Maddest preseason was when Rooney and Gerrard both got red carded in final preseason game and Rooney got a 2 match league ban while Stevie Me got nothing. Classic FA.
Hope CR is used as an impact sub more often than not this year, and if he doesn't like it, door.
Martial, Rashford, Sancho is a rapid forward line, if ETH can get those 3 humming (for longer than half a season) & compliment with an Antony type, we're on the right track.
Maddest preseason was when Rooney and Gerrard both got red carded in final preseason game and Rooney got a 2 match league ban while Stevie Me got nothing. Classic FA.
Rooney & Scholes I think, I was there, it was the Amsterdam tournament with Porto, Ajax & Inter, iirc.
I'm quite excited at the prospect of Antony though, big fee obviously but I like what limited bits I've seen of him. Seems a character too, he sounds well up for the challenge.
A proper striker is badly needed though, imo. Can't really rely on Martial at the best of times, but if he gets laid up for an extended period, we're properly screwed. Isak would've been nice. Osihmen from Napoli, with Ronaldo going the other way, has been mentioned too.
Citeh fans really don't understand football finances do they. Probably a good thing after dropping 320m on Haaland.
Another terrible window for United. An absolute shambles of a club. What appears to have happened is the glazers couldn't sign any of the players ETH wanted and ETH realised the football structure at United is not existent and useless. Something anyone who knows anything about football has been saying for a decade. So then he was forced to sign players he knew and pay premium for them.
Unfortunately this means United haven't reinforced like they so desperately needed and all the clubs they are trying to compete with have, massively.
A terrible window to compliment 20 terrible windows.
Shouldn't be surprising given what we know about the glazers but there you go, it's the hope that kills you.
Tell you what ETH has bought well, from what I can tell so far, is some character into the side.
The team had no real leaders (bar an ageing CR7)/no charisma whatsoever last season, Martinez, Casemiro, Antony, Malacia & Eriksen all seem to have it.
Not the sort of thing Citheh would do. The full squad on an open top bus tour of Stockport with two men and a whippet following along clapping wouldn't be a great look tbh.
As if it needed saying he's an amazing manager, but ETH really showed something last night. After the weekend capitulation in the 2nd half and a distinct wobble for 10-15mins last night after going 1-0 up, United were brilliant second half. Bruno was immense.
Starting an unchanged XI after that shambles on Sunday was an eyebrow raiser, but it came off. Unbelievable that Joaquin is still going at 41. I remember when Utd were interested in him when he was a youngster.
I think he either had to start the same XI, the message being I'm not going to throw away the months of good work building a positive culture over one terrible performance, or change the entire XI, the message being that was unacceptable from all of you.
He couldn't just drop some players and not others after that performance without appearing like he had favourites.
Antony is a Europa league legend. Sancho will either come good or he won't. Not every transfer works out and we have Garnacho and Pellistri coming through.
Yes of course we overspend on everyone because of the shambolic people that have been managing transfers for a decade.
Antony gets a pass for now after his Barca goal and that dream of a strike last night. He's massively frustrating still though. Could have finished the tie beyond all doubt if he squared that one he dinked over.
Agree on Pellistri and Garnacho though, those boys are the future.
True, he's been great apparently. Weird he stunk the place out at Rangers though, I would've thought the SPL would be easy going compared to the Championship.
Can't really ask for a better debut season after the horrorshow opening 2 games.
3rd place, a cup, and one more on the way. Arsenal bottled it and dirty Leeds went down. If you ignore City using cheat codes you'd probably have to concede we are the moral champions, too.
The Europa debacle probably just highlighted how much work still remains, tbh.
Could easily ship & upgrade out 4/5 more 'first-teamers' (Maguire, McFred, Martial, Sancho, Wout, AWB). Split on Sancho though tbh, he's shown a bit in the last few games, but fook me has he underwhelmed in general.
I think DDG might start next season with a real viable challenger for his place too.
