Manchester United banter 2

10 Oct 2025 13:17:38
Just glad to see Hojlund do well recently, for both club and country. Always thought there was a player in him, though he was maybe not ready to be the main man at United. Hopefully he can kick on from here and fulfil his potential.

10 Oct 2025 15:51:36
Would rather we’d kept him than Zirkzee, although until we start playing to our strikers’ strengths, it doesn’t really matter who we play up top.

10 Oct 2025 20:12:22
I like to see any ex player doing well as long as we are not adversely affected.
Very few players get to play for united that are not good but not everybody can be good at united.
He failed to impress and deliver here and that's not because he can't play . He just didn't play that well in our team. There are any amount of reasons for that.
Mist players that leave do well elsewhere including the ex academy guys because if you're at united you are in the elite percentile most of the time. It should be no surprise that any player that leaves does well somewhere else. They are all very good players.

11 Oct 2025 09:34:32
I want all the players who leave us to do well, it only helps us get better deals in the future. If every player who leaves us flops at their next club it's hardly going to create a line of clubs queuing up to buy the players we want to move on.

11 Oct 2025 11:29:28
If you had the choice now, would you return Sesko to the shop and exchange him for Rasmus and use the money on a midfielder?

11 Oct 2025 12:24:32
No definitely not.

11 Oct 2025 13:54:51
I actually think Hojlund is a little further along in his development than Sesko, although Sesko has a much higher ceiling (I’m sure there’s a joke to be made there about his height) .

But after last season, I don’t think starting this season with Hojlund as our main striker was really an option. We should have sold Bruno and used the money for a midfielder, or continued to play Bruno as the left CAM and used the Cunha money to reinforce in the middle of the pitch.

11 Oct 2025 16:48:57
Sesko is significantly further along than Hojlund. I don't think I've seen a single opinion of yours redseven that I agree with but this one is up there I have to say. Hojlund's issue has been his poor movement in buildup play. If you view passing maps of last year you'll see he was avoided last year. Sesko, by contrast, is already a focal point and gives a direct option we didn't have last year. Hojlund could be very good but he needs to develop in a league where he has more space. The move to Napoli is brilliant for him. Hopefully he pushes on. He's had a great start there, but you are definitely in the minority on this.

11 Oct 2025 17:56:33
The feeling’s mutual, DonRed.

I may be in the minority, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. I guess we’ll see come the end of the season.

11 Oct 2025 18:52:23
Redseven, at least I'm consistent. You just complained that money used on the striker should've been used on central midfield. Here is a post of yours
"""
28 Apr 2025 14:11:54
As much as I think Cunha would be an excellent fit for us and for Amorim's system, I still think a centre forward should be our top priority this summer. If rumors are to be believed and we're in a position to pay £63m (€74m) for Cunha and £30m (€35m) for Delap, I'd much rather see us put up the €100m needed to sign Gyokores.

Of course. Whether or not he'd actually want to sign for us is another matter entirely.

redseven
"""

12 Oct 2025 06:50:53
Do you really have nothing better to do than trawl through months of my old posts? How sad. And this really isn’t the gotcha you seem to think it is.

My post above says that Cuhna was an unnecessary signing if the plan was always to keep Bruno. The six-month old post you quoted also said that Cuhna was an unnecessary signing. I’m not sure what your point is supposed to be.

12 Oct 2025 13:00:18
Just look through that thread. I didn't want to embarrass you further. It's typical of the type of thing you post. I've made my point clear. I remembered that exchange quite clearly as you were ardent in that about how awful you thought Hojlund was. And here you are talking him up (or talking down Sesko depending on the point of view) . I'm not sure if you are just young but you do come across as such.

12 Oct 2025 17:21:08
The only person that you’re embarrassing is yourself.

At no point have I ever said that we should have used the money that we spent on Sesko to sign a midfielder, nor have I ever described Hojlund as awful. I’ve never talked Sesko down either. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’ve repeatedly stated that I think he has the potential to be world class, and was calling for us to sign him back in 2023 when he was still at Salzburg.

At this point, it’s difficult to tell if you’re on a wind-up or if you just lack basic comprehension skills. Either way, I’m done.

