Yeh it's not like they've had a year to plan for this. Anyhoo I accept I may have got it wrong earlier...Woodward could have been Bungle
A year? And how do you know they haven't got a plan? Liverpool and relegation risk sides have signed a few players. Arsenal took over 10 years to finally sign a keeper who isnt hilariously **** and Chelsea have signed one of our rejects. Hardly a flood of transfers. Maybe one will set them all off.
I really don't care about what the other clubs are doing. I'm only thinking about United here. We have a virtual rebuild to think about. There's nothing to suggest anything's been planned otherwise we'd be doing our business early. Woodward is a cheque book chairman and will go for the glory signings...and probably fail at those too.
This window does already have that worryingly familiar ring to it - lots of rumours, no action (Depay apart) and yet we start to shed players before shipping in replacements ie Nani, RVP. Why don't we do it the logical way around and sign new players, then release those they were bought to replace. Now we run the risk of not replacing RVP with a decent striker and even if we find one having to pay even higher prices to replace him because clubs/agents know we are desperate.
You clearly are as you keep bringing it up. Only the other day you mentioned how Italian clubs were signing everyone. I agree though, who cares what other clubs do. Disagree on a rebuild though. Van Gaal says he wants to add a spine to the side. This makes sense as at times last season, we seriously lacked one. Players like Ramos are perfect targets for that strategy. Experienced heads with top quality. As far as I can tell, weve identified all targets and made bids on several including Ramos and Schneiderlin. Both bids were rejected. I suspect we will see follow up bids reported soon.
Theres nothing familiar about this summer. Weve already made one signing and are chasing the right kind of players. In previous summers, we refuse to be drawn into battles and cower at the thought of Real coming in for a player (despite only ever losing one player to real we didnt want to lose) This summer we are bullying Madrid. So much so that their own mouth piece is getting close to conceding defeat in their chase of De Gea.
No I don't. I've NEVER used any other club to compare our signings or our transfer activity. This is 10 months of build up and expectations. Actually no, scrap that this is 5 years of build up and expectations where the whole world and his wife can see the areas we need to rebuild. Our scouting system, our chairman, our owners come across as something off amateur hour when it comes to transfer business. Ramos? Schneiderlin? My grandmother could have pulled those hollywood names out a bag...and she's been dead for 9 years. What exactly are we paying these fckers to do? The irony is this is worse than Football Manager. Make no mistake mate Woodward needs to earn the respect of the fans. And he's done nothing to show he's capable of leading a club of United's stature yet. At the moment he could be sitting at Spurs (no disrespect) and doing the exact same thing.
I wish I had your faith in the susbstance and accuracy of the many press reports flying around about who we are in for. Apart from the reports coming from Saints confirming a bid for Scheiderlin, every single word in the press is nothing more than complete guesswork and at best there are probably only three or four people inside the club who actually know who we intend to buy. By that measure, the only bid we have made is for Schneiderlin. RM haven't made a bid for De Gea, we haven't made a bid for Schweinsteiger, we haven't made a bid for Ramos or indeed any of the other twenty or so bods 'connected' to us in the papers.
No I actually want the people tasked with finding much needed players for MUFC to be able to the job they're being paid for. To show a level of skill and competence that befits the club they represent. To be able to demonstrate some strategic planning to address our needs which goes beyond a reactionary response to some flavour of the month potential signing. It's not Ramos which is the problem fo god's sake. Had Ramos or even Schneiderlin been a pre-planned season long manouevre which Woodward had cultivated behind the scenes and was now about to be signed I would have no problems at all. The fact there appears to have been no homework done on any signings makes Woodward a waste of fcking space. He may very well sign Ramos and many united fans will pat him on the back, too stupid to realise he did fck all but open a cheque book to acquire a player that landed in his lap.
Anyone know anything about Torino right back Matteo Darmian? we have allegedly put in a £14m did for him.
I get what Treble is saying. Spunking big money on big name players isn't exactly impressive work. We could all do that.
Its not exactly easy. Much much easier to spunk smaller amounts on unknowns woth zero reputation. Far harder to find a gem though. Ramos wouldn't be on anyones list, until you found out he might just be available. When that happens, planning goes out the window. You dont plan to sign the finished article.
You can but that's besides the point. Any planning of any sort would have been welcome when it came to a DM, a RB, a couple of CBs or a CF. When some /all of those positions require addressing you dont wait for tge transfer window to open with your fingers crossed! Perfect example below of planning by United...read it and you'll see it also includes 1 planned finished article signing. Look at the date on the report http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/6261666.stm
Falcao clearly wasn't planned. Not sure who's point that proves/disproves but he wasn't. If it's true that RVP is leaving then we must have at least one centre forward lined up. Right? I mean, we just must. Which surely means there's some sort of plan afoot. Or not.
Completely different situation though Treble. LVG is not in a position to build a squad and add to it to maintain success, rather he has been given 3 years to win trophies. Clearly last summer he did not have a great deal of time to assess the squad and make purchases to strengthen and the January transfer window is notoriously hard to acquire players of the required standard. LVG seems to be favouring players with experience which can take some time to negotiate with the player and the selling club. It seems to me that Woodward is working through a list of targets which suggests we have a plan as it seems absurd given the size of the club that that wouldn't be the case. It seems to be a tough market this year as there are many clubs vying for the same players which is probably because it's the year after a World Cup and also the lifting of FFP restrictions. I expect to see some transfer action next week.
Agreed, with the possible increase in games next season it wouldn't make sense to just get rid of players like RVP just because they are on big wages and if they could still do a job. Personally I think people are getting a bit edgy due to LVG saying he wanted his business done early, some clubs seemingly getting their business done early, the lack of rumours this year and because Woodward seems to have developed a reputation for incompetence with regards transfers.
