Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 26.09.24

I saw that alright. I think Delap would be a great get but I think he's gonna have his choice of any PL team this summer other than maybe City & Newcastle

I think City have first refusal on him if he is to be sold, it was reported that they can take him back for £40m. Can't see him wanting to go back and sit on the bench.

I'm not sure how those buy back clauses work from the players perspective though. Can he reject it if they were to come in for him?

I don't think City would need him but is anything stopping them from buying him back at 40m and selling him straight away for closer to 50m...

Has there ever been a 'buyback clause' that was actually enacted?

My feeling is they are for show or to set a minimum future price.

Xavi Simons probably the most high profile one, PSG bought him back. They are a rarity but also a fairly recent development.

THe article from Laurie on the Athletic yesterday about the striker situaiton was annoying - or more so annoying in how it was aggregated.

Delap, Osimhen and Gyokeres were the main names mentioned - and the bulk of the article was saying who suited best, based almost exclusivcely on how they matched the run type percentages of Gyokeres. And then also said Hojlund might be the answer cause he matched it closest (ither than Gyokeres himself!). Leading to a comment that 'data suggest hojlund could be the answer' - and then coupled with the article the previous day going in on the Data Analytics at United just creates a bad perception of that being United's ill-informed view rather than Lauries opinion.

He then went on to say DCL and Vardy could be options - again taken by twitter as an opinion of United rather than Laurie.

Samu at Porto is the other guy i see people talk about. Good finisher, absolutely elite physical traits - but i've also heard he has a first touch worse than Hojlund. And his RC is 100m - so evenif you get him for less than that he is still likely to be the most expensive striker target based on transfer fee (i reckon his wages would be a lot less than Gyokeres or Osimhen.

The athletic guys also going big on unied being screwed because of PSR being retained. But I'm not sure how much of that is based on fact rather than opinion.

This summer we will drop off one of the two big loss making seasons people point to. But the following summer we drop offf a very 'good' loss making season. So people are using that 'good' season going in 26 as a marker of doom. But without knowing what this season and next season look like financially it is hard to call it.

"Annoying in how it was aggregated"… it might be annoying, but it's understandable at the same time imo. Laurie is seen as a real in-the-know… I thought it was fairly poor / irresponsible from him to be throwing in DCL and Vardy into an article to fluff it up.

I guess that effectively means Atletico have a (now) 50% sell on fee for him, but Porto can pay 5m to reduce it to 20% - which you imagine they will do.

Or does it mean you have to negotiate seperate deals with each club for their percentage?

Yes - he's doing his job.

I'm not ciritising him for doiing that.

But I am saying that he will know that what he writes will be considered to be informed by what he hears at United. And maybe it was in this case.

And I did say i found it annoying how it was aggregated more than what he wrote itself (Though I did think adding in DCL and Vardy is quite click baity, so I don't like that).

I understood the article to be his opinion and treated it as that myself. But I know that Laurie having an opinion that DCL and Vardy could be looked at for his own reasons and justfications will soon become 'Laurie as said that United could look at Vardy if the funds aren't there', becomes 'Athletic reporting that United will look at Vardy if funds aren't there'. I think Laurie is seen as a beat writer, so imo even his opinions will be seen to be hints at the thinking at United. I think a thought that 'Laurie wouldn't have mentioned Vardy without hearing some noises he is being looked at' would be common. similar to if Ornstein said the exact same thing in the exact same way.

As for the article itself, I disagree with the starting premise of Gyokeres is the absolute ideal and that we should (and are?) looking at players that most match is running profile.

I like Gyokeres, and he onvuiously did very well for Amorim, but that doesn't mean a striker in an Amorim teams needs to run long, come short, recieve from crosses in the same ratio is Gyokeres to fit. And ignores hold up play, passing, link play, off the ball movement, finishing, heading, pressing, tackling etc etc. Ignores the types of defences we would come up against, ignores the game states we will find ourselves in more often. Gyokeres could sign for United and have a different running profile because the needs with the team and the league differ.

Then I also find writing an article saying Striker will be a priority and here are the big na,es United are going to be looking at - but also they may have zero money so go for free transfers is just odd in itself.