10 Oct 2025 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - Thestigno1 has posted a new article entitled, If Steven Gerrard Returns To Rangers, Let's Finish What We Started

09 Oct 2025 15:31:19
Manchester United in the Premier League 25/ 26

Expected goals - 1st
Shots on target - 1st
Counter attacks - 1st
Touches in box - 2nd
Positional attacks- 3rd
Pressing (PPDA) - 3rd

Yet some say they don't see progress. Were we supposed to win the premier league in Oct? I fully support what Ratcliffe has said about the task at hand and how it will take time.

Hopefully we see a full takeover soon, fingers crossed.

09 Oct 2025 17:59:47
Ua there is obvious improvement in our play not yet leading to enough points on the board.
There is probably some damming stats on conversion of chances or defensive lapses. So there is 2 sides to every coin. Time and patience and hopefully our play will get more points sooner rather than later.
Remember its fine lines we 2 spot kicks missed from being 4th. Liverpool scored 5 winners this season in 85th min and after. You do this when your confidence is high and in the habit. Whereby if you are in our habits you tend to lose late goals. Its a hard cycle to break.
We are inching our way forward not striding. The striding will come i hope.
Still a very unbalanced squad.
New keeper new front 3. Takes a little time to gel.
The team workrate stats would make interesting reading too. For 1st time in years they are working hard as a team trying to execute their plan. Not great at times but i think there is a lot to look forward to.

09 Oct 2025 18:39:22
Considering who we have played during these first 7 games as well puts our points in to much needed context.

Arsenal, Fulham, Burnley, City, Chelsea, Brentford and Sunderland. We've played 3 of last season's top four in our first 7 games. With our next game being against the only other top four team that we haven't played yet.

After we play Liverpool it will be 50% of our first 8 games will have been against last season's top four.

No team in the league has had as tough a fixture list as we have.

We've played those teams with less than ideal circumstances, our keeper situation wasn't able to get sorted until late in the window meaning our new keeper only made his debut in our last game.

We had a similar issue with Sesko, not being able to join until after pre-season, then subsequently not being fully settled and up to speed until the last couple of weeks.

We've had a few injuries as well, which given the nature of our squad will always disproportionately impact us compared to other more settled sides.

All things considered we are probably on about par with where most people would have reasonably expected. Most would have expected loses to Arsenal, City and Chelsea, with wins against Burnley, Sunderland and Fulham and a draw against Brentford (always a tricky team) . Giving us 10 points, which is what we have, the difference is that we beat Chelsea, lost to Brentford and drew with Fulham.

We are actually exactly where we probably should be, we just got here slightly differently to what most of us expected.

10 Oct 2025 10:56:44
Yes, everything is awesome, we are amazing.

10 Oct 2025 11:17:55
The only stat that matters is winning games and picking up trophies.

Overall we have improved, there have been some lapses, which rightly spooked the supporters, we have watched such dross at times it is understandable.

What has been good is SJR has said effectively he is here to stay, even if it remains bumpy for a while. I think we all want Amorim to succeed, even though sometimes we get frustrated.

10 Oct 2025 11:35:55
And sitting 10th with a -2 goal difference. it's great!

10 Oct 2025 12:05:48
Sim01975 you obviously are discounting the 2 missed penalties. Score them and you are sitting 4th. Does that sound better?

10 Oct 2025 14:28:52
UA

if this if that never gets you anywhere. Reality bis we have been two promoted teams a chelsea team that had their goalie sent off in the 5ht minute and we had to pray for the final whistle in that game and hanging on.

Whether its players/ system/ coaching this team will concede goals against better teams and bang average offensively against better teams in the pl. we do create more but then again we spent 200 million on 3 front men with 2 pl proven.

I thought we would beat sunderland and I also said we will get our ass handed to us at anfield. He might be gone by the next international break as too many games now coming that look like we will crumble.

10 Oct 2025 15:41:38
If my auntie had balls she would be my uncle.

10 Oct 2025 16:26:23
All its buts and maybes except for my projection about how awful we are going to be. That is obviously spot on, you can take it to the bank.

In other news, go Bluejay's!

10 Oct 2025 17:37:57
Dodgy

I am a redsox fan and nothing makes me happier than seeing the yankees get bounced again.

