Transfer Rumours Let's ignore the big ****ing elephant and blame the latest manager, again. Are we nearly there yet?

True, the actual centre of our midfield was missing, but this just emphasises that we absolutely have to buy actual top class players in these positions.

Yes @cytrax , this means we have to spend money! These players do not exsist in our reserves or youth squads (as McTominay highlights only too vividly).

Bellingham, Rice, de Jong, we have to be targetting these type of players and signing at least one player of this ilk this summer. Fred can stay, Sabitzer won't be signed permanently, and McTominay will not ever be good enough to play at the level we want to see being played.

Yesterday was ****e, and does show we've over achieved above expectations this season so far.

But that even being said, it still wasn't ****ing good enough and one of two of those on the pitch yesterday should be ashamed by their lack of effort. Considering our opponents yesterday have also over achieved above realistic expectations, they appeared to me to be a hell of a lot more up for it than we were.

Can't even be arsed to rehash the continued Weghorst experiment other than to say, if it continues for much longer it will genuinely affect mine (and every United supporters) opinion on Ten Hag, to the negative.

 

Yeh that's what I'm looking forward to now. Just get top 4 (or win the Europy which is the harder task imo) and attract the best players for those positions from outside.

Centre Forward
Central Midfielder
Right Back

Also bring back others to add depth like Zidane, Amad, Laird. Along with Pellestri and Garnacho.

All ready for next season. There's a fcking plan.

Looking at Trippier, fck knows why we didn't go for him when he was keen to come to us from Atletico. He's been excellent.

 

I do not disagree that we need better players. But the obsession with these headlines players is not going to help us, in my opinion. With Rice and Bellingham, we are looking at at least £90m to get either of them. Then back to the de Jong drama. There lies the problem! We burn time chasing shadows doing that and I hope that era is gone with Woodward.

The more of these headline players we bring, the more bloated the wage bill, the more we find ourselves in financial perils. It is simply unsustainable!

A better scenario will be to use a blend of youth and smart purchases that no one expects. The league is filled with top performers beyond the paper names. This is what I would personally like to see. Not some Bellingham or Rice obsession that isn’t even guaranteed to bring sustained success while guaranteeing them huge payday.

 

No I think we need a proven central midfielder. The youth can have time to develop and we'll need them for squad rotation, but as we've seen with Eriksen, Casemiro and Bruno we need that quality.

As for mercenaries, I trust Ten Hag to bring in players with the right mentality and hunger AND manage them well. That's been evident from every player he's brought in - from Casemiro right down to Weghorst regardless of ability.

We can't compete at the top without it, no one can anymore with the likes of City.

 

The reason you pay top dollar, is because they are what we need.

Finished article players that we know will slot right into the position.Ergo, expensive.

We don't have youth to blend wild punts with anyway, they do not exist, I said that earlier.

It only really needs one of the above (I did say 'type' and 'of this ilk' in the very same sentence, so I wasn't really suggesting it had to be one of those actual three) to supplement Casemiro, Eriksen and Fernandes. There is an enormous drop off in quality from Casemiro and Eriksen to Fred, Sabitzer and McTominay. A gulf.

We could easily consider Mason Mount and James Maddison as alternatives.

And we should be looking at both Harry Kane (or Oshimhen) and Evan Ferguson for our striker slot.

 

Great travelling support - most were out of St James Park by the final whistle

 

@Treble @Chief I agree with the points that you’ve both made regarding needing proven quality in the midfield.

But then again, is our midfield so bad that we lose 7 goals to Liverpool? And then lose to Newcastle without any real penetration? Surely we had enough talents in the squad yesterday to have performed better. When you look at the bench, we had Sancho and Fred along with Martial. This begs the question why at least two of them didn’t start in place of McTominay, Sabitzer and Weghost. Sure, maybe we still lose the match, but at least we won’t have inferior players starting a difficult match.

Overall, I do hope that we will get smart deals done in the midfield without protracted drama. For the forward position, we need to sell Martial and bring in a real talent there. We can’t go cheap in that position if we want a proven talent. But we can be clever in other areas to compliment the talent in team when we have the preferred first 11 fit.

 

Thoughts?

 

Good player, yes.

I'd like to think if we got him there would also be another incoming in the midfield, with McTominay leaving and Sabitzer not being taken on. Or even Fred leaving.

Mac Allister plus Caicaido? Go big on Brighton, get Ferguson as well while we're at it, why the **** not?!?

 

My thoughts are he's a very versatile player, can play as a 10 or a central midfield. That versatility is as much during a game as it is in different games.

He's very good at the high press and like playing one touch give and goes which Ten Hag seems to like.

Only down side is that he doesn't dribble so won't carry the ball forward into the box or has the ability to pick a long pass, so doesn't score or assist a lot.

So I'm wondering if he's what we need. And whether we have a few of those already. I'd rather a creative central midfielder and playmaker. Someone to pull the strings.

What I would say though, given the choice between Chelsea, Livpl and us surely we'd be favourites to get him.

 

Not that many of those about.

Brings us back to de Jong, or Bellingham.

Which is absolutely fine by the way!

 

Right fck some of the wasters we have as the second string and even a couple of the first teamers.

Fck off Dalot and AWB.
Laird and another new RB to come in.

Other players who can fck off - Lindelof and Maguire (no one will take him though).
New CB needed to partner Martinez, with Varane playing less to manage injuries.

Van De Beek, remember him, he can go. McTominay out.
New CM

Martial and Weghorst out.
New CF

Bring through Pellestri, Iqbal, Garnacho, Mainoo, Amad.

 

Something has not been right for 5 weeks or so, the team spirit has not been the same even when winning.

 

We need two centre forwards, a centre midfielder, a right back, a centre half and a new keeper.

Not much to ask.

 

Well I didn't want to sound greedy

I think it's just as important to get rid as it is to get those in. Some of the players have the wrong mentality.

Hate to say it but I have question marks over Sancho and Malacia as well. They need to improve massively next season or they can go as well.

 

It's bcos some of the ****e from last season are coming to the fore bcos of injuries. Few rotten apples as they say spoiling the crop.

Rashford and Garnacho getting injured started it.

 

I think Martinez is the spirit of the team , he's a massive loss for much more than his defensive ability.

 

He and Casemiro imo but it's the whole spine that we need, to move to the next level.

Right now, Martinez, Casemiro, Bruno is what we have. We need a CF to finish it off.

And then another back up spine, so CB, CM, AM and CF.

I've deliberately avoided mentioning De Gea. I know he had a few brainfarts today but I think most goalies would've struggled with that back 4 in front of them. He's just about worth keeping IF we buy better defenders.

 

De Gea is a phenomenal shot stopper with both his arms and his feet. He can do the play it out from the back bit with the right defence in front of him.
What he needs is two sets of instructions , when Martinez and varane are there play it through defence because they can look after the ball and progress it through midfield . If Maguire and zlindelof are there knock it long and wide hoping a winger picks it up or it goes out for a throw in the oppo half, if you try to play to the CbS it will come straight back to you with two attackers chasing it.