29 Aug 2026 02:26:23
Is it worth a cheeky bid for Alvarez? I feel like he might be interested in signing for us if we agree to a release clause for the amount we pay for him that becomes active after one or two seasons.
He (eventually) gets his dream move, we get a top striker for a season or two.
Unlikely they’d accept, but we could offer Rashford as part of the deal. He might like the idea of proving Barcelona wrong, and Atletico may be interested in helping him to do it, given the current animosity between the clubs.
29 Aug 2026 09:54:09
redseven
The parasite owners would have a fit if a £120m player was even considered, he could not be considered a bargain, not least because dividends would suffer. Remember, who our owners are so, it's all about the P&L, so totally ruled out.
Osimhen is cheaper but there is no chance. Mateta but if I recall he couldn't pass a medical.
29 Aug 2026 12:12:55
You're probably right, Red Man. Then again, if the plan is to sell him for what we paid for him in 12 months time, it's basically a free loan deal. If he can help us go on a bit of a run in the Champions League and do well enough in the league to qualify for next season's competition, there'd be financial incentive to bring him in as well.
We need another striker.
29 Aug 2026 13:54:08
Alvarez would be a dream signing, but we don't make them; we shop at Lidl or Aldi. So there is little chance of us buying Alvarez, or even considering anyone of that quality. We now go for mid-table players.
29 Aug 2026 14:09:31
Dividends haven't been paid in 4 years, and they will continue not be paid while the company continues to be unprofitable. Nor do we know what the dividend policy will be if and when the club does start making profits. There are accumulated losses of £375m over the last 5 years to make up for. There may be an agreement between the Glazers and Ineos to reduce debt before dividends are paid. They may be looking towards cash accumulation to facilitate the new stadium.
Besides the ego boost of owning a major sports team, every owner is in it to make money, either through income or capital appreciation.
The issue for fans should not be whether the owners make money, but whether they run the club competently and get results on the field in keeping with or above expectations. I don't resent the Glazers for making money. It's the total mismanagement by their appointees that pisses me off. If the club had been well run, and we'd continued to win titles, the fans would be happy, and we would not be suffering from the same levels of debt. No one, maybe not even you, would care if they were taking dividends.
29 Aug 2026 15:17:07
But why would Alvarez want to join United when he has Arsenal and Barca after him? Both offer him the immediate chance of winning the league and/or Champions League.
I think he will probably end up at Arsenal.
29 Aug 2026 15:59:24
Newname
Dividends can't legally be paid where there have been losses over a certain period. The point is, if the owners want dividends, they will set that as a requirement for the football side to make profits. That may well cause what we are seeing.
29 Aug 2026 16:30:44
Fallguy, Atletico are refusing to deal with Barcelona, which is where he has his heart set on going. If he goes to Arsenal, the chances of them selling him within the next two or three seasons are very slim, and so he'd effectively be closing the door on his dream move.
If we offered him a reasonable release clause that was active from next summer and a decent wage, he might just go for it. Sure, it's a long shot, but stranger things have happened in football.
29 Aug 2026 16:53:04
It's amazing how short some fans' memories are. Complaining that we aren't going out and spending the big bucks on the big name players like we have done over the past decade to great success.
Sanchez, Di Maria, Pogba, Sancho, Lukaku, even Casemiro. You can go back further with Veron.
We've had soooo much success when we've paid huge fees for fancy big names. I'm not sure why on earth the club would diverge from that strategy. ?♂️
Alvarez is a great player, no doubt, I'm not entirely sold on him being the right kind of striker for us. Either way, that's kind of irrelevant, seeing as we won't be buying him.
How many of the great signings that we have made were genuinely considered to be one of the best players in the world in their position at the time we signed them?
How many fans were taking the "Red Man" stance when we replaced a club legend in Beckham with a spotty Portuguese teenager for a mere 12m.
Yet fast forward a few years and he was without doubt the best player we ever signed.
Or the signing of Cantona, hardly a massive fee on a top class player, yet he became a catalyst for our success in the 90's.
