Striking whilst the iron is molten hot.

[Dark Savante]

I'm going to become a full-fledged transfer muppet this summer window.

We have the biggest bargaining chips we've probably ever had right now. Our club and squad is truly multi-cultral and global and we can dip into almost any marketplace on earth now - something we would have struggled to do in '99.

Our squad is young and in need of finalisation and I feel that if ever there is a time when we could get what we want, it is now.

I was wondering how Abramovich will approach the window this summer after what happened yesterday. Will he gut that squad and start over, or try and bolster it, or what? Whatever it is he choses to do, I feel we've just gone and raised the bar for them and ensured they'll be after us with a different kind of vigour next season.

I was also thinking about the CL. No side has ever retained this trophy in the modern format. And that should be reason enough for everyone at the club to have a hunger and drive to do this thing again next season. I figure Fergie is going to do some really big things in the market now. He never sits still and we clearly need to sort a few areas out and not rely on 3 forwards for all our productivity next season.

I figure we need:

A striker
A winger

and after that it would be good to get

A proper all-round, athletic, no holds barred CM (this would be my second priority personally)

and maybe a fullback.

If the funds are available I really hope we go for the very best we can get in each department, even if we are rejected, it would be nice to see us trying to press home an advantage that has reaped huge dividends for all our European competitors (who have won the trophy) who are considered giants over the past decade or so.

I'm expecting huge things from us this window.

[littleman]

Spend big again after 50m last summer? Idunthinkso.

[cr7torossi]

Thank you. I made the exact same point in some other thread. Fergie made this mistake in '99 of resting on his laurels and both he and Keane have talked about that being a bad mistake.

We have to go for it now, we are so close to having a team that can dominate the European Cup like some other teams in the past. And the gap between us and Chelsea is negligible and Chelsea will (and have) strengthen.

I want a striker and a fullback(who can play both LB and RB, which is why I wanted us to go for Lahm). And use our bargaining power to buy lots of the 16-17 year old wonderkids.

[littleman]

He won't rest on his laurels, but it doesn't mean he has to spend another 50m.

I'm sure we'll bring in crucial players, but only if we ship out a few.

[Charleysurf]

Spend big again after 50m last summer? Idunthinkso.

We still have to pay £20m plus for Tevez. That's going to take most of our transfer budget. I don't see us spending as much as we did last year overall given the debt situation.

I've a feeling that Fergie will stick with Frazier, Manucho, Welbeck as his new blood in the striker department.

Fullback (left and right) is probably the other area we will strengthen. Jonny Evans will surely be back to support CB. Danny Simpson may, or may not, get some chances at RB.

It's hard to see us buy yet another CM, unless someone like Fletcher leaves.

[cr7torossi]

We still have to pay £20m plus for Tevez. That's going to take most of our transfer budget. I don't see us spending as much as we did last year overall given the debt situation.

I've a feeling that Fergie will stick with Frazier, Manucho, Welbeck as his new blood in the striker department.

Fullback (left and right) is probably the other area we will strengthen. Jonny Evans will surely be back to support CB. Danny Simpson may, or may not, get some chances at RB.

It's hard to see us buy yet another CM, unless someone like Fletcher leaves.

We will in most likelihood postpone paying for Tevez for another year. I personally am not completely sold on buying Tevez because he always talks about retiring/going back to Boca by the time he is 27-28.

As for spending 50m, we never do that. I personally am hoping for we spend in the region of 15-20m(+money made on player sales) to complete this team, not buy some stopgaps.

[Dark Savante]

We won't make such minor changes after winning the EC as introducing two nobodies like Campbell and Manucho. We always make a statement of intent after winning something Fergie considers major

and this double is almost the pinnacle of club footy. And even then, we missed out on the Fa Cup by a few rounds.

I think there will be sales and I think we'll conclude our business before the euros if the agents, clubs and players we want play ball.

I also think Fergie's expenditure will be seen as fully vindicated considering what he brought back for the investment.

Tevez won't be paid for this summer, I don't think.. it's a two year loan deal.