10 Oct 2025 18:33:28
It's a very woke world and I hate to break this news to you, Kurtis but.

10 Oct 2025 23:15:30
We do have some masochistic United fans, they only seem to be happy when we do badly as it gives them the freedom to wallow in the misery of failure.

11 Oct 2025 05:34:20
Good man ahmad, daaa Yankees lose!

This year has been several years in the making for the jays, so going to enjoy it. Wish I knew MU would be back to the top inside of 8 years.

11 Oct 2025 08:35:24
shappy

You make me laugh bud. we are stuck to 16 to 11 for a year now with Amorim. His record is the worst of any manger for last 35/ 40 years. This is not just slightly underperforming, this is a historic bad for a club like united.

Throwing out stats to tell people hey we are really not that bad just does not cut it. Start with winning games on a consistent basis and stop losing so often to average teams, that will help people change their mind.

Anything less is whatever imo no matter how likeable the guy is.

11 Oct 2025 10:08:59
Ahmad, it's a process. For the first time in over a decade we have a structure in place to actually support the manager. Yet fans still want to flip flop and chuck the baby out with the bathwater the moment things don't go the way they want.

We are actually for the first time rebuilding this squad. We haven't ever done a proper rebuild, we've just signed a couple of fancy expensive plasters to stick over the gapping wound and hoped that would fix everything. It didn't, in fact it only allowed everything to fester and get worse.

Before you can rebuild you have to knockdown what already exists, that often means taking a backwards step first. That was what happened last season. The new manager kicked out a load of players who were causing problems in January, and again over the summer, the club actually allowed the manager the freedom to do that and backed him. We are in the process of bringing in the new players we need, but the squad was such mishmash that we were never going to be able to fix everything in one summer and therefore there will be holes in the squad that just cannot be covered adequately and that will impact both performances and results.

We need at least two new midfielders, we need first choice LCB, we need another wingback all for the first 11. We also need a better back up/ competition keeper, another midfielder and striker for squad depth, possibly another CB for squad depth as well.

That's four new players for the first 11, and another four to give us adequate squad depth to avoid a big drop in performances when we are forced to rotate.

When you still need that many players of course there will be fluctuations in performances and results.

Yet this season we have about par for points for what we could have reasonably expected before the season kicked off. We actually have more points this season than we did at this point last season despite the harder fixture list. We also have more points this season when compared to the corresponding fixtures from last season.

Which highlights clear progress. There are also a whole bunch of stats that highlight that we are playing much better than many give us credit for.

All we can ask is for progress, unfortunately progress isn't linear. Sometimes it's small steps forward, other times it'll be big leaps forward.

Let's just do our job and support the club, the team and the manager. Maybe then we might actually be able to climb out of this lethargy.

09 Oct 2025 13:00:34
Wonder was SJR involved, new partners?

12 Oct 2025 21:43:43
I'd imagine that's the likeliest case Redcon. It's no secret we're looking for investors in the stadium + property development project.

08 Oct 2025 21:47:27
A few weeks back I posted about Shea Lacey having watched him playing for U21s and scoring a couple of goals, while being the best player on the pitch.

I see that he was invited to join the senior England squad in their latest training session. Clearly others think him a fine prospect as well.

As we know the club recently spent some £50m on updating facilities at Carrington and more recently some £10m on the Women's facilities.

This spending is set to continue with further investment of some £10m in the Academy infrastructure, this being a continuation of the stated intent to raise standards to an elite level. Along with the youth signings made over the last year or so hopefully we will start to see some results in the not to distant future.

09 Oct 2025 15:16:43
I'm a bit concerned about the direction of the academy upgrade. It feels like the intention might be to turn it into more of a conveyor belt for talent to be sold, similar to the models we've seen at Manchester City and Chelsea. While we might see the occasional player break into the first team, the underlying strategy could be more commercially driven.

In his interview he said "You need the academy to be producing talent all the time. It helps you financially"

This could be interpreted in two ways:

It helps financially by reducing the need to buy players, because we're developing quality talent internally. Or, it helps financially by producing players to sell for profit.

Given that both our U18s and U21s are currently outperforming the first team, there's clearly talent in the pipeline. But based on SJR’s track record so far, I’d lean toward the second interpretation.

