25 Mar 2026 19:00:48
Talk of Mount leaving! Please let this be true!

1.) 25 Mar 2026
25 Mar 2026 21:45:54
It's a shame that, as yet (and likely not at all), this transfer hasn't worked out. He's a very talented player who every manager he has had talks glowingly about. It's easy to see why as he mixes that talent with hard work and tactical intelligence.

His downfall, unfortunately, is injuries. He just hasn't been able to stay fit.

2.) 26 Mar 2026
26 Mar 2026 09:16:05
He has had some very good games. However, he can't stay fit, and therefore he has become surplus to requirements at the club.

I think a loan move with an option to buy is the most likely outcome this summer.

3.) 26 Mar 2026
26 Mar 2026 12:46:23
I like him, good personality, and a good player; he'd be ideal for us.

But he cannot stay fit, and unfortunately it doesn't matter how good you are if you're unavailable.

We have to be ruthless this summer.

4.) 26 Mar 2026
26 Mar 2026 21:51:17
My problem with the injuries side of things at the club right now is that there seems to be a pattern of recurring injuries to those who have had bad injuries beforehand, e.g.

Martinez, Mount, De Ligt.

Is it a case that they can't get over the issues, or do we look at our medical staff? It's no secret that it hasn't been up to scratch post Fergie.

5.) 27 Mar 2026
27 Mar 2026 03:22:27
Not sure you can blame the medical staff, the 3 players you mention got a history of injuries.
De Ligt has been injured for most of his career.
Martinez's style of play borders on stupidity, and he is always prone to injury.
Mount is the original sick note, Darren Anderson, of modern times.



These 3, in particular, need to take a strong look at themselves, rather than us looking to blame someone else. But I get it's the way of 2026 when we look to blame everyone but ourselves!

6.) 27 Mar 2026
27 Mar 2026 06:19:03
49 appearances in the league, 5 goals, Zero assists.

Appreciate some of these will be bench appearances, but still, Mount is nowhere near it when it comes to producing.

Was an awful signing, with awful logic behind it, ETH wanted him to play CM next to Casemiro and Bruno lol.

7.) 27 Mar 2026
27 Mar 2026 09:12:18
WhiskeyRed,

Utd had injury problems before Fergie left. Jones, Evans, and Smalling are good examples. I do recall Fergie saying, "Jones has trained today and will be able to play tomorrow." He pushed players to play when they weren't fully fit or recovered.

8.) 27 Mar 2026
27 Mar 2026 15:44:58
I never understood the Mount signing, but then all of our business was quite perplexing that year.

Kane, Rice, and Reya moved for a combined fee of £194m that window. We spent £177m on Hojlund, Mount, and Onana, then had to drop another £9m to loan Amrabat for the season because Mount got injured right away.

Surely one of the worst transfer windows in history.

9.) 27 Mar 2026
27 Mar 2026 16:28:30
You're not wrong there, Red, someone got very rich out of those signings! All very strange, all risky signings, even at lower amounts.
Some on here lauded the Onana signing too, missing part of the jigsaw, lol.

10.) 28 Mar 2026
28 Mar 2026 01:09:34
Not exactly injury free, or indeed as robust as I would have liked, but not sure you can say de Ligt has been injured for most of his career. Bit of an unsurprisingly wild statement. 380 games over 10 years, whilst not excessive, would not be achievable if he had been injured for "most" of it.



Not forgetting he is only 26, and for many on here at the optimum age. So, if he can shake off his "life long" injury issue, he could yet be an astute signing.

But who knows? I certainly don't, and am sure I will be educated by others. ?

11.) 28 Mar 2026
28 Mar 2026 05:40:15
380 games, if it is that, is not exactly a lot for a player at top clubs like he's been at, clubs which play 65-75 a season on average. Then he is playing 35-40 a season, and that's in the 10 years he should be the fittest, so that's only going to get worse. Poor signing, whatever way you look at it.

