17 Sep 2020 10:41:47
It’s amazing how easy the club make it known that it has briefed some journalists. Simon Stone from the BBC wrote an article today basically backing up the limited spending. Rob Dawson from ESPN on the other hand wrote a more balanced article and backed up a lot of what people have said on here. Secure CL and expect our spending to halve. Throw C.V. into the mix and there is the perfect excuse for limited spending.

The BBC article makes zero sense. Why would we chase a £100m plus player if we cannot afford him. Surely at the beginning of the summer, you draw a line and move on? I’d be interested to know how many people think we will sign Sancho plus others.
Can we have a poll ed? Sancho to sign/ Sancho not to sign?
Thanks.

1.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 11:00:30
To be fair to the club in 3 out of the 4 areas they have strengthened recently.

Goalkeeper, we have two quality keepers fighting for the no1 spot, can't complain.

Defence, they spent 130 mil last summer so i understand not strengthening in this position. Can understand fans wanting a new lb and cb but they were never priorities after bringing in awb and maguire last summer.

Midfield, this is where we have done well to bolster. Matic, pogba, fernandes, van de beek, fred and mctominay are a very good set of 6 players to play in the 3 midfield positions. Clear roles and easy to see where they fit in and get enough games. can't complain.

Forwards, this is where fans have every right to complain, lingard is our main reserve forward and he spent the majority of the past two years without a goal or assist.

If we can't get a decent forward in before the window shuts, ole has been let down big time.

2.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 11:08:37
I'm on the fence with Sancho. He is clearly a high priority target, yet it was also obvious that Dortmund weren't going to sell on the cheap. The price is the price and the only thing to negotiate was how and when you would pay the asking price. Dortmund only sell their players "cheaply" when they have a year to go on their deal, Sancho has three years left. They can afford to be bullish this summer (2020), while maybe taking a more sensible approach next summer (2021) before having to accept a much lower fee the summer of 2022 with his contact running until June 2023.

If we weren't going to match the price then we should have moved on immediately.

I still think a deal can be done, but it will be a much more hurried deal, still paying Dortmund what they want. Will they though is the question.

Personally as fantastic a player Sancho is I don't think he is worth the money, especially in such financially unstable times.

I don't think signing a short term option is a good idea, the biggest issue we have this summer in terms of transfers is actually getting players off the books. We have at least 10 players who aren't contributing but are a huge financial drain on the club. Adding another player in their 30's or as good as on high wages will just mean that next summer we will have another highly paid declining player stuck with at least another 2-3 years left on their deal. It's stupid. The only way a short term option works is on a loan deal. However, club's are generally only prepared to loan players who they can't sell for some reason and are generally struggling in that team. Hardly great options.

I think we should move for a younger player with potential, someone who could step up in a better team with better players around them.

3.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 11:14:58
We just don’t operate like any other big club.
Apart from Barcelona who have major issues all round, you have Bayern, Liverpool, City, Madrid. We see ourselves as bigger than these clubs. If you compare how we operate against these clubs it’s quite embarrassing. Aside from the money spent, it’s how we spend it.

The goalkeeper situation may work both ways. De Gea may get replaced by Henderson this season if he makes another mistake. We’re then left with a number 2 on wages of over 300-350k. Sheffield United wanted Henderson on loan again and we messed that up.

I don’t think any team in Europe spends 80m on Maguire. I’m not willing to write him off yet as it is way too early but for that price tag, it’s a bit worrying that we’re talking about finding a CB partner for him.

AWB has done well defensively but his attacking game needs a lot of work. For a team that wants to play attacking football, could we have got a better attacking right back? Again, not willing to write him off as he has really shown his worth with some of his defensive displays. My concern is more long term with him.

We gave Matic a 3 year contract and have now signed VDB. McTominay is our academy graduate who needs minutes to improve. Where does that game time come from? I’m delighted with the VDB signing but not so much a 3 year contract for an ageing midfielder.

Our pursuit of Sancho has been well documented. Amateur. Similar to that of Bruno Fernandes and Maguire who we both ended up paying for at the last minute.

