02 Aug 2025 09:12:37
Looks like we might have another chance to sell Bruno to the Saudis. If true, and money is what's impacting any potential deal for Sesko, I think we should snap their hand off. Anything leftover can be spent on a GK and/ or a midfielder.
02 Aug 2025 10:39:43
redseven
Yes, said that early summer to the usual derision on here. We are having to try to fit Bruno into the team, rather than building it around him.
02 Aug 2025 11:39:11
Agreed. If the plan was to build the team around Bruno, then fair enough. I’d question it given his age, but keeping him would at least make sense. I also get people not wanting to sell our best player, but given the choice between one or two more years of peak Bruno (played out of position) and 5+ years of say Sesko and Donnaruma, I’d pick the latter every time.
02 Aug 2025 11:40:11
If he wants to go then I don't think the club should stand in his way. At his age and with the signings we are making there isn't quite a natural place in the starting 11 for him.
That said, he turned down the move earlier in the summer and I can't imagine he has had a change of heart since.
Also is selling our captain a good idea? Plus he contributed 19 goals and 19 assists for us last season. Considering our struggles in front of goal last season can we really afford to sell a player who contributed 38 goals and assists last season?
What if Cunha and/ or Mbeumo doesn't work out?
Who's to say that Sesko will be a success if he signs?
While we have, and will continue to get, some shiny new signings; Bruno is about the only sure thing we have in our squad in terms of players who will score and create goals for us.
For a side that struggled to score it's a risky play selling your only sure thing in terms of goal output and risking it all on new signings.
02 Aug 2025 13:00:34
Will Bruno get as many goals or assists when playing much deeper in midfield? Will he still be getting that many goals or assists in two or three years time?
Every transfer is a gamble, Shappy, but then so is deciding to keep a player who - as you point out - no longer has an obvious place in the starting eleven and is now on the wrong side of thirty.
I’m pretty sure I read that a big part of Bruno’s decision came down to Amorim asking him to stay. Now that we have Cunha and Mbuemo, I wonder if he’d still be against Bruno leaving, especially if him staying means we can only fill one of the three positions that we need to fill this window.
And from Bruno’s perspective, signing for Al Nasr would mean reuniting with his former manager and several of his international teammates. When you factor in the huge increase in wages, and the fact that his place in our starting 11 is a lot less certain, I think he too might view this offer a little differently than the last one.
Of course, if he still wants to stay and the manager doesn’t want him to go then we can’t really force him to leave.
02 Aug 2025 13:37:33
Of course RA would want to keep him, what right minded person would get rid of the only real goals in the team and assist every season, we can’t score goals as it is so you want to take another 15-20 plus same assist in the hope Sesko scores and assist more than he ever done just to make up for what we lose in Bruno…. Delusional thinking and all because you think Bruno don’t have a place in this team, I would not mind betting Bruno is the first name on RA team sheet and other players fit in around him, you really think RA concerned about 2-3 years time, RA needs goals and wins this season or he gone.
02 Aug 2025 14:55:46
But other players aren’t being fitted in around him, German. We just spent over £100m on two players who play in Bruno’s best position. Consequently, Bruno is being moved into a position for which he is ill equipped and inexperienced and will likely end up costing us more goals than he creates next season, especially if it’s him and Casemiro playing in front of our defense most weeks.
If Amorim wanted to build his team around Bruno he should have tweaked his tactics to accommodate a more traditional number ten. Quite frankly, the fact that he hasn’t done so and would instead rather keep Bruno and play him out of position concerns me a little. As you say: we need goals, so taking our most creative player and moving him further back seems like it will come back to bite him in the ass, especially if keeping Bruno means that we’re unable to bring in the striker, CDM, and GK that we so desperately need.
02 Aug 2025 15:33:04
But you have no idea what RA plans are for Bruno, or if other players are being moved out of position for Bruno, I doubt if Cunha or Mbuemo score as many as Bruno previously done anyway.
I would wait and see the first half a dozen games first, but we are certainly not in the position to be selling by far our best player even including the 2 new signings, in fact our only true world class player we possess that could get into any Of the so called top 4, I would include the 2 new signings in that too, who are good players ATM but Bruno is a great player, why on earth would any manager who is under serious pressure get rid of his best player.
02 Aug 2025 17:24:50
If he doesn’t quite fit into your system. If selling him would allow you to sign two or three players for more important positions. If you’re building a team for the future. If the player wants to leave. If you think a major decline is imminent.
I can think of lots of reasons why a manager might want to sell their best player. As I say, though. I can’t understand why a manager would blow most of their transfer budget on two players who will seemingly force their best player to play out of position. Unless the plan is to play Bruno and one of the new signings in the two CAM roles and then use the other as cover, but then I’d have to question why a manager would spend £60m+ on cover when so many other positions still need to be filled.
Time will tell, I guess.
03 Aug 2025 00:37:41
He won't be going. He's a Utd man, through and through. He knows what it means to try and get the club back up there. Fair enough if Madrid or PSG came in for him, but Saudi?
I wouldn't blame him for the money offered, but I think he's about more than that.
Maybe I'm just too idealistic.
03 Aug 2025 06:18:19
But we have seen zero decline in Bruno and you saying we spent 100 million on 2 players, well Bruno money is more than that on 1 player, according to press, but who knows, plus those 2 new shining players not exactly played a lot of minutes in the games so far and I would bet don’t play as many minutes as Bruno in the whole of the coming season or probably not have so many goal involvements or influence as Bruno
It’s a bit crazy to say Bruno not going is stopping us buying players, if you sell a Ferrari/ Rolls Royce you could buy many Mini’s but what’s the point! Unless you’re happy with mediocrity of course.
Besides all that he don’t want to go and RA don’t want him to go, so that says it all.