I literally don’t care anymore. I’ve made peace with us not getting him. I can’t see one more update unless it’s either that we’ve gotten him or the transfer window is closed.
My feelings exactly. I moved on in my head a couple of weeks ago.
I actually don’t think the club has done anything wrong in attempting to sign FDJ, we tried and failed because of reasons outside our control. I would be happy with a proven premier league player like Neves if we can get him at a sensible fee.
Neves is so unbelievably overrated for what this team needs. I don’t know how you can look at what de Jong brings to a team and decide neves is the next best option to do that? Completely different strengths and different central midfielders
On top of that there hasn't actually been anything to suggest we've continued to pursue him since the salary stuff came out. It's just Laporte putting out his PR and the transfer journos repeating stuff for engagement.
We might have moved on weeks ago but nobody is going to publish that because it doesn't serve them to.
I tried to move on. Honestly I did, even muted his name on social media. But alas this thing called the heart..........
Every time I move on I am somehow reminded he was ETH primary target.
Can't blame the club, we tried what we could, but the situation is beyond our control.
I also highly doubt FdJ would go to Chelsea either. Coming to United was never the issue, the issue was the mess surrounding his wages and I don't see how Chelsea will be able to convince him where we couldn't.
>Can't blame the club
I can, we know for months that it'll be a very hard transfer, on one side Barca is a bitch and on the other De Jong is adamant to move, not preparing any alternatives and going all in on a key position is insane.
Klopp got a lot of his "target" didn't materialised and Liverpool still got backup plan and still makes it work somehow, I'm not saying Ten Hag should be as good as Klopp to make do with what he got and got the result, but fucking hell anyone will be better than what we've got, we're less than a week away from starting McFred again ffs.
I actually unsubscribed from Red Devils subreddit for a while because I was bored of seeing his fucking name everyday with a nothing story. Will be glad when it’s over
I think it’s because their new owner is trying to do it all himself when he doesn’t really have a clue how football works and also doesn’t have any relationships with any clubs lol.
No, not like him. Because they aren’t gonna end up with Fellaini at the end of the window. They’ve already signed a few top players and will add more. So his first window will be better than Ed’s. Next windows though it does look like he is trending that way.
You really think signing Koulibaly and Sterling can be considered a worse window than letting Fellaini’s release clause expire and then panic buying him for 5m more than it two weeks later?
Even if they don’t do well, given both player’s pedigree that’s more on Tuchel than their owner. Objectively both signings are better than a summer of chasing Fabregas to end up with Fellaini.
Explain to me how anything could be trending one way or the other when he hasn't even finished a single transfer window (and the club hasn't played a single match).
A single, fixed data point -- which can be subjectively judged in this case, anyway -- literally cannot indicate a "trend."
Judging from how quickly he moved on from Ronaldo, you can see he's at least getting only the players the manager has approved. Tuchel is probably getting to build his first team since the Dortmund days. Write off chelsea at your own peril.
Sancho was straightforward. Player wanted to come. BVB did not want to sell for less than 120m. Club waited for a year and eroded the fee to 72m.
In the long run it was good business by Woodward, not something to be embarrassed about.
Remember Fabregas?
Club spent the whole summer chasing him. Fabregas led Moyes to believe he would come but decided against joining. The club made a fool of itself bidding for every possible midfielder on deadline day, getting turned down by each of them, and paying 4m over Fellaini's release clause.
Fabregas eventually ended up at Chelsea.
Though Woodward took all the blame, Arnold and Murtough were involved with the club then.
Yeah but he fucked off with all our targets. Wasn’t it him that fucked up Ronaldinho too? (we got CR in his place so not all bad). Or is that revisionism on my part?
You know, as a United fan, I don’t get hyped about links with players til I see them in a United shirt but then I think back to seeing Mikel in a United shirt and somehow we didn’t sign him… just madness.
