Exactly what he’s doing today. Watch him anytime out CBS have the ball. He literally makes runs to Arsenal players to mark himself.
He’s more of a 6 than anyone else we have (who isn’t Casemiro). This is the problem. Getting into a debate about how shit he is as a 6 is irrelevant when the real problem is that even with him being this shit, he’s still more of a 6 than Fred. Ten Hag clearly thinks so too, afaik he hasn’t used Fred at DM once - possibly because he’s watched footage of when we’ve tried it before. He was awful today btw, no question. If we were to loan in a good backup 6 then yeah, sell him now. I just think it’s more likely that we don’t go for a midfielder until the summer. Someone who can play next to Casemiro, AND can play alongside him.
I heard from a good source today that Casemiro was watching the 4:0 defeat to Brentford and immediately after the game he rang his agent to tell him to contact ManUnited and tell them … “ I will fix it “ The rest is history is they say
I honestly don’t know if we should prioritize a striker ahead of a central midfielder or vice versa. We need both desperately.
Also to take Eriksen’s place tbh. Or to let him take some of Bruno’s minutes. Both of them were pretty poor for us today, defensively especially. Eriksen has been poor OoP for a good while, whereas Bruno’s decision making just keeps killing us. You watch Bruno’s pressing in the buildup to Arsenal’s winner and you see him decide to completely forget about Zinchenko for the sake of chasing the ball. I wouldn’t prioritise one over the other. They’re both the priority, followed by GK and RB. I think our next window’s going to have to be massive and, if we don’t get some super rich owners this spring, we’ll have to raise a LOT through sales.
Goldbridge has mentioned a few times how new owners, even with oil-rich pockets, aren't going to help our transfer situation in the short term due to new financial regulations. There's a new rule that your payroll can't be more than 70% of revenue (https://theathletic.com/news/uefa-a...-rule-of-70-per-cent-of-revenue/nStOjscm115G/). United is currently at like... 80+% or something. The other problem with that is United have around $300m in amortized payments still to pay for transfers over the last few years along with having nearly $400m in wage bills for the year: https://theathletic.com/3985959/2022/12/09/manchester-united-accounts-facts/ “The unamortized balance of registrations at 30 September 2022 was £494.1m,” their accounts read. But this has come at a cost. United spent £218m on transfers in the three months from July 1. That has left them with outstanding transfer instalments to other clubs of £306m." ----------- https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ge-bill-premier-league-record-summer-spending "Manchester United’s football director, John Murtough, insists the club will not repeat this summer’s level of spending after the wage bill hit record levels. United bought Antony, Lisandro Martínez, Casemiro and Tyrell Malacia and signed the free agent Christian Eriksen to bolster the squad for Erik ten Hag. The outlay was more than £200m and that will add pressure to a wage bill which is the highest in Premier League history after the previous year’s signings of Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Raphaël Varane saw salary costs leap 19.1%, a rise of £61.6m to £384.2m, for the financial year ending in June. That figure surpasses the previous mark set by Manchester City (£355m)." So here's the problem. United's revenue is tanking with sponsorship deals falling and lack of UCL monies. United need to generate more revenue and cut wages (hence I think why we saw the 'hard' wage cap of $200k/wk for new contracts) in order to buy more players. United NEED to sell a lot of high-wage players to bring that wage/revenue ratio below 70%. Current Wages: $384.2m Future Transfer Payments Outstanding: $306m Net Debt: $514.9m Revenue: $583m With this new rule in place, there is literally no way for us to bring in any real transfers even this summer unless we can: 1. Qualify for UCL 2. Sell players with high wage bills I'm not hopeful for this summer transfer window even if United are sold.
I think you are greatly overestimating the PL and UEFAs ability to enforce financial fair play. There have been and are way worse offenders in terms of finances that receive zero punishment. Look at City, PSG, hell look at Chelsea right now. Breaking rules left and right and no punishment. If we fail to spend based on some imaginary rules that are never enforced, then we aren’t playing the game correctly. Do we need to reduce our wage bill and get a lot of the overpaid leeches like Jones off the books? Yes. And it seems like we are in the process of this. But if you think a new owner will takeover and in the summer we won’t spend, you’re crazy. New owners will be well aware of the public backlash if the new people in charge don’t spend big the first summer and they’ll want to avoid that backlash. There are plenty of financial tricks that can be done to make sure all regulations are followed, even if they aren’t ever enforced.
That's why I posted the articles saying exactly what he said. Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he isn't right on some things. The rule exists. Our debt exists. Our wage bill exists. Our lack of revenue exists. Look past your own prejudices and think.
The fact is, the rule exists. Whether they choose to enforce it or not is an unknown, though it certainly appears they're not a fan of enforcing the other FFP rules. But, if new owners come in and CAN'T spend (not won't), don't be surprised.
https://theathletic.com/3985959/2022/12/09/manchester-united-accounts-facts/ "Have they saved money on Ronaldo leaving? United’s latest set of accounts for the three months ended September 2022 revealed an interesting projection that sheds light on the cost of Ronaldo’s departure by mutual consent in November. The club raised their guidance on EBITDA — earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortisation — to £125m to £140m “as a result of reduced player wage costs”. United’s previous expected range was from £100m to £110m. This tells us that their bank balance is expected to benefit from an additional £15m to £30m, and it can be attributed to Ronaldo’s salary coming off the wage bill along with their underlying revenues also improving." While nice, it's a proverbial drop in the ocean.
I'm saying I doubt anything you post if you consider Goldbridge to be a source. He's an alarmist and a clickwhore. If you want financial info on any team, the A1 source is the swiss ramble. United need to reduce the wage bill and raise funds but there are several players coming up on the end of their deals who will be cut loose or sold. We have no idea what things will look like in a few months. We are going to get a new shirt sponsor and with ETH helping us and the likelihood of CL football the increase in revenue there and from player sales is going to change what the picture looks like. For example. Eric Bailly has communicated that he wants to play. There's no chance he's playing for ETH he's on 80k, he's going to take a pay cut and go play somewhere else. That's 80k per week off the wage bill and maybe 10M or so back in fees. De Gea is out of contract this summer and nobody wants to go anywhere near him at anything like his current contract. He's gonna be taking a paycut and likely a backup role or he's unemployed. He's on almost 400k per week. AWB will probably be sold/replaced and we'll make cash & save on wages. Just those very obvious, relatively minor moves would free up a lot of wages that is before any more radical sales like Maguire or Lindelof or accounting for the huge relief caused by CR37's departure.
FYI some of the more interesting soon to be free agents, particularly if the club isn't sold or next to no money to spend: Marcus Thuram (25) Youssoufa Moukoko (18) Adrien Rabiot (27) Konrad Laimer (25) Raphaël Guerreiro (29) Mahmoud Dahoud (27) Milan Škriniar (27) *don't rate much but Naby Keïta (27) *long time since the Leipzig form but Marco Asensio (27) Karim Benzema (34) Toni Kroos (33)
Correct re FFP. Chelsea have spent over €460m between last Summer and this window. I'm sure they'll be in for Rice and a #9 in the Summer too. Man City create companies to give themselves sponsorships etc. FFP will always be a joke.
I'd take Thuram, Laimer and Dahoud. Laimer/Dahoud would be a good pairing if Casemiro is out and either can partner Cas if need be. We could strengthen midfield and ST without spending a transfer fee and focus on getting in a proper 1st team GK. We could raise money moving on Hendo, Elanga (if we got Thuram) and Scott. Get Fred's wages off the books too if we are signing those two.