05 Jun 2022 11:44:23
Morning everyone. FDJ rumours intensifying this morning, looks like this one is only matter of time now. The bookies odds have been heavily slashed too.

1.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 13:50:21
I think all signs point towards FDJ leaving Barcelona this summer.

First point is the crippling debt and the need to raise funds. Barcelona need cash soonish.

Secondly his wages, he's the 3rd highest paid player left at Barcelona with only Busquets and Alba earning more than him.

They have to bring the wage bill down if they are to register new players. Players such as Franck Kessie, who incidently plays the same position at FDJ.

They are also after Lewandowski, who no doubt would be on huge wages.

To be honest the wage issue is the bigger issue for them. Especially given the wage cap.

The fact that Barcelona have spoken to United about a possible deal highlights that they are open to selling him for the right price.

Finally what FDJ himself had said gives away far more than most think. His comments about wanting to play UCL football next season.

Under the context that he is at Barcelona who will be in the UCL next season they make no sense.

Only when you consider that he has been told he will likely have to be sold to balance the books does it make sense that he comes out and says he wants to play UCL next season.

Finally his slightly more cryptic comments about playing better for his country due to the role he plays for his country over the role he plays for his club. Has been construed as him criticising how Barcelona use him. Although that can easily be a misunderstanding, or something lost in translation.

Either way he is talking a lot about his situation at this club, his preference for how he plays and where he plays. Maybe it is just loaded questions from the press, or maybe he is considering his future and is being a little too candid.

Either way I think it very likely that FDJ departs Barcelona this summer.

Hopefully United put themselves front and centre of the queue for him and are able to convince him to join.

You'd hope the lure of his old manager, the guy who gave him is debut would be a strong enough lure to get him to sign. Yet if we remember correctly that wasn't the case with Haaland when he chose Dortmund over us.

It just depends who else wants him and who else is prepared to pay what Barcelona need to sell him.

2.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 13:45:26
If this actually does happen it will be a sensational acquisition! New CB and striker (Nunez looks like it’s happening too) and we have a whole new spine of the side to build out from.

3.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 15:19:59
With Haaland however the old manager was Ole, and having worked with him previously perhaps he knew all along.

There were also reports that United for obvious reason wouldn't put in the release clause Dortmund did.

What United can offer him is the money he wants, an ex manager who he certainly played well for and got the best and improved him and the chance to be the centre piece in the restoration of a once great club and join Scholes, Keane, Robson, Charlton, Edwards as Legendary centre midfielders who put on the famous red shirt.

I am a bit sceltical as to whether it will happen or not, I would imagine Etihad would be more up his street but perhaps he got used to playing in front of full stadiums at Barca.

4.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 16:02:23
Unbelievable Geoff.

5.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 16:24:51
Eric, I'm not convinced we'll get both FDJ AND Nunez.

I just don't see a scenario where we sign TWO players this summer for 70m+. Benfica are holding out for a massive fee. They bought him for over 20m, while his old club have a 25% sell on clause. If they agree to sell for 80m, then Almeria get 20m of that, plus they already paid 20m for him, meaning they only get 40m profit minus the wages and agents fees. Portuguese clubs run on finding talent and making huge amounts of money on transfers.

I think it's either/ or.

If we can get FDJ then we pass on Nunez and find a cheaper alternative. If FDJ decides to stay at Barcelona or moves elsewhere then I think the club pushes hard for Nunez.

I think after the season we just had, along with getting a new manager the club will want to make a statement signing.

6.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 17:38:49
Everyone is very sceltical at the moment.

{Ed014's Note - the scepticism is almost palpable!

7.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 17:44:04
Shappy where are you getting this holding out for a massive fee for nunez

The sell on fees are based on profit made so your figures are way off in that respect

And multiple relaiable reports have suggested they wpuld be hapoy witj 75 million euros in total as an overall package,

We would most likely offer 50 million euros up front with 25 million euros in addons,

Barca need the money and they need his wages off the books which puts us in the driving seat, are Barcelona really going to say no to 60 million euros? Maybe 70 with addons.

If ten hag has convinced him to come then its a formaility.

Both a striker and cm are needed more than any other position on the pitch,

We have just saved over 50 million in wages alone per year on the players we have let go for free.

There is money there to be spent and there will be money made available from players being sold.

Getting both players is easily done and would be a great start to the window.

