01 Sep 2023 21:40:58
Not a bad transfer window, not probably what in an ideal world we'd all have imagined, but moved on a lot of younger players who probably wouldn't have had a chance or were not going to make it. At least we've given them a chance at a career! As a club we probably would have liked to move on maguire or mctominay or both.
Starting team, can start to see a bit of an idea, I think with a second combative midfielder, next to Casemiro, it'll give mount, on his return a chance to show a bit more, anyone can see that so far this season Casemiro has struggled doing all the work, and I'm having a striker, we can play rashford back in his best position.
Goalkeeper is obvious, defence, well if all fit, rotate Dalot and awb, depending on opponent, although I feel awb has certainly improved last season, cb varane and Martinez, although varane will miss a lot of games as usual, lb Shaw when fit, very bad timing with him and malacia both being injured, hopefully the loan will suffice, not really impressed by reguilon tho.
Amrabat and Casemiro give a solid base in front of those, Bruno and mount with Rashford and hojlund seems a fluid front line. Don't think martial will stay fit for any length of time, gives gnarcho, sancho and Antony a chance to rotate or be impact subs.
Although I think there's a player in sancho, his desire and application doesn't always seem to be there. Mainoo, such an unfortunate injury, but there's a player there for next 10 years managed correctly.
Just my opinion, and opinions will vary massively among everyone.
But I'm looking forward to this season more than I have for a long time. And I've been supporting Manchester United for over 40 years.

1.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 22:24:24
Not a bad transfer window? We spent around £150m and arguably have a worse starting eleven at the end of this window than we did at the end of last season.

Onana is certainly a better ball player than De Gea, but De Gea is the better shot stopper by a country mile. Sure, being able to play out from the back more fluently will likely lead to quicker transitions and hopefully more chances, but it will also lead to us conceding a few more, either through Onana being caught off his line or making one too many risky passes. Then there are the three or four games that he’ll miss each time there’s an AFCON, which will undoubtedly make us weaker than if we’d had Dave between the sticks. its certainly not a backward step, but I don’t think you could call it a firm foot forward either.

In defense, we’re still only a couple of injuries away from having to start Maguire, who is a disaster waiting to happen, and with Varane another year older, those injuries are going to be coming even more frequently than they already were. Shaw is out for god knows how long and has been replaced by a player who has failed to establish himself at three teams, two of which (Athletico and Spurs) we are aspiring to be better than. I’ll support him on the pitch, but on paper, and based on past performances, he’s just not good enough. As a result, I think that most would agree that our defense is worse this season than it was last.

Like Varane, Casemiro and Eriksen are another year older and showing noticeable signs of slowing down. We’ve lost Sabitzer and Fred, who although not spectacular, used to guarantee a fairly consistent 6 or 7 out of ten performance each week. Their replacement Amrabat can hit 8s and 9s from time to time, but he can also put in some god awful performances as well. We’ve spent all summer trying to flog SM and Donny, so it will be interesting to see how motivated they are for the coming season, and as for Mount, he occupies the same space as Bruno - a player who is better than him and never misses a game - so why we spent the lion’s share of our budget on him lord only knows. I hope he comes good, but it’s difficult to see how him and Bruno can play in the same midfield three. We haven’t really improved much here and remain one injury away from disaster.

As for our frontline, we needed a proven goalscorer but instead signed a player for the future. Granted, he’s a step up from Weghorst so you’d have to say that our attacking options have improved, but I still see us struggling for goals this season, even if Hoijlund can stay fit.

What’s most concerning is that the two teams who finished above us last year have both gotten stronger (particularly Arsenal), as too have the four or five that finished below us. By contrast, we’ve failed to address several key issues despite spending big money again and have struggled to move on several players who appear to have no future at the club; all while selling off our youth players for peanuts.

But not a bad window, yeah?

2.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 22:38:20
We will know in two years time who got this window right and who got it wrong.

3.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 22:43:34
Arguably being the main word there Redseven, I’d argue we are a lot stronger now, first team and squad, looking forward to the rest of the season, although I think we will lose on Sunday and the meltdown on here will be mega.

4.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 22:43:52
To use a phrase I hate, it is what it is. Time for ETH to work with what he has and show he's the coach that a lot of us think he is.

5.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 22:45:09
I said months ago that if we are serious about winning the league and Champions League, then we will sign Kane and Rice.