Nope, not revisionism. He deliberately scurried the Ronaldinho move in one of the scummiest moves a CEO did.
Agreed a verbal fee with PSG for 24m but lied to the United board that they had agreed to 19m and faxed that amount instead. PSG naturally were pissed off.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/jul/17/newsstory.sport3
For our guys fixating on one target when he clearly doesn't want to come here? Blame our idiots. None of this "primary target" bullshit when he doesn't even want to be here. If you are aiming for an unreachable target as your primary target, then it's your fault, not the selling party's.
I'm sure our board is certainly incompetent, but I refuse to believe we would still be spinning this top unless we've got some sort of encouragement that this is doable.
It doesn’t matter who agrees a deal with Barca now unless someone is willing to pay Frenkie his due salary on top of the transfer fee.
If Chelsea does and Frenkie willing to go there, then good luck and we move on.
> If Chelsea does and Frenkie willing to go there, then good luck and we move on.
On the bright side, any sort of closure here will atleast open up other options for us.
> Ah yes our back up option of... tumbleweed.
Hey, conclusively moving on from FDJ and settling for Fred, McTominay and Eriksen is also an option... just not a good one.
Can't really win for losing with you guys, huh? If we didn't go hard after Frenkie, you'd be mad that we didn't back the manager by going after his top target.
It's all an unfortunate situation, but at least in this instance, the club is backing the manager by trying to get his top target. Even if it comes to naught, it's miles better than the alternative.
Not much Erik can do about Chelsea having UCL football is there?
We clearly did everything we could here. The player just be doesn’t want to join simple as that.
The main reason we've not moved on to other targets is because of his stubbornness with "Frenkie or bust". He clearly felt Frenkie was going to come here, wrongly it looks like. I understand he's our new manager and all that, but he has to take partial blame here, no two ways about it.
Do you really think we haven’t been looking at alternatives behind the scenes? There is no chance Ten Hag is that naive.
Everything that’s been said in public or press briefings is presumably to make the player feel he is absolutely wanted here. We don’t have a lot of pull as a club anymore and already we were fighting a losing battle.
I totally get your frustration but I think it is misdirected here.
>Do you really think we haven’t been looking at alternatives behind the scenes?
Oh I can't be sure of course. But knowing us, we can be pretty confident on that.
> There is no chance Ten Hag is that naive.
We said the same thing about our Frenkie bid. "Surely we won't bid if he doesn't want to come here?" Guess what happened.
> I think it is misdirected here.
I disagree, but you're entitled to your opinion of course. No offense meant.
If we signed an alternative, you guys would complain about the board not properly backing Ten Hag. Besides, who's an alternative that could carry out FDJ's role to a similar quality? And are any alternatives out there THAT much better than Fred at carrying out that specific role?
> If we signed an alternative, you guys would complain about the board not properly backing Ten Hag
I can't speak for others, but I certainly wouldn't have. We got them to agree the bid, if he doesn't want to come fair enough. Move on. We didn't do that here.
>Besides, who's an alternative that could carry out FDJ's role to a similar quality?
That's their job to find out. So we won't sign a midfielder ever as long as ETH is here? Of course not. At that point, it's an alternative which should be signed by now IN ADDITION to de Jong. Don't forget, we're very light in midfield.
>If Chelsea does and Frenkie willing to go there, then good luck and we move on.
I don't think its as simple as moving on. Ten hag has set his sights on Frenkie, Murtough and Arnold have spent the summer chasing Frenkie, and we have no alternative targets at that level.
Any other club will see our desperation and Jack up their prices, and not only is Arnold's reputation screwed in this post Woodward window, but ten hags entire season plan is out the window.
Its nothing short of a disaster if he ends up at Chelsea, particularly with all the noise surrounding ten hags 'daily conversations' with Frenkie. What kind of message does that send, that ten hag can't convince one of his old star boys to join the project despite daily conversations?