[biro]

Let me ask a question to all those saying we won't spend much money this year, did you say the same last season as well? Did the fact we then brought in 4 top players not teach you anything?

[urbnzy]

We will in most likelihood postpone paying for Tevez for another year. I personally am not completely sold on buying Tevez because he always talks about retiring/going back to Boca by the time he is 27-28.

So United should get rid of Ronaldo too because he says he will leave at about the same age?

What do you think of waiting 2 years for Benzema? Give these young guns a chance. And when United wins a new CL or PL in two years time, Benzema would certainly want to play for Manchester. I think he's worth it. Maybe just bring a cheap striker for these two years and then then the team will be complete.

[cr7torossi]

So United should get rid of Ronaldo too because he says he will leave at about the same age?


If and when he does, we will get a record transfer fee from one of the Spanish giants. A player retiring or going to SA won't get you anything. If anything, waiting another season won't hurt us at all, both to see what a fully-fit Tevez has to offer and what are his long-term plans.


What do you think of waiting 2 years for Benzema? Give these young guns a chance. And when United wins a new CL or PL in two years time, Benzema would certainly want to play for Manchester. I think he's worth it. Maybe just bring a cheap striker for these two years and then then the team will be complete.

If we stay still, it is very likely that one of the Spanish or the Italian giants will win the CL(as can be seen in the lack of repeat winners of the CL); it is always been like that -- right now, the English league is strongest and we need to make the most of it <as Liverpool did in the last English up-cycle>.

Also, after a very long time, we are as good as any other club in being able to attract players from any region of the world. In 2 years time, Ronaldo and Tevez might no longer be in the club and having Ronaldo here was such a major attraction for the likes of Nani, Anderson and the Brazilian twins.

For Fergie, winning another CL title in the next 5-10 years will hold no attraction, the only thing left for him to do is to build a team that truly dominates Europe like a few teams have done before.

[Motterman]

Let me ask a question to all those saying we won't spend much money this year, did you say the same last season as well? Did the fact we then brought in 4 top players not teach you anything?

It did. It taught me that we can still afford top younger players on installment plans.

However; after this season with retaining the league and winning the CL, we should have more warchest funds available.

[Dark Savante]

The one thing to note is that I don't think this will be a seasonal thing, we needed those players last summer to do what we did this season - every single one of them featured in the CL final! And two of them started.

We basically need to finalise the squad, a squad that badly needs a #9 (all those chances Wayne and Carlitos have missed in front of goal all season long tells you that) and a few additional purchases to consolidate our squad strength.

After that, I'd think we'd be relatively quiet in the market for some time after That would be the major benefit of having a squad that is so young and self-sufficient.

[Devils Advocate]

Striking while the iron is hot...

That is certainly the apropos way to put it since the one thing that we absolutely need is a striker.

As for the rest, I feel an upgrade would still be a luxury, not a dead cert need. Agree on the dealmaking before Euros bit. That would suit the club the best.

[sdotsom]

Everything other than a striker is a luxury. This is a team that didn't lose a single game in Europe this year. So 50 million pounds would be unnecessary spending IMO. A forward is really all I want. We are pretty good in defense, and we have a packed midfield. Scholesy and Giggsy will see less time this upcoming season, Fergie said as much. But we still have a nice core at both midfield and winger.

Rather put some cash on the debt.

[J'can]

I would maybe prefer to wait until after the Euros for those players that may feature in the tournament itself. Dont want us to buy and injured player especailly if the injury is serious. And maybe we will unearth sme gems at that tournament too.

The downside of course is that the stock may rise as a result of the tournament so we will maybe pay more. But I would take that chance.....

[Charleysurf]

We won't make such minor changes after winning the EC as introducing two nobodies like Campbell and Manucho. We always make a statement of intent after winning something Fergie considers major


Tevez won't be paid for this summer, I don't think.. it's a two year loan deal.


I am sure United will want to tie down Tevez ASAP. Fergie indicated this during the week. We will pay out this summer rather than let other teams come in for him next year.

