Wot, no transfers? (2026)

If we do not sign anybody, and refuse to
  1. count on players who are injured / cannot stay fit, e.g.: Ugarte, De Ligt, Mount
  2. Use bullshit plans such as "this player can be backup for both LB and RB depending what we need" (#cough Maz)
  3. Consider Zirkzee as a striker, which he is not and Carrick does not rate
it becomes clear that we MUST get rid of Zirkzee, Rashford, and sign LB, DMF, and Sesko backup. In any other configuration we are starting the season without the proper squad depth

From the table below you can see why LB may be our current top priority, however. Even above DMF. And since our penny-pitching owners do not think "you cannot have one player be backup to two positions" they may think between Mbeumo, Cunha, and Sesko (or Rashford if he stays) we are fine as far as a striker is concerned. However, not signing an LB would be devastating! Luke Shaw will be injured for sure

PositionStartingBackup
GKLammensDarlow
LB-Shaw (Injury-prone, backup at best)
RBDalotMazraoui
CB (R)Yoro / Deligt (if ever fit?)Maguire / Deligt (if ever fit?)
CB (L)MartinezHeaven
DMFSantos--
CMFTielemansMainoo
AMFBrunoBruno :lol: / Shea Lacey (cameos + cup games)
LWCunhaDorgu
RWMbeumoAmad
FWSesko-
 
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RedSky said:
Personally I think part of the issue is the wage bill. We wrongly assumed Rashford and Ugarte would be off the books by now. Throw in the GKs and Zirkzee, loans are only a short term solution. We're still living with the consequences of having personal we cannot shift. That must have a knock on effect, surely?

Getting into the CL also means a number of our players have a wage increase too. Makes it even harder to shift on the deadwood.
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Rashford aside, do we still have “deadwood” that we’re actively attempting to sell? I think we might be open to do a deal for Zirkzee but it doesn’t seem like we’re actively pushing him out

We also got Casemiro, Sancho and Malacia wages off the books. Onana’s salary is being covered in full by Trabzonspor, and FIFA should cover Ugarte’s wages if he’s injured for more than 28 days

I don’t know, it feels like there should be room to do things
 
TsuWave said:
Rashford aside, do we still have “deadwood” that we’re actively attempting to sell?
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Probably just Bayindir - however he’s in the last year of his contract so would fetch next to nothing in any case. Last I read was him being linked with a loan move to take him to the end of his deal here.

As you say sure we’d be fine with Zirkzee going too.
 
romufc said:
Exactly, its not like other teams have done all their business, you look around, Liverpool fans are crying for transfers, Spurs even though they have spent so much, they need 2 more forwards, City need reinforcements at full back.

Just because Chelsea, Spurs and City have spent over 100m on one individual transfer, it seems negative what we have done.

It is also quite clear that Carrick was having a look at what players can step up from the academy, which can direct us in where we may need to spend money. For instance, a few games and reports of Amass going on loan, clearly suggests the club feel we need another LB.

We had players like Obi, Gore, Fletcher's in the squad for first 2 games, then last game you saw some of the younger players dropped.

Its given players like Lacey a chance to show they can be relied on this season, maybe even Mount in the CM to some extent.

I agree, Rashford is the biggest one, I don't think there is anyone that wants him back, he has lost his number 10 so his whole MR10 is useless. He needs to accept that his stock is very low.
No top club would touch him, Barca after having him preferred to pay 2/3 times more for another player.
Teams like Spurs would rather Gapko, Savinho for double the price.
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I think people need to remember that both arsenal and city are already well established team, while Liverpool won the league not long ago in 2025 so their squad is more established than us as they only need few more signings to be a league challenger team again.

We are more similar to chelsea and spurs than to Liverpool, arsenal, and city, which we are not well established team as we have been struggling to make it to top 4 on consistent basis. The difference between us, chelsea and spurs are that chelsea and spurs have the advantage of not having European comp means they can fully focus on the league without having big squad depth and they have been the busiest in this transfer windows in comparison to us.

I believe the negativity is not down to just this season or this transfer windows but it’s down to the past 14 years of how bad we have been in transfer.
 