I'm beginning to think that the football is so bad and the team is in such a state, next season will be treated as an actual transition season. I think the hope was that the remainder of this campaign (after Ten Hag left) would be used to transition to a new way of playing and we would then be in a position to hit the ground running and in the mix for top 4 next season. But that plan is failing and quickly morphing into 'get through the season, make some changes in the market and then the 'transition' begins again'

I don't think they'll have confidence we can compete for top 4 next season - the gap we have to close is very big. That may affect their thinking in the market - they may well be buying players with the 26/27 season in mind as the season where we can 'compete' rather than the 25/26 season. So maybe expect even more younger players in the mould of Yoro (whenever we do spend big) rather than an Osimhen or Gyokeres.

I think he'll be gone in the Summer and they'll bring in someone else if there's no improvement shown between now and the end of the season. I think 3 months longer of this current performance level will kill him unfortunately - the fans and the board will lose faith and won't trust him with a rebuild. I'm hoping it won't come to that but he needs to get a far better grip of the existing players.

I can understand your view that he should/could be sacked if things don't improve. I accept that is a valid conclusion.

But your consistent implication that anyone not holding the same view is irrational or delusional or blind is just damned infuriating. and I'd be fairly sure most people on here are taking the same implication from your posts on this subject.

My opinion is there is zero chance we look to replace him unless we are relegated.

Does that mean I think the current performance are good enough? Nope.

But I also disagree with your conclusion that only buying Dorgu in January means he is delighted with everyone else in the squad and doesn't actually want any new signings.

I do think we/they/the club will want to see improvements. Every day they will want to see improvements.

But I also think they will look at it and say:
We are missing a ball playing CB (who can also allow us to player a higher line).
We we missing physicallity in midfield.
Our options for carrying the ball into the final third are poor.
We have, arguably now, 1 WB in the squad to suit the needs of the style we are going for.
None of the strikers are performing as we would need them to.

IMO to sack Amorim you would need to say (and i will use We to refer to the club hierarchy)

1. We were wrong to hire Amorim in the first place
2. We don't want to go with 343/352 into the future
3. We want to go back to 433/4231
4. We believe Hojlund, for example should be the starting striker and it is specifically a failure of Amorim that he is performing as he is.

IMO the club won't sack him because the club want to go 343 - that Wilcox and Berrada have decided on this course and picked Amorim as the best manager to implement that style in a winning way.

IMO the club won't sack him because they will see/feel that there are multiple parts of the first 11 that aren't supportive of the style they or Amorim wants to put in place and we want to buy the RIGHT players in the summer.

IMO they won't sack him because they don't think he is the problem - and the needs of the team/what they want to do in the summer will be the same - and if they can't get all the signings the problems that will come from that will be the same - because the replacement manager will be brought in to enact the same vision.

An Wingback/Winger for RWB.
A carrying/creative 10
A Striker.
Probably a LCB.
Probably a CM.

And as for showing the club something - while I hate to use the time fergiie got as an argument for giving a manager years - the reason he was given time was because the club management felt everything was a mess when he arrived, huge changes were needed across the board and the work he was doing on the training ground and at the club would bear fruit. We can also see the results are poor, we can all see the performances are inconsist veering towards poor and I would also say we should be seeing better from the team and Amorim after 3 months. But we don't see what is happening in training. We don't see what is happening around the club. We don't see what Berrada or Wilcox see. We see one (important) perspective of Amorim, but Wilox and Berrada will be judging him on far more. And maybe with the context Beradda and Wilcox have Amorim IS showing them something, anything, as you put it.

Very well said. In my view there's far more nuance to this than just 'we've seen no improvement since Amorim came in, he's a fraud, get rid'. Progress is not always linear and he deserves a chance to get in some players he wants to suit his system.

Was the whole 3 at the back, wing backs, cultural shift really something that was decided by the likes of Wilcox, Berrada or Big Jim or whoever?

That feels very odd altogether.

I feel like it is more likely that they felt Amorim was such an outstanding get that we are now going with his system, which means there is no chance he gets sacked any time soon.

But if and when he does get the road we could very well have a number of odd shaped players to shift on because how likely is the next manager to play 3 at the back and wing backs, and multiple number 10s.

I really like Amorim but is some journey we are embarking on. It is quite the gamble.