09 Oct 2025 17:33:19
Kurtis what is SJR's track record? Under him there have been cuts to wages but they have invested in the team - as he said was needed. I think you are reading far too much into this. It's not one of those two interpretations. It obviously is both, just like it is for City for instance.

09 Oct 2025 18:21:47
Kurtis I think its a combination of both.
They are running a business so the academy has to deliver good returns on investment. That will allow them to invest in other areas of the business. An academy and scouting network that both help save money and generate potentially very high returns is fundamental to the business plan of all the biggest clubs.
Profitable trading of assets is a very credible way of providing internal investment for other areas of the business. We need to become self sufficient again.
United had 22 academy graduates in epl squads 5 seasons ago. I think only 6 were in our squad and we didn't profit greatly on many of them. Fulham had 7 and had made over 60m in sales.
Breaking into the 1st team is not easy.
We do have a few on loan now and a couple of standouts in the academy if 2 or 3 make it into the 1st team over the next 2 years that's a huge success and unless we get a good return on the 15 that don't make it every year the academy becomes a drain on finances instead of a contributer.
Keep the cream of the crop and move the others on at good profit. That's the best model. Some will come back to bite you on the ass but that's OK.
If you make a decision for the right reasons at the time, that then turns into a bad decision in hidsight 2 years down the line it doesn't mean you didn't do the right thing at the time.
Everybody loves seeing one of the academylads come through especially local lads I've seen AJH say that. But the truth is if there is 25 in your year less than 5% of those will play over 50 games for the 1st team.
We have 3 keepers and strikers minimum every year or 2 go through the academy. How many academy keepers or strikers have played over 50 1st team games since 1990? 4 cbs ever couple of years how many have played 50 1st team games since 1990?
Tiny minority. Lots have had great careers in the league but not with us. We never made the money we should have from those guys imo.

09 Oct 2025 21:16:44
Kurtis, that is a somewhat skewed way of looking at things and I think much misrepresents the actuality.

In a perfect world all first team players would be graduates of the academy, but here in the real world that is certainly not going to happen. If a steady supply of 2 or 3 youngsters are regularly making the first team it would be a considerable success.

This of course would leave a large number of academy players not making it (with us) and the issue is then how do they progress their careers. If the quality of the academy is good enough then they hopefully can be sold to decent clubs for reasonable fees, obviously suiting all parties. This additional revenue would help fund incoming transfers.

This is not improving the academy just to sell the best players but an improvement to give more players better opportunities long term.

Surely this has to be seen as the right approach.

09 Oct 2025 22:53:18
I completely take your points — and I do agree that having a strong academy inevitably means not every player will end up in the first team. Selling good young players who can’t quite make the step up is a natural part of a healthy football ecosystem.

Maybe I didn't articulate myself well, my concern is less about the fact that players will be sold, and more about the underlying intent guiding the academy’s direction. If the core philosophy becomes primarily about generating revenue rather than developing talent for the club’s own long-term competitiveness, that’s where I think we risk losing the balance.

There’s a difference between an academy that produces players who sometimes get sold and an academy designed to produce players to sell. The former supports the first team; the latter supports the balance sheet. The line can be subtle, but the outcomes over time are very different.

10 Oct 2025 11:19:47
95% of the academy are sold or moved on, that is nothing new. The class of 92 were a once in a clubs life’s exception.

10 Oct 2025 15:44:38
Kurtis, I do not for one second accept your premise that the core philosophy of the academy will be income generation over and above talent development for the first team.

There is absolutely nothing to give any reason to formulate that hypothesis. I realise you always seem to look for negativity, even when it does not exist, but if you for one second think that the Academy management, coaches and trainers would operate on that basis then I am afraid you are wrong.

From knowing someone associated with the academy I certainly feel there is a desire by all concerned to develop some of the top talents we have, into first team regulars.

Remember, from a purely financial standpoint the value of a player making it to the first team is most likely to exceed what would be received, by way of way of transfer fee, for a player sold. Incentive enough surely to continue with things as they are.

09 Oct 2025 12:56:57
Maguire in talks for a new contract.

Thoughts? Would seem unnecessary to me given his age and lack of pace.

