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

How good is Lewis Hall? Ticks two positions the club need to buy in but has he actually played much at senior level in midfield.

TBH I would be happy with Ederson, Fernandes and Scott.
Think Fernandes and Scott have the potential to be too huge midfield talents in the next couple of years - and I'd be happy to see us role the dice on it.

Risky to a point. Ederson never played in Premier league is a risk but Scott and Fernandes showed they can play Premier league football at young age to a high standard , def would take a punt on both . An off form baleba would be bigger risk

Sandro Tonali is not a £100m player. Having a go at the club for not spending a ridiculous amount on him seems contrary to all the complaints about overspending on average players over the past decade.

Ederson, 1 of Fernandes, Wharton or Scott, plus 1 other CM instantly improves our options. We already have our £100m midfielder, its Kobbie. We are buying players to compliment and work alongside him

Agree with Ederson, Fernandes and Scott. very young too so loads of potential for growth - 2 proven PL who can slot in straight away and are up for the physicality.

WH paid 40 for fernandes, so could get him for 60 probably - maybe with a few adds on on top. They will play hard ball, but we might get lucky if nobody else is interested

I don't see us buying any 100m players, anywhere. Radcliffe stated he wants to buy the next stars, not the established ones.

I'm a-ok with that. Buy hungry players on the way up, we see that in who they have bought already.

The whole point of having all these suits involved in recruitment is to find those gems, Lammens and Dorgu have each probably trebled in value, Sesko, Cunha and MBeumo have all enhanced their reputations.

Sure I could suggest Elliot Anderson myself just from watching Match of the Day on a Saturday night.

I think if Anderson said he would come to us on like 250k and Forest said they would sell for 100m, the deal would be done tomorrow.

Sure we want to sign players before they get to that level, but would be silly to ignore them once they have.

INEOS will splash £100M on someone if they tick the boxes and are achievable. Anderson you've unfortunately got City in for him so the financial package on offer to him from City is going to be huge. Even if Forest agreed to £100M you'll probably have to offer him Casemiro wages.

Tonali massive questions with the gambling stuff. Plus Newcastle have a 3+1 on his contract so he's locked down for the next four years.

They've spent big sums of money on potential (Sesko, York), and they've spent big sums of money on mid 20s PL proven players from lower half PL club (Cunha, Mbeumo).

They'll 100% splash £100M on a player if possible

I believe it's wages that's the big stumbling block for Anderson. Like look at what Guehi supposedly gets at City and it's mental money. Rodri the only one left from the trio that included KDB and Silva. And he's only got a year left on his deal and could leave. They'll be throwing a small fortune wage wise at someone like Anderson to lead their midfield for the next decade.

Very low risk in my opinion…. Fernandes can do it all and Scott’s an absolute sure thing for me. If got those two I’d be absolutely delighted.

That’s one done ✅

I don't think its a case of going for lower profile signings is a good thing in itself. It is a necessity. The squad has huge gaps in it - just 1 good striker, 1 good midfielder, no out and out left winger, no backup goalkeeper, question marks over left back, centre back and to some extent right back. Ideally the club would sign 7 or 8 players this summer, just to be confident of having a good first 11 and a subs bench that can positively impact a premier league game. In terms of setting ambitious but realistic targets, if United manage to finish in the top 4 next season it will be only the second time United have done that back to back in 14 seasons. United does not routinely finish every season in the top 4.

With just 250m to spend and 7 or 8 slots to fill to build a squad that finishes in the top 4, we're relying a lot on the recruitment team earning their wages by identifying more signings like Lammens. We're just not in a position to be blowing 40% of the transfer budget on a single player whatever way we might dress it up as a choice.

If this summer goes fantastically well, we might get to next summer where we have 20+ good enough players for the CL in or entering their peak years and are just looking to add 1 or 2 world class players each year.