07 Jul 2024 14:12:37
Looks as though Zirkzee and de Ligt deal are pretty much going to get done. Both Dutch again, is this coincidence and the new structure has identified these 2 players? Ugarte and Branthwaite appear to be the next 2 deals to be worked on, sales and wages off the books look like it'll help in regards Branthwaite especially.
07 Jul 2024 14:32:04
Both Dutch again?
He’s only bought malacia ?.
07 Jul 2024 15:26:57
Pretty sure he was counting Antony and Licha as Dutch as well ;)
07 Jul 2024 16:51:37
Not to forget the much-publicised failed pursuits of de Jong, Timber and Gakpo, any of whom could easily be Utd players now, and disastrous loan of Weghorst, who at least remains one of the most determined players I've seen don the shirt in recent years bless him.
In all seriousness I don't care if there's ten Dutch players out there if they're up to it. Personally though I think this is quite a poor Dutch generation of players but there are a few crackers coming through.
07 Jul 2024 18:06:14
Yeah I mean Dutch league, Dutch connections where he has worked with them before, there was concerns amongst the fan base that ETH was buying this way, new structure in place and it’s Dutch or having worked with ten hag again. Wondering peoples thoughts on the 2 incoming in particular, I thought I’d written the OP better ?.
07 Jul 2024 18:34:33
Dumfries has had a good tournament so far.
07 Jul 2024 18:58:05
Trumours ???.
07 Jul 2024 20:42:45
I love Dutch football and its players. Have no issue with these signings. Both will be excellent additions.
07 Jul 2024 22:07:57
At this rate Steve McClaren will be changing his accent again.
08 Jul 2024 06:42:19
Didnt we only got for De Ligt because the Everton kid was too expensive.
We are also rumoured to be in for Ugarte to replace Casemiro, Kirkez at left back and Neves if Bruno goes.
08 Jul 2024 08:01:45
Wouldn’t expect Branthwaite to be an option if MdL gets signed, but happy to be corrected. In regards to MdL, he’s a player I’ve always rated and fancied at United. However, he has to be scrutinised to within an inch of his life medically. We don’t want another Varane.
The bits I’ve seen with Zirkzee haven’t filled me full of excitement I have to say. But there’s room for improvement and we need options up top as Rasmus is far far from the finished article. It would be highly controversial, but if we could sign Weghorst for pennies then I’d take him as well. As an impact substitution he offers a different option imo. He can’t hit a barn door, but he’s a nuisance and he always tried in a United shirt.
08 Jul 2024 08:49:25
FiremanC, why do we need to sign Weghorst for that?
I've been saying for over a year now, but stick McTominey up front. He'd do everything Weghorst did, but he's actually a decent finsher too.
Obviously not suggesting he become our new first choice number 9, but I do reckon he'd be solid as cover/ rotation up front.
08 Jul 2024 08:54:58
Rumours are United ideally want two CB's, I think Branthwaite might well happen yet, but it'll be later in the window once the club have sold a few players.
CB, CM and ST are the three key positions, with a second CB and maybe another CM if budget allows and depending on departures.
I think the club went for Branthwaite first hoping they could take advantage of Everton's PSR issues. Which it turned out weren't as bad as initially thought. When it became clear that they couldn't get him cheap I think they've placed that deal on the back burner as maybe their second CB signing which will come after a few sales are made.
MdL seems to have come a out since UEFA effectively blocked any move for Todibo. With a move for the Frenchman looking impossible the club needed to find an alternative that wouldn't break the bank.
Personally I think Todibo would be the better option if possible, he seems more suited to the role we are looking for. I have a few concerns over MdL. Yet there are limited options available who are the right profile, available within our budget and willing to join us right now.
As of right now, it looks like Zirkzee and MdL will be tied up in the next week or two. It might have to wait until the Netherlands are out of the Euros. It also looks likely that Ugarte will sign once Uruguay are out of the Copa as well.
Three signings who all look like smart signings where the club have taken advantage of various factors to get better value for money. Which is a nice change of pace.
I'd expect once those three are through the door the focus will switch towards getting players out of the club. With moves later in the window for Branthwaite seems very likely. As well as moves for another player or two depending on departures.
08 Jul 2024 09:38:43
I don't see us buying both Branthwaite and de Ligt. £100m for the pair when we need so much. Maybe missed a trick by swerving Tosin.
We'll mysteriously buy Todibo from West Ham or wherever he ends up next season.
08 Jul 2024 10:09:37
We won’t be getting Branthwaite and MdL. I’d put money on it.
08 Jul 2024 13:00:09
Shappy
The club does not value BR at 70 million and neither do I. don't get your crush with this guy lol. We will buy someone else imo. You don't have to get skinned and taken to the cleaners to buy a good Centre back. Look at ven der ven. If he stays he will go a year or two from now at 40 mill or less. Personally would pay 50 mill for Onana from everton but not for BR.
Grim
De ligt buy has nothing to do with BR imo.
in General the fan base likes to moan just to moan. Kerkez also from Dutch league btw Az Alkmaar.
God forbid we sign a player who passed through the Dutch league:) ronaldinho, Zlatan, Stam, RVN, RVP, bergkamp and can go on and on oh yeah forgot gullit, seidorf, etc etc etc. Always interested to hear who we should buy instead at the price we are shopping at.
Finally has a single player with high transfer cost in the last 10 years turned out to be a success at United?
