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14 Jul 2025 13:09:52
Any views on Ndidi? Haven't seen him for a while tbh, but remember he was highly rated on FM lol. Is he a steal at 9m as is being reported.
1.) 14 Jul 2025 13:24:02
If we want to fall closer to that bottom 3 then yeah he’s the type of player to add along with dcl.
2.) 14 Jul 2025 14:27:12
Im sure if the club were interested in him, then at £9 million, they would have likely gone for him by now.
3.) 14 Jul 2025 14:47:27
It's a firm no from me - Ugarte, despite the flak, is already better.
I would consider that £9m wasted.
4.) 14 Jul 2025 15:42:01
Wow if Ugarte is better, Ndidi must be total tosh!
Remind me what we paid for can’t pass a ball headless chicken Ugarte?
5.) 14 Jul 2025 16:40:05
An initial £42.2m, German.
I know he's not worth that and he'll probably go down as a bit of a flop, but he's a Manchester United player who hasn't exactly made himself look stellar and nobody's trying to sign him, so there's nish to be done about it.
In light of that, why would we waste £9m on an even lesser player when our budget is already squeaky tight?
6.) 14 Jul 2025 17:03:37
German, my friend, they accused you that you are Romanian etc. They overastimated you. At least they were trols, trolling the site. You are not, you trully believe what you say and that's the worst.
7.) 14 Jul 2025 23:06:43
If Ndidi is available for £9 million I would buy now. He could then be used to chase the Fab Four down until they did their job.
29 Jun 2025 14:28:09
What are views on our activity (actual as well as attempted / reported) so far?
I think the club at least got the decision making right (reset needed, move players on ruthlessly instead of handing even more absurd contracts to 'preserve value', mostly right priorities on what we need in and out, etc. ) but moving players on will be a much bigger headache than anyone thought. Goes to show just how much of a mess we are in tbh.
And yes, I know there's a long time to go and what not, but it does seem that nobody wants our players; rightly so, as with few exceptions they are pretty much all dross when you look at wage/ talent ratio.
Basically I was stupidly hopeful we would make a lot of progress this window. Am now resigned to at least next season to see a proper squad coming together.
1.) 29 Jun 2025 15:13:55
There are so many factors involved in transfers not least the fact that you need a willing buyer and seller who can reach a compromise on price and payment terms.
Then the fact that players although increasingly seen as commodities to be traded do have a say too. They may not want to move to a particular club or league
Then there is the domino effect where the transfer of a few players suddenly frees up blocked deals as clubs have more room to manoeuvre.
Lastly PSR means that it's probably economic sense for most clubs to do deals in a new PSR year rather than in the current one.
Am sure nearly all clubs will be working hard including Utd to buy and sell players and quite rightly we as fans only tend to see the end result of negotiations not the whole process.
2.) 29 Jun 2025 16:58:56
Would rather have two well thought out, sensible signings who can perform sooner rather than later, thank have 6/ 7 random signings of which only 1/ 2 will be a success.
3.) 29 Jun 2025 17:10:21
Tbf, irrespective of how keen I was to see the problems removed swiftly from the squad, I certainly didn't expect it to be easy.
Rashford and Sancho are grossly overpaid and deluded with incredibly poor attitudes.
Casemiro wants to stay.
The club would seek too much for Antony and he would likely want too much in wages.
I'd be gutted, but I fully expect that only Antony from that four will leave and only on loan with a loan fee of no more than £10m to cover his wages.
Then there's Garnacho. His age, profile and ceiling would, were it not for his ego and attitude combined with our need for funds, otherwise attract interest at around £60m. However, we're probably looking at around £40m.
Onana doesn't want to leave and we'd likely get no more than book value for Hojlund.
Which, to me, leaves only Dalot and Mainoo as options for profit.
If reports are correct and our starting budget was barely £100m, then we must currently be left with a maximum of £37.5m - £27.5m short of what Brentford are reported to want for Mbeumo.
So, imo, even if we sold Garnacho, we'd probably still end up having to sell Mainoo to have any hope of buying a striker or a goalkeeper.
This conundrum makes it more likely we go for Calvert-Lewin on a free and stick with Onana.
The club is being squeezed because of the financial mess of it's own making, nothing will be easy and we'll probably remain stuck with Rashford, with only loan fees for Antony and Sancho.
Imo, we'll see lots of movement we want now happen next summer.
