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

Completely agree……. and to make matters worse i hope he doesn't end up at the bitters!

That was me and I was mistaken. I had it in my head he signed for Juventus.

Meh, wouldn't say no to a loan but if he can't even get in ahead of Ramos then alarm bells should be ringing.

He wasn't for years tbf, was rated as one of the best young GK's in the world, if he could be got for 2 or 3m he could be an interesting project to take on.

I wouldn't pay anymore than 3.5m but thought he might be puntworthy.

Not saying we'd get him in our current state but this is the knock-on consequence with wasting large sums of money on attacking players like Hojlund, Sancho, Antony etc. When a genuine quality player does potentially become available you're not able to test the waters with a decent bid.

If Isak end up at Liverpool I get the feeling they have done too much too quick. That's a lot of players to be integrated in one go in what is an already successful team. When has a title winning side replaced 5 starters in one go. Maybe I am clutching at straws, but you also couple that with a couple of ageing high performing superstars whose effectiveness has to start to fall off at some point, and maybe, just maybe they are flying too close to the sun

Isak to Pool is a long shot but would be a serious coup if they got him.

The time to strengthen is when you're winning, it makes attracting the best talent easier (they're joining a winning project) and the commercial elements are less risky as you're playing with house money from winnings the previous season.

Don't forget that Pool didn't bring a single starter into the squad last year, only adding Chiesa who barely got enough substitute minutes to claim a PL medal.

Whilst 5 transfers is a high number in one go it is somewhat mitigated by the 0 transfers last year and it's not like they are doing a chelsea and loading up the squad.

Nunez and Diaz will be sold and replaced with Ekitike and Isak if that deal is done.

Elliott will likely leave and his place in the squad will be taken by Wirtz who will be a starter so Szoboszlai will likely be rotated more with Mac Allister and Gravenberch.

Frimpong directly replaces Trent who already left.

Kirkez is Robertson's long term replacement. They'll fight it out this year but Tsimikas, who is currently Robertsons under study, will be sold this wondow.

Slot famously likes a small tight squad so isn't in favour of bringing players in just to have lots of options. He likes players who can cover several positions and Wirtz, Frimpong and Ekitike are all comfortable in a number of positions.

5 in and 5 (or possibly more) out.

VVD and Salah are the aging stars and whilst both are incredibly fit no one can stop the aging process so this might be the year they both fall off but I wouldn't be counting on it and with the way the front line in particular has been strengthened it wouldn't surprise me to see Salah given a narrower more focused role with Frimpong asked to do a lot of the wide overlapping work.

Time will tell.

A Catch 22. We need to improve before we get what we need to improve.

They'll end up with Mbeumo as the most forward player. Hojlund has no business being in any team at this level. He can't do the basics you'd expect from any striker

If we got Klarna in as the training ground sponsors, we might be able to bid for Isak.

That fella couldn't even post the news stories on time.

Ronaldo was already at Utd when Rooney signed. Even though Rooney was the junior player because he was younger and joined later, he was miles better than Ronaldo in the first two seasons. Rooney was getting on the covers of FIFA and talked about as one of the best players in the world alongside Ronaldinho, whereas Ronaldo was seen as a raw talent who was getting laughed at for doing pointless stepovers. People forget but Rooney was light years ahead at 16-20.

Their careers obviously took on different trajectories after that and Rooney was definitely played in roles that might've stifled his development more often than Ronaldo was, basically because Ronaldo was a liability defensively but Rooney would always put in a shift. When Ronaldo left, Rooney arguably has his best ever season. But also there's no question that Rooney's lifestyle and his drinking would've seriously affected his development in his 20s. He had a great career by any standard but he definitely had the potential for it to be a lot better.

Imo there's a high likelihood that there won't be any new signings until near the end of the window. It would probably be negligence and self sabotage to buy players without offloading at least one of Antony, Sancho and Garnacho first. I can see business being done in the final week.