The smartest business we have done all summer is moving on Sanchez and coming to a compromise. At that point, it looked promising and that there was some sense in these decisions. We’re still stuck with Rojo, Smalling, Romero, Jones, Lingard, Pereira. Unbelievable!

4.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 11:18:25
That is not the point of the article. We only spend when CL qualification is required. Once we have CL we don’t spend, or very little. What were we expecting that after 10 odd years of this rubbish we would suddenly go out and spend over 100m on a single player having qualified for the CL already. The money grabbers don’t do that.

They only spend when their investment is under threat.

5.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 11:34:25
It’s hard to ignore the pattern of spending Pog.

6.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 12:36:03
My problem with our transfer windows is we seem to make such a public fuss, things driven too long so much icdrama along the way, but look at other clubs it's quiet, short, efficient.

7.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 13:49:08
Very good post that dsg, sums it up perfectly 👌.

8.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 14:09:31
DSG,

I agree, I was actually doing some squad analysis this morning (bored at work) and we actually look ok in the majority of areas apart from in the forward line and potentially at left back if Williams moves over to the right. We are stacked in other positions so you can see why these are the priority.

Fingers crossed we get a couple of good players over the line, we usually do.

9.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 15:21:19
DSG, sums it up really well. We have plenty of players in most areas, CB we are stacked, lacking quality maybe but we have plenty of players.

Midfield looks really strong, the strongest I'd say since we last won the league hands down.

Our forward line looks great if a little lacking in experience. However, James is our best reserve player. While he can be very useful in certain situations he needs time to develop and improve. Ideally we need a creative wide player. More like a wide No.10 with pace who is able to play on both the right and the left. Jadon Sancho does tick all those boxes. However, his cost is an issue.

If that can be worked out and he be signed before the window slams shut then our squad will look so much stronger.
If I'm being greedy maybe sign David Alaba to challenge Shaw at LB and provide some experience in defence. He could also work on the left of a back three really well, while he can cover at CDM in a similar style to Matic.

10.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 16:30:47
We have players in these positions because we decided to give them new contracts and overpay them. It doesn’t mean we have good squad depth. Our defence itself doesn’t actually breed confidence. The numbers are okay on paper but anytime we’re being attacked, I fear we will concede.

The only area we have quality in depth is in goal and in midfield. Any CB which would come in to replace Maguire and Lindelof are injury prone. I would have loved Tuanzebe to come in and nail a place in the first 11 but he is constantly injured along with the likes of Bailly. Jones has been injured for how long? Yet we decided to give him a long term contract. I would argue we have no real back up at CB. If our full backs are injured we have a real drop in quality. The same with the attack.

If we want to challenge we need quality in depth in all areas of the pitch. I’m not saying we can do this in one window but to secure CL and only to have signed one midfielder come the start of the new season is not the best place to be.

Our pattern of spending does indicate we’re happy securing CL and that’s all. It doesn’t show that we want to be at the top challenging on all fronts which is exactly where we should be. Disappointing.

As hard as it is to say, we do not have a coach like Jurgen Klopp who can make average players better. Ole showed he doesn’t trust his squad last season because of the drop in quality. He needs quality players all round. If he won’t be given that, then the board should bring in a coach that can make our squad players better and bring patterns of play to our first 11. Not sure what direction we want to go.

11.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 17:10:57
Amz, while I agree about the quality of our depth in defence we can't just sign a 9th centre back without at least a few heading out the door first.

12.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 18:01:17
I completely agree Shappy. I think we should be making much more of an effort to get these CB’s out. Just going by Ed002, both Smalling and a Rojo could have been out the door a while ago. We gave Phil Jones a 5 year contract. So our own decision making has effected our ability to go out and bring in a quality cb. Frustrating.

13.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 19:25:02
The transfer spend has been pretty consistent whether we qualify for CL or not, £925 million over the last 6 seasons.

14.) 17 Sep 2020
17 Sep 2020 21:47:16
GrimisnotDead, we on average have spent 120m per season. However, in the seasons we have qualified for the UCL we have spent an average of 70m.

It's clear we spend to get UCL and spend less once we have it.