21 Apr 2025 11:42:22
Watching the game yesterday, I began thinking about us not buying Harry Kane in 2023.
During the summer of 2023, the club bought Onana, Hojlund, and Mount for about £150m.
That summer we were told that Harry Kane was interested in coming here. We had just finished 3rd in the league, and Kane was rumoured to want to break Shearer's goal record.
But Spurs wanted him to go abroad, and were looking for a higher fee from any EPL buyer. In the end he went to Bayern for just under £100m.
For me, this is one of the biggest cock ups in the club's recent history.
If the club kept De Gea and didn't sign Onana, we would have a better keeper.
Mount has been permanently injured, and a complete waste of money.
Hojlund was nowhere near ready for this level, let alone to be the main striker at a club of united's size.
The money spent on these three could have signed Kane, a genuine world class scorer. At the time the club claimed that they couldn't justify paying what Spurs were asking. His fee would have been far easier to justify than £150m wasted on a downgrade in goal, a second choice am who's always injured, and a striker who would be better suited to our youth team.
{Ed001's Note - even just keeping the money and de Gea would have been better. I can see the thinking behind replacing him, but not with a clown who was known as a clown before you signed him.}
21 Apr 2025 12:10:23
Mount is the biggest example of a “nothing player”, genuinely don't see why he's so highly rated, even considering injuries, when he plays his output has been zero in terms of assists and goals.
21 Apr 2025 12:18:03
Ed001. It was an absolutely incompetent decision. Degea has a few limitations as a modern keeper, but Onana has these same limitations along with being much much worse in every other way.
{Ed001's Note - he is among the worst I have ever seen in the top flight of professional football. He has not even got near to mastering the basics of goalkeeping.}
21 Apr 2025 12:39:17
Danny - Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it’s hard to disagree with you!
I thought we did ok yesterday, the young kids Amass and Fredricson were excellent and I think if we had a decent CF we win that game comfortably. How many games have we said that this season?
In line with what you’ve said would we be better off blowing most of our budget on Gyokeres in the summer? I appreciate he’ll probably have other suitors but if we can somehow win the Europa League maybe that might just give us a shot?
Should we be spending our money on just 1 or 2 quality additions that can come straight into the first team and make an immediate impact. How many more points would we have this season for example if we had a competent CF and GK?
21 Apr 2025 13:15:21
DLIB,
I do agree that a goalkeeper and a top striker improve this team 10 fold. We have cover in other positions, I actually think there is a few combinations in the back 3 that will work, Fredricsen has also put himself in there now, Amad will be back and I think will play wing back. We have Amass, Dorgu and Leon coming in, if Casemiro stays then I’m not sure we desperately need anyone in the middle although obviously always open to improvement there, so you could justify a top top striker and a goalkeeper that can actually stop shots would be huge for us.
Then supplement that with players in other positions depending on how much money we can bring in from sales, maybe a quality 10 that fits the system if Antony, Rashford or Garnacho are sold. This season has been all about Ruben working out who can play the system and who can’t, Hojlund has proved he cannot and should be moved on but other players who perhaps looked out of their depth are actually starting to improve, but results are not as goalkeeper saves no shots and our striker scores no goals.
I don't think for a second we will only sign 2 players, i think / hope we will sign more but i'm confident for next season if we got 2 players.
21 Apr 2025 14:13:17
I think that the two biggest issues the club have are:
1. The goalkeeper is a liability. He simply cannot be trusted.
2. We don’t have a single outright goal scorer.
I don’t think it’s hindsight to say that only one of these issue existed in the summer of 2023.
We had a top class keeper who was not good with his feet.
We didn’t have an outright goal scorer.
At the time I said that if there was any possibility of signing Kane, we needed to take it, regardless of cost. There are so few top class strikers today, that you need to snap one up if he’s available.
We didn’t. Instead we traded a reliable keeper for the worst keeper I have seen at the club.
Bought an attacking mid that had no place in our starting 11.
And a kid with a handful of games in Italy to be our main striker.
This isn’t hindsight. This is watching someone drive straight into a brick wall, shouting for them to stop, and being completely unsurprised when they smash into it.
21 Apr 2025 15:46:54
Not hindsight at all a blind man mustve scouted Hoijlund and Onana 72mill for a striker with 9 goals was insane still lined THs brothers pockets that's the main thing manager was happy.