Oh to have the luxury of being able to buy the worlds most expensive defender, most expensive teenager, a £50 mill full back that can only tackle etc and then when they don’t work out just bin them and buy replacements 😂
I don't see it happening with Kane. Levy won't sell to a prem club unless it is 100m+ and he isn't worth that at 29/30. Going after him risks the entire window becoming a circus and a farce. If 100m+ is available then Osimhen is 24.
if they can get away with it, reintegrating Greenwood will be the direction they take. Ten Hag being asked about, and willing to comment on, him was not an accident.
Midfielder likely to be the Dutch lad from Bayern if they get Rice. Not sure Ndidi is that much of an improvement on Fred in the system ETH wants to play. They'll probably just sign Sabitzer and Mount though because of the price.
Kane has to stay in England as he will get the shearer record
United need him
Every sensible club wants him
United dirt poor - only premiership club to run at an owner deficit. Just good honest hard working class people keeping the club, no keeping football, alive
Quite funny reading a cheats fan talk about United's books (it's instalments lad, just good business because they might not become due and inflation makes them cheaper), when he is entirely ignorant of his 'club' cheating and the unexplained gaps in the accounts
"United have also revealed sponsorship revenue has increased 43.2% to £50.4m over the prior quarter. The club said this was due to the impact of their training kit agreement with Tezos, plus a 'one-off sponsorship credit', which they have opted not to detail."
If you offset the amount the glazers have taken out of the club through interest payments and lining their own pockets then utd are in zero debt and would have at least a billion extra to spend this summer.
I'm not trolling, I'm genuinely asking whether it is fair on other clubs for a club to be a billion in debt whilst leading the net spend table over the past 5 years.
the only reason manure are able to be the AWESOME SELF FINANCING FFP COMPLIANT!!!!! famous manchester united while still operating anywhere near the top of the game is that they, and their tacit shareholders Sky, spent the 90s rigging the entire game’s commercial structure in their favour
I missed Laz doing his very best Kevin Keegan meltdown homage upthread.
The Toon tried to cheat in the 90s, mysteriously finding cash for Beardsley, Ginola, Asprilla, Shaka Hislop, Gillespie etc but they took their shot and lost to a team of old timers, academy kids and a brilliant frenchman.
Ahh cross posted. What a delight it was.
Crystal Palace steamrollered.
Too soon to call the Treble?
Quintuple is on!
Even before the season starts.
Good season for UTD, this one, I think. Same for Spurs. Made some v good signings lately.
Hope we sign Antony so we can have a forward line of MRSA.
Heh, we've had amazing preseasons before terrible seasons and vice versa. It means nothing.
Of course, second goal v Palace was a beaut though.
Ronaldo will come back to cock up the pre season fast attacking football, just like last year.
Maddest preseason was when Rooney and Gerrard both got red carded in final preseason game and Rooney got a 2 match league ban while Stevie Me got nothing. Classic FA.
Hope CR is used as an impact sub more often than not this year, and if he doesn't like it, door.
Martial, Rashford, Sancho is a rapid forward line, if ETH can get those 3 humming (for longer than half a season) & compliment with an Antony type, we're on the right track.
Rooney & Scholes I think, I was there, it was the Amsterdam tournament with Porto, Ajax & Inter, iirc.
Oh, and Stevie separately, yeah.
That's right. We started the season with Saha, Solskjaer and Giuseppe Rossi up front. Won the league natch.
Can’t read too much into the win over Liverpool, what with asthma medications being banned over there.
This is happening. Fee agreed, £80.75m or something crackers.
100 mill I’m hearing.
The Glazers still failing to back the managers. That’s only 170 mill in the last week.
Davos will be along to explain it soon, I'm sure.
I'm quite excited at the prospect of Antony though, big fee obviously but I like what limited bits I've seen of him. Seems a character too, he sounds well up for the challenge.
