11 Feb 2021 09:00:48
Maybe MOTD fever, but i hope we look at Calvert lewin in the summer if we can't get Haaland. He is a fantastic No9 and i can see similarities to the way Cavani plays. Given the impact Cavani has had on the team i think he will be a great addition. Plus at 23 he is 2-3 years off his peak like the vast majority of our squad.

1.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 10:07:24
While I'd love us to sign a new striker in the summer I think we should be focusing elsewhere first.

I think we can afford to extend Cavani for another year and give Greenwood some minutes centrally next season then look at a striker in the summer of 2022. Top class strikers are expensive and DCL would easily cost 60-80m even in the current climate.

2.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 10:40:35
Lukaku was a beast at Everton and we signed him . the rest is history as they say.

{Ed047's Note - Everton are a different beast now, new billionaire owner backed by an even richer billionaire with more of a plan that United have.

Why would he move?

3.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 13:21:54
Good point Ed 47. They do seem a good outfit. Man for man, our starting 11 is much better but i do enjoy watching them.

{Ed047's Note - I do, especially last night 😉🤣

4.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 13:38:47
Not hard to have a more of a plan of sweet f all ed 😂.

{Ed047's Note - it’s mad how they’ve not got their act together yet!

5.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 14:21:15
Because Man Utd are the biggest and most prestigious club in England and he may want to be a little part of that? Not to mention the possibility of a bigger contract and more chances of playing in the UCL.

{Ed047's Note - yes but what if he actually wants to win trophies rather than play for a club with a big name in the UK and one that makes up the numbers in the UCL? 🤷‍♂️

6.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 14:41:10
047 fishing and reeling in the catch!

I’d love to see Kane in Manchester United colours. I doubt it would happen as I doubt we could get the business done due to Levy and due to our utter incompetence in all things transfers.

I disagree with Shappy, we need to strengthen the spine of the team from top to bottom. Cavani will be a year older and your centre forward is vital to your success. A front three of Greenwood, Kane and Rashford would be a joy to watch. We desperately need a new centre back with pace and that can stay fit. We’ll also need to replace Pogba, and DVB hasn’t shown he is the man to do so as yet.

I’ll be a happy man when Lindelof, Fred and Martial aren’t considered regulars in this team.

{Ed047's Note - no fresh, was replying re DCL, however unruly did open himself up for a little leg pulling. 😉

7.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 15:22:53
Haha touché.

8.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 15:41:58
Fresh, I'm not saying we don't need a striker, just that in my opinion we need to spend elsewhere first.

Lets say United have 150m to spend this summer (I highly doubt it would be this much as considering the financial issues but let's go with it) . Which option do you think has a greater chance of seeing us win something next season.

Option A, sign a top end striker and a decent winger. Kane and Leon Bailey or DCL and Sancho. For around 150m

or option B, Rice, Kounde and Badieshile (or another CDM and couple of CB's) . For around 150m.

Which option has the biggest impact on our side. For me we will never be able to truly challenge for titles and cups while we have a defence that time and again costs us silly goals.

While I agree Cavani being a year older, and Greenwood is still young with neither being ideal to rely on we do still have a host of other offensive players who could offer a goal scoring threat, Rashford, Martial, James, Mata, Bruno, Donny (if he kicks on), then we have youngsters such as Diallo and Pellistri who will both likely be ready for some game time next season.

However, Maguire will likely still be struggling next season as will Lindelof, they don't convince as a partnership. The support for them are the perpetually injured Bailly and Jones. While looking at the younger players Tuanzebe also struggle to stay fit, while Mengi is very young. Matic will be another year older and he plays in a position where his loss of legs is far more detrimental than up front like Cavani.

So really the gamble is buy a striker and rely on Mengi stepping up, or buy a CB and rely on Greenwood. While both youngsters are very talented Greenwood is more ready and play in a position where his inexperience is less detrimental.

In dream world we need one first choice CB and one talented younger player ready to step up, whiles sending Bailly and Jones out the door. We need a CDM to replace the ageing Matic, a true holding player who can anchor our midfield. We need a top class right winger, a first choice top class ST and possibly a squad player at RB to push AWB, someone who maybe is more offensive to give us more options.

However that would likely cost 60m for a CB and 25m for a younger one, 60m for a CDM, 70m for a RW, 80m for a ST and 20m for a RB. Coming in at around 315m, the club just doesn't have that sort of money to spend in one window, which means either compromising on the number of signings or gambling on the quality and sign cheaper players.

9.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 15:59:34
He has a chance of winning trophies at arsenal though 047. The championship trophy that is 😉.

10.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 19:29:56
Shappy, well reasoned but you’ve thrown an awful lot of numbers in there out of context.

I disagree that it’s a winger and a striker or a defensive midfielder and centre backs. These are arbitrary pairs that you’ve put together.

If Diallo is as promising as we are led to believe, and Greenwood needs regular game time then there’s little need to go for a right winger. We’ve spent £37m last summer for a right winger, adding Bailey or Sancho would be unnecessarily extravagant. Pellistri plays there too I believe. The problem with our right side, in my opinion, is AWBs lack of attacking talent. Greenwood is very dangerous when operating from there.

There’s next to no chance of Rice signing, and I think he’s greatly overrated as he’s English. We would manage just fine with one of McTominay or Fred in that role for another year.

