Wot, no LB? (2026)

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Beachryan said:
I think you can make a reasonable argument that in the medium term it's sensible not to push the proverbial boat out at this moment in time. We apparently over-extended ourselves last summer, and previous years disasters means we're still paying off transfers from pre-INEOS. Ie, there's still some ways to go before we're back in 'financial juggernaut' territory. People seem to forget how close we were to actual financial problems a short while ago.

We had targets for the summer that have clearly been priced outside of our budget (Fernandes, Anderson perhaps, Hall) and that's totally fine. The old approach of creating an unsustainable financial burden by caving to selling clubs was wrong, this is smarter. Santos and Tielemans are very good signings, and our midfield already looks better than last season, with a relatively moderate outlay.

If there were obvious, available targets for other positions (LB, CF in particular) then we'd move on them, but there just aren't. Love Welbz, but he's 36, we shouldn't be lamenting missing out on players like that.

It's not exciting and not what the fans want to hear but we probably need a year of consolidation, which can give time for new targets to emerge, and Carrick to better understand the squad and how to use it. If we can manage to stay in the top 4 for the upcoming season, that should set us up incredibly well to finally get back to sustainable financial footing, and we can then be a bit more aggressive in the market.

We have a good number of talented attackers, a decent midfield now and options across the back four except for LB. I have to think the club will get someone in, even if just a loan/experienced option. Otherwise, let's see how the season goes. I expect development from all the signings last year, as well as Amad and Dorgu.

Biggest concern is that Bruno fades, but we do have Tielemans now who can pick up some of the burden.
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I agree with some elements of this with regards to our finances and needing to be smart in the market. But failing to improve our depth adequately risks this season not being a year of consolidation. With a heavier schedule we need to invest to stand still and make consecutive CL qualification a reality, which in turn will help our finances. It was clear we didn't have the depth last season to compete on multiple fronts and have we actually improved that?

Keeping Rashford and gaining Lacey as a viable option has improved our depth in attack slightly. But at CM all we've done is improve quality, not depth. We've lost Casemiro and Ugarte and gained Santos and Tielemans. The Fletchers don't look ready so we're still short on better depth at CM. At LB we've lost Malacia and not brought anyone in, so we're actually worse off there, even if Malacia contributed little. We still need at least two more senior players in to consider this window anything other than a disappointment.
 
If we dont buy another mid+LB, then INEOS has failed in this window. Its a decision which cannot be defended honestly. It would be a feckup.

I understand not getting your primary target if you're broke. But you have to do the bare minimum of getting somebody in, even if on loan, because otherwise you are setting Carrick to fail.
 
LuisNaniencia said:
No one saw Tielemans happening. Could be a couple of quiet deals going on.
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Possible. But Tielemans was a release clause, so there was no long drawn out negotiations with Villa to be had.

Santos was done quick, but news of our interest still broke 3 days before we reached an agreement with Chelsea, it's likely the negotiations were just short and agreement was quick from the point of first contact.

To keep things really quiet you have to keep the agent quiet and the selling club quiet which we have no control over. Hence why Fernandes was weeks of media reports.

It's been a month since Tielemans. If we were in advanced negotiations with a club for a player for the past month, we'd almost certainly know about it. We've been doing background work quietly and secretly working on deals for a full month at this point, and now the season is about to start and we're well short of what we needed.

I'm not concerned about lack of media reports, I'm concerned it's taking us over a month between deals.
 
Absolutely loving the new diligence in the way we are approaching transfers, whether it’s be forced on us or not. Things are looking & feeling much rosier than they have been for a very long time. Already by October this thread will not have aged well.
 