At some point financial reality must bite. The Glazers can't show the banks etc. that we will spend all our income on transfers every single summer. I think we will pay for Tevez but any other buys will need to be paid with sales.

[The Guv'nor]

We won't make such minor changes after winning the EC as introducing two nobodies like Campbell and Manucho. We always make a statement of intent after winning something Fergie considers major

We didn't do much immediately after the Treble

[cr7torossi]

We didn't do much immediately after the Treble

And both Fergie and Keano regretted in later years.

Replacing Schmikes with Taibi :O

[johno]

We won't make such minor changes after winning the EC as introducing two nobodies like Campbell and Manucho. We always make a statement of intent after winning something Fergie considers major

and this double is almost the pinnacle of club footy. And even then, we missed out on the Fa Cup by a few rounds.

I think there will be sales and I think we'll conclude our business before the euros if the agents, clubs and players we want play ball.

I also think Fergie's expenditure will be seen as fully vindicated considering what he brought back for the investment.

Tevez won't be paid for this summer, I don't think.. it's a two year loan deal.

Good points DS. I agree with you. We'll definitely see a few players go out now. Silvestre will probably be gone and we may see Pique depart. I don't agree that we need a new FB simply because we've really been dominant on all fronts this season with our back up RB.

At the very least we'll clear off Saha's wages. Hell - Olegend may well be out on his kiester too if we want to bring in a FB. We'd probably be parting with close to 200K per week in salary and getting around 15M quid from transfers alone.

We also can explore the use of Hargreaves at RB or RM to help our right side problem.

In the wee hours of the morning I was contemplating who we'd get for the striker position and I told my friend that really no one is out of reach for us now. Realistically speaking we could get our hands on Benzema (but he'd cost too much). We now have the pull to take someone like Gomez for less than we might have a couple months ago. I think we've suddenly become more appealing to Eto'o if that's what we wanted. A player like David Suazo would love to make the move as would Fabiano.

I wouldn't mind a winger, but I'm not sold on us needing one.

Here's why?

Nani - he's young and he's a very good winger for 442 or 433.
Park - different from Nani but can work in both formations.
Ronaldo - WF for 433 and capable of playing in 442 if his opposite flank is strong defensively.
Hargreaves - seems to be that his best position is RM
Giggs - not a starter in a wing position, but can play 30 minutes there as a sub.

Rooney is also available to play a flank position should we need him to, same as Fletcher and Anderson.

Another reason is our possible formations. If we get the coveted 9 that will mean Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, Nani, Park and Giggs all fighting for 3 spots in the 4231 or for 3 spots in the 442 nominally or 4 spots if we start Rooney/Tevez up top. If you also consider that in playing 442 we have Hargreaves as an option, it would befuddle me if we brought in a winger before a FB or a dominant CM.



I am sure United will want to tie down Tevez ASAP. Fergie indicated this during the week. We will pay out this summer rather than let other teams come in for him next year.

At some point financial reality must bite. The Glazers can't show the banks etc. that we will spend all our income on transfers every single summer. I think we will pay for Tevez but any other buys will need to be paid with sales.

I think its much better if we wait. For starters, we'll have another season before we have to pay for him. That's another season of TV revenue and merchandizing and prize money hopefully not to mention other forms of revenue. Secondly we'll be able to see how he fits our schematic following the addition of a proper CF to our team. If Anderson emerges to be the AM we all dream he can be, then the need for Tevez is greatly diminished.

That would only strengthen our position. Tevez playing for United another season will convince him that he doesn't want to play elsewhere and THAT will force the hand of his agent as well.

[dru_jones]

SAF needs to sign a striker for next year. As for the rest of the positions, it all depends on which players are sold.

I don't mind seeing the ff. leave: Saha, Silvestre. Id' love to see Pique, Simpson and Evans stay but SAF might have other things in mind.

And I wish that those goons from RM stop tampering with Ronaldo. Gill should just tell those idiots to go to hell.