I think we're going to see Sancho go on a free, Antony and Casemiro leave for respective book values, while Onana and Hojlund might garner interest if they can find some form. Rashford will likely only move if his ego and/ or wage demands are catered to, failing which we'll be stuck with him for another 3 years.
The optimist in me hopes to see Cunha and Mbeumo bring some sparkle to our performances, but the realist in me knows that we need more than just Fernandes and Amad to show up as well if we're to be a decent team again.
{Ed077's Note - did you and Shappy switch usernames? ??
4.) 29 Jun 2025 17:52:29
???
No Ed, I'm more Shloppy.
5.) 29 Jun 2025 20:52:13
Calvert-Lewin. Why bother?
6.) 29 Jun 2025 21:32:58
MancMan
Match made in heaven mate - he's got dodgy hamstrings and we're hamstrung.
01 Jun 2025 16:35:20
Genuine question now that Cunha seems to be done and dusted - what do people make of his temperamental/ discipline related issues? I sometimes worry that we will have Sancho pt. 2.
1.) 01 Jun 2025 16:47:20
Sancho's problem isn't his temperament. It's his discipline to work.
2.) 01 Jun 2025 17:44:30
Difference is that Cunha puts all that temperament into his work ethic and football. He has that nasty factor about him which we need in Utd players.
Sancho a temperament and nastiness is his lack of work ethic and his laziness. Completely different imo and Cunha will be an excellent signing. One in the correct direction.
3.) 01 Jun 2025 17:48:10
He's not lazy, he's feisty. I don't remember it being too much of a hindrance to Cantona, Rooney or Keane who all had a similar temperament.
4.) 01 Jun 2025 22:27:09
I am not sure about this one, but being feisty isn't the concern. He strikes me as an emotional maverick type, OT has always taken to them and adored them, which is often when these types find their home.
I am less convinced he is going to do the hard side of the role and do the defensive work Amorim wants however. I don't particularly remember seeing this being part of his game.
I am looking forward to seeing a player who can bring moments of magic back to OT, and offer some excitement other than whatever happens the next time the ball goes near Onana.
27 May 2025 07:43:48
Finally this season has ended, couldn't come fast enough for me.
Each window there's a lot of comments about how it's so critical for the club, but a lot of it ends up being hyperbole. To me, this one feels different, and for two reasons as I thought about why
- one, just the absolute rubbishshow of a season we have had, on and equally important off the pitch (SJR penny pinching, dof in dof out, EtH backed EtH out, dressing room leaks and what not) . Kinda hard to remember a worse one in the 25 odd years of following the club.
- two, indications are we will have
very high squad turnover i. e. Rangnicks open heart surgery. Maybe close to half the squad leaving, and hence just a matter of math.
Fingers crossed. Am quietly optimistic, and really hope we get our outgoings sorted for once.
PS - maybe the Sheikh comes back in, makes a lower valuation bid, clears the debt etc. Glazers still make a bucket as they exit, and SJR rids himself of a headache. Win win all around. At least worth speculating about :)
12 Mar 2025 02:50:39
Ratcliffe making it out in his interview that he has been forced to take drastic measures because he discovered how bad the clubs finances were AFTER he bought into it is just a load of BS, and here's why
- I am an investor in private companies (much smaller cheques, very young cos) but even I would do the basic due diligence of assessing liabilities upfront. It's not rocket science when you are looking at a football club as the underlying asset that you need to know about transfer payments and player contracts, since those are your two big cost items. It beggars belief that Ratcliffe, with his prior experience of owning clubs, and with much more diligent advisors available to him, was unaware of the state of affairs
- what's a lot more likely is that it was always part of the plan to penny pinch wherever possible, while massively screwing up on major decisions, and this interview is kind of the perfect opportunity to control the narrative a bit. From what I understand, GN grills him a fair bit, but if you read the BBC story it's a lot more sympathetic to Ratcliffe in its tone.
- i would argue that blundering on EtH and Ashworth, which probably cost us 30M in comp fees (also for getting RA, lest we forget), and God only knows how much because of the rubbishty season we are having, is the real money sinker. which is fully on the new management team.
- I am fully sympathetic to them ie Ratcliffe and his team for the really big task they have ahead of them, and i actually think we will emerge stronger over 2-3 years provided we stick with the manager and tell the players to get on with it. However, this i-am, -just-a-poor-billionaire-trying-my-best sob act is pathetic.
