29 Jun 2025 16:07:56
I don't know much about running a business or football club, this is just to get some opinions from other posters or Ed's.
GK - will and should we try and sell Onana and Bayindir and promote youth to 2nd choice and go and try to buy someone? We still have Heaton (I think), to step in if needed.
Def - Mazrouri, De Ligt, MaGuire, Yoro, Heaven, Dorgu and the new lad. So time to say buy to Malacia and Dalot. Are our young lads good enough to fill the gaps if needed?
Mid - Cas, Ugarte, Collyer, Mainoo. Who am I forgetting? Could Martinez do a job as a holding midfielder or even MaGuire?
Wings - Cunha, Amad and the four stooges. Muembo or like would be great as well. Out of the four stooges I would probably keep Antony and maybe Garnacho if he could change his stupid childish behaviour.
Striker - Hojlund has lost all confidence, would loan him out. Chido needs to learn from a decent scoring striker. Zirkzee could come good? We need to prioritise this position I think.
{Ed077's Note - did you forget the club captain himself, BRUNO? Mount and Shaw as well. Why would anyone want to keep Garnacho is beyond me. He can't digest a rotation role and he's been replaced in the XI by Cunha. Antony has earned the right to get amove by the way he's handled his situation at the club.
Lisandro was moved to the defence at Ajax because of stamina and endurance issues. So I don't think he can hack it in the PL as a regular DM option either.
29 Jun 2025 16:31:39
Bruno really didn’t need mentioned i thought. Forgot the two injury boys, Shaw is ready to go down a few pegs. With regards to Mount I should have remembered as I think there is a really good player there if he can stay injury free.
29 Jun 2025 16:58:00
Maguire or Martinez as holding midfielders lol.
We have plenty of defenders on the pitch as it is, no need to be adding more into the team.
{Ed077's Note - 1 will be needed to cover in defence for injuries, the other will probably pick up another injury ?. Licha needs to have a injury free season or 2. Or else it's time to think of moving on from him
29 Jun 2025 20:46:45
This is my view, we will need youth to provide support.
GKs: I don't see us getting rid of Onana, but Bayindir will go for a small amount. Bring back Vitek as backup with Heaton in support. Give Harrison another loan, maybe in League One.
Defence:
RCBs Yoro, Mazraoui and Fredricson.
LCBs Licha, Heaven and Shaw.
CCBs De Ligt, Maguire and Kukonki.
RWBs Amad, Dalot and Kamason.
LWBs Dorgu, Amass and Leon.
We'll probably have to give Malacia another loan.
Midfield:
Ugarte, Casemiro, Collyer, Mainoo, Fernandes and Mount don't inspire a great deal of confidence defensively, but the latter 3 can produce real moments of creative quality. This means that RA might need to work out how best to blend his defensive selections to offset what his preferred midfield pairing lacks. I don't think either of Martinez or Maguire could be the solution. We might well need to use youngsters like Moorhouse and the Fletchers sensibly, but I think our midfield will remain a bit light and vulnerable.
Kone needs his loan and he might come back looking really special.
Attack:
With Cunha and, hopefully, Mbeumo, we will be refreshed with levels of guile, craft and drive that we sorely lacked without Amad last season.
I think we might still have Rashford at the club and, if he can just get over himself, he'd be good competition for Cunha. Maybe give some minutes to Ibragimov, Scanlon or Williams.
I'd be tempted to bring young Lacey and/ or Mantato into games now to see if either's ready for that step up and provide competition for Mbeumo.
I don't think we're getting Gyokeres because we probably won't be able to raise the funds.
Calvert-Lewin could be a suitable option, albeit one that is midtable standard - where did we finish again?
Obi, Biancheri and Wheatley all deserve the chance to stake claims during preseason, the latter might yet be sold/ loaned.
I've mentioned lots of youngsters and I do believe we'll occasionally need to tap into that well. I don't think we have a Class of '92 on our hands, but there's a lot of potential there.
I'm probably wrong, but I'm going to say that I think at least one of Kamason, Leon, Lacey and Biancheri will properly make that step up this season.
Being hampered in our quest to improve by Rashford and Sancho, I don't think we'll be ready to return to the top 6 yet. However, I think we'll be top half, actually score a decent amount of goals, and have a season that triggers a bit more optimism - fingers crossed.
29 Jun 2025 21:53:04
I just cringe anytime Maguire is mentioned as an option. As long as we continue to been think he might be remotely useful then we are doomed to mid table mediocrity at best.
