How many players can we realistically hope to bring in this summer?

Originally Posted by Chris Quayd

Our recruitment record is so bad that we shouldn't be thinking about signing anyone. Get rid of as many players as possible and see what is left towards the end of the transfer window. If you look at Klopp's signings in his first few years there is a lot of dross that he was able to mould, we should try and do the same thing

If ‘mould’ means ‘punch in the face’, I’m with you.

Originally Posted by bazrah99

Any value in trying to add some free players in addition to our primary targets? Players of interest that are already listed as out of contract this summer:

Rabiot CM PSG
Hermoso CB Atl Madrid
Ndidi DM Leicester
Zielinski CM Napoli
Adarabioyo CB Fulham
Rafa FW Benfica
Jovic ST Milan
Casteels GK Wolfsburg

Not saying they are all good options but we will need to find some value without blowing the limited budget.

I’d take the Fulham centre back as long as we sign another one.

He would be a useful player to have In the squad.

one of the major things that's gone out of the window post fergie is due diligence on potential signings' mentality and character.
there is a pressure and scrutiny to playing for united that simply doesn't exist elsewhere and can turn good players into bad ones, and can make average ones think they are gods gift.

we need to start getting that right.

I'd honestly sign the whole of the 2012/2013 squad and start the rebuild from scratch. Do it again proper

It really depends how many players and which players we can sell and for what amount.

Preferable players who we think will not fit our future team and give us a lot of money.

Preferable players which we would like to get rid off, who have a high salary (Casemiro, Rashford, Varane, maybe Mount? Unless Fernandes leaves, than I would keep Mount).

Main priority is that we finally come with a long term plan and try to get the right players/profiles in the next few years. Similar to Real Madrid or Arsenal.

Look at the team of Arsenal 5 years ago? It's almost a complete new team. Every year they bought a few key players, perfectly fitting the first 11. That's what we need to do.

Because this will take 3, 4, probably 5 years, this means players will normally be max 25 years old now.

My prediction is that we will get rid of Casemiro, that Varane is gone, that we will sell Greenwood and Sancho. So we will replace them with 4 players and we will at least buy 2 central defenders (1 replacement for Varane and 1 extra). So we will get minimum 5 players.

I hope more, as much as possible...

Martial is gone plus hopefully DvdB so some wages freed up.

Im more concerned with who we can get rid of.

Originally Posted by redhegemony

Martial is gone plus hopefully DvdB so some wages freed up.

indeed! So we have a lot to get excited about because a lot of players will be gone and an enormous amount of extra salary that we can spend. If we can recruit with the knowledge of Berrada and Ashworth, it's gonna be a nice summer. Unfortunetaly there is an European Championship first, so that's limiting us a bit

Originally Posted by Cool_Breeze

indeed! So we have a lot to get excited about because a lot of players will be gone and an enormous amount of extra salary that we can spend. If we can recruit with the knowledge of Berrada and Ashworth, it's gonna be a nice summer. Unfortunetaly there is an European Championship first, so that's limiting us a bit

We might have salary spare but not clear how much we can spend on fees and stay within the financial regulations.

Originally Posted by History

I'd honestly sign the whole of the 2012/2013 squad and start the rebuild from scratch. Do it again proper

I wouldn't even want 2012 jonny £#%&!ing evans.

Originally Posted by redhegemony

Martial is gone plus hopefully DvdB so some wages freed up.

Varane and Eriksen are on free transfers too I think.

I can see Casemiro being sold and lindelof .

Realistically, whilst I’d want many more players to be flogged ,

Players leaving - AWB lindelof varane Eriksen martial varane Casemiro , Sancho and VDB

Players needed - CB , CM , RB, RW , Lb, Cover CB , Cover ST

Big window, we won’t get all our players but maybe if ineos are a bit shrewd, maybe singing that Fulham CB on a free as a cover CB, maybe a signing or two from Nice, todibo and Thuram look decent etc.

I think if we get a minimum of 4 good signings for the first team we should be good.


Who knows, it’s Ratcliffes first window with two or three people who have a track record of knowing what they’re doing. Maybe it’s false optimism but I’d like to think the future is bright. Write this season off, it was a shit show from November onwards .

Originally Posted by Dasilvatwins

Varane and Eriksen are on free transfers too I think.

I can see Casemiro being sold and lindelof .