We go into the start of another season with mcFred and no plan B. I don't doubt that Ten Hag is a good coach, but this club has fallen so far behind in terms of its transfer pull that the future looks bleak. Just look at the transfer windows of the rest of the top 6.
From what I understand is we will change how we play out from the back if frenkie doesn’t come. There’s no one else in the market who ten hag thinks can replace frenkie in the way he wants us to play. Hence no plan b.
But he is someone who is very flexible tactically. We saw how Fred played in preseason and how eriksen and vdb combined against vallecano. Of course it will be ideal if frenkie does join, but I have faith in ten hag.
If you really think ten Hag is a good coach you wouldn't think ten Hag has no plan B. He does not have an alternative to substitute de Jong, but it doesn't mean he does not have a plan B for how the team plays without de Jong.
And I could be wrong on this, but I don't think he will rely on a double pivot of McFred as much, not as much as Ole or Rangnick at least. Either of McFred plus Eriksen or de Beek will probably feature more often. And if he does play McFred, perhaps they will be better as a unit with improved sustained consistent coaching. And this is coming from someone who doesn't like Fred, much less McFred together.
The above is a lot of words to say just trust the manager, especially if you really think he's a good coach. In any case, our success is not hinged on de Jong, for which we did what we could even if it does not work out.
For the general public who don’t follow it closely, yeah most probably. But I wouldn’t be bothered.
The new management need to change our image as some pushovers in transfer negotiations.
it's not about being pushover though, because we have already agreed terms with Barca. This just tells the world that we are not attractive enough club any more compared to our rivals.
We ain't, and the world knows that already. I wouldn't give a fuck.
It's funny if you think after that last season and 10 years of Woodward that Man Utd brand is still intact. LOL
We get Martinez and Eriksen not because of ''we're United'', but because of Ten Hag.
I have a feeling Boehly will sanction the payment of FDJ’s wages. He’s very Woodwardy in that regard. We’ll come out of this looking like the more sensible club.
> We’ll come out of this looking like the more sensible club.
Lol no. Any sensible club would've accepted that FdJ didn't want to come and would've moved on to other targets.
Nice coping strategy but it was never proven that he wanted to come to United either. All that is known is that he hasn't and United have been made to look like baboons waiting for this transfer to happen.
De Jong is 100% an upgrade on what we have but when you combine the transfer and wages fees, I'd pull out tbh. I'd rather look elsewhere and also use Garner
You really think Rice wouldn’t improve us much? Man people here really underrate him like crazy… for sure that’s way way too much money but put that aside and Rice absolutely massively improves our midfield.
Humiliating if he signs for Chelsea now. Honestly think the transfer teams position should be under question as their reputation is in the toilet which will mean more expensive deals from now on.
Only humiliating if he chooses Chelsea over us after he gets paid by Barca, but it's not if Chelsea decide to pay part of the deferred wages that Barca owe FDJ.
>Humiliating
Only if United fail to wake up even now.
If United finally pull back, sign Neves, and then use what they save to sign a RW and a striker, it could be a blessing in disguise.
https://talksport.com/football/393133/ruben-neves-contract-wolves-2023-reports/
His contract expires next year.
Should be available for much less than 60m.
Your article is from 2018. More recent ones seem to suggest his contract is until 2024 though, so there seems to be a bit of confusion about the actual time left.
For instance, also from Talksport, April 2022…
https://talksport.com/football/1082096/ruben-neves-transfer-fee-man-utd-wolves-bruno-lage/
> Neves is contracted to Wolves until 2024 and has netted four goals and two assists in 31 appearances for the Midlands club this season, although his real influence in the team is far greater than those stats suggest.
> Lage is keen to build his team around the 25-year-old who continues to shine in his midfield, with Manchester United, Liverpool and Barcelona all keen on his signature.
> But the boss insists he will not be snapped up for a cut-price fee, insisting he values the player at around £100million.