NewGlory said:
If we do not sign anybody, and refuse to
  1. count on players who are injured / cannot stay fit, e.g.: Ugarte, De Ligt, Mount
  2. Use bullshit plans such as "this player can be backup for both LB and RB depending what we need" (#cough Maz)
  3. Consider Zirkzee as a striker, which he is not and Carrick does not rate
it becomes clear that we MUST get rid of Zirkzee, Rashford, and sign LB, DMF, and Sesko backup. In any other configuration we are starting the season without the proper squad depth

From the table below you can see why LB may be our current top priority, however. Even above DMF. And since our penny-pitching owners do not think "you cannot have one player be backup to two positions" they may think between Mbeumo, Cunha, and Sesko (or Rashford if he stays) we are fine as far as a striker is concerned. However, not signing an LB would be devastating! Luke Shaw will be injured for sure

PositionStartingBackup
GKLammensDarlow
LB-Shaw (Injury-prone, backup at best)
RBDalotMazraoui
CB (R)Yoro / Deligt (if ever fit?)Maguire / Deligt (if ever fit?)
CB (L)MartinezHeaven
DMFSantos--
CMFTielemansMainoo
AMFBrunoBruno :lol: / Shea Lacey (cameos + cup games)
LWCunhaDorgu
RWMbeumoAmad
FWSesko-
Click to expand...

I've given up and accepted we cant move Rashford. So he basically replaces Zirkzee, if we can atleast offload him on loan. Will we get a cheap forward on top? I hope, but I wont hold my breath.

But we definitely need another midfielder, and a LB. That's the bare minimum.

Whether we get a forward depends on Rashford+Zirkzee situation.
 
JE-0801 said:
I think people need to remember that both arsenal and city are already well established team, while Liverpool won the league not long ago in 2025 so their squad is more established than us as they only need few more signings to be a league challenger team again.

We are more similar to chelsea and spurs than to Liverpool, arsenal, and city, which we are not well established team as we have been struggling to make it to top 4 on consistent basis. The difference between us, chelsea and spurs are that chelsea and spurs have the advantage of not having European comp means they can fully focus on the league without having big squad depth and they have been the busiest in this transfer windows in comparison to us.

I believe the negativity is not down to just this season or this transfer windows but it’s down to the past 14 years of how bad we have been in transfer.
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Chelsea have about 100 players in their squad. Spurs are signing quality players to improve their starting 11 which is going to make it tougher for chasing top 4. We’re not really improving our starting 11. We’re signing players to replace players that have left… we need a starting LB, still need a starting DM who comes in and is established… young players are alright but they’ll need time to develop etc. I’d say we probably need another starting CB. De ligt and Martinez always injured, Yoro and heaven are very young. Just leaves Maguire as the main CB.
 
TsuWave said:
Rashford aside, do we still have “deadwood” that we’re actively attempting to sell? I think we might be open to do a deal for Zirkzee but it doesn’t seem like we’re actively pushing him out

We also got Casemiro, Sancho and Malacia wages off the books. Onana’s salary is being covered in full by Trabzonspor, and FIFA should cover Ugarte’s wages if he’s injured for more than 28 days

I don’t know, it feels like there should be room to do things
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It's not a vivid memory... Perhaps a United team I saw in a half-remembered dream...? One with a fit De Ligt
 
Highfather_24 said:
I've given up and accepted we cant move Rashford. So he basically replaces Zirkzee, if we can atleast offload him on loan. Will we get a cheap forward on top? I hope, but I wont hold my breath.

But we definitely need another midfielder, and a LB. That's the bare minimum.

Whether we get a forward depends on Rashford+Zirkzee situation.
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That's good progress. It's the hope that kills us
 
We're not going to let the window close with only three full backs and three midfielders in the squad to last a 60-game season. The club might be short of cash in hand, but they are not completely stupid.

I'm pretty sure that we're going to buy a LB (and it's not going to be Hall). I'm pretty sure that we're going to buy a physically dominant central midfielder - no idea who that will be. If Zirkzee is sold, we'll get a backup striker in to replace him.
 
"And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom."

His name was Robert Paulson
 
Infra-red said:
We're not going to let the window close with only three full backs and three midfielders in the squad to last a 60-game season. The club might be short of cash in hand, but they are not completely stupid.

I'm pretty sure that we're going to buy a LB (and it's not going to be Hall). I'm pretty sure that we're going to buy a physically dominant central midfielder - no idea who that will be. If Zirkzee is sold, we'll get a backup striker in to replace him.
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We won't get a backup striker as Rashford still here, however admire your optimism about other positions
 
Blood Mage said:
The problem is the signings will probably get done after we slump to a couple of bad results towards the end of August. That's how the board operates, wait and see if they can get away with keeping the wallet closed. No ambition for a title push, just CL qualification.
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Yeah these owners completely lack desire to spend for someone who targeted winning league in 2028
 
El-Manos said:
It’s not looking good bruv is it ?
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Nope it certainly isn't, know the usual never too high never too low channels like UPTV and Promised Land will remain calm though because that's their style in this situation.
 