Exiled_Red said:
It’s time to start worrying. I do think we’ll bring in another couple of players this window, but timing is just as important as the signing. These signings need a preseason to acclimate to the club and manager. If we sign them right before the season starts, we are setting them up for a slow start and given our media scrutiny, setting them up to fail.
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Our schedule isn't heavy early season and we have enough to deal with those games. We definitely need a couple more players in but even if they arrive late they'll have plenty of time to be eased in before our game schedule gets hectic.
 
devilish said:
I think we won't sign a backup striker unless Zirkzee AND Rashford leave. You might not notice but we're skint

What happened to Chido-Obi btw? He was last year's future Van Basten according to INEOS
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No, he wasn't. Stop making things up.
 
MadDogg said:
But then you're picking a moment where we would have played the top two teams twice and most of the other weaker teams only once. Also can't just presume we would have lost, as his record against those two teams was surprisingly not too bad. Only lost three times in the seven matches we faced them, with one of those being the match Arsenal somehow won despite us being comfortably better (due to a goalkeeper mistake, just to put more emphasis on how much that position was hurting us).

It feels like I'm defending Amorim, which isn't my intention as he obviously wasn't good enough.

My point though was about how big a difference just changing the attack and keeper made. We went from getting 27 points in 27 games under Amorim in 24/25 (42 points in 38 games if we include ETH's time) to 31 points in 20 games in 25/26. Scoring 32 goals in those first 27 games, to 34 goals in the 20 games. Amorim himself obviously wasn't doing anything different considering his refusal to change, so that improvement was predominately due to replacing one of the absolute worst attacks and keepers in the league with strong options in both. The rest of our squad was at a decent enough level the entire time...not great, but nowhere near as bad as our results and position on the ladder indicated.
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But you started it by picking a moment in time when we had played some of the worst teams twice and some of the best teams only once!
 
Villa are after Palinha for 20m ish. Surely he would be a good option if Santos gets injured or doesn't hit the ground running. He would be a solid low cost option to come in and out as needed.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
The two things the relentlessly optimistic people on the forum fail to understand every freaking summer, and have been denying every summer since the end of May:

  1. Comparisons what our rivals do during the summer. Man City and Arsenal have built squads. They’re just adding one or two players to what they already have. That means they can spend the entire summer pursuing their targets. We needed to bring in 5–6 players this summer. With two weeks to go before the start of the season, we have two players — neither of whom, according to reports, was even an A or B option at the end of the season.

  2. Timing. Bringing a player in early is not the same as bringing one in at the end of August. As things stand, whoever we sign now probably won’t be ready to play in the first few games.
The planning and execution have been absolutely awful this year. If we don’t have the money, then fine, I can accept all of this shitshow. But why not just tell the fans that instead of leaking information about how we want Anderson, Fernandes, Tchouaméni and the like?
Just be honest and say: our budget is £100m, and that’s the reality we have to work with.

Like every United fan, I never liked or respected the Glazers or Woodward, but the Jim/Berrada/Wilcox trio is even worse. We are on path of becoming new Spurs.
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This is bollocks. I can't stand the Glazers or Ineos - they're all parasitic leeches - but since revamping our recruitment team our transfer business has improved, which has directly resulted in us having a better squad which is showing better performances and better results. Our squad isn't there yet and need to do more this summer, but we're still much better off than we were a couple seasons ago in terms of personnel.
 
First, the links to all the expensive players (Anderson, Tchouameni etc.) do not in general come from the club in the first place. That is not to say we aren't 'interested' in such players but it is hardly the same thing as being sure they are our first preference.

Secondly, it is for obvious reasons never sensible to announce to the world what your budget is, even if you have one.

Thirdly, appeasing transfer muppets is not what is important. We have had summers where we have spent loads of money, muppets have been happy, the players have been terrible errors. What is important is spending money wisely, however big the fees are. Whether or not we have done that is not known yet, but on the surface of it our deals look like decent value compared to many others.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
The two things the relentlessly optimistic people on the forum fail to understand every freaking summer, and have been denying every summer since the end of May:

  1. Comparisons what our rivals do during the summer. Man City and Arsenal have built squads. They’re just adding one or two players to what they already have. That means they can spend the entire summer pursuing their targets. We needed to bring in 5–6 players this summer. With two weeks to go before the start of the season, we have two players — neither of whom, according to reports, was even an A or B option at the end of the season.

