26 Jun 2016 10:21:59
In 10 days, the 2016 transfer window will open. The consensus of all posters is that the team performance needs to improve considerably next season not only in absolute terms, but also in comparison with the other PL teams. That can be achieved by a combination of ways. One way is for a new coaching team to enable existing players to improve or to blend together better. That takes a long time and it would be unreasonable to expect Mourinho to achieve significant improvements overnight.
The other way is to bring in new players who would complement our best existing players, players that are be better than those who they would replace. Self-evident you will say. Yes, now we look at the transfer activity to date. The failings of the past three summers appear to being repeated. Time and effort is being wasted on unattainable players. Last year it was Ramos, and this year it's Pogba. Will Ibrhamovich come? That looks increasingly unlikely, because he has had plenty of opportunities to confirm his next team and has steadfastly refused to name us. But that brings me to my observation over the years.
The longer the time that a target is "linked", the more likely that he will move to a different team or be using the threat of moving to extract better terms with his existing club. Yet again, Woodward appears to be dithering by failing to complete a deal, letting others step in and snatch the player away. Consider Sanchez as a prime example and probably Embolo. He's excellent at landing commercial deals. He clearly understands that process brilliantly, but as for negotiating for players - you can add your own comments.
I can only hope that my fears are unjustified and that the failings at centre-back, right back, midfield and goal scoring will be rectified long before deadline day, but his track record points in the opposite direction. Am I being unfair? Quite possibly, because yet again Utd cannot offer EPL, and the domino effect cannot be discounted. Until a player of proven standing joins, there is little "pull".
Baillie, with all due respect to him, is a £30 million pound gamble. He is very inexperienced and may take longer to adapt to the rigours of the PL than the time he can be given. (I assume that he will get his work permit on appeal, because he does not qualify automatically. )
As a final and totally different point, Brexit will clearly risk the recruitment policy of all PL clubs, including Utd. Unless the UK joins the EEA, free movement of labour will cease, so young players from the continent would need work permits. That gives a great advantage to the Spanish, French and Italian clubs.
Of course the dramatic fall in the value of Sterling increases the effective cost of a player transferred from a Continental club making it harder to recruit - the transfer fee is higher and to the player, the salary (judged in Euros) is lower. That too applies to managers and coaches.
Red Setter in despair.
26 Jun 2016 11:51:42
That's not to mention the ground beneath old Trafford is becoming increasingly unstable. The whole team may be wiped from the face of the earth. We will get blamed as a club and demoted to the conference. We will sell our name to foreign investors and rename our once great club 'the Red Setters' where hopefully you're eternal optimism will guide us back to where we belong.
Chill out dude .
26 Jun 2016 12:08:26
Hi red setter. I do understand your fear. But your opening sentence says it all.
How do you know that a few deals are not in place?
What players have any of our key competitors signed?
Ibra has a loyalty bonus of a few million due to be paid on 1st July and will then be free to name his club
Players are at euros and are not going to talk too much about club football
Most of the press reports we read are either guess work our simply made up.
I'm sure Dortmund want to secure a replacement before they let tricky Mickey go.
I agree that chasing pogba could be a waste if time I would also try to sign veratti and kante for that money. But they may not be attainable either
I also think that the club are after a galactic type signing that will be the face if the brand for next few seasons. Pogba James bale all fit this bill but imo only one of those is the ideal fit and he is not moving.
I believe we will sign mkhitaryan and ibra. James is a possibility but high risk and very expensive.
Another cb is required imo and at least 1 cm preferably 2.
I am fairly relaxed because there is 3 months left and there is going to be a lot if players moving clubs between now and then.
26 Jun 2016 12:38:50
The point about waiting for ramos is pretty unfair. Its not like woody and lvg were sat for two months waiting for a text back from sergio.
The ramos bid was linked to the de gea pursuit from real. It probably helped prolong de geas move until the farcical last day of the transfer window.
Also i remember lvgs back up option to ramos was delivered in daley blind. Lvg wanted a defender to play from the back and if it wasnt going to be someone of the calibre of ramos or hummels then he would have to make do with blind. He didn't want a half measure like otamendi.
26 Jun 2016 13:56:49
Setter u don't half make some panic statements. 😆😆.
26 Jun 2016 14:01:18
i changed some holiday money on tuesday 2 days before referendum the pound is only 3 cents different from tuesdays rate hardly a crash, . it only rose on thursday to 1.30 due to greedy money traders . to much panic and crap being talked in the media who need to make headlines wether its the truth or not let's see were currency rates are in a couple of weeks and hope it stabalises before the end of the world and the swarms of locusts arrive.
26 Jun 2016 14:28:20
Panicking much? Look technically zlatan isn't a free agent yet he has a few days on his previous contract he'll collect his 4 million payout and announce his next club. I am a lifelong United fan and I am sure if I was in his position I would do exactly the same thing remember the rich never turn down money that is how they stay rich. Embolo has gone to schalke ok big deal to me it only makes it more likely that dortmund will buckle and Henrik will come to us. It's inevitable that we will be linked with pogba the way I see it he will either stay at juve, join real or come to us no time has been wasted because there's still ten days to go before its transfer season a whole ten days wow!
So relax enjoy the suspense and have faith whatever happens this window will be the best in recent history. Even Fergie wasn't a big buyer no value in the market remember?
26 Jun 2016 13:28:37
What I am saying is that the pattern looks very similar to the past three years. The main negotiator is unchanged, so why should the outcomes be different?
Whilst I would be very happy if both Mkh and Ibra signed, but neither are at the Euros. The longer agreement takes, the more likely a club like Roma can make an alternative and attractive offer.
Ramos clearly was stringing us along for a couple of months at least. There was no plan B. Blind was used as a makeshift centre back, but does anyone really think he was a success? The problem was compounded by Evans being sold.
26 Jun 2016 15:24:40
I agree with Red Setter. I don't think Ed has a clue when it comes to transfers, I would have expected more to have happened or been announced by now. A club with our wealth and cache should be able to sign the players we want. Looking at some of the signings of recent years, they have not been good enough. Right now, money talks and we have a lot of it. We need someone who. Is able to close the deals, I doubt Woodward is that man.
26 Jun 2016 16:22:45
too many potential signings are at the euros, there national managers will not let transfer talk disupt the players until there either out or its over. you will see a glut of deals happen after the tournament.
26 Jun 2016 16:55:31
AHJ, I agree. Woodward is great with noodles, poor with players. Unlike noodles, players have feelings, aspirations and want somewhere "nice" to live etc.
Noodles are just a deal, purely business. Players need to be convinced, enticed and to a certain extent courted and befriended especially when no champions league is on offer. No disrespect to Woodie but the people skills required are unlikely to be in the repertoire of a hard headed business man. He also fails to understand the "show" business / entertainment side of football apart from inside a hospitality suite. (imo)
26 Jun 2016 18:04:54
The window hasn't opened. Players are still in tournaments. It's way too early to panic. None of us know exactly who Mourinho's targets are as the transfer of Bailly clearly shows, nor what negotiations are underway. None of us know which players in the current squad will be in his plans and which not, nor whether he can bring out better performances through different tactics and better coaching. Nor, in fact do we know whether it's Woodie's incompetence, calculated decisions not to pursue particular targets touted by the gutter press, or just the relative unattractiveness of MUFC compared to other clubs with Champions League football.
Relax. I'm confident we'll bring in some decent players.