28 Aug 2020 13:43:21
So they say hindsight is a wonderful thing. Reflected back on past dealings and assessing them is an interesting way to promote self-improvement. Would you still do things the same way, or would you do things differently and why.

With this in mind if you could travel back to last summer and choose how the club would spend the 145m they spent on AWB, Maguire and James. Would you sign the same players or would you sign different players? If so who?

While I feel all of the signings from last summer have been varying degrees of a success. If I'm honest AWB would be the only one I would sign now.

Maguire has been solid enough, but I don't see him dramatically improving and for the money I think we could have spent more wisely.

Dan James is an interesting one, for 15m he is a good buy as a squad player with potential. Yet what we really needed was a first team quality player.

I'd probably sign AWB, as well as a CB and a winger. But different ones to Maguire and James. I think for 95m we could have got a first choice quality in both positions.

Ismailia Sarr joined Watford for around 30m last summer. I think he has more potential than James and although twice the cost could have offered us a better short term and long term player.

That would leave 65m to spend on a CB, Jose Gimenez, Raphael Varane, Dayot Upamecano could all have been bought for around that amount or less.

Would that have made us stronger overall? Maybe, although it's all conjecture.

I think it's interesting to look back even on a summer that most would say was a success. Because it might make us change out minds with transfers this summer.

Last summer we spent big on one "key" signing. Is that the best way forward? Or would we be better placed buying higher quality across all our signings?


1.) 28 Aug 2020
28 Aug 2020 14:04:22
I would have never bought Maguire. He is overrated and hasn't really improved us alot. He often gets caught out. I would have have signed Ruben Dias instead of Maguire. circa €50 -€69 million for Dias.

James is an interesting one, he lacks experience and is probably one for the future. A loan away would probably do his the world of good. Yes, I would have bought him. Yiu can fault his effort.

AWB the guy loves to tackle so yes i woild have boughy him still. He needs to work on his attacking game but he is still young.


2.) 28 Aug 2020
28 Aug 2020 14:44:23
I would take James, i think he is one of our better transfers in the last 7 years, ofcourse taking into account age and price. At the start of last season when he was used as left winger cutting inside he was good, then we hardly played him and used him as a sub. He is not the kind of player which with vision technical abilities and passes will change the match in last minutes. He is not a Mata style player, or a Sancho. James must have rythm and play in his natural position . I wouldn't touch Maguire even for 40 millions, i disagree with some posters saying the problem is the price, he is simply not good enough no matter how much we paid. Then Bissaka, i like the guy and he is superb at one on one situations but at 50 millions you must have better balance as a player. Going forward if he improves his attacking play and his positioning (when someone crosses from the other side) I would be happy with him. Overall i don't think last summer was a success. It can't be a success buying 4 players for 200+ millions and only one of them is top class.


3.) 28 Aug 2020
28 Aug 2020 14:59:46
The problem with this game is it ignores whether the players we would have brought instead of could have been brought. It also ignores whether they would have done any better in the situation the club have found themselves in.
For what it's worth. AWB yes I would have signed as I like the defensive side of the game but hopefully he will develop the attacking side of he gets a regular partner on the right (Sancho/ Greenwood or another) . Maguire yes I would as I feel he has improved is (not as much as we would love when you look at van duke) but he has. We need to move him to the right side to get the best out of him.
James yes he was always a punt on a youngster with potential and needed to be bedded in slowly which unfortunately for him he played more than we expected, he could still develop over the years.


4.) 28 Aug 2020
28 Aug 2020 15:22:35
I wouldn’t sign Maguire or James. Maguire has slightly improved our defence, but £80m is too much for a slight improvement. He has major limitations to his game and isn’t a defensive organiser, which is what we desperately need.

James is not a good player. Being fast is not all that’s needed to be a good winger. He has no end product and has been largely anonymous since the opening few months of the season. He’ll be 23 in November, and he simply doesn’t have the technical ability to become a top level player. Will be, inevitably, bought by a bottom half club in a year or two.


5.) 28 Aug 2020
28 Aug 2020 17:07:32
AWB - the so-called 'best one-on-one' defender in Europe (who comes up with this crap? What is this based on? ) fell short at the end of the season, but I think he's been a plus overall. Needs to offer a little more going forward. Otherwise I would have liked to have seen Doherty as an option.

Dan James hasn't hit the mark for me. It's difficult with players who shine in the Championship to make an impact immediately (think Sessegnon) . Admittedly he wasn't meant to be starting every week but had some form at the start of the season so fair play. Personally other than pace I haven't seen much to be excited by and believe loaning him out should be considered, assuming we strengthen in that area. As far as young British alternatives go, late last season I thought Morgan Gibbs-White at Wolves looked decent.