A proper striker is badly needed though, imo. Can't really rely on Martial at the best of times, but if he gets laid up for an extended period, we're properly screwed. Isak would've been nice. Osihmen from Napoli, with Ronaldo going the other way, has been mentioned too.
100 mil. Lol.
Citeh fans really don't understand football finances do they. Probably a good thing after dropping 320m on Haaland.
Another terrible window for United. An absolute shambles of a club. What appears to have happened is the glazers couldn't sign any of the players ETH wanted and ETH realised the football structure at United is not existent and useless. Something anyone who knows anything about football has been saying for a decade. So then he was forced to sign players he knew and pay premium for them.
Unfortunately this means United haven't reinforced like they so desperately needed and all the clubs they are trying to compete with have, massively.
A terrible window to compliment 20 terrible windows.
Shouldn't be surprising given what we know about the glazers but there you go, it's the hope that kills you.
If United can get a keeper, RB and striker in by Thursday then could be a 5/10 window
Unfortunately this should have all been done months ago, not when the season had started
So with the 5ft 6 CB from Ajax that’s a quarter of a billion spaffed by the glazers on 3 players in this window.
They’ve extended their lead as the most expensively assembled team in football history.
Shouldn’t they be banned? Let the tourists all schlepp off back to Chelsea.
I'm not entirely convinced that Antony is even all that good. Hope to be wrong, but he'll do well to succeed where zaha and depay failed.
Martinez looks a player, miniscule or not.
Glazers out! Is that still the shout?
Tell you what ETH has bought well, from what I can tell so far, is some character into the side.
The team had no real leaders (bar an ageing CR7)/no charisma whatsoever last season, Martinez, Casemiro, Antony, Malacia & Eriksen all seem to have it.
The title is ours.
Apparently it is.
NYE progress check - going well tbf. First 5 game winning streak for 2 years and into the top 4. ETH 👏
Hope Rashford can stay fit all season.
They need another striker. Even if it’s arnoutavich
Top of the league
Which?
Barcelona crushed by the mighty ETH.
There’s talk on the streets of a parade if Man U ‘win’ the carabao ‘cup’ would love to see it
Not the sort of thing Citheh would do. The full squad on an open top bus tour of Stockport with two men and a whippet following along clapping wouldn't be a great look tbh.
Actually, if the whippet could clap I might be impressed.
Good point, I wouldn’t see it anyway as the itinerary would be Esher-Weybridge-Guildford
I think we're mocking at cross purposes Chinorder.
As if it needed saying he's an amazing manager, but ETH really showed something last night. After the weekend capitulation in the 2nd half and a distinct wobble for 10-15mins last night after going 1-0 up, United were brilliant second half. Bruno was immense.
Starting an unchanged XI after that shambles on Sunday was an eyebrow raiser, but it came off. Unbelievable that Joaquin is still going at 41. I remember when Utd were interested in him when he was a youngster.
Ten Hag won stuff in Holland but spent more than every other team combined. UTD are 3rd in the league despite him spending more than Arsenal and City.
People are saying he’s a chequebook manager.
Oh Chinorder, you need to change your bait. Nobody is falling for that surely.
Davos will
Where is ranty Davos? His input on United threads is always enlightening.
I think he either had to start the same XI, the message being I'm not going to throw away the months of good work building a positive culture over one terrible performance, or change the entire XI, the message being that was unacceptable from all of you.
He couldn't just drop some players and not others after that performance without appearing like he had favourites.
Anyone worked out the point of Jadon Sancho yet? Not sure I think Antony is fully up to the job yet, but he's still been twice the buy Sancho has.
Paid a good £30m over the odds for both though, imho.
Antony is a Europa league legend. Sancho will either come good or he won't. Not every transfer works out and we have Garnacho and Pellistri coming through.
Yes of course we overspend on everyone because of the shambolic people that have been managing transfers for a decade.
Read a stat about Anthony yesterday - on the basis of his chances created per game stats, he is expected to produce 1 assist every 26 games.
heh.
