08 Aug 2022 11:47:40
After yesterday I am now starting to think that Utd are more a mid table team at best rather than top four or top six.

Traditionally they have spent lots of money on players but I don't think those levels of funds are available anymore.

Utd need to start thinking like a mid table team and recruit accordingly. They need to stop fantasising about players like FdJ for mega money because the whole squad needs replacing and Utd can't afford to pay top dollar for every new player. Plus as they are finding with FdJ, these top level players don't want to come to Utd and why would they? FdJ won't move to Wolves or Villa so why on earth do Utd think he wants to join them?

Utd now need to get creative and start thinking like clubs such as Brighton and Southampton for their recruitment. Even Newcastle with new cash have been very astute with their additions so far in this window.

If Utd are going to get to the top again it's going to be a long climb. The first step is to improve on what there is. The perfect is the enemy of the good enough and unfortunately the pursuit of FDJ is really getting in the way of signing two new midfielders who are good enough to massively improve Utd's midfield straightaway. They might not be the players required to compete at the very top level but I believe Utd can bring in some players who will do an excellent job for a few seasons. The same is true all over the pitch.

Having said this, Utd have to be smart as well as creative which means more players like Erikson rather than Arnautovic. These gems are out there but finding and acquiring them requires the right structures for scouting and then negotiating the purchase. More importantly it requires a more humble and realistic attitude as to where the club is at and what it needs right now.

If Utd don't make any real changes before the end of the transfer window then I estimate they will finish somewhere between 10th and 13th because there are at least 10 better teams/ squads in the division.

1.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 12:13:04
We got beat by a team that lost their 2 best players so effectively fielded a weaker team than the one that beat us 4-0. there are more than 10 team better than us.

If this is it for incomings, and we now rely on players no one else wants, a top half finish looks like a pipe dream.

2.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 12:40:31
Are funds limited?

We've spent best part of 70m on Martinez and Malacia. Given Eriksen a well paid contract.

We have an offer of £64-72m accepted by Barcelona for Frankie De Jong, if that deal goes through we will have spent over 140m.

While we reportedly offered 60m for Antony from Ajax which was rejected, but again if that deal was accepted that could have potentially taken our summer spending to around 200m mark.

I think the money is there to spend on the right players, but the club are trying to learn from past mistakes and refuse to over pay for the wrong players/ our 3rd,4th or 5th choice.

3.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 13:10:28
I think the board has belatedly recognized the depths to which we have sunk under Woodward's misguided leadership and are now in the process of dealing with that reality, which is to say the dilution of the club's financial strength. We have very little value in the squad itself, an elevated debt, no champions league football, and one 37 year old marquee clickbait player who no one else wants. If things don't improve the most lucrative sponsorship deals will go elsewhere as the best players and managers have already done.

The signs have been there since before SAF retired. The spat with Rooney when he put in a transfer request when he realized the club's lack of ambition in the transfer market. the "no value" excuse. He was bribed out of moving. The need to overpay to get any top players to join us, and then the surprise when these reluctant mercenaries failed to impress. And why did they jump at the chance of hiring OGS? Because the job was regarded as toxic and no top manager wanted it. His brief period of success was jumped upon despite having said he was just a caretaker.

So, how as businessmen do they move forward? Basically what they have done: hire a manager who can maximize potential and instill a system and discipline while cutting the fat out of the payroll, intending to restore profitability at mid table level. The owners have taken a lot of hits recently. C.V. No ECL. And, ironically - something we all most likely opposed - the failure to move the European Super League forward. It would have provided United with guaranteed participation at the top table and the income that comes with it.

Yesterday's performance was dire, particularly the first half capitulation. But there were a couple of signs of potential. At least Rashford got into scoring position a couple of times. Eriksen provided some accuracy and threat. Despite the size differentials - Malacia marking Dunk was comical - we did not concede against any set pieces. We're not going to be champions. Top 4 looks beyond us. We're not splashing out on top players who don't want to come to us anyway. There will be no ground improvements. The best we can hope for is a setting of the table for the future. or a white knight.

4.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 13:54:55
weve spent about 50 million net shappy. you expect not to spend much if you have just won the title but we finished on our lowest ever total, our worst ever season in prem history

saved over a million a week on wages.

more sales will most likely happen and if Ronaldo goes that's another massive chunk of money saved

but never mind ay we have had bids rejected for players knowing the fee was well below there asking price

getting a fee accepted for a player that doesn't want to join, its all very clever by the powers at be, they can swing the "we tried to sign players" quote.

5.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 14:05:21
The proof is in the pudding of what we’ve actually spent. We’ve invested in Martinez and Malacia which has been offset slightly by sales. That’s it.

Judging by the calibre of player we are looking at, I insist that there are limited funds available. The club has been bled dry by the Glazers.

Please buy these idiots out Mr Ratcliffe.

6.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 14:52:48
Shappy, of course funds are limited. Why do think Utd have tried to sign a striker for £10 million and not £50 million.

Utd need 20 new players. They can't spend £50 million on each one.

Time to get creative and unearth some bargains.

7.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 18:06:34
Funds are only limited because we have blown so much on trash. United will earn big piles more money though and sadly I am not confident we don't blow that too.

United aren't a Mid Table club at all. They are a massive club being run extremely badly thus ending up mid table in terms of results.

United will keep wasting huge amounts of money, more than teams above them until they luck upon a good DoF and Manager combination at which point they might begin to sort things out.

United are right where we deserve to be at the moment but it's not lack of funds that put us there, it's spending those funds on dross.

8.) 08 Aug 2022
08 Aug 2022 18:11:54
I also meant to add that we have have become extremely unattractive to players due to the aforementioned incompetence.