What's worse, he gets minor injuries and is always out for months. He gets a sore toe and he's out for a month. Sorry, but just not what's needed. He is OK as a CB when fit, but that's not very often, so I stick with my view that he's not good enough to be CB at United, and too injury prone in any case.

12.) 28 Mar 2026
28 Mar 2026 08:56:50
There we are then.

13.) 28 Mar 2026
28 Mar 2026 13:38:06
The money needs to be on the pitch.

We can't pay Mount what we do, and he's unavailable.

14.) 28 Mar 2026
28 Mar 2026 19:24:31
65-75 games on average? LOL!!!!

15.) 28 Mar 2026
28 Mar 2026 21:45:05
Not many players typically play more than 4000 minutes of football a season for their clubs, which equates to around 45 whole games.

MdL has picked up his fair share of injuries, probably in part due to him playing regularly from the age of 16 in men's football. Not many players who start very young reach the end of their careers without picking up a higher-than-average number of injuries.



That said, MdL has still played more minutes of senior football than the majority of players his age, and, as has been mentioned, he averages around 40 games a season, which isn't that far off the average for a player playing at a top club, and is often more than players playing at bottom-half clubs.

16.) 29 Mar 2026
29 Mar 2026 04:25:42
My eyes must be deceiving me then, because I have only seen him play 1170 minutes this season. So, if we are working on your very rough average figures of 4000 minutes per season, that's just over a quarter of the games of an average player, according to you, imo.

That makes him even more injury-prone, and makes him a total waste of time.
Think I have also seen many players that started men's football at 16 play much, much more even into their 30s.

17.) 29 Mar 2026
29 Mar 2026 05:28:22
de Ligt... So that’s 19 games missed this season and counting... 9 last season, 19 the season before, and missed 24 games in the 20/21 season, but that’s not an injury prone player! Oh please. I would love to see a player, or rather, would never see a player you admit is injury prone!

You can twist the stats how you like, but he is hardly on the pitch to back your twisting them up! In fact, twisting will probably injure him again.

18.) 29 Mar 2026
29 Mar 2026 12:32:01
Je Suis, you obviously are craving my attention, two posts to reply to me on this thread alone along with the other comments trying to bait me on other threads.

Before we begin have you ever been tested for something neurological in nature? ?

On a serious note let me educate you on the errors in your reply.

If you actually read what I say rather than start falling over yourself to reply then you probably won't make simple errors.

I never said players average 4000 minutes a season, I said few (not many) typically play MORE than 4000 minutes a season.

So to start with the season isn't over, in fact there is a potential 630 league minutes still play (without added time).

Secondly with us going out in the first games of each domestic cup and is not competing in Europe then the absolute maximum number of minutes any player could actually play for us this season is 3600 (without added time).

So only players playing for team that play in Europe and who get to the latter stages of the domestic cups actually have an opportunity to play 4000 minutes (45 whole games) for their club a season.

The statistics suggest that when you consider just league minutes that the average number comes out around 1500, but that there is a massive variance within that with regular starters often getting around 2500 and squad players 500-800 minutes on average. Obviously that doesn't consider domestic cup or European games.

I also said that MdL has picked up his fair share of injuries. So I'm not denying that he picks up more injuries than on average.

You unfortunately like to work in absolutes, unable to see things in context or pick out nuance.

MdL missing 15-18 games a season on average for a team that would be expecting to play 55-60 games a season isn't an major issue. As the maximum number of games you'd be expecting from any player in that squad would be around 40-45 starts at most anyway. Which means he'd still be averaging around the same number of minutes as most of the squad.

The problems can start to mount though when you are forced to rely on him to play most weeks due to a lack of quality squad depth. Firstly when he's missing the drop off in quality is large. Secondly not being able to rotate him around and rest him means he's also more likely to pick up injuries.

Mount for example has missed more time due to injury since he joined the club than MdL has, but it's less of a problem as we have more quality in that position to come in and ensure we don't have a significant drop in performances when he's missing.