Antony gets a pass for now after his Barca goal and that dream of a strike last night. He's massively frustrating still though. Could have finished the tie beyond all doubt if he squared that one he dinked over.
Agree on Pellistri and Garnacho though, those boys are the future.
Don't forget the boy Amad. He seems to be doing well at Sunderland
Antony at €100 mill is pure bantz. Ajax should be done for daylight robbery. Cleopatra would have been better value.
True, he's been great apparently. Weird he stunk the place out at Rangers though, I would've thought the SPL would be easy going compared to the Championship.
Can't really ask for a better debut season after the horrorshow opening 2 games.
3rd place, a cup, and one more on the way. Arsenal bottled it and dirty Leeds went down. If you ignore City using cheat codes you'd probably have to concede we are the moral champions, too.
9/10 for
*ETH
Agreed, especially with the injuries in defence. Bit of a what might have been season as well after getting into good position in the Europa too.
Gutting season for the women being pipped for the double by bloody Sam Kerr practically single handedly.
Massive underperformance this season, which will be only partly remedies if City allow them to win the fa cup.
£1/4 bill spent, but nowhere near the proper clubs in the title race.
‘Won’ the Milk Cup with a load of home ties against compliant fodder.
But more worryingly he’s followed up his support for the pest Overmars by batting his eyelids at Greenwood.
Net result: the prawn sandwich brigade lap it up and the Glolazers make bank.
Oh yeah I forgot the Europa that was the best yet 😂
from 2 up at the Toilet they ship 5 unanswered goals to a mid table Spanish side in increasingly humorous ways.
Heh @ chinorders weak trolling. You check the Man Utd score first every week sun and you know it.
A brilliant season for united
Stadium full and pumping
2 finals
Beat the Saudis
Lots of positives even amongst all the distractions - poor start, Ronaldo, no money, ownership issues etc .
A 6bn funding gap on the cheats and we still smashed them
Ultimately if unified can spend even 1bn this summer (leaving them only 5bn behind the cheats), they will win the league next season
You just get more for your buck with local working class players roared on by passionate authentic fans
A full back, reserve keeper, 2 X CMs and 2 strikers should do it
Probably only be 300m. Cheats spent more than that on one player to try and convince them to come but players will flock to united.
The Europa debacle probably just highlighted how much work still remains, tbh.
Could easily ship & upgrade out 4/5 more 'first-teamers' (Maguire, McFred, Martial, Sancho, Wout, AWB). Split on Sancho though tbh, he's shown a bit in the last few games, but fook me has he underwhelmed in general.
I think DDG might start next season with a real viable challenger for his place too.
Agreed, tbf. But I think the keeper might be signed with a view to being first choice.
Kimmich is on the market, I'd be all over him as one of the CMs. And a Maddison/Mount type, bit more advanced.
Oh to have the luxury of being able to buy the worlds most expensive defender, most expensive teenager, a £50 mill full back that can only tackle etc and then when they don’t work out just bin them and buy replacements 😂
Heh. Indeed.
Seem to recall someone, somewhere, spaffing £200m on full backs alone a couple of years back.
Don’t know what you’re talking about m7 😜
No point comparing the cheats spending with united as cheats is nearly 6 billion more
If united spend well they can come second next season , provided the Saudis don't just spaff 2/3bn like the cheats
I'd take one of ndidi or tielemans as a cheap punt and then hope for Kane
Ooh, yes, Ndidi.
Sorry.
I don't see it happening with Kane. Levy won't sell to a prem club unless it is 100m+ and he isn't worth that at 29/30. Going after him risks the entire window becoming a circus and a farce. If 100m+ is available then Osimhen is 24.
Caicedo would be a decent buy in CM.
He's just scored 30 goals in a league season for the 7th best team
He'd do 50 for the cheats and 35/40 for united
The cheque should be written quickly and bigly - 150m
Do the deal
Am very confident UTD will outspend net and gross every club in Europe as per.
Anything less than the quad next season wil be a failure.
