01 Aug 2025 21:10:31
See a lot of people saying that if we get awake then hojlund has to go. Why? We need more than 1 striker for the season, injuries suspensions etc and other than zirkzee (more of a 10) we don't have another striker. Hojlund is young and not on huge wages so why not have them both.
01 Aug 2025 22:40:29
That should read sesko not awake…. predictive text ??♂️.
01 Aug 2025 23:04:40
Totally agree, really want to see how he fares with quality player's around him, creating opportunities for him and themselves.
All we have had over recent seasons is 2 wide men relying on pace and running at defenders and if they beat them either pass the ball backwards or shoot from any distance. There has been no structure, no organisation and no thought to the use of a striker.
Rasmus deserves an opportunity within the new structure being created by RA to show if he is capable of succeeding. If he fails then fair enough, he has had his chance, no complaints.
He certainly has the right attitude towards the club and he want's to stay and fight for his place, what you want to see from a player.
01 Aug 2025 23:19:58
Might not be an issue now anyways, lots of rumours online that sesko has chosen Newcastle. If that’s true do we pivot back to Watkins or stick with what we have?
02 Aug 2025 00:10:34
I'd have no issues with playing Mbuemo or Cunha playing up top of we can't get a striker in. Though I think Hojlund will do better with both those players either side of him.
02 Aug 2025 00:20:26
Believe in Rasmus ?.
02 Aug 2025 05:55:26
That an up and coming player might choose Newcastle ahead of us is gut wrenching, no disrespect to them, they are a great club but even so, it will be hard to accept.
02 Aug 2025 08:14:17
AJH
Perhaps this boards method of operation should be questioned if another player they want chooses Newcastle over us. We are in August and known a striker was vital for a very long time yet it seems Ratcliffe and co think they can pick and choose, wait and see.
I do not think it is just European football that defines choices but how we go about things. All well and good saying PSR but our No1 absolute priority was a striker. If Sesko is the one they want and he chooses Newcastle it’s short sighted from him but also indicative of how we are operating. We only have to look at what we did with MBueno to see it.
02 Aug 2025 11:08:42
I agree Red Man, apparently we have professional football people running the show now. Cunha was good, Mbuemo took too long with pointless haggling, and if we are going tonl sign a striker, we seem to be taking a long time to get on with it.
I get the PSR issues, but we still seem to be flailing around a little.
Of course, this could all be paper talk and we have a cunning plan.
02 Aug 2025 11:58:15
The Mbeumo deal was apparently complicated by Brentford moving the goal posts.
Apparently they set a price when Newcastle and Spurs showed interest in him of around 55m.
United having spoken with his agent who informed them that Brentford would accept offers of around 55m then expressed and interest and the figure quoted by Brentford then was 60m.
United offered 55m plus 5m in add ons to reach the 60m quoted. Brentford rejected it out of hand.
United then went back in with a bid of 55m plus 5m in guaranteed easy to achieve add ons. Which was again rejected and Brentford quoted they wanted 65m.
United went back in with an offer of 60m plus 5m in easy to achieve add ons and again it was rejected. With Brentford now saying they wanted 70m.
All of this while Brentford were desperately trying to drum up interest from Newcastle and Spurs to come in with an offer. They didn't as his agent expressed to them that United was his preference.
The feeling at United was that Brentford for some reason just didn't want to sell to us and were being difficult to deal with.
Whether this was a personal issue (their DoF is a lifelong Newcastle fan and supposedly preferred losing Mbeumo to them if he was to leave, this sounds unlikely to me), or whether it was because they were annoyed with how United conducted our business (speaking directly with the agent initially after other clubs had expressed an interest and been given a quote, was this considered sneaky) .
Either way the difficulty with getting Mbeumo signed was due to how Brentford handled the situation. Literally every time Brentford gave United a figure we made an offer that would meet that figure only to see it rejected.