  2. Timing. Bringing a player in early is not the same as bringing one in at the end of August. As things stand, whoever we sign now probably won’t be ready to play in the first few games.
The planning and execution have been absolutely awful this year. If we don’t have the money, then fine, I can accept all of this shitshow. But why not just tell the fans that instead of leaking information about how we want Anderson, Fernandes, Tchouaméni and the like?
Just be honest and say: our budget is £100m, and that’s the reality we have to work with.

Like every United fan, I never liked or respected the Glazers or Woodward, but the Jim/Berrada/Wilcox trio is even worse. We are on path of becoming new Spurs.
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An absolute car crash of a post.

In the last 24 months we’ve signed Yoro, De Ligt, Dorgu, Mazraoui, Heaven, Lammens, Mbeumo, Cunha, Sesko, Santos and Tielemans who are all significant improvements or huge potential to be. Only Ugarte and Zirkzee have been misses, and they have also been signed in that period.

Meanwhile we’ve moved out Antony, Sancho, Garnacho, Hojlund, Malacia, Lindelof, Eriksen, Greenwood, McTominay, Wan Bissaka, Van der Beek, Varane, Casemiro and Martial. Rashford and Onana have been out on loan that entire time. A collection of players who were either not good enough, had declined significantly due to age, or were rotten apples. Of all those the only one to question is McTominay, perhaps. Most of the players going out were on massive or overinflated wages.

Say what you might about the Berrada/Wilcox/Vivell trio, but recruitment and squad reshaping has been orders of magnitude better than anything we’ve seen since Fergie. The legacy of the stupid fees and wages paid for players like Antony, Sancho, Onana etc. isn’t eradicated overnight.

But I get it. It’s been a month since the last “breaking news”, and no massive fees paid, so yeah…..they are the worstest everrrrrrrr.
 
I don’t understand how people can see our midfield and think that we are fine as is. Mount and Tielemans are good players, but injury prone. We need a starter in midfield.

If Zirkzee leaves, we should absolutely get another forward too. I hope we are working behind the scenes to get some transfers in.
 
LoneStar said:
I don’t understand how people can see our midfield and think that we are fine as is. Mount and Tielemans are good players, but injury prone. We need a starter in midfield.

If Zirkzee leaves, we should absolutely get another forward too. I hope we are working behind the scenes to get some transfers in.
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Is he?
 
simonhch said:
But I get it. It’s been a month since the last “breaking news”, and no massive fees paid, so yeah…..they are the worstest everrrrrrrr.
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No there are genuine complaints against them because we still need a midfielder and leftback, and the window closes in 19 days.

If they manage to get in players in those 2 position, great. If they dont, then they have fecked up. No two ways about it.

There's genuine reason for concern, and its insulting/patronising to handwaive that away as just transfer muppetry.
 
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Eplel said:
Comedy used to be funny.
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Well it's better than being a completely negative person on the internet all day every day. Let's see how it plays out on the pitch, I think it looks rosey enough if we can replace the goals.

Santos is 100% a better footballer than Ugarte. If You're going to sign a box to box player who's 28+ to replace Casemiro from in the PL it's either going to be Tielemans or Guimarães and one cost less than half of the other. We've made good deals. You can chose to be glass half empty but I'm confident we have improved our squad and Sesko Cunha and Mbuemo will be even more settled this season.
 
Highfather_24 said:
No there are genuine complaints against them because we still need a midfielder and leftback, and the window closes in 19 days.

If they manage to get in players in those 2 position, great. If they dont, then they have fecked up. No two ways about it.