Realistically, whilst I’d want many more players to be flogged ,

Players leaving - AWB lindelof varane Eriksen martial varane Casemiro , Sancho and VDB

Players needed - CB , CM , RB, RW , Lb, Cover CB , Cover ST

Big window, we won’t get all our players but maybe if ineos are a bit shrewd, maybe singing that Fulham CB on a free as a cover CB, maybe a signing or two from Nice, todibo and Thuram look decent etc.

I think if we get a minimum of 4 good signings for the first team we should be good.


Who knows, it’s Ratcliffes first window with two or three people who have a track record of knowing what they’re doing. Maybe it’s false optimism but I’d like to think the future is bright. Write this season off, it was a shit show from November onwards .

in 2 summers we've spent big on: GK, CB, 2xCM, RW, CF and those positions are pretty much all still on your list of 'needs improvement'

what an absolute joke our transfer business has been

Everyone obvs wants Casimiro sold, but on his enormous wages and with 3 years left on his contract he's going nowhere except on a subsidised loan. He's genuinely less than worthless.

Plus Dortmund will play hardball with Sancho and get him on loan for another year.

Originally Posted by doudou

Everyone obvs wants Casimiro sold, but on his enormous wages and with 3 years left on his contract he's going nowhere except on a subsidised loan. He's genuinely less than worthless.

Plus Dortmund will play hardball with Sancho and get him on loan for another year.

Think we'll sell Sancho for a reduced fee rather than pay half his wages or whatever it is for another season to the club we bought him off. Dortmund can play hardball all they like. They have literally no say.

My list of players we should keep is - as every season - alarmingly short. There's no way the club can afford the kind of recruitment we need so expect more of the same with a few new faces. Imagine next season with Martial still at the club? It could happen.

There's no way Dortmund would give us more than £40m, they're not that type of club. His wages will also be a huge problem as he's on double what the next highest paid is on.

There's no way he's going to want to come back. With or without EtH he was a flop here and he wont want the challenge.

Casemiro could easily go somewhere like Saudi Arabia. I think he'd be happy to leave, he just doesn't look interested. We'll come to some sort of agreement where we let him go on the cheap.

Sancho will either go to Dortmund on loan or he'll be sold for around 20 million with united covering half his wages until the end of his contract here.

Originally Posted by doudou

Sancho will either go to Dortmund on loan or he'll be sold for around 20 million with united covering half his wages until the end of his contract here.

If we sold a player, why would we continue to cover half his wages? What am I missing here?

Originally Posted by pedr0

in 2 summers we've spent big on: GK, CB, 2xCM, RW, CF and those positions are pretty much all still on your list of 'needs improvement'

what an absolute joke our transfer business has been

Last years... each time we get some random players...
With the money we spent, we could have had a squad like Real Madrid or Manchester City, or at least easy top 4 team each year...

Originally Posted by shenwen

If we sold a player, why would we continue to cover half his wages? What am I missing here?

He wouldnt leave, if he would get only half of his salary offered at another team. Would you :-D? He would just be sitting here, earning his big salary and not playing at all... So you cut your loss and pay half of his salary, we get money back and we only have to pay half the salary...

Originally Posted by Dasilvatwins

Varane and Eriksen are on free transfers too I think.

I can see Casemiro being sold and lindelof .

Realistically, whilst I’d want many more players to be flogged ,

Players leaving - AWB lindelof varane Eriksen martial varane Casemiro , Sancho and VDB

Players needed - CB , CM , RB, RW , Lb, Cover CB , Cover ST

Big window, we won’t get all our players but maybe if ineos are a bit shrewd, maybe singing that Fulham CB on a free as a cover CB, maybe a signing or two from Nice, todibo and Thuram look decent etc.

I think if we get a minimum of 4 good signings for the first team we should be good.


Who knows, it’s Ratcliffes first window with two or three people who have a track record of knowing what they’re doing. Maybe it’s false optimism but I’d like to think the future is bright. Write this season off, it was a shit show from November onwards .

Unfortunately Adarabioyo seems on his way to Newcastle

Originally Posted by shenwen

If we sold a player, why would we continue to cover half his wages? What am I missing here?

Happens all the time, that's why Maguire's move to West Ham fell through

Originally Posted by shenwen

If we sold a player, why would we continue to cover half his wages? What am I missing here?

Did it with Rooney iirc, I'm sure there's some accounting reason or maybe the buying clubs don't want to disrupt their wage structure so prefer to split the cost of the player between wages and transfer fee