TsuWave said:
Rashford aside, do we still have “deadwood” that we’re actively attempting to sell? I think we might be open to do a deal for Zirkzee but it doesn’t seem like we’re actively pushing him out
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There's probably quite a few players we'd sell if we could, but a combination of them being too injury prone for anyone to be interested, and their wages being too high for the player to accept a move.

We almost certainly want to sell Zirkzee, we've just not opted for the bomb squad route this year and are trying to get them out amicably.
 
Dominos said:
There's probably quite a few players we'd sell if we could, but a combination of them being too injury prone for anyone to be interested, and their wages being too high for the player to accept a move.

We almost certainly want to sell Zirkzee, we've just not opted for the bomb squad route this year and are trying to get them out amicably.
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Toy Story puppet and his dumbo wages again
 
Carrick will be gone by December if this is it for our summer transfer dealings. Paper-thin squad and that LB position is worryingly under resourced.
 
DRJosh said:
Carrick will be gone by December if this is it for our summer transfer dealings. Paper-thin squad and that LB position is worryingly under resourced.
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Yeah will need to perform miracles again, maybe he can
 
We've avoided all the expensive players and gone for budget options, and one way you can justify that is saying the major benefit is at the very least, getting the quantity of players in should be no issue. After all, it's not like we could have spent our entire budget on a couple of star players!

But despite all the money saved by going for budget options, the 3rd midfielder, left back and striker is still "difficult", despite our net spend sitting at just £35m, and over three weeks passed since we agreed the Tielemans deal, and the season starts in just 17 days.

You just have to pray we're just painfully slow again and we're not genuinely operating on a midtable budget.
 
For what it’s worth, this day last year both Ornstein and Whitwell indicated we were linked to Sesko, Watkins and Nicolas Jackson, but “not being actively pursued due to costs.”

We shall see.
 
There’s going to be a DM midfield signing. I’m more concerned with that being the last signing of the window since DM is the only position we don’t have at least two players that can play there
 
jamesjimmybyrondean said:
There’s going to be a DM midfield signing. I’m more concerned with that being the last signing of the window since DM is the only position we don’t have at least two players that can play there
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We definitely have a big problem if that happens
 
Borys said:
In my humble opinion you are significantly overestimating "early inclusion" of the new players into the squad. For me the impact is quite low. In some cases it's simply not worth moving quickly to the other targets simply because we couldn't get it done quickly.

Let's say Hall is a 10 (no 1 target). Who is next, Lewis-Skelly at what, 5/6? He is alright but quite a drop really. Is this worth moving from Hall to MSK because we couldn't get the deal done quickly?
Keep in mind we might not know our finance situation considering Rashford, Zirkzee etc are still here. So at some point if we can cash in, we will be able to make a deal with Newcastle. Another aspect to remember is the selling club needs to make some arrangements as well. Multiple reasons not all the transfers are done early.

The baseline is we know our starting XI for the opening games. We need to strengthen for next months. Moving to Lewis Skelly just to integrate him quickly and still play Shaw in the opening games makes little sense.
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Perhaps I am overestimating the value of getting players in early and integrating them into the squad but there is no doubt it's better than getting them in late in the window. People can debate how much value we gain but one is superior to the other. A settled squad is a more focused and relaxed squad and that usually will have a positive effect on results.
 
Stingy bastards. All the signings so far we got them below their fair price and fair play for that

But still.. stingy bastards.. marquee signings when??
 
tenpoless said:
Stingy bastards. All the signings so far we got them below their fair price and fair play for that

But still.. stingy bastards.. marquee signings when??
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There might not be a marquee signing this summer
 
Desert Eagle said:
Perhaps I am overestimating the value of getting players in early and integrating them into the squad but there is no doubt it's better than getting them in late in the window. People can debate how much value we gain but one is superior to the other. A settled squad is a more focused and relaxed squad and that usually will have a positive effect on results.
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Of course, but the flip side of this you will end up with mostly tier 2 targets as tier 1 players are not always that easy to get done quickly. So it's a benefit that comes as a cost which imo is not worth it.
 