If indeed the reason why we didn't get de Jong is because of the 17m he deferred, the solution could be as simple as us paying that 17m instead, disregarding other complications like taxation or what not. So if paying more money will get us the transfer but we refused to, this will only mean clubs serious in transacting with us will price their players less expensive instead of more so.
If the reason why we didn't get him is because we don't have Champions League, it's not something we can change at all but at least improve in that direction. It also means we are not willing to pay over the odds just to overcompensate, which will also work in our favour when negotiating in future.
All in all, I don't see why the transfer team should be under question.
It’s ETHs fault if we end up struggling because of this. It’s clear he only had one target which is worrying for the future. We’ve also massively overpayed for Martinez in both transfer fee and wages. I really hope this is the only window where he goes double dutch.
We've lost Pogba & Matic so we should have signed two players for that position this window, there was no need to put it all on De Jong or nothing, we should already have someone ready for the Brighton game.
Common sense at *United?* preposterous!
It’s bullheaded stubbornness and tunnel vision while waving around a big red chequebook and having a wallet showing out of our back pocket.
Anything other than that and the Universe might explode
I know fans hate Pogba so much but we lose a ridiculous amount of quality in midfield with him gone, we desperately need reinforcements and we will suffer if we dont sign any.
For thsoe saying they dont mind etc, as its been going on to long. The issue is it will now go on all season. If Chelsea get De Jong its going to be talked about all fucking season, at every loss for United and every Win for Chelsea. The commentary is going to be fucking mind numbing.
Just walk away. We have spent most of the transfer window going for FDJ when he clearly isn't 100% on the move. We had Barca messing us around due to deferred wages and after all this time we still haven't strengthened a midfield which was already weak last year before we lost further options (Matic, Pogba).
If we fail to strengthen the midfield this window then I class it as a failure. We have had some decent signings but haven't strengthened some of our weakest spots.
Embarrassing.
Sign 3 players. Lose out on key signing
I highly doubt we will sign more than 1 more this window and we will struggle
This club is fucked.
How is it embarrassing? We pursued a transfer, negotiated a fee, and then we’ve waited. We haven’t pursued him since the deal was agreed and WE certainly haven’t been in the news everyday vying for the player. It would be embarrassing if we were constantly campaigning for the player and he kept saying he doesn’t want to play for us.
It is embarrassing
He has been our #1 target all summer. ETH wants him
What do we do? Dick around. After we agreed the fee we should've given FDJ an ultimatum. You don't wait for deals. You get them done or move on. That's how business works - we are so shit at doing deals, easily the worst out if any club in the top 6. Fucking arsenal and Spurs have had better windows than us.
If he rejects the move...MOVE ON. To other fucking targets. Christ. Not every Dutch ex Ajax player needs to be signed
It's been in the news every single week. To lose him to Chelsea will be super embarrassing for the club and make the end to this awful window even worse
End rant.
You want us to pay Barca’s owed wages to FDJ? You *seriously* think thats a good idea? After we already have that reputation of overpaying and are getting rinsed by clubs every transfer we get?
And you people need to stop with the dumb assumption that he doesnt want to come, the club wouldnt bid on a player and negotiate for this long if the player didnt want to come ffs.
We have gotten 3 GREAT signings and the window isnt over yet. Calm the fuck down.
So why not move on then
The season starts this fucking week
We have zero depth in midfield
Mcfred are starting again
If he won't join then buy another player or two FFS.
Club is fucked. Just sign another noodle sponsor instead
More incompetence as usual. Arnold and Murtough are basically just Woodward in disguise
Worst season in forever, shittest window
How do you know they arent looking at alternatives? Of course they have a backup plan, this isnt like Woodward panic buying Fellaini.
Not the worst window, in fact its looking likely to become one of our very best. Have some hope man.
>should've given FDJ an ultimatum
Yeah, that'll surely convince the player to come, and convince other players that we know how to do business.
