05 Aug 2026 13:53:57
If United wanted Hall all along why wait until Newcastle sold Gordon, Tonali and Guimaraes to put themselves in a stable financial situation? Then put out the word it will now be difficult deal to do. Would it even cost us more to do now?
Make it make sense.
05 Aug 2026 14:36:25
I can only assume we don't want him, because as you say, waiting until Newcastle had made £240m would be pretty foolish. Hall wasn't at the World Cup. We could have started negotiations back in June.
Instead, we'll now be negotiating with a club who has zero incentive to sell (if anything, they'll be reluctant to lose another first team player), and who will have less time to bring in a replacement than they would have had if we had begun working on a deal months ago.
So yes, I don't think even we could be that amateurish.
05 Aug 2026 15:21:59
They've probably had to reevaluate, as the summer has gone on, because the outgoings haven't gone to plan at all.
Obviously, Casemiro, Sancho and Malacia's contracts have expired. We got a decent fee for Hojlund, but we would have probably been banking on at least a few of Rashford, Zirkzee, Onana and Ugarte leaving.
Ugarte is out for the season. We've loaned Onana for the cost of his wages. Rashford is still here, and Zirkzee is flirting with a loan move to Italy.
Again, we're reaping what we've sown, handing Onana and Rashford big contracts. Ugarte is obviously bad luck, and unfortunate for the lad.
We're still a soft touch in the market, loan moves with no obligation etc. Until the last of the high paid/poor players leave, we'll have this issue until they leave for free.
Herrera, Matic, Mata, Lingard, Pogba, Jones, De Gea, Martial, Varane, Lindelof, Eriksen, Malacia, Sancho and Casemiro have all left the club for the grand total of £0.
I'm not defending the club, and the knives will come out if the window closes and the squad hasn't been improved, but we're trying to change a decade plus of being the worst club in world buying and selling players.
The Hall situation, as you and Redseven said correctly, should have been addressed early doors, but I think the money is finite, and we may have to pick carefully what positions we address because I don't think we'll be getting a left back, centre mid, winger and back up striker like we need.
Things can happen fast though. I think some clubs will panic and go for Rashford over the next couple of weeks.
05 Aug 2026 15:45:55
Looking at all the transfers, I can only assume the club has other plans, which, if you go by what has been done to date, were not reported on until they were pretty much done. I would not mind, and, in some ways, it suits the club to let the media report things that are not factual if my focus was elsewhere and I wanted to avoid the attention.
I still think we will do 2 more big signings. Maybe not household/popular names, but they fit what the plan is.
05 Aug 2026 19:56:07
That depends on what you consider to be "big signings".
I think we all get the need for a bit of fiscal prudence after years of overpaying for big names. However, if the club is bringing in budget stop gap squad players, while the top 2 splash the cash, then we're not closing that gap.
I looked at this summer as a test of Ineos's ambition. After finishing 3rd, it's an opportunity to get in among the top 2 conversation, especially with Pep stepping down. I agree with the club's reluctance to bid for Anderson, and stepping away from Fernandez at that price. But, I expect to see some desire to sign players that can bring us closer to competing for titles.
I thought that the two we brought were a good start. However, I have a creeping feeling that these are the "big signings" for the summer, and anyone else will be nothing more than a squad option. If that proves to be the case, then we've lost ground on the top 2 and given the chasing pack a good chance of catching us.
The club needs to decide if it's serious about genuinely competing, or just happy to have a chance of Champions League. At present, the latter seems more likely.