For us the issue with MdL getting injured is that we lack quality in depth (and experience) due to Martinez also picking up a lot of injuries at CB and the only other options are a 33 year old Maguire and two promising players who are 19 and 20.

When fit MdL has been our best CB this season, when he hasn't been fit but Martinez has been able to play we have also looked secure defensively. The issues start to mount when BOTH MdL AND Martinez are missing.

This has also not been helped by the fact that our only reliable defensive midfielder to protect the back four is 34 years old and doesn't have the legs to last 90 minutes without a decline in their performance for the last half an hour anymore.

If we had another peak age/performance level CB who is consistently available who is at the level we need then the fact that MdL only averages around the same number of minutes per season as the majority of senior players wouldn't be a problem.

Ideally if you play with a back four you want 3 top class CB's who are all capable of being first choice, and then either a highly talented young player or an aging veteran as your forth choice.

Whereas we have two top class options (who are both probe to picking up a few injuries) with two youth players and one veteran. When one of the top class options (MdL or Martinez) are available we don't have an issue. What we really need is to sign another top class player to make sure we have three top class options.

Whether we can/will do that this summer remains to be seen. Ideally we would, but in the real world we also need 2 or 3 top level midfielders (150-180m on current market prices), a LW (40-80m depending on who we sign) and probably at least one fullback (probably a LB - 30-50m).

All of which are arguably more important than a CB due to the lack of numbers/quality in those positions.

Midfield - we only have Mainoo for next season who could be good enough, with Ugarte who ideally we move on but only if we can sign 3 midfielders as we need at least 4.

LW - we have Cunha who wants to play more centrally, and plays better when he can. We lack an actual wide playing LW. Maybe Dorgu can play there, but if he does then we have even more need for a LB. A naturally wide left player is a profile that we just don't have in our squad. Which severely limits us in attack and makes us too predictable.

LB - we have Shaw who will be in his final year of his contract and who is likely to miss some of next season injured. As well as Dorgu if we want to play him as a LB. Beyond them it's inexperienced academy players or square pegs in round holes like Dalot. We need to sign a reliable LB for next season to split minutes with Shaw and Dorgu.

Whereas at CB, we have two players in Yoro and Heaven who have the potential to be our long term CB pairing (but they lack experience, which you can only get by playing). So they actually need minutes and not blocking. We then have MdL and Martinez that if they stay fit will be the first choice options, along with Maguire who can add some experience when called upon.

On paper we have enough at CB if things work out well for us in terms of injuries and player development. The problem is that it's unlikely to happen that way.

Yet because the other positions have no way of working out well unless we make a signing or multiple in those positions then they have to be prioritised. Meaning that we probably won't have the budget to sign the kind of high quality CB that we need this summer.

Leaving us with the option of signing a lower quality CB who will be cheaper, but ultimately probably not good enough to be first choice when everyone is fit, but will limit the minutes players like Yoro and Heaven would get (potentially stunting their development).

That is why for me the only realistic option I could see us bringing in at CB would be Marcos Senesi, who would be available on a free, as he is good enough to be first choice even when everyone is fit, is EPL proven, and at 28 he wouldn't be a long term barrier to the likes of Yoro and Heaven. If then we have a situation where either or both MdL and Martinez are fit for the majority of the season we could maybe send Heaven out on loan with a call back option for January so that he can get minutes.

The other option is to buy a first choice level LB to share minutes with Dorgu and use Shaw (when fit) to also cover CB. Then try and get through next season with MdL, Martinez, Maguire, Yoro, Heaven, and Shaw as your options (knowing three of them will miss minutes due to injury), but giving the young lads more game time and a chance to step up. Then readdress the CB issue the following summer when Shaw and potentially Maguire leave.

If I was to hazard a guess right now I'd say this summer I'd expect to see us sign 2 midfielders fairly quickly, then a LW followed by a LB. Then if Ugarte leaves we'll sign a third midfielder, and we might bring in a back up keeper if Bayindir leaves.