He is a class player Davos, but Utd can't spend 150m on a 30yr old and service the owners avarice.
I'd go for Vhlahovic or someone similar for half that price, if Levy is going to play hardball, and complement him with someone rapid like Kudus.
£150m for a 30 year old is jokes, £100m maybe.
Yeah Davos showing his absence if knowledge of football finance here. Sad!
UTD on top of the £1/4 bill spent over summer owe £308 mill (!) in unpaid transfer fee instalments.
United won't sign Kane.
if they can get away with it, reintegrating Greenwood will be the direction they take. Ten Hag being asked about, and willing to comment on, him was not an accident.
Midfielder likely to be the Dutch lad from Bayern if they get Rice. Not sure Ndidi is that much of an improvement on Fred in the system ETH wants to play. They'll probably just sign Sabitzer and Mount though because of the price.
Kane has to stay in England as he will get the shearer record
United need him
Every sensible club wants him
United dirt poor - only premiership club to run at an owner deficit. Just good honest hard working class people keeping the club, no keeping football, alive
Quite funny reading a cheats fan talk about United's books (it's instalments lad, just good business because they might not become due and inflation makes them cheaper), when he is entirely ignorant of his 'club' cheating and the unexplained gaps in the accounts
United now almost billion pound in debt. It's very unfair on other well run teams to allow this grotesque level of indebtedness.
And yet still winning trophies
The overperformance is almost unbelievable. Fans doing a wonderful job
Apologies forgot the link
Manchester United: Premier League club owe almost £1bn, reveal new figures - BBC Sport
Thought this was odd:
"United have also revealed sponsorship revenue has increased 43.2% to £50.4m over the prior quarter. The club said this was due to the impact of their training kit agreement with Tezos, plus a 'one-off sponsorship credit', which they have opted not to detail."
If you offset the amount the glazers have taken out of the club through interest payments and lining their own pockets then utd are in zero debt and would have at least a billion extra to spend this summer.
Penguin obviously trolling or stupid or both.
It's both...
I'm not trolling, I'm genuinely asking whether it is fair on other clubs for a club to be a billion in debt whilst leading the net spend table over the past 5 years.
Go and see how the club got into debt. It has nothing to do with buying players babe x
Leveraged buyouts of national treasure sports teams should be banned.
Great, so we agree
No we don't hun.
I think everyone agrees the glazers should not own Manchester United, the last saviour of English, European and possibly world football
That said, the ability to buy local heroes and top talent is testament to the ferocious support from working class heroes the club has
Simply fantastic to be part of
Ps anyone who talks about net spend doesn't understand football
Hth
Heh. Net spend era Liverpool was funniest era Liverpool.
Actual league position: 6
The only league that matters is the premier League minus the oil clubs
Of which united won
CHAMPIONEEEASSSS
the only reason manure are able to be the AWESOME SELF FINANCING FFP COMPLIANT!!!!! famous manchester united while still operating anywhere near the top of the game is that they, and their tacit shareholders Sky, spent the 90s rigging the entire game’s commercial structure in their favour
Shame no one was talking about net spend in the 95/96 season.
Having the most, and the best, fans is not rigging anything
It's like having a go at the Yanks for having a lot of people ffs
*pops head back in thread between chinning lunchtime beers and overseeing kids*
*sees Penguin and Laz have got this*
*orders about round*
With that spelling I'm not sure you need another
Heh
Heh
Heh
Heh
Double heh
I missed Laz doing his very best Kevin Keegan meltdown homage upthread.
The Toon tried to cheat in the 90s, mysteriously finding cash for Beardsley, Ginola, Asprilla, Shaka Hislop, Gillespie etc but they took their shot and lost to a team of old timers, academy kids and a brilliant frenchman.
Ton soon for ten hag
First football manager in a while to get one
First football manager to do a lot of things tbf tbf
Once in a generation talent
Tun up for TSB. RoF's own Ten Hag.
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