Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 12.02.26

Wouldn't agree but each to their own.

You'd think so, unless we do an Arsenal

Couldn’t agree more. If you actually go back through Carricks 13 games. We’ve had 2 genuinely good performances

City & Arsenal.

Spurs and Palace were good but only after they went down to 10

We have been extremely fortunate with results and it screams unsustainable. Not everyone’s cup of tea but xg is indicative of some underlying trends and we’ve lost 5 of our last 6 games on xg (barely beating villa 1.1 -1.0).

Something has to change (the players is a big part of it) or this will end in tears pretty quickly next year.

Great win. 3 points was all that mattered. Defended well for the most part under severe pressure. Yes they had plenty of chances but I think it’s wide of the mark to say a team with a decent striker would have beaten us. Let’s not forget only Haaland has scored more goals than Thiago this season.

whatever way you want to slice it Carrick has done a remarkable job in his short time at the helm and whatever happens in the summer I’ll be very thankful he was given the gig. Really couldn’t have gone much better.

2 defeats in 13 with 9 wins. I’ll take that all day everyday.

I think people have very rapidly forgotten how bad things were earlier in the season. From the start of November up until Carrick's appointment, United played 12 PL games and won only three of them.

Now we are in the happy situation where we can worry about lower order issues like sustainability and style of play.

I actually wasn't criticising Carrick for it. The midfield obviously needs major work and I think it's more a personnel issue than a managerial one. I was more expressing my own frustration with how little control United have over games, no matter the level of the opposition. That needs to change if the team is to be properly successful.

I hope the powers that be aren't blinded by current results, as great and all as they've been, and fail to adequately address the failings in the team. We've been here before.

Case is leaving some huge hole behind when he leaves. Most touches, duels won and clearances last night. Since the AFCON knocked Mbeumo off form Case is comfortably the second best player in the squad after Bruno.

Mainoos best game in a while, has his groove back for sure.

Last night wasn't convincing BUT have to give credit where it's due, there was a clear problem that Carrick and Holland spotted and moved to correct at HT.

More importantly the change had clear impact on the game.

Utd were holding on at the end but that happens time and again - no control over games and players are incapable of seeing games out comfortably if the opposition step it up late on. As has been pointed out - that is a player issue.

Either way, that's a massive plus and positive sign from Carrick and his team

Is boards as slow as me running for any one else?

Yeah Enrique ain't leaving that PSG side for us.

He would also be getting a pay rise for CL football next season. He shouldn't set foot in Carrington again.

always find this talk of break even very odd. Why do we need to break even? Why is it considered so important?

Before i go on my rant… this isn't a rant aimed at you. Its a rant at the narative pushed in Football Media that clubs need to hit a specific value at a minimum or its some kind of financial disaster.

Feels like such a simplistic way of looking at things. His trasnfer cost (and thus sale) are factored in to the squad cost rule. Which includes his amortized value and his wages.

So there is ~17.5m left in amortization - we have to get that to 'break even'. So do we reject an offer of 10m, and he stays, because we don't want to record a 7.5million loss? Cool. That 7.5million 'loss' then stays as a 21.75million cost (8.75m amortization + 13million in wages. And that 7.5 million loss is a one time hit. the following season we would still have that 21.75million squad cost to deal with. And sure, we could maybe sell him for 10m that summer and make a profit - but does that make sense overall?

Now, i'm no financial whiz kid, but I am assusing a Squad cost hit of 7.5 million is better than a squad cost hit of 21.75million. But I guess we got to break even?

a 7.5million loss on the transfer, would be a 14m uptick in budget space. That 14million in amortization world amounts to a 40m signing on 100k a week.