There's genuine reason for concern, and its insulting/patronising to handwaive that away as just transfer muppetry.
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But that’s not what I was responding to was it? I was responding to a poster saying they were worse than the Glazers, which is objectively nonsense. You are basing your concerns off what they may or may not do in the future three weeks, which has nothing to do with what I was responding to. So there’s nothing insulting or patronising about calling out a poster for making a ridiculous claim. If you had actually read the necessary context, I assume you’d have been able to understand that. Now that last sentence was actually patronising.
 
simonhch said:
But that’s not what I was responding to was it? I was responding to a poster saying they were worse than the Glazers, which is objectively nonsense. You are basing your concerns off what they may or may not do in the future three weeks, which has nothing to do with what I was responding to. So there’s nothing insulting or patronising about calling out a poster for making a ridiculous claim. If you had actually read the necessary context, I assume you’d have been able to understand that. Now that last sentence was actually patronising.
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Sure, I dont agree with that particular point either, but I've said what I said regarding dismissing genuine anxieties regarding our squad as just muppetry. If you werent saying that, cool.
 
Zumbi said:
Our schedule isn't heavy early season and we have enough to deal with those games. We definitely need a couple more players in but even if they arrive late they'll have plenty of time to be eased in before our game schedule gets hectic.
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In-season training isn't the same as pre-season. Pre-season is where you build team bonding, build fitness, and focus on tactics and styles of play that will be the teams DNA. In-season becomes more about maintenance and preparing for specific matchups.

I stand by what I said. If you want to set up a player to succeed, you bring them in earlier in the summer so they can get acclimated not only to the team and style of play, but to the city, schools, and way of life. Doing that in season adds to the stress and at United, the most scrutinized club in the world, players can't afford to start slow.
 
bigal01 said:
Villa are after Palinha for 20m ish. Surely he would be a good option if Santos gets injured or doesn't hit the ground running. He would be a solid low cost option to come in and out as needed.
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might need him. what odds would you get of him scoring the goal to keep his team in the premier league two seasons in a row?
 
Exiled_Red said:
In-season training isn't the same as pre-season. Pre-season is where you build team bonding, build fitness, and focus on tactics and styles of play that will be the teams DNA. In-season becomes more about maintenance and preparing for specific matchups.

I stand by what I said. If you want to set up a player to succeed, you bring them in earlier in the summer so they can get acclimated not only to the team and style of play, but to the city, schools, and way of life. Doing that in season adds to the stress and at United, the most scrutinized club in the world, players can't afford to start slow.
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It’s preferable to get them in early, buy the timing just isn’t as important as the signing like you claimed. The signing is the really key bit with the timing being a bonus. Plenty of players have joined after pre-season and done extremely well, because ultimately they were the right signing.
 
Fresh Kit said:
I watched quite a few Brugge Champion's League games last season, and I was not impressed by Seys at all. Tbh, more often than not he looked a bit of a liability and one of their worst players. He doesn't really seem to be excelling in the Jupiler Pro league either in the way that Lammens was.

I can't post links yet, but check out Arsenal's first 2 goals vs Brugge in the CL last season for an example. Highlights are easily available on youtube. First goal Madueke easily bullies Seys out the way. Second goal Seys is a statue at the back post, and leaves Madueke un-marked with a free header. Anyone watching that will instantly have second thoughts. I think he'll struggle in the PL.



Wharton doesn't make sense for United. Offers nothing defensively. United have fewer defensively solid CMs now than they do progressive passers. Santos, Tielemans and Mount are all good passers. Santos is the only decent defender. Wharton can't defend at all.

Camara is not that good. Was no one watching the World Cup?! If United were looking at Monaco for a DM, they should have signed Aladji Bamba instead; could have a higher ceiling, but has already gone to Newcastle.
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On Seys, as something who watches Brugge almost every week, weird opinion imo.

Most people in Belgium and Brugge fans see him as a massive talent. He IS excelling in our league, I'd argue much more than Lammens was. Lammens stepping up was a huge surprise to most. I can't recall the Arsenal game, but he was only 20 at the time, of course he'll have the occasional error. He played 55 games last year and at 21 has 20 CL games under the belt. He had Yamal in his pocket at the World Cup.