1.) 12 Mar 2025 05:50:42
AM2. 100% agree, but his sob story is aimed at the masses, who don’t understand business and are easily led and believe all that’s fed to them…. which in 2025 is vast majority, he just used that interview for warm up the very next day new stadium…… take it all with a pinch of salt, his advisors/ accountants etc would have gone over and accounted for every penny, trying to get anyone to believe he was shocked is laughable! But the majority will believe it and that’s all he wants.
2.) 12 Mar 2025 06:16:32
AM2
I agree to a point about them only finding out how bad the clubs finances were after he bought. I know and have seen and been involved in due diligence undertaken but, without going into it in too much detail, it depends on who did the work. Usually it will be expert financial accountant/ auditors, yet did they use experts in all fields who understand just because it says in the books we owe x, do we? How deep a dive was it? I suspect there would have been expertise in reviews of players contracts and clauses.
Who paid for the DD? Was it included in the £30m costs foisted on the club? Or did SJR instruct his own?
However it was done. Now, to add to your point, if it was done so badly there were major issues that were not discovered, which needed such drastic action, I am sure he would be openly taking legal action against the company who did the due diligence, either himself or the club seeking recompense. There are always contractual caveats but something so significant would surely be unacceptable. Opposite is that he is in effect besmirching the due diligence company, will they sue him?
At least he made a confession to the ETH error, which some of us said on here. £30m in comp fees, and it was emotionally driven. That has to stop.
However, people are still missing
1. The £30m in costs foisted on the club by the Glazers so they could pick up SJR share funds. Was it including the Due Diligence fees? Another millstone round our necks. Why didn’t SJR pay it? (If allowed) or did he?
2.The Glazer debt that costs us £60m a year. Will SJR cost cutting pay for that? No, he can only do such cost cutting so many times. What covers that next financial year?
All the great stadium talk, yet has there been anything on how that will be paid. Or how we get those Glazer leeches out?
3.) 12 Mar 2025 07:33:48
The clubs not profitable and of course he would of known this when looking at the numbers, hence the changes and removing bloat, like the club hiring c200 extra employees when the club was running at a loss, did you watch the interview? He also said that he had a view of numbers with different with different scenarios around certain aspects around league finishes, CL, and Europa determining the state of finances. I’m pretty he did know some figure and it was painted in some better shape than it was but I’m sure as a person who works in “investing” would also know that things aren’t always black and white.
4.) 12 Mar 2025 09:32:58
Think it's also got something to do with the 200m he brought in to give the club a boost which Ashworth and co pissed up the wall in about 5 minutes. Realistically he needs to find that kind of sum again to push on and I don't think they have it spare at the mo. I don't think there's any question he wants the club to succeed on the pitch. It's the basis for everything else.
5.) 12 Mar 2025 09:49:56
AM2 unless you know the inner workings of the club and its finances, which is pretty evident you don't. I don't think anybody will pay mind to your opinion on the issue.
6.) 12 Mar 2025 12:35:00
Am not saying I have insider knowledge. All I'm saying is either Ratcliffe employed really inept due diligence folks, and hence all this is genuinely a surprise to him; or he is trying to leverage that interview to generate some positive PR for himself.
Both imo are bad and make me upset, for different reasons (one is incompetence, the second is using the club for his own benefit and nothing else), especially since the club is penny pinching on stuff which really doesn't change anything.
And yes, I do agree that all his incentives are aligned with on pitch success and to reiterate i sympathize with him and the team. I think it's possible to have that belief and yet not agree with a lot of what he does. I just think this interview could have been done a lot better - a lot of it is a bit rich given his own decision making has been questionable.
7.) 12 Mar 2025 13:05:42
Let’s remember that we’d still have needed to pay compensation for Amorim if we’d brought him in last summer, and would still have had to pay Ten Haag off had we let him go earlier as well. The latter’s compensation was probably a bit higher due to his deal being extended three months earlier and the whole Ashworth situation was a shambles from start to finish, but this £30m figure being bandied about seems a little misleading.
Now the money wasted on transfers last summer, on the other hand….
8.) 12 Mar 2025 14:58:12
Fair questions redman and good point redseven
Simply nobody knows the detail on here so don't make assumptions.