09 Oct 2025 18:55:23
I don't see any merit in it at all he has been talking about it a bit. I'd imagine he will be the one looking to talk to understand all his options.
Perhaps he is trying to drum up some interest before Jan window in the hope he might make the wc squad.
Im sure he'd like to be playing more. If they offer him appropriate wages to stay for another season like Evans did then that's something he might like to do. We are not blessed with many long servers at the club unusually.

10 Oct 2025 07:02:55
Absolutely no way should he have a new contract

Should of gone to West Ham a few years back

We should of paid him off and we would of got about £20 million and not had to pay £10 million a season in wages saving us roughly £40 million

We should be all over Guehi no transfer fee an absolute no brainer.

10 Oct 2025 09:22:49
Blackpool Red,

I agree with you.

10 Oct 2025 11:50:37
Blackpool I agree with you but I'm going to be the grammar police here and point out it's "should have" not "should of"

08 Oct 2025 22:26:55
Big congratulations to the Women's team, first game in Champions League proper tonight and began with a win.

Go Girl's!

08 Oct 2025 18:08:45
Wonder what is everyones thoughts on potential midfield options for January iv narrowed it down to.
Wharton
Baleba
Anderson
Hijmlund
Gallagher
Wharton the stand out option would be a proper midfield option.
Baleba talented no doubt but questions whether he has the elite quality's
Anderson a good option and potentially cheaper than the others
Hijmlund a leader but questions over the league.
Gallagher while a good player just don't think he is good enough to bring us to he next level.

08 Oct 2025 18:42:03
Any of the above john imo. I think Gallagher is a good player.
Ideally for me a loan for Gallager to end of season with an option to buy with ugarte going the other way on loan with option to buy. There was reported interest in him from AM.
And we buy one of the top 3 from your list.
I think we need 2 players there and Gallagher can do either role.
Let mainoo go on loan for the rest of the season and then bring him back and let bruno go in the summer.
So that would leave 4 solid options 4 2 positions till end of season
Gallagher new buy casimero and bruno.
Its a bit of a stretch but I did say ideally 😆.

08 Oct 2025 19:03:56
Definetly think we need 2 midfielders.
Gallagher be a solid option in January most likely be the only one available for maybe a decent fee.
Wharton would be my choice in the summer just a class player.
Hopefully we will see casemiro and Bruno moved on and potentially ugarte.

08 Oct 2025 19:05:59
Stiller.

08 Oct 2025 22:34:38
The midfield signings will be the biggest factor in how we move forward as a club. They are the ones that ultimately dictate how the team plays.

Personally I always like to have a proper ball playing No.6, someone who'll sit deeper and dictate the tempo of the game, speeding up and importantly slowing down the movement of the ball to control the game. A Pirlo, Carrick, Xabi Alonso or Kroos type player.

There are several good young options available, with Wharton being the premium option.

That said the rumours are that the manager wants a more dynamic ball carrying player rather than a passer, with Baleba being the prime target.

Ultimately we need more than one midfielder, maybe we go big on one player then buy a cheaper option who is a slightly different profile.

Something like Baleba and Hackney, or Wharton and Agoumé.

08 Oct 2025 23:43:39
I like Anderson he does the dirty work and makes players around him tick. he's also one of those players that keep getting better and at every level grows into the role.

There is something about a leaderin Him as well. You cam see and hear him in games driving people on. I don't think hr the best technicalĺy on the list but he's the best footballer, if we consider all that makes a top professional. Right now i think he is tha one we need the most.

We missed out on Henderson and then Rice, this team needs some World Class Characters, i thibk he's the one.

09 Oct 2025 06:30:37
Where is out youth stock currently positioned.
I know Kone is highly regarded and being nursed back from a decent injury.
Had whispers of others in the central mid position, Moorhouse, Fletcher etc.

09 Oct 2025 08:31:58
Miles off the pace jim.

09 Oct 2025 08:45:41
Utd need three quality midfielders to replace Casamiro, ugarte and Mainoo.

Any of Wharton, Anderson, Baleba, Ederson.

09 Oct 2025 12:38:34
Baleba and Wharton for me could be the ideal midfield 2. Mix of ball playing 6 and the all energy player next to him.

I think neither are realistic in January so we could look at a loan to get through this season and that could impact what we do long term if that player does well.