Both were available at the right price. Had we been sold prior to window opening, I bet we would have signed them too.

EtH wanted Mount, Kane and Rice.

Instead we ended with Mount, Hojlund and Amrabat.

Let's see how it pans out.

6.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 23:08:40
Redseven, a few points De Gea was living off his shot stopping record from years ago, last season his shot stopping was below average. I love De Gea as a loyal servant of the club but his performances have been below standard for a while now, and not to mean Tim some of the howlers he made last season that cost us. I’ve already seen Onana make some terrific saves so far this season, and the main thing is I don’t have a heart attack everytime the balls passed to him, the confidence of the defence will grow and a goal keeper you can have confidence in spreads throughout the team. It’s early days still but I’m certain we will see a much improved performance at the back, especially in possession when we’re trying to break the opposition press which was always a massive concern for a long time now.

Yes a few players are getting older now, and we have addressed those positions. Arambat although a different type of player to Casemiro offers us high energy and strong work rate, and although I’ve only ever seen him at the World Cup, he looked terrific against some alleged world class players and stood out in those games. He may not be the long term solution to the midfield but for a season he certainly offers a far better option than Fred. As for Fred offering consistent 6/ 7s, this just isn’t true. He could either be excellent and have a huge impact or just invisible and the game just passed him by. Often times I remember him being on the pitch and barely even being noticeable that he was even there. Always loved his workrate but the quality wasn’t there. Arambat offers the same energy with much better passing and ball carrying. He is an enormous upgrade on Fred in my opinion.

Yes Varane is a year older and injury prone, but he’s been like that for his career. We knew his injury record when we bought him. It’s nothing new. I don’t think you can say our defence is weaker. Shaws injury is unfortunate but can happen to brand new signings. Look at Timber for Arsenal. 50m and did his ACL in the second game. Few players are ever the same after that injury. Nothing. We can do about Shaws injury except cope with it the best we can, which we have with the signing of Reguillon.

Eriksen is a year old and his legs were gone last season imo, nothing new there, which is why we bought Mount who won't be playing Bruno’s position imo. He will be sitting deeper alongside Casemiro. I’m sure as he adapts and learns the system and the role he’s being asked to do he will be a fine signing. I don’t think he played much himself last season for one reason and another so it might take him a while to find some form, but when he does I’m sure he will prove to be an excellent signing.

The front line will look completely different this year. A new striker who, from what I’ve seen, looks like he has pace, power, height, good movement, good goal poaching skills, and overall will be a huge handful for defences will completely change our forward line. Defenders will have a different proposition now when facing us. Last season all our threat came from the wings, with very little threat from the centre. This meant defenders could easily double up on our wide players but Hojlund will draw more players to himself now leaving more space for the rest of our forwards. Rashford last season scored 30 goals, if he can push on and continue that form, if Antony can add to his promising start this season (I think he’s looked very good this season, and starting to get to grips with the league), and Bruno can give us his customary 15+ goals as well, along with a few others contributing here and there then scoring goals should not be a problem at all.

As for selling our youth players, what do you suggest? That we keep every player who’s not upto standard? How many of these so called future stars that our fans have raves about in the past have since been sold and then set the world alight after leaving? I can’t think of one.

So yes I think it’s been an extremely promising window and shows the club is moving in the right direction, and despite the fact we obviously had some budget constraints this season we have addressed all the major issues in the squad and even been able to competently deal with some curveballs thrown at us with the like of Shaws injury. Anyway the windows close now and only time will tell. Get behind the lads, and give them all our support.

7.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 23:20:57
Scary thing is, Manchester United's best player is on loan at Getafe ?☹.

8.) 01 Sep 2023
01 Sep 2023 23:36:03
RedSeven are you related to or actually the same person as Trafford? The negativity is quite draining.

9.) 02 Sep 2023
02 Sep 2023 01:26:16
A travesty in itself Sydney, an absolute travesty. A sorry day for united when the snowflakes have their way.

10.) 02 Sep 2023
02 Sep 2023 06:23:12
JE888. I guess the thing that bothers me most about the Onana signing is that he was available on a free 12 months ago. I think Dave’s strengths and weaknesses were pretty clear for all to see (it’s not like he used to be an excellent passer of the ball and then suddenly forgot how to pass overnight), and ETH was pretty familiar with Onana’s strengths, so if he knew that he wanted to implement a system where we played out from the back, why not bring him in last season instead of Dubravka and Butland (who reportedly cost us a few million in loan fees between them) and save us the £50m or so this season? You could say that hindsight is a beautiful thing or whatever, but I don’t think this one requires hindsight, especially not from an elite manager.