Reality is 40% to 50% of all transfers do not work out. what kills you is when you buy very pricey and then add big wages on top to it. That's what United of old did. You can't shift them and stuck with them.
08 Jul 2024 13:48:55
Bruno turned out okay Ahmad, he cost £57m including the adds he hit.
08 Jul 2024 15:56:29
Don't think it's a Dutch thing Ahmad as much as an EtH seeming to only want players he'd previously worked with. None of them really seemed to be working out initially (and mostly still aren't) so I can get the frustration when there seem to be better players avail in the same bracket. I get that it's maybe more a character thing, EtH could vouch for the personalities he was getting in a time when the temperaments of a few players were being questioned.
Happy for others to now oversee the player recommendations, but feel the manager should always get final sign-off once presented with the shortlist.
08 Jul 2024 17:12:55
GRim
TBH 57 is not the range that I was thinking. its the guys at 75 and up. Actually most teams that have forked out silly prices on players like barca, psg, athletico, United, Chelsea have all lived to regret it. We already did the dumb thing with Antony.
I am not a fan of paying silly prices based on one season on any player that is not even that convincing. Bruno was lighting it up for 2/ 3 years in a row when we get him and back then was not even a crazy price given where the market was.
There is a lot of hype with British players and many turn out to be tulips and very average imo.
08 Jul 2024 19:24:52
The problem Ahmad is that we need to bring in "homegrown" players with the likes of Heaton, Evans, Maguire, AWB, and McTominay all likely to leave by next summer.
Leaving just Mount, Shaw and Rashford. Meaning we will need to look to bring in 3 to 4 homegrown players or not be able to name a full 25 man squad. While that assume that neither Shaw or Rashford leave over the next couple of windows.
With MdL, Zirkzee and Ugarte looking like three fairly likely signings this summer, and with Olise signing for Bayern. Which homegrown players do you think are good enough to be one of the 3 or 4 we need to sign?
Branthwaite, Guehi, Eze, Ferguson, Gallagher, Bowen, Solanke, Toney, Dwight McNeil, Garner, Doughty, Mitchell, Trafford, Gibbs-White?
That's assuming that we probably won't be able to sign the best homegrown players from the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Spurs or Villa.
Either way they will be expensive, and there are few who are or are even potentially good enough.
So what would your plan be maintain 7 homegrown players in our 25 man squad over the next few seasons?
08 Jul 2024 21:05:26
There are options with homegrown without needing to overpay for the bigger nanes ie Collyer coming through (possibly our next academy promotion to break into the team) ; Frimpong would count; Wharton further down the line. And in other news sure to please most fans, maybe it’s the thing that gives McT a stay of execution!
08 Jul 2024 23:07:25
Bring Garner and Angel back as Midfield cover. Would be an upgrade on Eriksen and Amrabat. They’d get 30+ appearances if fit and HG and academy graduates.
Same argument for Welbeck.
08 Jul 2024 23:33:06
Fireman, reports this evening of a second Branthwaite bid going in. Still confident enough to put money on it?
09 Jul 2024 08:22:38
Confident it'll be rejected. Just depends how how we are willing to go, think Everton will want another £10m in there. Hopefully we move on.
{Ed025's Note - the thing is spenno, if you go to a shop for a loaf of bread and the proprietor says its £1.50 and you offer him 90p he is well within his rights to tell you to sod off mate, pay the money of go shop elsewhere..
09 Jul 2024 12:47:29
Spenno, you don't have to register players under the age of 21, last year Hojlund wasn't part of our registered squad as he was 20 at the time of squad registration.
Garnacho won't need to be registered until the start of the 2025/ 26 season, and Mainoo until the 2026/ 27 season.
Collyer is 20 and doesn't need to be registered this summer, but like Garnacho would need to be registered ahead of the 2025/ 26 season.
Utd Road, as for bringing back former academy players to be squad cover, we have to remember why they chose to leave in the first place. Also the quickest way to improve a squad is to buy players to replace the best players in the first team forcing players from the current first 11 into becoming the squad players, rather than replacing a player who isn't good enough to be first choice with another player who isn't good enough to be first choice.
We need to be smarter with our signings, spending 40-50m to resign Garner and Angel to sit on our bench would be a terrible use of funds. Especially when for an extra 10m would could just sign a player like Branthwaite who has the potential to be a long-term first choice for the next 8-10 years, and counts as homegrown.
All homegrown players are overpriced and you have to pay a premium for them. If you are going to over pay then it has to be for either a top class player or a player with the potential to be top class. It's madness to over pay for a squad player.
Signing someone like Welbeck I can see the advantages as he's not just homegrown and a former academy player (so knows the club inside and out) but is crucially available on a free.
We have seen that the club weren't prepared to go big and give Tosun a massive contract despite him being both homegrown and available on a free as they didn't see the value in distorting the wage structure by overpaying for what would be a squad option.
Given that they won't pay Tosun an extra 10m over a 5 year deal as they see that wouldn't be in the best interests of the club over the medium to long-term, I can't see them spending a huge amount of money on players like Garner and Angel to come and sit on the bench.
09 Jul 2024 11:37:16
Fair play Ed. Hope Utd have the sense to do that, other than this new holy grail of being homegrown I'm not seeing much value in this bread!
{Ed025's Note - if i were united i would pass on him Spenno, very talented player though he is you are at this point buying potential mate, we all know how dangerous that is after Sancho and the likes and i dont see the value in it myself..