01 Jul 2026 07:00:41
First choice Anderson, too much, gone. Second choice Fernandez, too much, gone. 3rd choice?
No panic yet, but it’s supply and demand, setting ourselves a maximum price could take us to 4th or 5th choice. Maybe we should be chasing Scott and Kroupi from Bournemouth, but then our lot will reel in horror when they actually want a lot of money. Clubs have a value on good players, this just has that feeling we are looking for bargains.
At the moment it brings back memories of no value in the market 2009, when we swapped the great Ronaldo for Valencia, Obertan and free Michael Owen. Now the mantra is won’t overpay.
I just hope we don’t do a Poborsky and buy someone who has two decent games in the latest tournament.
01 Jul 2026 08:40:04
The doom and gloom on his page, 2 weeks into a transfer window, is unreal. No one, and I mean no one, has a clue what is going on or what targets they have.
Why don't we just have a little look back at last year and acknowledge how right they got it.
We have one CM done, and they are looking to add another, likely to be 2 now, given Ugarte's injury.
There should be no panic whatsoever.
This is a World Cup year, where it is historically harder to do deals.
We lost out on Fernandes because we were not willing to go to that figure, and I am absolutely fine with that. The club has historically overpaid for targets, and they have decided no more, no matter what.
01 Jul 2026 13:10:42
Couldn't be happier that we walked away from 2, quite frankly, ridiculous deals. There are tonnes of quality midfielders all over the world, and the club will find another two and won't have their pants pulled down.
01 Jul 2026 13:18:26
angel,
Did we not end up paying what the clubs asked for last year to get the players we wanted anyway? Just wasted weeks whilst we tried to haggle.
It's not panic, we will end up with what we end up with, but let's all be honest about the situation. The same people saying it's not my money previously are almost certainly saying let's be frugal, trumpeting the club's position.
I often wonder if the decline started when the Goazers arrive but crystallised in front of our eyes in 2009, and that kick started our decline, hence the post, and the reason was financial.
Let's see what they do. However, I am not sure an approach saying this is how much we will pay works as well as it did when we were successful and had a top manager. Waving our maximum around smells of bargain hunting tactics, seeing who will take the cash.
01 Jul 2026 14:17:18
I've no idea Red Man, to be honest. Do you? From what I read from those far more in the know than us, i.e. Andy Mitten and Laurie Whitwell, we didn't end up paying the full amounts that the selling clubs wanted, and structured them in such a way that suited us as much as them.
I think the club have a new way of doing business. Sometimes it's going to pay off, other times it won't. It's not the money that bothers me; the club will spend whatever money they want, but it's the value in which they see players, and they don't see Fernandes being worth that amount, and I am absolutely good with that.
For over a decade, we have seen the 'Disneyland' effect. But the club do not want to adhere to that way of doing business anymore. They have to start from somewhere. And, last year was pretty good, more than pretty good actually, one of the best windows any club had imo.
01 Jul 2026 20:11:52
Sully reported this morning that West Ham and Jorge Mendes contacted United to see if they would match Spurs offer because Fernandes would then choose United. We passed on the offer because we had already stated it wasn't good business.
Perhaps Mendes got his judgment of United badly wrong, thinking we would match the wage Spurs were offering and the price West Ham wanted.
I'm glad we told them to crack on with their great deal and see the player end up in the Spurs graveyard.
Mendes is an idiot. As he's lost players to other agents, he's becoming Raiola mark two. Used to think he was a quality agent, now he's just a money grabbing fool with no sense on helping his players make the right career moves, only the right cash moves.
They're not the same thing.
Another report also suggested United were convinced Spurs were so desperate that they would keep bidding up again, so it's smarter to walk away from a bad deal where the player didn't do enough to make the move happen. Greed at 21 without the right attitude would have been Sancho mark two also. My brother-in-law is a West Ham fan, and he says we got lucky and that the kid has a terrible attitude to team mates and lacks maturity. Throws tantrums and can also go missing in games. Garnacho comes to mind. Talented but too big an ego and lacks humility.