Imo i think both will be signed as long as ten hag has convinced him of the project de jong will be easier to get than anyone Barcelona need the money.

8.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 18:21:38
Shappy you have no idea how much the club is willing to shell out or on how many players.

9.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 18:23:08
Bolger, I think we'll make one big statement signing like we try and do with every manager.

We chased Bale, Kroos, Fabregas etc for Moyes and failed.

LvG got Di Maria.

Mourinho got Pogba.

Ole got Maguire.

most reliable reports state we have around 100-120m for new signings plus some from sales.

I think we'll only make one 50m+ signing with any other players being below that amount.

Barcelona will very much hold out for around the £70-75m mark, maybe some will be add-ons but they will get close to that figure.

Remember Leicester wanting 85m for Maguire, so we spent 6 weeks negotiating down to 80m plus 5m in add-ons.

Benfica rejected 50m+ for Nunez in January from West Ham. So they will want significantly north of that figure to sell this summer. Reportedly around 100m euros, which equates to about £85m. Maybe they'll take some of it in add-ons but I doubt it'll be much more than 15m or so.

You could easily and realistically be looking at 140m for those two players. Which blows our reported budget out the water.

Then consider we definitely want a new CB with Timber (35-40m) and Pau Torres (45-50m) both touted.

Now we are up to around 180-190m on three players, still needing a full back, a second midfielder (reportedly) and possibly a new keeper if Henderson leaves (which seems likely) . Even at a bargain 20m each (bargain in the current market) that's another 60m bringing us into around 250m spent of our reported 120m budget.

Where do you suppose we get this extra 130m?

Looking at the possibly outs we have three player who might bring in a significant fee (20m+) . Henderson (20m), AWB (25m), Martial (30m) . That's 75m at most, and assuming we don't agree those fees with add-ons (it works both ways) .

Currently it's looking like both Martial and AWB might leave on loan possibly with purchase clauses. Which means it might only be 20m from Henderson.

Telles, Tuanzebe, Jones, Bailly and Pereira will be lucky to raise 40m between them. Half of them are injured at least 50% of the time, the other two have flopped. All are on wages far higher than they can expect to get from their next club. We may have to make up the difference, meaning financially what we get from these sales may be negligible.

I don't see us spending more than 180m max, which just doesn't leave space for two 70m+ signings. Which both FDJ and Nunez definitely are.

10.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 18:31:17
Amber is making things up again???
A deeper understanding of the numbers is needed before making giant leaping assumptions and generalisations. Daily sport stuff.
I think k it's been widely reported and confirmed by ed002 that we are actively looking to sign both although he did say fjd was the less likely of the 2 to sign.
Let's hope they do.
I've not seen that much now nunez but he has had a stellar season and is well coveted.
I'd like to think the huge draw of united and the exciting times ahead with money to spend a good new manager will attract these elite players with ambition and good character as well as great ability.
Let's hope the new regime can pull these deals off.

11.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 19:56:02
Glad to have added a new word to your lexicon Ed14!

12.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 20:02:00
Shappy Barcelona need the money, they need him gone to register new players and i'm sure he's been told this, the difference is leicester didn't need the money and didn't need to sell. Barcelona do

They are not going to get anywhere close to 80 million sterling, it will be somthing close to 70 million euros maybe 75 million euros in total with addons.

Teams don't sell in janauary, again its not going to be anywhere close to 100 million for nunez and if you have listended to the muppitiers he's said countless times benfica are hapoy with the proposal we have put forward i think it was 75 million euros as a complete package and the good relationship we have with mendes is helping broker the deal

Shappy you don't half make me laugh 140 million on both players ??.

We don't need to raise 130 million in sales we can afford to buy both nunez and fdj, then with the money saved from wages and the money from sales we can then look towards a rb and cb.

Go watch the muppiters on youtube, very informative and very good listen in regards to how transfers work.

But nither of the 2 players above are going to cost 140 million outright, that's not how transfers work shappy.

13.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 20:09:53
No Ken you're right, the club will spend 1bn on 10 new players this summer, all of them future Balon d'Or winners as well.

Grow up, we all want to see the club sign multiple top name players.

Yet the reality is that we can make educated guesses based on what the club have done before.

They tend to only make one big name signing (70m+) per summer window.

When was the last time we bought 2 or 3 players worth over 50m in one window.

FDJ and Nunez will both cost north of 70m. Meaning only Sancho, Lukaku, Pogba and Maguire will have cost a similar amount.