As for Shaw’s injury, do you not find it a little concerning that we have spent ourselves into a position where we can’t afford an extra million or two to replace a vital first team player? Injuries happen all the time in football and the fact that we weren’t in a position to adequately deal with the Shaw situation was a little worrying, not to mention embarrassing. It’s clear that Reguilon wasn’t our first choice replacement, yet we failed to bring in the guy we wanted because of our irresponsible spending over the past few seasons. We are supposed to be one of the biggest clubs in the world, yet are bringing second-rate players in on loan (a recurring theme from last season) .

We’ve already seen a few games where ETH tried a midfield three of Mount, Bruno, and Casemiro and our midfield got completely over run every time. These weren’t against top four teams either, so it’s not like you could argue that it will work well against weaker teams. Hopefully Mount can adapt, but from what he’s shown at Chelsea, I don’t think he has the football brain or the discipline to play a deeper role. Even if he does, his best position is clearly further up the pitch, where he is a great player. Why spend so much with a view to changing his best position rather than just signing somebody who can already fill the role we need? (which we ended up doing anyway at the end of the window) . Again, I hope Mount comes good, but he was an odd signing, imo, and not at all what was needed.

Hoijlund is the signing that I am most excited about, but in all likelihood it is going to take two or three seasons until he really starts to hit the kind of levels that his potential suggests he’s capable of, assuming he ever does, that is. What are we supposed to do until then? What happens if he never comes good like Martial? What happens if he gets injured or is constantly in and out of the team due to his back problems? We’ve taken a huge risk on an unproven talent rather than buying a proven goalscorer to address the immediate issue that the team was facing.

As for us selling youth players, I’d rather the first players out of the door be the ones who are causing the FFP issues and could bring in substantial funds with which to improve the squad. Most reports suggest that we could have gotten £65m from West Ham for SM and Maguire but blew it because we didn’t want to spend an extra few million paying off the latter and thought we’d get more for the former. Now we’re stuck with two players who clearly aren’t a part of the manager’s plans who will be worth around half that amount next summer and will cost us tens of millions in wages over the next 12 months. Getting shot of Maguire alone would probably have brought in more than all of the young players we sold combined and saved us more in wages. Selling the youth players I don’t mind (though the fees for some of them seem to be incredibly low), it’s that they’re gone and the likes of SM, HM, AM, and EB are still with us.

As you say, the window is over now and so we can focus on the football, but like last year, I really don’t subscribe to the idea that this was “not a bad window”. Maybe I’ll see things differently come the end of the season (I sure hope so), but I’d be very surprised to see us finishing in the top four with the squad we currently have.

11.) 02 Sep 2023
02 Sep 2023 07:13:40
I don't blame Ten Hag over the Onana transfer to Inter in 2022.

United were paying 500 k a week to De Gea and Henderson already. Neither of those deals were the going rate for thise players.

Rather i blame the complete lack of foresight of the people running the club. We have lurched from manager to manager with each having different styles and requiring different players.

We need someone in charge of the overall football vision, so the academy is producong well versed in a certain way of playing, as are the reserves and the first team. We bring managers and coaches who play that way and the players we buy are suited to that system.

I don't believe United will return to the top until we have new owners who bring in the right person who can sort this out. In the 80s this was Ferguson but football moved on, its got bigger, ans whilst in the past the manager was in charge of everything, he can't now do thia amd run the team on a day to day basis.

Now i don't thing Ten Hag is without fault but adding another keeper last year wasnt on him in my eyes, the blame is much higher.

12.) 02 Sep 2023
02 Sep 2023 12:17:12
I’m not sure I blame ETH for the Onana situation, but am also not sure that the lack of foresight is his and his alone. We probably spent more on loan fees and wages for Dubravka and Butland than we’d have paid Onana for the season and would have ended the season with an asset rather than a negative balance had we gotten him in last year. The board paid an obscene amount for Anthony at Ten Haag’s behest, so I refuse to believe that ETH couldn’t have gotten Onana last summer if he had really wanted him.