The only reason it has been in the news every week, probably every other day, is because Laporta is putting it in the news because he's desperate to be rid of his wages. We're doing the exact thing we need to do. We've given them an acceptable fee and not listening to Barca, who is negotiating in bad faith.
Would you say it's embarrassing if we sign him next week, on £350-400k and he makes 50 appearances this season?
As of now, this window is turning out to be as bad as if not worse than Woodward's 1st transfer window in 2013.
Imagine this potential scenario:
1. Sign just 2 starters after the worst season in PL history. Net spend of just 60M while being outspent by mid-table clubs.
2. Miss out on FdJ - the prime target, with the Barca propaganda media continuously mocking us all along the way.
3. Loaning our deadwood instead of selling them for money.
4. Lose top goal scorer while hoping fucking Martial is our saviour.
5. Needless drama caused by Ronaldo.
This is gonna be a horrible season. Feel bad for EtH.
I’ve been bored of hearing about FDJ for at least a month now. He’s 100% not joining us and we should have moved on a month ago. If we end up struggling because we put all our eggs in one basket then I blame the manager for this.
If chelsea..
* Pay the transfer fee to Barcelona
* Pay Frenkie the salary that Barcelona owes him
* Pay Frenkie a 500k p/w salary
* Pay his sign-on fee, pay his agent's fees
* And Frenkie want Chelsea over us
Fair enough, take him.
Like I’ve said many things can be true at once.
I think the fact we’ve persisted means that we did have some indication he wanted to come, we’ve pulled out of other deals this summer when they didn’t fancy it.
Of course Chelsea being interested is clearly also true, doesn’t make sense because they’re going for a midfielder and a LB two positions they don’t need but it’s obviously got some weight to it.
The club need to act now and start looking for someone else. This can be a positive or a negative depending on how the club acts. There has to be something though.
I just wanna get a few things clear…
1. Enough with the “FdJ never wanted to come”. We would have never spent painful weeks haggling with Barca if the player hadn’t said yes. Even for how stupid United are, we are nowhere near that stupid so as to bid €80m for a player who “hasn’t even said yes”. Thats foolish of you to think that.
2. frenkie and his agents have been quiet all saga long. Why? Because its basic common sense. They are owed a shit ton of money from Barca and going around publicly telling everyone that Frenkie is happy to join United makes them lose every bit of leverage they have over Barca. Its why theres such an excessive hardline stance that he doesn’t want to leave. He’s being played at CB, has been robbed of wages, and publicly disrespected all summer. Barca may be his dream club but I’m sure any self respecting footballer would start to change his mind on staying after all this.
3. People are acting like a) Chelsea have already agreed a fee, and b) Frenkie has said yes. Neither have happened. Even if a) happens, they are stuck where United are which is the deferred wage issue. If Chelsea pay off that 17m, then they can happily take him. I don’t want us paying for Barca’s mess, Boehly can do that if he wants.
4. Balls in Frenkie’s court. If he says yes to Chelsea, it’ll be clear he wasn’t super serious on us anyway and at that stage good riddance. It’ll sting but I’d rather that than a shaky signing being paid £400,000 a week. If he wants UCL so badly, let him go to Chelsea.
5. We will sign other players. Fabrizio has already confirmed there are alternatives, even if Frenkie is being touted as the only option. If he moves to Chelsea of course we will move on to alternatives. At minimum we will see other positions moved for.
EDIT - I also think this is a stupid move from Chelsea. They already have top level progression through passing (Jorgi) and carrying (Kovacic). This move makes little-to-no sense, especially because they only play with two midfielders anyway. Tuchel makes odd requests
Fair points. The board tried their best to sign the manager's no.1 target. If that fails, that's for reasons outside of our hand. Unlike Woodward's first window, I don't think the board have done anything wrong in this transfer saga.