Meaning at least 4 new players who go straight into the first team. Then maybe a 5th and 6th signing depending on whether Ugarte and/or Bayindir leave to replace them.

I don't see us signing more than 6 players though unless we see a surprise player leave or we get someone either on a free or a very cheap youth player who'll go into the academy but who could play a few first team games if needed.

Then the following summer (2027) I expect we'll see us sign at least one maybe two CB's depending on departures and the development of Yoro and Heaven, along with a new RB and another ST to compete with Sesko. Beyond that other signings will be to replace players who haven't worked out or who leave.

19.) 29 Mar 2026
29 Mar 2026 14:44:27
Zzzzzzzzzs after the first line. Not even bothered with the rest of the waffle as usual...

20.) 30 Mar 2026
29 Mar 2026 23:24:45
Now that albeit a ridiculously long post was far better than the Anglo Saxon marathon on the banter page!

Thanks for having the tenacity that I do not have to enter the Cirque Francais.

21.) 31 Mar 2026
31 Mar 2026 10:38:10
Je suis, as always you just want to troll as highlighted by your willful ignorance.
Anyone who actually wants to engage in reasoned debate listens to what the opposing side has to say to weigh up it's merits, to learn and potentially gain new understanding.

You just want to snipe, whinge and moan. You don't want to learn or grow, just mouth off, and massage your ego. Your posts and responses scream of a small minded mentality, of your own fragility.

It's a real shame, as there are so many great posters on this site, there is always things to learn, to discuss to see things from a new perspective. What you use this site for under your multiple aliases means you access less than 10% of this sites true worth.

You are like a child screaming out insults in the dark when they are only inches away from the light switch, but are unable to unwilling to turn it on and gain that understanding.

Maybe one day you'll grow up and learn, but I suspect that won't be for a few dozen more aliases at least sadly, if ever.

22.) 05 Apr 2026
05 Apr 2026 17:10:47
Je Suis Unite

I don't know what football you watch, where top clubs play 70 games per season on average.

23.) 06 Apr 2026
06 Apr 2026 11:11:42
If an EPL team plays in the Europa league, and makes the final along with making the final of both the league and FA cup, along with playing the maximum number of replays possible on that cup run then the maximum number of games a club can play in a season is 71 (as well as playing the Community shield).

No teams outside of the EPL can play that many as most top European leagues don't have two domestic cups (that have more than 3 rounds) and they don't have replays for drawn cup games.

In Germany, Italy and Spain the maximum is between 56-58 games, and in France it's 61.

The most games played by one EPL side in modern history is Liverpool in 2021/22 season when they made the final of every competition, they played 63.

If United play 60 games next season then we will have made at least one cup final and at least the Semis in the other two competitions.

Which is unlikely, given that we will still be lacking squad depth even if we bring in 5 or 6 new signings this summer.

I'd imagine that we will play 50-55 games at most, but could play as many as 60 or so.

50-55 is the going rate for most UCL teams across Europe, while most players at those clubs average around 40-45 games in total with only around 80% of them being starts.

This obviously doesn't include international games for their national teams. When including those very few players play more than 52 games a season.

Bruno Fernandes I believe is the only current EPL player who has played more than 52 games in one season. Which is testament to his supreme fitness and endurance, that comes across as freakish due to so few players managing to play that number of games.

For example the next 6 players on the list of EPL players for most games played in a season are all goalkeepers.

MdL does pick up a fair few injuries across the season, I would likely attribute it to him starting to play professional football at the age of 16 (especially in what is one of the most physically demanding positions) while his body is still growing and developing.

That said his record isn't anywhere near as bad as Luke Shaw's or Martinez's since he joined us. He has typically been fit to start around 40 games a season on average (obviously with a couple of seasons that are anomalies). That's a great record across a decade when you consider that the first two years of that he wasn't even old enough to buy a pint or vote.

While it's only a handful of games less than the average player manages.

24.) 09 Apr 2026
09 Apr 2026 17:18:11
Missing 15-18 games a season on average for a team that would be expecting to play 55-60 games a season isn't a major issue.

