News: The rebuild goes on... - The summer 2020 transfer thread

I'm mostly just apathetic at this point. Its foolish to be surprised or even really mad anymore because the incompetence just runs so deep at the club. I had a glimmer of hope with the transfers we've made over the past year or so as we seem to have gotten away from the typical panic buys, guys that didnt want to be here, and huge wages. But the reality is, it doesnt matter how good our scouting or coaches are in identifying talent, because nothing good will ever happen to this club while Woody and the Glazers are in control. The only chance we have is if we stumble upon a general talent (Ronaldo) or a generational manager (SAF) that can find success despite our ownership and front office.

At this point, we're just a richer version of Arsenal. Continuously fighting for a top 4 finish and knockout stages in Europe. Its hard to accept, but its true.

 

Whats ridiculous is, if you look at say a club like Chelsea and their transfer dealings...look at the time between the first time a reputable source says theyre seriously in for a player to the time they officially make the signing. Then compare that to the same window of time from us being seriously interested to making a signing. It usually takes us 4 or 5 times as long if not more. One could make the argument that maybe sources just dont hear about Chelsea transfers until later on in the dealing. Well, that would point to another issue with us being a leak factory then. Either way, the people involved and the manner in which we handle transfers needs to be overhauled in a big way.

I cant remember where I heard this, might have been the Patty Evra rant, but he talked about how United dont try and sway players or get transfers done like other teams. We love to send 3rd parties and intermediaries to handle most of the transfer dealings and communication. Meanwhile you have clubs like Real who used to send Perez himself along with Zidane (back when he was a club ambassador) to meet with the other club and the player. Can you imagine the sway of a young player to have Zidane telling you to join a club face to face? Now compare that to United who send a bunch of suits that know ******** all about football.

 

You're almost where im at these days.

Soon you will laugh at all the stuff that makes you rage today.

 

I think where I am at is I can't wait to get back to being just mildly disappointed with our on-the-pitch football, rather than angry about our off-the-pitch management - which I am forced to acknowledge every transfer window.

 

Remember when our biggest complaint was that SAF wouldnt buy a CM?

Ah the good ol' days.

 

BREAKING: Manchester United have finally got rid of a player. I repeat. Man Utd have got rid of a player (on loan).

Fair play to Ed Woodward, doing a madness in this transfer window so far. pic.twitter.com/sosHmBzKpn

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) October 1, 2020

 

Or when frustration was not being able to beat Pep Barca in CL Finals 2009 & 2011.

Levels

 

So... going well.

 

I mean, at this point it's just us beating our own records of stupidity. We finally have a potentially world class player that actually wants to join, we have literally zero other clubs after him, the price is something we can absolutely afford and probably makes sense for a player of his level, and we are still managing to royally ******** it up. Lol if we don't many more meaningful signings I sincerely hope we finish bottom 10.

 

Part of our problem is perception. United's name gets clicks where other clubs wouldn't. Agents, clickbait merchants and teams trying to do business all use our club's name in ways they wouldn't otherwise. The result is we get "linked" to far more players than we are in for. That is of course frustrating for us, but it wouldn't change with even the most amazing DOF and CEO.

 

There is definitely a perception issue, and that is a problem with the more casual or not so bright fans. I get that makes the discourse far more annoying, but it doesn't change the actual issues at hand. We clearly aren't good at this anymore. The ship is run poorly. We see it with our inability to sign players, and even more convincingly, with the players we aren't able to shift do to how we have handled contracts for years now.

 

Agree with johno.

The other part is that our fanbase has gotten extremely toxic.

There is non-stop whining about everything, including when the club tries to act reasonably.

 

This. Partly exacerbated by the entitlement our fans feel due to good times being relatively recent, our fans throw toys out the pram at the slightest inconvenience. This shit is hard and supposed to be hard. I think worldwide, fans have become fairly impatient with their clubs and the demands to sign players are almost a joke now.

 

Never understood why didnt he

 

The way in which it absolutely would change would be if we were far, far quicker in completing our business. If we had at least one signing sorted before the end of the previous season and two more important signings done within the first 2-3 weeks of the window opening, then that would (a) vastly reduce the number of positions open for speculation, (b) lift the pressure off of business late in the window, and (c) turn the fan narrative around fictional links away from "yet another signing the board has failed to make", towards "well it was probably bullshit anyway".

We'll always have these baseless rumours conjured up by agents and the media. But our actual business will 100% colour the reception of those rumours by fans.

 

Of course this is true. But the educated fans know which transfer sources are bullshit and which probably have some smoke behind them. We know what players were seriously in for this summer and of those players, only VdB has gotten across and by alla counts were seriously lowballing for the others.

 

We seem to want BVB to sell Sancho at Covid rates despite them clearly not wanting to sell their best player, whilst simultaneously refusing to sell players at Covid rates despite us openly wanting rid of them.