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

I really don't think that they have been blindsided at all, especially not on the financial side of things. Manchester United is a public traded company on the NYSE, it's very easy for anyone including all of us to look at their financial records as all are sent to the SEC. Now it's not exactly great fun reading but it's all public.

https://ir.manutd.com/financial-information/sec-filings.aspx

The SEC announcement of SJR purchasing stated "Trawlers Limited was advised by Slaughter and May, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Goldman Sachs International and J.P. Morgan Cazenove," I think it would have been apparent the financial sh1tshow that the club was in.

Even today it was reports that our cash balance would have been as low as £5m without the injection of cash from SJR.

He was a staunch brexiter, fairly obvious he's thick as ****.

Your Hero Sir Alex caused this not the horse. maybee Keano is right alex is all about alex.

I think its possible this summer we only have 2 or 3 signings. Maybe a Delap for 40m, a 25m RWB and someone like Gomes on a Free

Looking at the finances, until the deadweight is gone and the transfer fees owed are gone, the club is completely hamstrung. Even selling Sancho, Rashford, Antony etc only frees up the money for the above at best with the owed transfer fees also to be be cleared.

The strategy may be - attempt to ride out the next two years and emerge in 2027 with a lower cost base and cash flow that can be invested at that point. With matchday, PL and commercial revenue meaning we would emerge as a club that could compete financially once more. The risk being relegation which I think would mean administration as well unless player contracts have a massive relegation clause penalty. If that is the strategy Amorin was not the right hire though. A stop gap two year manager was who was needed with a system builder to follow.

I do think ultimately the best thing for the long term future of the club is administration and a forced sale. Would be very painful for a few years but is the only way I see us emerging from the debt burden put on us by the Glazers.

"A stop gap two year manager was who was needed with a system builder to follow"

The rumour is that was what Ashworth wanted with Southgate.

Get Southgate in to manage the players that were there, knowing that they would unlikely be spending serious money for a few transfer windows. Southgate wouldn't win anything, but would be used to working with a slow turnover of players, and likely keep it solid and top half, and would likely have them hard to beat, or at last have them somewhat solid. Then while we're not going far under Southgate, get the background right, get the right people and coaches in the background, set up the club with an identity, a way of playing and a new culture, and then after the 18 months or so, get in a manager that could drive on that culture and then invest in the squad.

Seems like a mid-term plan that a typical director of football would have. At the end of the day, he was technical director for Brighton and Newcastle, and they don't seem to be doing too bad, never mind years of experience as a director of development with England.

He was against Amorim coming in as he said it wouldn't be the right fit for the club at the time, that the club needed a different approach. And he ended up walking the plank after INEOS decided Amorim was the man regardless. The same INEOS that have Dave Brailsford, a cycling coach, as Director Sport, and Omar Barrada, a financial officer, involved in such decisions.

Now I'm not certain Ashworth was worth the hype, or how good at his job he actually was, but if that was the case as rumoured, and it is just a rumour, then it would seem he was planning in the right direction, as a footballing director would. And Newcastle and Brighton seem to think he was worth the hype when they brought him.

How true that that rumour is I don't know, but I'd have little problem believing that an experienced man that knows the role, and has worked in the role with two Premier League clubs in better shape culturally and structurally than United are, has a plan would probably be much smarter in planning a path for a football club in the long term by having a steady if unspectacular short term while sorting out the culture of the club instead of basing everything on a manager and then ripping it up every time there's a new manager, than a cycling coach and a financial officer would.

Whatever about the merits or the truth of said plan, or getting in someone like Southgate in to help it along, I could see why Ashworth would be p!ssed off and ended up leaving, especially if he said Amorim wasn't going to be the right fit while the club sorted itself out, and the club ignored him. If that's the case, it seems once again the money men made the footballing decisions at United, and given we've had a decade of that bullsh!t that led us to where we are, I could see why a football man would be p!ssed off and kick up a serious fuss.

Or else he was just a thick pr!ck that threw his toys out the pram and got the boot for it. Who knows.

Either way, I can't help but get the feeling that INEOS don't know how to run a football club, especially given their lack of success in money poor leagues with Nice and Lausanne.

Not as bad as the Glazers, but being sh!t but less sh!t than someone else isn't inspiring.

Said it a dozen times, if the club are as broke as been rumored for a long time now then it is bloody stupid for Amorim to be doing what he currently is doing.

Needs to replace all the players, can't afford to replace all the players, decides to act as if he can anyway.

Its like some dumb teenagers idea of what a rebuild is, all focused on buzzwords like system and identity and the sad truth is that it will not work.

They went for full reset when there was no money to rebuild the squad. Not possible. That’s why an interim hold what we have manager would have been the right strategy until we were in a position to invest in the squad

You don't know what money is available for the summer.

And you're saying an interim manager should be told to make do with casemiro? Rely on Shaw? Give eriksen a new contract? Rely on hojlund? Keep Rashford happy? Dalot is the best we can do for fb? Collyer will be our cm addition.

Which was all true last summer too.

Sancho will go. Antony will likely go on loan at least. Eriksen will go. Lindelof will go. Rashford will go. Imo I reckon case goes as well.

That's about 70m in wages. Brings our wages on players down to less than 25% of revenue.

The transfers owed could be refinanced if needs be.

Ineos, United and Amorim are well aware of the finances.

But you think they're all blind or uncaring of the reality you say is set in stone terrible?

And you also think Southgate or potter does better in the same constraints as amorim, and we buy him zero players?

So the conversation isn't about going with a different stop gap manager rather than a reset manager?

Faur enough, that's not the conversation I was having though. .

Ok.

If I get banned for acknowledging your post and opinion, so be it.

I have no specific counter to your post. Your opinion is valid, and has a logical base. I think there are other potential ways of looking at it. Whether those ways end up being proven right or wrong I don't know.

Why do you think I was advocating for Potter or Southgate? I never said anything like that.

Actually, don't answer that. Your personal remarks make clear what sort of response it would be.

I think we will have to make a lot of changes to the squad in the Summer but many will still be here regardless. Most of Onana, Mazaroui, De Ligt, Maguire, Dalot, Mainoo, Ugarte, Garnacho, Hojlund etc. are going to have to be used and the club might be asking if someone else is more likely to get more out of them. I don't think the persistent underperformance/incorrect utilisation of these players can be tolerated much longer. I think we need to sign players of a profile that will help get the best out of them, rather than letting Amorim's 3-4-3 be the tail that wags the dog.

Well then it is a question of picking the wrong manager rather than whether they should have picked a stop gap, which is a different discussion.

and then is the final part of your post not saying we should give power to the players and sign oplayers based on thgemn rather than what the manager is looking for? and that comes with an assumption what the manager wants is not in line with what the club wants?