Missing 1 game in 4, though, due to injury, isn't OK, Shappy.

25.) 11 Apr 2026
11 Apr 2026 12:09:43
Utd Road, did you want to check the maths out on that?

1 in 4 is 25%.

25% of 55 is 13, and 25% of 60 is 15.

So if a player missed 15 games of a 60 game season then according to your post that is both not a major issue, yet is not okay. So which is it?

Statistically most players for teams that play 55-60 games a season typically play around 40 to 45 games.

Which for MdL is typically the number of games he has managed a season.

On the face of it that suggests that his injuries don't stop him from playing just as much football as those who don't pick up injuries.

The issue isn't how many games he is fit to play. The real issue is that he can be relied upon to be fit for any given match.

There is a big difference between a manager choosing to rest or rotate a player out of the team for a game or two and them not being an option due injury.

The first choice players in a top team that average 40-45 games a season will typically start all of the biggest and most important games. Key league games against title rivals, quarter finals, semi finals and finals etc.

They typically get rested or rotated out for games against "weaker" sides both in the league and in cup competitions.

But that can only happen if they are fit and available. MdL not being fit for a league cup game against a League 2 side or a home game against the side bottom of the league isn't a major issue as there is a good chance he'd be rested in those games anyway. But him missing for league games against Arsenal, Liverpool or City, or a knockout UCL game against one of Europe's best sides, that is where the problem really lies.

If MdL and Martinez are fit and available for the biggest games next season then we don't have any need for a new CB. Yet if we have to play at the Bernabeu in a knock out game with Yoro and Heaven as our starting CB's then that is a problem. Not only for our chances of progressing, but also in terms of development for two highly rated young defenders.

We've extended Maguire's deal and that makes a lot of sense, especially as the focus for our spending this summer has to be on midfield where we only have Mainoo as a quality option for next season (and he himself is inexperienced and will need to be rotated in and out of the line up). We also clearly have a need to address an imbalance on our left hand side in terms of attack. With Shaw no longer being able to get up and down the flank and be an attacking threat out wide, along with Cunha being our only natural fit on the left. With his natural game to come in field and link up with his teammates, we lack an attacking threat wide left. Maybe Dorgu when he's back can offer something either from LB or LW, but we clearly need at least one other player to offer that width wide left. That could be either a LB or a LW player, ideally both.

This means we probably have very little to spend on a CB this summer, especially as if (long shot I know) MdL and Martinez are fit for most of next season then with Maguire, Yoro and Heaven as back up we have very little need for a CB, who ultimately might just end up blocking Yoro and Heaven from getting minutes.

Imagine the scenario where we spend 50m on a CB who hardly plays next season because MdL and Martinez are fit for the majority of the season. All the signing does is limit game time for two of our most promising young players. All while we struggle to control games as we have limited options in midfield, or we struggle to score enough goals because our attack is too one sided.

Fans would be fuming that we spent 50m for a player to sit on the bench while not fixing issues in the first 11.

For me the solution is simple, we sign Marcos Senesi from Bournemouth on a free transfer. He's EPL proven, the perfect age (29 at the start of next season, which means he isn't a long term barrier to Yoro and Heaven), brings experience and leadership, has shown that he can play on either side, has a really good injury record, and he wouldn't stop us from spending elsewhere.

This is the most obvious tap in signing we could make this summer. Quick, easy, cheap, and solves an issue in the squad without creating another.

MdL and Martinez are the obvious first choice options if fit (but we know they will miss proportions of the season with injuries). Maguire and Senesi offer experience and leadership when called upon to cover for injuries, while Yoro and Heaven will also get game time when MdL and Martinez are out injured, and if they do well enough they can force themselves into the first team.

It allows us to focus on fixing midfield and the left flank this summer. Then next summer we can readdress the CB issue and look at RB, along with any other positions that become Iman issue over next season (either due to players declining or not developing or settling as hoped).