40-45% of our incomings
2. Across the PL broadly, slightly more than 40% of all business happens in the last 1/3rd of the window

The last time we made less than 40% of our incoming signings from this point forward in a transfer window was 2019. If the ratio holds, it means 3 or more players would still need to come in. That would bring our total to 7 summer incomings (Santos, Tielemans, Darlow, Thompson, +3), which would be very rare. We've only signed 7+ players in a summer once in the last 15 years.

Why the differences between our incomings vs outgoings? Or between us and the PL broadly? It's all specifically because we skew later than the league as a whole over the last 15 years on our sales. Our high wages and bad player selection over that time horizon being the primary culprit - which makes our players bad value for most prospective buyers

Will the trend continue this summer? Not sure, we'll see. But anyone claiming "we're done with signings" probably wouldn't want to put money on it

 

[JE-0801]

I dont get how you think Liverpool is not similar? Yes they might have won the league but since that team, have they not lost players?
From the team that won the league, Trent, Konate, Robertson, Diaz, Salah, Nunez have all left. That's 7 and not including Jota.

So for you to say their squad is have an established team, just shows you are trying to drive a narrative.

I agree, if we only sign the 2 players, then there is an issue but until the window closes, I will wait to be negative.

I might be naive but it seems like we want to see if we can get rid of Zirkzee, Rashford so we can then decide the type of player to bring in.

I won't be happy if we dont get another LB, CM and forward.

I don't consider Liverpool a well established team like City or Arsenal but they are more established team than us at the moment because half of their squad still the same as that 2025 league title winning. In comparison to us, we were never closed to challenge the league.

 

[DRJosh]

So are we now starting to entertain that we’d might not make any further first team signings? Signing an 18 year old for future development doesn’t count.

 

[Dominos]

So are we now starting to entertain that we’d might not make any further first team signings? Signing an 18 year old for future development doesn’t count.

I don't really see how that's possible.

I imagine the quality of the final signings are going to raise some eyebrows though. We've basically given up on signing our preferred options and instead are going down the list to someone we can afford.

Something like Tyler Adams and Malick Diouf is not off the cards.

 

[CG1010]

We hopefully get a decent LB and DM then the summer would have been alright. Right now barely any improvement on last season after losing casemiro and ugarte injured.

As it stands, we have also incoming Rashford to bolster the attacking depth. He did score 14 goals for Barcelona last season and definitely can contribute as a sub or starting player for many games. And if we sell him, we would surely get another attacking player (same with Zirkzee I imagine).

Having said that, it doesn't address the gaps in the midfield in particular. Hopefully we do get the DM and LB that you spoke of.

 

[Posh Red]

I don’t get why some feel the need to speak with such confidence and certainty about things they couldn’t possibly know.

 

[Judas]

I don’t get why some feel the need to speak with such confidence and certainty about things they couldn’t possibly know.

Welcome to the internet.

 

[IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos]

I don’t get why some feel the need to speak with such confidence and certainty about things they couldn’t possibly know.

I don’t think some fans or some journalists have quite got to grips with us not being leakier than a bullet ridden colander.