Harry Maguire is a tough one. and I am going to stand by it. When I first began following the club in the late 80s - like most of the top sides - we had a British spine, with great leaders and strong communicators. The side has utterly lost this. Sure players like Dias, Konate and Upamecano are more technically gifted and have bright futures, but I still feel the side needs a more leaders. It was a high price (ok, too high), but Utd paid for a captain for the next decade. The antics of the last week are a worry but unfair to judge at this stage. No-one at the club comes close in terms of leadership and organising the team other than possibly Matic. Personally I prefer a defensive/ midfield captain, otherwise Bruno would be a candidate as he wears his heart on his sleeve. Quite liked Ake too - not superstar material but very useful in several positions.


6.) 28 Aug 2020
28 Aug 2020 20:54:37
AWB is a right sided CB in a back 3 for me.

HM is a centre half who needs to play in a back 3.

Yet we play 4 at the back.


7.) 29 Aug 2020
29 Aug 2020 08:01:39
AWB is exceptional in 1 on 1 situations but teams have learned his positional sense is average at best. He's still young and you'd hope this improves. He also has a tendency (unsure if this is the coaching staff telling him to do this or not) to push very high on the opposition full back or winger. This often isolates Lindelof on the right side. If it's his own tendency the coaching staff should look to improve his timing of when he does this, if it's something he's being told to do I'm a bit concerned. On the ball he seems to be improving but it's slow progress.

I wasn't and I'm still not a fan of the Maguire signing, I think there are several defenders in the league who are considerably better.

James started well but shouldn't have been starting the amount of games he was. Should be a squad option going forward but his final ball and decision making need to improve.

I'd still be fine with the AWB and James signings but we should have signed another CB instead of Maguire.


8.) 29 Aug 2020
29 Aug 2020 10:26:17
Perhaps it is me, but were any of them bought to a plan?

James is ok, take a chance at £15m, but as Herrera says you need to play him to his strengths, he is at his best when on the run not when he has the ball tight and needs to start running.

AWB, defensively excellent, although seemed a little off the ball towards the end. However, what was the plan? We switched tactics to requiring the full backs being important in attacks, getting good crosses in, yet AWB has not been good at that. Shaw better when not injured. If the plan was to get more attacking out of AWB, did they scout him? We already had Dalot, but Ole just abandoned him, yet he was a better attacking fullback than AWB, also very highly thought of, looked good to me, just needed better coaching. It looks like muddled thinking to me, like we didn’t buy to the plan or there wasn’t a plan. I like AWB, the defender but does he fit in the plan? To answer the OP question, you have to decide what you want from a fullback, based on the way of playing. If we want a defensive one, definitely would have bought him, a more attacking one I would have looked elsewhere.

Harry. Well I will stand by him, not worth £80m but that’s the amateurs for you. Our club had Laurent Blanc who was much slower. I have said a number of times, central defence is about partnerships and HM needs a better one than the bits and pieces approach. How many do we have? Too many, coming and going, no understanding, I happen to think that Smalling might have been a better partner, but he was sent to Italy whilst keeping Jones (genius idea) . If we were going to buy Harry it should have been earlier when Mourinho wanted him. The number of CB’s indicates a lack of planning and poor scouting, the fact we added another without thinking about partnerships is poor.

All through the season most have been praising Ole and the recruitment, yet now people are saying only one was any good, so are people waking up about Ole or will it be him not buying the players now? I am not convinced there is a clear coherent plan. We sold a Centre Forward, then had to bring a loan in, so now we need a centre forward? No, because we are after a right winger now, but we want an attacking full back who may have to operate in that area. Confused?


9.) 30 Aug 2020
30 Aug 2020 02:08:46
I'm sure someone on here mentioned that AWB started off as a right-winger. There should be an attacking instinct in there somewhere. First season. Big jump from Palace to Utd. let's see how he develops this season.


10.) 30 Aug 2020
30 Aug 2020 06:22:28
Yes red man. Lukaku was sold. Was he good enough? Not for me. I'm guessing behind the scenes Ole decided he needed to go. That is what managers do. Assess the squad and make changes. 3rd behind that Liverpool and City squad wasn't bad though eh? And when you think he only had his star signing for the second half of the season.


11.) 30 Aug 2020
30 Aug 2020 09:40:08
Dodgy

You missed the point, he sold Lukaku, then decided he needed a centre forward, brought in Ighalo on loan, extended the loan, didn’t play him, now we are seemingly not looking for a centre forward.

I wasn’t saying anything about Lukaku being good enough, however under Conte, a coach who knows what he is doing, Lukaku has done far better and I am sure I read that Real Madrid may be interested, but that has nothing to do with us.

The question I posed was whether we had a plan, what is our style of play and are we buying for it?


12.) 30 Aug 2020
30 Aug 2020 16:06:31
Lukaku was a flat-track bully. Italian league suits him well. It's even making Ashley Young look like a top player.

{Ed047's Note - I’m not having that last sentence Nou 🤣😉