He's bound to be an excellent player.
 
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bigal01 said:
Villa are after Palinha for 20m ish. Surely he would be a good option if Santos gets injured or doesn't hit the ground running. He would be a solid low cost option to come in and out as needed.
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I think so too. I actually thought we would have been on his case from the start of the window as a good value signing. Looks like he's going Villa now though.
 
devilish said:
I think we won't sign a backup striker unless Zirkzee AND Rashford leave. You might not notice but we're skint

What happened to Chido-Obi btw? He was last year's future Van Basten according to INEOS
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No that was more of fans overhyping him because he’d scored tons at underage levels. He never looked ready to be part of a PL squad at that age
 
sincher said:
First, the links to all the expensive players (Anderson, Tchouameni etc.) do not in general come from the club in the first place. That is not to say we aren't 'interested' in such players but it is hardly the same thing as being sure they are our first preference.

Secondly, it is for obvious reasons never sensible to announce to the world what your budget is, even if you have one.

Thirdly, appeasing transfer muppets is not what is important. We have had summers where we have spent loads of money, muppets have been happy, the players have been terrible errors. What is important is spending money wisely, however big the fees are. Whether or not we have done that is not known yet, but on the surface of it our deals look like decent value compared to many others.
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When did you become sensible Sinch?
 
Rams said:
Absolutely loving the new diligence in the way we are approaching transfers, whether it’s be forced on us or not. Things are looking & feeling much rosier than they have been for a very long time. Already by October this thread will not have aged well.
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Good for the club, terrible for the muppets.
 
Frustrating as opening day approaches, but it feels like the club is holding out for late market movement. Big transfers elsewhere (like Rodri returning to Spain) could unlock options late in the window. We should manage the initial games, but 2-3 signings before the deadline are essential.
 
Highfather_24 said:
Sure, I dont agree with that particular point either, but I've said what I said regarding dismissing genuine anxieties regarding our squad as just muppetry. If you werent saying that, cool.
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Anyone who is anxious or angry about what might / might not happen probably needs a bit of a reality check. It's completely needless, the world isn't going to end if the club can't find the right players at the right price.

It's not necessarily 'incompetence', or 'embarrassing', or 'fecking up' if you can't get the right profile with the money you have either. The world isn't so binary and there are multiple factors at play,

The intent isn't to insult you here, or start an argument by the way.
 
I see this in two ways. First of all we’ve done two really good pieces of business and added two quality players to the roster at good prices. The squad is definitely going places.

The flip is that we started from a net negative position with our midfield consisting of only Mainoo. If we let other areas of the squad lie this summer we may need a big summer next year. There’s always the feeling that we never fully commit particularly once we get CL.

My mind also goes to outgoing. We’ve only a few lost causes left but my do we struggle to get rid of those we don’t want. I’d love to see Zirkzee and Rashford gone come September.

Lastly we have some excellent youngsters coming through. Would be nice to see places in the matchday for some of those. Lacey could be a big impact player this season also Heaven and Perhaps a surprise player like Thwaites could make a mark.

I am surprised we haven’t done more but optimistic about our chances of another CL finish. We’ve no chance of a title challenge though.
 
Herschel Krustofsky said:
Anyone who is anxious or angry about what might / might not happen probably needs a bit of a reality check. It's completely needless
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And that's where we completely disagree my friend. I think not getting another leftback + midfielder will leave us in big trouble in the season, that might have a huge effect on CL qualification. Thats why I care.
 
Herschel Krustofsky said:
Anyone who is anxious or angry about what might / might not happen probably needs a bit of a reality check. It's completely needless, the world isn't going to end if the club can't find the right players at the right price.

It's not necessarily 'incompetence', or 'embarrassing', or 'fecking up' if you can't get the right profile with the money you have either. The world isn't so binary and there are multiple factors at play,

The intent isn't to insult you here, or start an argument by the way.
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Completely agree, its not going to change the outcome of our transfer window and I've realised that.
 
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