Not limited to him of course!
29 Jun 2025 22:13:25
Keefy to be fair to Maguire he played much better last season than any of us expected.
30 Jun 2025 00:02:33
In a team that finished 15th Salford, Keefy is correct, Maguire is nowhere near good enough as a starter in a team with our aspirations.
30 Jun 2025 07:03:28
Watch out Ork, I made a similar post a month or so back about youth being a big part of our setup, only to be shot down.
But I think the writing is on the wall, youth will play a big part.
30 Jun 2025 09:55:11
Licha has had 2 rubbish injuries. My hope is that because they are not muscle injuries, he should be fine. We will need him this year.
30 Jun 2025 10:04:56
Licha had a handful of good games after a bad injury, now he's coming back from another bad injury - i think a lot of fans might be disappointed in him this season- can see him gone 12 months from now. The PL is very unforgiving.
30 Jun 2025 11:14:45
Jimbobred
Yes, but thems that shot you down will likely have given little in terms of alternative solutions.
Many elite players on a real upward curve and/ or approaching prime years don't view Manchester United as the ideal destination for success anymore and would therefore be expensive on every level - United cannot afford to be that stupid anymore.
Experienced players who have passed their prime years will only look at United as a last big payday because that's how badly the club has been run for too long.
Unless an elite player actually wants to play for the club, our only appeal is commercial - that appeal won't fuel the recovery.
There is so much whingeing I've seen about spendy Chelsea, and I do understand that it's bloody frustrating, but they have also been excelling with two other things we've struggled with because of our many years of mismanagement and incompetence.
Firstly, Chelsea are damn good at bringing through youngsters and selling them on for good profit if they want rid. Tyrique George and Josh Ancheampong have come through from their U21s recently and both look like they'd fetch a good price. Since 2022/ 23 there has also been Humphreys, Maatsen, Gallagher, Hall, Hutchinson, Colwill and Broja - all except the last two being sold on for decent profit.
In that same period, we've seen Iqbal, Mainoo, Garnacho, Alvaro, Hannibal, Kovar, Kambwala, Forson, Gore and Collyer come up from the U21s with Wheatley and Amass coming from the U18s.
Compare Chelsea's 5 sold U21s to our 6 and you can see the difference - all 5 of theirs were sold for more than £10m (4 much more), whereas none of ours reached £10m.
When we sold McTominay, they got more for Gallagher.
When we sold Alvaro, they got much, much more for a lesser player in Maatsen.
In fact, when we sold Alvaro Kambwala and Hannibal, Chelsea got more from just the sale of Omari Hutchinson.
The reason?
Simple really, their youngsters have developed better because of faith and senior gametime. Their respective ceilings might actually have not been viewed as particularly so much greater at the time, but they'd been able to develop their bodies and minds correctly so that they were better prepared as prospects looking to take that next step elsewhere.
We haven't given enough trust in youth for years and that is one of the reasons we are where we are. Other clubs know very well how weak we have been with negotiations for academy players because we don't give them enough time to step up, and so they are all desperately hoping a thick layer of that weakness still applies now because a Garnacho or Mainoo being available for a knock-down price is what they're all waiting for.
So yes, anyone trying to shut me down on this best come armed with the reasons why I'm wrong and what the alternative is - I'd fully expect to read little more than yebbuts.
The other thing that Chelsea do very well is scout prospects. I know some people disagree, but it's very blinkered to think the incompetence at the club was contained in-house at OT - imo, we've employed some proper lazy scouts over the years and the entire structure was clumsy.
So to where we are now - where before we should have put more effort into sourcing talent from around the world and shown far more faith in our youth prospects, I think we now actually need to.
30 Jun 2025 19:57:33
Don't disagree Ork with anything you have said.
My post was about aligning the squad with Amorim desire to have a smaller 23 man squad, and I took the opportunity to absolutely rid the club of all the dross, with minimal spending due to a reliance on youth.
This was intended to both lift the value of said youth players whilst also minimising our unnecessary spending and using the money from outgoing sales to clear some of the crap debt that we have on players.
The thing that I have tried to highlight more than anything is that we are in a period of our history where we are not aiming to win anything next year, realistically. The sooner that is realised, the quicker people will realise that signing a striker, two 10' ago a CB and a mid are unrealistic for our immediate goals.
Are those players essential this summer, probably. Can we afford them, no. Find another solution folks that allows us to improve upon a 15th place finish.