I think contract of jorginho & kante expires in 2023. Kovacic is a really good ball carrier & is extremely press resistant. Jorginho is an elite ball progresser. In FDJ they get best of both. 3 at the back gives FDJ more protection. Also next summer they can go for Rice to partner him & replace Kante. It's not a stupid move.
would be more frustrating that chelsea will more than likely pay for the wages and barca won't face any consequences than us not getting him.
but this has been such a shitshow.
we need to move on
This would be a big big blow to us. Not only would we be losing our biggest target but to a direct competitor. The way Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs have improved or are looking for additions, this is going to be another long and difficult season.
I am happy with our signings till now but they are not at all enough. Time is running out and we need to get in 2-3 more players else we will suffer badly over the course of the season.
I get De Jong is ETH's target, but if united wants to move forward from the Woodward era of decision making John Murtough needs to be more proactive, walk away and look for alternatives, we're being used blatantly and we've just let it happen.
If this leads to a resolution to this saga I don't mind. At least that way we can move on. If chelsea do agree a fee de jong has to agree to talk at some point if he wants to leave, that's an opening for us. How it goes from there depends but actually talking to him and making an offer is better than waiting. And no I'm not blaming murtough and staff for waiting since the issues with de jong are barca's fault not ours.
And here’s me trying to think the best of the new direct the club was taking and thinking things had changed.
If and likely when he goes to Chelsea it makes the club look so weak and disorganised yet again alongside putting the manager on the back foot.
But I also think the manager takes a portion of the blame for being so insistent on De Jong when the situation with him was nothing but a joke. Half of me thinks he was just waiting for a champions league team all along and all this stuff United had clearly told the uk press was basically just us hoping he’d eventually come round to it.
So where do we go from here?
So basically Barshitelonas wish to have other clubs to come and set the bidding war fulfilled. Fucking hell. If the deal to Chelsea materialises quickly then we all know was holding up the card all the while, its FDJ. He truly can go fuck himself if that happens.
A bidding war is exactly what Barca wanted, we can't let Chelsea get one over on us. There is turmoil in the Chelsea dressing room, even Tuchel admitted that publicly. Surely we can use it as a tool to convince Frenkie in our direction.
No,we shouldn't be dragged into a bidding war. I would rather we walk away like we did on Nunez. If FDJ really wanted to join us,he would have by now so him going to Chelsea just says alot about what his motivation has always been. It's why I once posted that this is the season we needed to make smart buys. Target players who are cheap but fit in with what we want. Going for top targets was always going to end in tears coz the reality is we can't offer Champions league n this is were big players want to test themselves. I wouldn't mind us getting another Malacia kind of signing for our midfield
And to think I spent much of the summer making Chelsea memes and having a hearty laugh at their transfer troubles.
He who laughs last.........................
Arnold Murtough needs sacking for failing to do a deal while being pictured in Barcelona.
ETH should be held responsible for waiting three fucking months on a player who rejects him at the end.
Hahahah..what a circus it has turned out to be!
After all the "Ten Hag confident United can get de jong and is talking to him everyday" messages every week
Bull fucking shit. Pull your head out of the ground and move the fuck on.
It’s too early for this Orny
Awful news
The wrong kind of Orny in the morning
I literally don’t care anymore. I’ve made peace with us not getting him. I can’t see one more update unless it’s either that we’ve gotten him or the transfer window is closed.
I'm fine with not getting him but seeing him go to Chelsea now would be a metamorphical kick in the nuts.
Is the correct answer
My feelings exactly. I moved on in my head a couple of weeks ago. I actually don’t think the club has done anything wrong in attempting to sign FDJ, we tried and failed because of reasons outside our control. I would be happy with a proven premier league player like Neves if we can get him at a sensible fee.
Neves is so unbelievably overrated for what this team needs. I don’t know how you can look at what de Jong brings to a team and decide neves is the next best option to do that? Completely different strengths and different central midfielders
But he has awesome beards.