21 Apr 2025 16:21:42
Danny - I was actually agreeing with you but there are two sides to every story and hindsight always provides the context not available at the time.
We must remember these signings came on the back of a 3rd place finish, a league cup victory and an FA Cup final. At the time most believed EtH was the man to take the Club forward and Rashford had just become the first Utd player to score 30 goals in a single season since RvP.
Many argued that we needed a ball playing GK, many speculated this would be transformative, some even said that signing a new ball playing GK would help the team score more goals.
Who knows if Levy would have sold Kane to Man Utd? Who knows if Kane even wanted to join us? Some questioned the logic of spending so much money on a player approaching their 30’s. It was a complicated and difficult transfer to complete and not everyone agreed he was the right man. Not because of his quality, but there were concerns about the transfer fee, his wages, his age and even his injury record.
Hojlund was well rated at the time and seen as a CF with potential for growth and improvement.
The Mount signing was a touch perplexing with no obvious place for him in the team and a dubious injury record but again many speculated EtH was going to move towards two 8’s with Mount and Bruno in midfield?
If you argued at the time that the Club should go all out for Kane, no matter the cost or complexity of the deal and shouldn’t be targeting a younger CF to lead the line for Man Utd or replacing De Gea with Onana, that despite a excellent performance in a Champions League final was in fact a calamity waiting to happen, then that was incredible insight but at the time many couldn’t stand De Gea and many were not totally convinced about Kane for differing reasons not to mention Spurs reluctance to sell him to another Premier League side.
It looks so obvious now I completely agree but there were other factors to consider at the time and that’s all I meant by hindsight.
21 Apr 2025 17:44:11
Good post dlib.
Give it 18 months and the club will be in a much better position on and off the pitch.
Imo we have an excellent young coach some very promising young players already in and around the 1st team in mainoo, heaven, garnacho amass, amad yoro durogu, collyer obi . With another 2 or 3 behind these. All young players under 23 with some still in their teens.
21 Apr 2025 17:58:11
Am perplexed by Onana. At times he is really really good but then at others oh dear. Bottom line he is not consistent enough and has had enough time to prove himself and not succeeded.
Re Kane and another forward it's obvious that we need a top class centre forward and again puzzling that the club should feel an untried 22yr old would be good enough to lead the line at a club like ours. The reality is that we need two not one too centre forward. What happens eg if we buy Goekeres and he gets injured within a few games? We will be stuffed again
We also have to sign a midfielder who is creative and can control the tempo of the game. Bruno is by far our most creative player and if he gets injured we will suffer too.
.
Appreciate it's not easy for the club to find enough too talent and be able to sign them within the financial constraints that exist but the world is a big place and there must be players out there for us to sign.
21 Apr 2025 18:13:56
Salford you're completely right about the need for a CM. On Onana though I think it's clear he lacks a lot of the basics. He can make saves near his body and can execute passes well given time. The latter is like a lot of our players e. g. Maguire who look good in certain situations but are fundamentally flawed.
I would be very surprised if a GK isn't targeted this summer alongside a CM, a 10 and a striker. Personally I hope we go for Kelleher. More than good enough, is PL proven, hungry to prove himself, and should be affordable given just one year left on his contract (I think! )
21 Apr 2025 18:18:33
Salford,
I must have missed when he’s looked good.
21 Apr 2025 18:52:17
I am not convinced you can mention Gyokeres in same breath as Kane, he will be another unknown in the premier league.
We certainly need 2 strikers we certainly need a GK along with a CB and Ugarte is nowhere near the level required either, not sure 1-2 players gets anywhere near the required level, but it certainly helps.
21 Apr 2025 20:55:56
What are our youth keepers like?
We have to realise, we might find a buyer for Onana. Do we have any stock coming through? Think we flogged Vitek for a pittance, which was stupid.
21 Apr 2025 20:39:03
Don Red
I also wondered if Kelleher might be an option for us better than Onana
BUT Liverpool have decided on someone else as their number two keeper so what does that say about him. Is he really good enough for us?
{Ed025's Note - Kelleher wants first team football Salford and hes well aware that if Alisson stays thats not going to be possible mate at Liverpool, but he will want assurances about game time whoever he goes to..
21 Apr 2025 20:40:24
GDS2. It's easy to overlook the times Onana has been good because too often he is poor and human nature is to remember negatives before positives.
21 Apr 2025 22:23:40
Perhaps but I think good goalkeeping in consistency and he doesn’t have it and never has.