You don't go from signing four 70m+ players over a 6 year period to suddenly signing several in one window.

The Glazers simply won't loosen the purse strings that much.

Especially when you consider the club will likely look to make 4-5 signings this summer.

140m+ on two doesn't leave much if any for the other 2-3 signings.

As always United fans have got a little carried away with the transfer window. Understandable given the sheer number of players we are linked to, and the amount of stories surrounding the club.

It seems pretty nailed on that we will look to sign one of Timber or Pau Torres, they will cost 40-50m.

So you can see the issue the club have. Very rarely can we sign a player for a reasonable fee. Most players for us start at 30m+.

We had to pay 19m +8m in add-ons to sign Amad Diallo, a player who had less than 10 first team appearances for his club, and I'm not sure he has 10 for us yet.

As for what people on here know, well if we only posted what we knew as 100% fact on a rumour site then you'd be lucky to see 3 posts a month.

None of us know and everything is opinion mostly based on rumours and conjecture.

You knew nothing about Ole, but you still posted more than enough about him. We all post with limited knowledge. Pretty much 99% of what everyone posts is opinion.

14.) 05 Jun 2022
05 Jun 2022 20:50:11
I can't wait for th3 season to start and if we get Nunez I think we got a better player in him then Haaland for City.

It will just take time for the team to get used to the style of play and once that is done I think we are in for a surprise.

15.) 06 Jun 2022
06 Jun 2022 00:25:53
They are not going to cost 140 million POUNDS upfront.

50 million euros up from for nunez with 15-25 euros in addons

65 million euros for fdj with 10 in addons,

Your looking at under 100 million POUNDS for both upfront then the rest will likley go on torres or timber

With anyone money made going towards other players.

We have saved around 50 million on the players already gone, players have had contracts reduced by 25 percent for no UCL

We have the money to spend, but nunez and fdj will be the 1st 2 players to join.

16.) 06 Jun 2022
06 Jun 2022 08:45:55
Why let the truth get in the way of a good story bolger ???.

17.) 06 Jun 2022
06 Jun 2022 08:59:54
Bolger, who's to say what the Muppetiers are saying is accurate.

Latest rumours this morning from Tier 1 journalists are that United have agreed a fee of around €80m with up to another €5m in add-ons. And are now working on persuading FDJ and agree on personal terms.

If that is accurate then with the current exchange rate the initial fee would be £68m, with around another £4m in add-ons taking the deal to a maximum of around £72m.

Which is pretty much what I said yesterday.

As for Nunez the proposal from West Ham in January was for €60m or £50m. That was confirmed by several other tier 1 journalists. So I would find it very odd that a club as savvy as Benfica would agree to sell him to us for less 5 months later.

Does that sound logical to you?

There are also rumours that a proposal from United for a total package of €100m including Andreas Pereira was rejected by Benfica.

Again though this is "reportedly", so how much stock we can put in it is like everything else, limited.

There is so much speculation around our club at this time of year and so much of it is bull.

You want to believe that the club will buy both FDJ and Nunez and still have enough to buy another 2-3 players.

I take what I consider to be a more realistic view that we won't spend big on two players AND then still bring in another 2-3 players as well.

Maybe we do buy both Nunez and FDJ, but in that case I'd imagine we only sign one other player maybe Timber or Torres. With no back up keeper, no second midfielder, no full back and no wide player coming in.

Ultimately we'll just have to wait and see.

18.) 06 Jun 2022
06 Jun 2022 11:27:55
I think we all need to understand that Man United are no longer a 'big' draw. City, Liverpool and probably Chelsea are bigger draws than united. We need to stop living in the past. I don't think the players care too much playing for a team that had 'scholes beckham etc' in midfield. They want to play CL, aim for the big titles and personal accolades such as D'or.

We can get back to being a big draw, but clearly Pep and Klopp and even Tuchel are bigger draws as they have all won the CL and 2/ 3 have won the league before and know what it takes.

United is a projectl, which is probably going to take 2-3 years if we are honest. City will get stronger, especially if Pep extends. Klopp already extended.

We can only hope that the players mentioned do move to us, but we need to cut ties with the past, such as SAF, as it doesn't allow you to move forward. ETH seems like he doesn't give a rubbish and if you don't fit in, you're out. Absolutely love it. I am excited for the upcoming season, but will be really deflated if maguire is first choice CB and captain. DDG for captain would be good, seems like the most one with passion along with CR7. AWB/ Shaw out.

