01 Jul 2026 08:13:43
I've been a long-term lurker here and I've enjoyed reading the posts over many years. It's always great to see so much insight and debate about what is good for United and what might happen.
I really think that we need to take a longer-term strategy for squad building and transfers. You look at the likes of Brighton and Bournemouth and they consistently find really good quality players at a fraction of the price that they sell them on for. You see what happened with the likes of Fernandes at West Ham, where they paid 32 million and sold him for 85.
Now obviously we've got more money in the bank now but the difference for us is that if we find those talented players and accept that they're going to need a season to settle in and prove themselves, then we are the ones that win in the long run because we're not under any pressure to have to then sell them on. It just takes a slightly longer view and to accept that there's going to be some who don't make the grade and break through.
01 Jul 2026 09:20:56
Clubs like West Ham and Brighton can afford to throw players in at the deep end, because there's very little pressure and no weight of expectation. If a young player has a bad game, nobody bats an eyelid. It's forgotten by the following week, and the player can continue to develop.
Unfortunately, that just isn't true of Manchester United. A lot of those same players, who are becoming £50m+ players at clubs like Brighton and West Ham, would crumble under the pressure of being a Manchester United player.
Many do, when they eventually move to a big club. Just look at Baleba last season. He only got linked with a move to Manchester United, and his form and performances fell off a cliff.
I'm not saying that it's impossible for us to unearth some hidden gem and polish them up into a diamond every once in a while, but it's a lot harder for us than it is for smaller clubs.
01 Jul 2026 11:54:20
I totally understand the view that if you buy a top performer at a top price, then you should expect them to come in and have an instant impact.
I think the big risk is that you do that, even then, you have players who will crumple under the pressure, in which case you end up with a huge amount of money wasted.
If you take Baleba as an example, I'd rather United had bought him for 30 million two years ago from Lille and managed his development for a couple of years, than spent the 80 million or whatever Brighton were asking for him last year.
Look what happened with Liverpool last year, buying players for 100+ million!!
01 Jul 2026 14:25:25
Good to see new poster, RD.
Simple truth is that second-tier EPL teams can take players in the premise they are developmental and might not make it. Lille will sell to those clubs at a price that factors in a risk that they could not.
When Manchester United come calling, the assumption is that the player is a superstar. It is already assumed that their potential will be met, and the selling club sells them on that assumption. Also, Manchester United have extremely high revenue, and the selling club wants their piece of that.
Second-tier EPL teams don't have the same levels of revenue.
New management is trying to shift the market expectation that we will simply cave and pay. But Manchester United have a totally different set of circumstances to smaller clubs. Everything is played out in the press, with added pressure from pundits and fans. There is much less press pressure for teams like Brighton and Bournemouth to quietly go about their business.