Going forward I would then like us to bring through at some from the youth team, even if that means some loans are required to get them ready.

10 Oct 2025 11:41:23
Stiller and Wharton for me.

08 Oct 2025 07:39:03
{Ed's Note - 007 has posted a new article entitled, Was Heitinga / Slot The Secret?

07 Oct 2025 16:19:00
Internation break question. Greatest ever National side if there was ever a Great Britain/ United Kingdom national team? Trying to include at least 1 player from each country.

I'll start with (although undecided on a few, tough choice being nostalgic) :

Banks
Moore
Hansen
Ferdinand
Charlton
Robson
Gascoigne or Hoddle?
Giggs or Bale?
Best
Dalgleish, Law, Kane, Shearer?
Rooney or Greaves?

07 Oct 2025 16:33:46
Gone for a 3-4-3 formation as too many midfield attacking options. Please add to bottom of OP ed?

07 Oct 2025 16:47:28
Will that system work Supasub?

07 Oct 2025 17:33:43
Good team that supsub.
I'll try name another one as there are so many good players. See if my lads would give you a game. 433
Neville southall.
Rb phil neal
Lb Ashley cole
Cb sol Campbell
Cb Norman hunter
6 souness
7 Robson cpt
8 scholes
9 rush
Rw beckham
Lw Jimmy Johnston
I only took Robson as he would be in any team I picked and captain it.
Bench from who you have bit mentioned
Adams alan ball (in case sourness gets a yellow😅) Steve nichol john barns and shilton.

07 Oct 2025 18:09:32
I've probably spoiled it with options. Should have just stuck with 11 names. And yes Ports I'd be open to changing a little :)

07 Oct 2025 22:19:11
GK - Banks
LB - Cole
CB - Ferdinand
CB - Moore
RB - Walker
CM - Scholes
CM - Robson
CAM - Rooney
RW - Best
ST - Kane
LW - Charlton.

08 Oct 2025 11:17:44
I'm going to limit mine to players I've watched (sorry Duncan and Sir Bobby)

GK Jennings
LB Pearce
CB Ferdinand
CB Wille Miller
RB Hansen
LW Giggs/ Bale
CM Scholes
CM Robson
RW Best
F. Shearer
F. Rush/ Dalglish

Honourable mentions to Neville, Terry, Gerrard, Hughes and Gerry Armstrong 😁.

08 Oct 2025 12:03:56
Willie Miller. there's a player👏👏.

08 Oct 2025 13:15:02
Could have played in any team in the world, Ken.

08 Oct 2025 14:19:59
He could. your stretching it with gerry Armstrong though🤣.

08 Oct 2025 17:39:46
Aye, probably 😁.

08 Oct 2025 22:19:41
GK JENNINGS
LB ASHLEY COLE
RB PHIL NEAL
CB BOBBY MOORE (C)
CB DUNCAN EDWARDS
LW GARETH BALE
CM KENNY DALGLEISH
CM PAUL GASCOIGNE
RW GEORGE BEST
SK IAN RUSH
SK BOBBY CHARLTON.

08 Oct 2025 23:46:09
Based on players I’ve seen live. 95 onwards.

GK - Seaman
RB - Neville
LB - Cole
CB - Terry
CB - Ferdinand
CM - McAlister
CM - Gazza
RM - Whiteside
LM - Bale
CF - Rooney
ST - Kane

Subs Giggs, McCoist, Ramsey.

09 Oct 2025 00:07:32
Gk Gordon Banks
Rb Gary Neville
Lb Ashley Cole
Cb Alan Hanson
Cb John Charles
Cm Bryan Robson
Cm Duncan Edwards
Am Bobby Charlton
Lf Tom Finney
Rf George Best
Cf Dennis Law

My dad, my grandad, my Uncles tell me that Big Dunc, who played HB which we know as DM was the best player they ever saw. Sir bobby says that only Big Dunc made him feel inferior on a football pitch, he is the first name i would put on any team.

Sir Tom i am told by those who watched Big Dunc and Bobby was the only english player that ever reached their level.

John Charles was considered world class as a CF and CB, no one else has ever managed that, it ridiculous.


John Charles

The Lawman just beats out Kane.