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

Next season will be far more difficult than this and it's nothing to do with extra games in CL.

Arsenal will have the monkey off their back and will I think push on.

Chelsea have gotten a great manager in Alonso and will have learned from the circus that is Real. Club is a flash fire but I expect him to have a tight hold over the squad and a strong assertive playing style. There'll be none of the nonsense we've seen this season.

City will bolster with the best money can buy and Maresca will start the season with probably the strongest squad in PL.

Liverpool.. who knows? Badly underperformed this year. There's a lot of talent there. One or two more signings to come in and if Slot ( or whoever) gets them ticking, they'll have a large say on where the title goes next May.

United...too many variables. Midfield needs a very strong summer and I'm not confident we'll get the best players available. We still look light up top and the defence needs 1 or 2 fullbacks and possibly even a CB. We're all hoping Carrick is the answer, but I'd say none of us have 100% confidence in him.

What I really want next season is a good preparation for a title challenge the following year. A cup win and a decent run in CL would be nice but I'd take this season again if I saw real progress towards 21.

I feel we're at the stage where we need to make the types of signings Liverpool made before they consistently challenged at the top end. The Van Dijk and Alisson type signings in particular that suited what they needed perfectly (not saying in those exact positions). That's why I feel Anderson is the signing the club needs to really push on and send a message to the league. He looks perfect for our midfield and has his best years ahead of him.

Obviously he has to want to come too but it feels like the next 3 or 4 signings the club makes have to be of the highest quality possible to be closer to challenging. This summer will tell us a lot as to where the club is heading and what the ambition really is (happy to just be an intermittent champions league qualifier or aim to properly compete for the big titles).

I would actually rather they get the points reduction mid summer. Something like 60+ points.
Watch them try to convince Haaland and co to stay for an inevitable relegation as they spend the season trying to claw back the points.

They would need to hit a near 100 point season to have any chance to stay up.

They would have next to nothing to cheer all season and would just be ticking off the games until it became mathematically impossible to survive.

I don't even know why you have brought this conversation up again to be honest, I can only repeat the same points.

I compared the current record holder to the guy who has just matched it, and thought it remarkable that the media don't acknowledge that the old record holder was also banging in a crazy amount of goals at the same time.

Could Bruno have gotten more assists? Sure. And maybe Henry could have had more goals if he wasn't also assisting so many people. And De Bruyne would have had more if he wasn't sharing the ball in midfield with Silva. But neither of those things are the point.

Nobody has to agree with me, I just think the media are being a bit cringy when they ignore the dual threat that the others were providing.

Henry was a CF, it was his job to score goals and get assists. Fernandes spent half the season in a role that demanded equal parts attacking and defending, then the other half tasked with directly creating chances and combining with the midfield. Scoring prolifically was never his role or responsibility, so I wouldn't hold it against him that he didn't match Henry's tally from his record-breaking season.

There was one against Boro when they knocked us out of the FA cup.

Social media was barely a thing back in Henry's time, everything is amplified nowadays.

urgh, the thought of Sancho winning a European trophy

I'm getting ptsd from losing to those bums last year!

Delighted for Sancho, not that he came off the bench to John Terry himself up to lift a trophy, but the fact he knows his contract is ending, soon and he won’t get near the 250k he’s been on. He’s still 26, and through his stinking attitude, he’s pi$$ed away at least 70% of his earning potential over his remaining years as a player.

We need to start adding clauses to loan deals if they win a trophy etc