I am hopeful, and I would be happy with a top 4 finish season in the upcoming season, anything more would be a bonus.

19.) 06 Jun 2022
06 Jun 2022 13:30:29
Ken, what are you on about? A good story?

Bolger has listened to one journalist, I have listened to another. Maybe the one I listened to is right, maybe the one Bolger has listened to is right, or maybe they are both wrong.

If every story in the press was accurate then United would spend around 700m each summer and sign 50 different players.

So we need to take every story with a pinch of salt.

What we can do, and is probably the most logical and prudent way to approach it, is to weigh up what the club have done in recent history and assume something similar will happen this summer. Use that as the baring for what is likely to happen and on the whole (certainly more often than not) you'll be pretty close to the truth of it.

Looking at what the club have done over the past 5-8 years we can assume that we will sign between 3-5 players, spending a total of between 70-180m.

I think to expect more is setting oneself up for disappointment. While speculating to suggest that it is what is likely to happen only goes to show seeds of discontentment amoungst a divided fan base.

We see it every summer, fans get caught up in the excitement and all the speculation, discuss "reports" as if they are statements of fact. They kick off and feel let down when it doesn't happen.

To assume that the club will save 40-50m on wages by cutting down the squad so that money will immediately go into transfer funds is fanciful to say the least.

First off it's a massive leap to make, especially with nothing from the club saying or even suggesting that.

Secondly, every new signing will have a wage, so the more players we sign the more the wages go up. Everyone leaves we save 50m in wages. But then if FDJ joins on around 400k per week then that's 20m a year in wages. Now we've only saved 30m on wages. Nunez joins on 200k per week and that's another 10m. Timber or Torres on 120k per week and that's another 6m.

So we saved 50m on wages, but then added three players who would cost 35m, meaning we only saved 15m.

So even if the money saved went to transfers only 15m of the 50m would. Which would further decrease if we signed more players. It's a flawed idea.

Also several of the players who will be leaving this summer have been on loan this season, meaning another club picked up their wages (or the bulk of them) . So how does that factor in?

This isn't football manager or FIFA, you can't just adjust your wage cap to increase the money you have to spend on players. The real world just doesn't work like that.

The club will sign 3-5 players, some fans will be happy with some of the signings, some won't be happy with any of them, and some will feel the club needed to sign an extra 1-4 players than they did.


I don't think the club will sign 3-4 players each for 50m or more.

De Jong and Nunez will be in that category, probably more than 50m each. Timber and Torres would be somewhere between 35-50m according to reports.

That leaves very little money left from what the club spends on average for a second midfielder, or a fullback or a back up keeper, or a wide player. All areas the club are supposedly looking at.

Like I said not all the rumours will be true, in fact probably less than 10% will be.

20.) 06 Jun 2022
06 Jun 2022 18:10:01
If Barcelona are asking for 70 - 80 million pounds i would just walk away and look at someone else.

Your talking making him the 3rd highest player behind pogba and coutinho in terms of fee paid,

Its not like he's a 10 out of 10 every week either, he doesbt fit in at barca,

If we can get him for 70 million euros all in as a package, anything more tell them to do one, but i can't see them passing up on that amount of money, they have till the end of june who else are they going to sell?

If in the next few days we don't see an offer i don't think we will carry on pursuing tbh, pre season isn't far away, internations end next week.

Really don't want to spend all our time on de jong and lose out on nunez.

Erikson on a free as a rotation for bruno would be great business.

21.) 07 Jun 2022
06 Jun 2022 23:18:44
I don’t often disagree with you shappy, but I think you’re wrong here. I think two players in that price range is definitely feasible.

Add in fees from selling a few players like Martial, Bailly, Pereira, Henderson, maybe AWB, Telles and Fred too (if we sign FDJ there’s no room for Fred), and the big savings on wages, a couple of less expensive signings should be possible too.

22.) 07 Jun 2022
07 Jun 2022 13:05:11
Thorne, feasible and likely are very different.

Given our revenues it's feasible for us to spend 200m every summer regardless.

Yet we average around half that amount.

Ultimately it comes down to what the club are prepared to spend, history suggests it isn't anymore than 150m maximum.

Of course it's feasible that we sign both FDJ and Nunez for around 70m each. However, if that happens I'd suggest we'd only see one other signing at most.