Why i am still hoping:
1. Season starts late. There are only two matches before Sep. Our current squad should be able to handle it with one match a week
2. We signed midfielders that can get us over those two matches for sure.
3. Our signings are held up. Real or someone needs to make a move for pieces to fell in the place for us. Why shouldnt we wait till last possible time if we can get in a better player?
4. Rashford issue is probably holding up forward line changes. Also sesko injury might not have helped us as well in letting go off Zirzkee. So this will again go on till end of the window
5. LB we are actively looking at. Hall is a difficult deal unless we throw crazy money at it.

All thins considered there is hope and not yet panic mode
 
I honestly think the club intends to sign another CM and a LB before the window closes no matter what. I think we will sign a ST / LW depending on what Zirkzee and Rashford do, if they stay I don't think we add anyone here.

The reason we haven't moved for anyone yet is we are waiting on the Rodri to Real Madrid move to see if Tchouaméni becomes available, and if not we have another target in mind. This would also impact the budget we have available for LB which is again why we haven't moved on that position yet.
 
DRJosh said:
Carrick will be gone by December if this is it for our summer transfer dealings. Paper-thin squad and that LB position is worryingly under resourced.
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It's definitely not paper thin. It's a big old squad in terms of numbers and there is enough talent there to be playing some good stuff.

We need a bit of luck in terms of injuries. Every squad has injury prone players but with our lot it happens to be quite key individuals.
 
Marwood said:
It's definitely not paper thin. It's a big old squad in terms of numbers and there is enough talent there to be playing some good stuff.

We need a bit of luck in terms of injuries. Every squad has injury prone players but with our lot it happens to be quite key individuals.
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Funnily enough, our actual one key player has never had a significant injury. Imagine how we’d look without Bruno. Our system has become completely reliant on him again, and I think we’d drop like a stone if he did pick up an injury.
 
Marwood said:
It's definitely not paper thin. It's a big old squad in terms of numbers and there is enough talent there to be playing some good stuff.

We need a bit of luck in terms of injuries. Every squad has injury prone players but with our lot it happens to be quite key individuals.
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The whole point of every corporate structure is to minimize the impact of intangible factors like luck.

So if our strategy is hoping we get lucky and players like Mount, Shaw, Martinez, De Ligt, Maguire remain largely injury free, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary over the last few years, then that's not only poor planning but quite frankly deserving of a poor season.
 
Gk : Lammens, Darlow, Heaton
CB : De Ligt, Martinez, Maguire, Yoro, Heaven
FB : Shaw, Dalot, Mazraoui
CM : Tielemans, Mainoo, Santos
AM : Bruno, Mount
FW: Mbeumo, Cunha, Sesko, Amad, Dorgu, Rashford/Zirkzee, Lacey

So basically we are light in FB and CM like we all know. Really zero reason we shouldnt be getting both.
 
Highfather_24 said:
Gk : Lammens, Darlow, Heaton
CB : De Ligt, Martinez, Maguire, Yoro, Heaven
FB : Shaw, Dalot, Mazraoui
CM : Tielemans, Mainoo, Santos
AM : Bruno, Mount
FW: Mbeumo, Cunha, Sesko, Amad, Dorgu, Rashford/Zirkzee, Lacey

So basically we are light in FB and CM like we all know. Really zero reason we shouldnt be getting both.
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One could argue there are more than a billion reasons why we shouldn't be getting even one
 
It really is frustrating not to see us building on what was an over achievement last season by finishing 3rd. However to balance the argument on Wot no Transfers it is widely reported that we had to pay in the region of 200m EUROS there or there about on previous transfers that came due this summer. Then you add in zero European Football last season and exiting the cups early. Despite good cash flow, that was always going to be the perfect storm for this summers window. Next year should be much plainer sailing.

I suspect that potential future business will hinge on Rashford if I am being honest. Not that he is going to bring in vast sums of money but again if reports are to be believed then Utd are ok if he goes, ok if he stays. If he goes then we 100% need to find a forward who can play in a more advanced role. If he stays then does that put the focus on a LB or a new Center Mid.

Agree with the sentiment above that Arsenal, City and too a lesser extent Liverpool have a settled squad. However purely from an objective point of view it would be foolish to replace Rashford and Zirkzee now then hope we can move them on after we have their replacement. It makes some sense what the club are doing albeit really really frustrating
 
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