9.) 12 Mar 2025 15:47:55
Of course he did his due diligence and of course it was his intention all along to take whatever action was required to make the club profitable. You can call that penny pinching if you will, and, yes, some of the actions (exaggerated by press hyperbole) seem unnecessarily Scroogey, but if I were persuaded to make a large investment in a persistent loss making enterprise I can assure you I would insist on draconian action too.
As for the stadium cost do any of us know how it will be financed, other than it won't be by public money? Do we even know it will be owned by Man Utd PLC?
10.) 12 Mar 2025 16:26:59
The money will be borrowed and like in all other aspects of life the customer will pay.
Same as when BA or Ryanair buy me aeroplanes or when you local taxi man buys a new car etc etc.
11 Jul 2025 12:29:48
Highly doubt it. Much more likely that this is more PR from Rashford.
05 Jul 2025 07:24:26
Hmm. Hopefully ex-players can help us more in the shorter run than our existing set of guys on ridiculous wages. hope Elanga, Alvaro and Greenwood get solid big money moves! Maybe add £30M or so to our skint budget.
03 Jun 2025 07:17:29
If this is true, then the club seems to be prioritising well. It would appear that this is the minimum activity the club is targeting
IN: Cunha, Leon, Mbeumo
OUT: Eriksen, Lindelof, Evans, Rashford, Garnacho, Antony, Sancho
Which is a squad then that looks like
GK: Onana, Bayindir, Heaton
CB: Maz / Yoro, MdL / Maguire, Martinez / Heaven, Fredricson
WB: Amad / Dalot, Dorgu / Shaw, Amass, Leon
CM: Cas, Ugarte, Bruno, Mainoo, Kone
10s: Cunha, Mount, Mbeumo, Zirkzee
9s: Hojlund, Obi
I have had to force fit some players in positions that we can debate are not the best fit (Bruno, Mainoo, Zirkzee) and there's a lot that needs to be done to improve this which will get determined by how the market plays out e. g. Bruno stays or goes, does someone buy Greenwood for a big amount, can a new striker be found in what is a pretty shallow market for good strikers who want to play for United.
But on the whole this squad already looks a lot better than what we have currently, and is a sign that we have our priorities straight.
I would personally like the following, after the list above is done
- get a new number 9. Doesn't need to be elite, but someone who can score and take pressure off Hojlund (i think he deserves time till Xmas) . David from Lille, Toney, Vlahovic all fall in my not-elite bucket
- get a new number 1. Onana can be backup or go, i don't really care. Has too many errors and unfortunately his performances don't back up his talk
- sell Shaw and Maguire and buy a new CB
- find good loans / permanent moves for some kids. Think one of Amass / Leon needs a loan, and Collyer (who I like, but clearly RA doesn't) needs a new club.
PS: now waiting for the club to announce new deals for Rashford, Antony, Sancho and Garnacho! :D.
28 Jun 2025 02:39:38
Agree. Think we have made a fair offer, right at the top end of what he's likely worth. Time to move on, especially since this is playing out in public. That way we make it clear we are not willing to pay stupid money, aka the United Tax.
21 Jun 2025 04:04:04
Agree with redseven. This is just both the clubs scratching each other's backs to make life easier wrt PSR.
17 Jun 2025 12:50:27
I think Onana talks a lot but doesn't back it up at all. As long as we get a new #1, don't care whether he stays or goes.
The funny thing is it seems there are many GKs who would be an instant - and not very expensive - upgrade on what we have, unlike strikers. So hopefully the club will move fast on that at least.
30 May 2025 05:16:37
Spenno, a completely new attack may not be as unrealistic, whether 160m or whatever the price may be. It's clear that our first priority has to sort out goals, and one can argue that defence (apart from GK) and midfield we can get by for a season with no European football. So an approach where we prioritize attack and GK for incomings and everything else only based on what we sell is quite sensible.
12 Mar 2025 12:35:00
Am not saying I have insider knowledge. All I'm saying is either Ratcliffe employed really inept due diligence folks, and hence all this is genuinely a surprise to him; or he is trying to leverage that interview to generate some positive PR for himself.
Both imo are bad and make me upset, for different reasons (one is incompetence, the second is using the club for his own benefit and nothing else), especially since the club is penny pinching on stuff which really doesn't change anything.
And yes, I do agree that all his incentives are aligned with on pitch success and to reiterate i sympathize with him and the team. I think it's possible to have that belief and yet not agree with a lot of what he does. I just think this interview could have been done a lot better - a lot of it is a bit rich given his own decision making has been questionable.