Centre half is the big problem. I wonder if you have seen Badiashelle play? And if so what’s the point in adding another young centre back into the fold when we already have Tuanzebe and Mengi? Lindelof is an adequate third choice as is Bailly on the rare occasion he’s fit. Maguire needs a partner and someone like Kounde would, I’m sure, be in the EUR 50m mark which should leave budget to strengthen up front.

Don’t forget Pogba will almost certainly go which should net 60m or so.

You can’t deny that we only look coherent when Cavani plays. A number 9 in the true sense of the word. But he’s pushing 34 and can’t play every game. Martial has done ok in fits and starts but has had long enough to show he isn’t up to it down the middle. So that means a number 9 is an absolute priority and I would therefore throw everything we have at Kane or Haaland.

You must admit a team of Henderson, AWB, Maguire, Kounde, Shaw, DVB, McTominay, Fernandes, Greenwood, Rashford and Kane sounds pretty tasty.

11.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 20:09:22
Had Dortmund accepted our bid we would have throwed another 50 (? ) millions at Sanchos manager plus 70-80 to Dortmund. I think the team has money and can raise some money from sales too, some of Pereira Dalot Bailly Lingard Donny James maybe go, or even Lindelof if we buy a CB. With some sales i don't think its out of limit to spend 250 millions or maybe more.
I think more of a problem is stubbornness, refusing to make big changes and take more than 2 players for the starting 11 in a single window than money. Otherwise we could have a window similar to Chelsea selling players for let's say 100 millions adding another 150 and buying 4-5 top players.

12.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 21:44:48
I think it's very easy to assume we have a bottomless pit of money but we don't.

The club makes around 3m per home game in march day revenue on average. With no fans in the stadium we have lost that this season. If we play up to 30 home games a season then that is potentially up to 90m blown out of our income this year.

While anyone thinking we would get close to 60m for Pogba with a year left on his contact and many teams around the world also taking big financial hits. Plus any fee we do get for Pogba we will only get all of it.

We have just cancelled Rojo's contact because no one would pay for him.

As a club we have always struggled to get decent fees for our players. With the current situation we will be lucky to raise much more than 30m in sales this year.

We have just seen the lowest January spend in 7 years across Europe. Dortmund need to sell to balance the books. The idea that we can sign 4 or 5 players for 50m each is fantasy.

13.) 11 Feb 2021
11 Feb 2021 22:03:11
We did make a good bid for Sancho and that means money ate there. The stubbornness is the biggest problem not the money. And the fact that always want obvious choices like Sancho Grealish Harry which means that we have to pay a premium so we can't buy many more.
If we change philosophy an go for 40-50 million players we can take 4-5 in once.

14.) 12 Feb 2021
12 Feb 2021 00:55:26
Good post Shappy.

IMO I think we should be replacing Martial with Sancho. It will gives us more options all round providing rotation for Rashford and Bruno whilst giving Diallo time.

I'd break the bank for Kane or Haaland this summer and let Cavani go. I like Cavani but we're getting the left overs of his best. We need to aim higher and use him as a stop gap and upgrade on Ighalo. The option would be to Keep Cavani bet on Mason.

We need a top class centre back. Pau Torres looks perfect for us, fast, good on the ball and will solve the wierdness that Shaw and Maguire create when they're move out of position and ballsing up

Kounde, Kounate look good. Varane would be a dream.

We need a single pivot option, Ndidi, Rice, Zakaria in that order.

Let Pogba, Matic, Lindelof, Jones, Bailly (px for Torres? ), Mata, de Gea, James, all can go for me.

If Grealish can be done we should try but not sure where he fits. Sancho alternative?

If it only was so easy eh?

15.) 12 Feb 2021
12 Feb 2021 10:32:12
Herrera I don't think we ever made an official bid for Sancho, the club wanted to pay no more than around 70m, but when it was clear Dortmund wouldn't entertain anything less than 100m we walked away and spent up to 37m on Diallo and a further 10m on Pellistri.

I think it's a little bit oversimplistic to say that if the club had 70m to stand on Sancho then they have 70m to spend on someone else.

The valuation of players is based on many things, talent, age, nationality, marketability, wages, agents fees etc.

The club might be able to justify spending 70m on a highly marketable young English player who could be at the club for 10 years.

I don't think it's as simple as looking at the savings account and thinking we have X amount to spend.

{Ed002's Note - The price of the player wasn't the issue. I explained this at the time.}

16.) 12 Feb 2021
12 Feb 2021 10:41:41
Cavani has to be kept for atleast another year imo.
Ole said he is a meticulous professional who sets an example for the youngsters. It is important to have such characters in our dressing room.

17.) 12 Feb 2021
12 Feb 2021 14:24:23
Shappy why are you complicate things? The club had the intention to buy Sancho knowing the price and the managers demands. I think we tried to lower the total cost from say 180 millions (Dortmund price+agent fee+sighning on fee etc) to 150 and make some payments later. So the money were there and as 002 said we are cash rich club.
We tried to lower the 120 price tag because of his managers demands. Had his manager asked for 10 millions we would had no problem with the 120 millions Dortmund asked. But his manager demanding so much money means that the total cost was huge so we tried to lower as far as we can.