What about Schmeichel or Irwin, or Vidic or Evra?
Our best signings, our most influential, our most successful ones have nearly always (around 95%) been either younger hungrier players, or overlooked players. Every time it's when we sign a player who has everything to prove.
Whereas, when we have signed the big name, experienced, established players, more often than not they have flopped. Or, at the very least, not lived up to expectations.
We are a club that had historically made great players, not just assembled them. Both through our academy (which is probably only behind Barcelona and Ajax, amongst the European elite), or when we have signed younger players and turned them into world stars.
29 Aug 2026 17:29:14
Rio?
Rooney?
29 Aug 2026 17:45:52
Shappy,
How do you know what "my stance" was when we replaced Beckham with a spotty Portuguese teenager for a mere 12m?
I was at his debut and utterly blown away, then defended him from those who said he was a one trick pony.
I remember the day they signed Cantona and actually was blown away with it because we knew how good he was. Over a £1m was a lot then.
I was at the game when Robson signed on the pitch, we knew how good he was. Was £1.5m a small fee then?
I have watched United sign players for nearly 60 years, so don't try to lecture me on players signing.
I remember Ted McDougal, equally a cheap option. Yet you miss how we bought Pallister, Keane, RvN, Rooney, Rio. Did they not meet expectations, were they "often more than not flopped"? Inconvenient for you they needed prizing out of clubs, they weren't youth assembled like you said. They were likely record, or close to record, signings. Now you excuse the owners to suit your narrative.
You can defend the parasite owners as much as you want, but this is about ensuring the club buy the quality needed to compete. It's being hampered by the Glazers no matter how you write about it.
29 Aug 2026 17:49:49
Sadly £80-100m in 2026 is not really paying top price for the world's best. It's the going rate for top level sides and players.
If Morgan Rogers is over £100m, just imagine what a true world-class player like Mbappe would be worth in this current market.
If you don't want to spend that, and you don't want to go over around £60m, you are stuck buying average players. They might improve, but probably not.
Or you are taking a gamble on an unknown youngster.
United are now caught in a tough place. They can't do what Brighton or Brentford do, and buy relatively unknown players for lower fees and give them time to improve. And they aren't willing, or can't afford, to buy the best available. So they end up buying players other teams don't want, or someone looking for one last pay day.
29 Aug 2026 19:36:52
Just because we spent big sums on the wrong players does not mean that you should not spend big sums.
Rice and Harland have been pretty good signings.
What about VVD? How about Rio, Rooney, Andy Cole, Van Nistlerooy, Van Persie, Cantona?
We are so obsessed with the problem being the big sums, rather than the problem being the identification of the right players.
Sometimes you buy cheap and buy twice!
29 Aug 2026 19:48:16
Kane 100m to Munich seemed good business.
Rice 100m to Arsenal.
Let’s talk about us though.
Keane to us.
Rio.
RvN.
RVP.
Berbatov.
The list is endless.
Yes, some duds, but on the whole we still won things. Now we are signing the likes of Tielemans and Santos and Baleba, let’s have a reality check here. These are mid-table players and will never ever get us back to where United needs to be…
Don’t mean to say cos over 12 years we made some poor big signings we should never make a big signing again. If the player is right, then we should buy, no matter the cost, unless of course you want to finish mid table you buy mid-table players.
Is Tielemans ever going to get any better? I doubt it, as he won much, no. Santos, Baleba, Sesko, it’s ok to take a gamble on potential, but not have a team full of cross-your-fingers potential; that’s a recipe for disaster.
In my view, it’s been a terrible window so far. Yes, we added bodies, but are they seriously what was required, and does anyone honestly think that these players added are going to get us back to the top or anywhere near? Are they any better than what we even had? And we did not have much.
It comes to something when a United supporter gets excited about Santos and Tielemans.
30 Aug 2026 00:28:14
Jsu, what do you mean with "mid-table players"? What makes them mid table players? And who would you have bought?