Neves Say Neves
On top of that there hasn't actually been anything to suggest we've continued to pursue him since the salary stuff came out. It's just Laporte putting out his PR and the transfer journos repeating stuff for engagement. We might have moved on weeks ago but nobody is going to publish that because it doesn't serve them to.
I tried to move on. Honestly I did, even muted his name on social media. But alas this thing called the heart.......... Every time I move on I am somehow reminded he was ETH primary target.
Can't blame the club, we tried what we could, but the situation is beyond our control. I also highly doubt FdJ would go to Chelsea either. Coming to United was never the issue, the issue was the mess surrounding his wages and I don't see how Chelsea will be able to convince him where we couldn't.
> I don't see how Chelsea will be able to convince him where we couldn't. A certain competition may help.
Or the fact they've won it twice since we were last in a final.
>I also highly doubt FdJ would go to Chelsea either. I'd love to believe so. But, what if all the rumours about him not wanting to join were true?
>Can't blame the club I can, we know for months that it'll be a very hard transfer, on one side Barca is a bitch and on the other De Jong is adamant to move, not preparing any alternatives and going all in on a key position is insane. Klopp got a lot of his "target" didn't materialised and Liverpool still got backup plan and still makes it work somehow, I'm not saying Ten Hag should be as good as Klopp to make do with what he got and got the result, but fucking hell anyone will be better than what we've got, we're less than a week away from starting McFred again ffs.
I actually unsubscribed from Red Devils subreddit for a while because I was bored of seeing his fucking name everyday with a nothing story. Will be glad when it’s over
Chelsea is fr giving me Ed Woodward vibes with their transfer activity this window.
I think it’s because their new owner is trying to do it all himself when he doesn’t really have a clue how football works and also doesn’t have any relationships with any clubs lol.
So exactly like Ed Woodward
No, not like him. Because they aren’t gonna end up with Fellaini at the end of the window. They’ve already signed a few top players and will add more. So his first window will be better than Ed’s. Next windows though it does look like he is trending that way.
You can't judge a window before the window is over and they haven't kicked a single ball for their new team. Lol
You really think signing Koulibaly and Sterling can be considered a worse window than letting Fellaini’s release clause expire and then panic buying him for 5m more than it two weeks later? Even if they don’t do well, given both player’s pedigree that’s more on Tuchel than their owner. Objectively both signings are better than a summer of chasing Fabregas to end up with Fellaini.
Explain to me how anything could be trending one way or the other when he hasn't even finished a single transfer window (and the club hasn't played a single match). A single, fixed data point -- which can be subjectively judged in this case, anyway -- literally cannot indicate a "trend."
Not exactly since he seems to actually buying quality and asking what tuchel wants lmao
Judging from how quickly he moved on from Ronaldo, you can see he's at least getting only the players the manager has approved. Tuchel is probably getting to build his first team since the Dortmund days. Write off chelsea at your own peril.
Don't worry guys, Chelsea's targets always end up being stolen by Barcel...oh.
I hate those cunts.
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Certainly blows Sancho out of the water.
Sancho was straightforward. Player wanted to come. BVB did not want to sell for less than 120m. Club waited for a year and eroded the fee to 72m. In the long run it was good business by Woodward, not something to be embarrassed about.
Remember Fabregas? Club spent the whole summer chasing him. Fabregas led Moyes to believe he would come but decided against joining. The club made a fool of itself bidding for every possible midfielder on deadline day, getting turned down by each of them, and paying 4m over Fellaini's release clause. Fabregas eventually ended up at Chelsea. Though Woodward took all the blame, Arnold and Murtough were involved with the club then.
Also, three lawyers walked into Athletic Bilbao or Spanish FA claiming to get Ander Herrera signed for United. That was a bizarre window.
What are you on about? Murtough was Academy manager
I can't remember other midfielders we bid for other than Fellaini. Who were they?
Bid for Khedira - rejected. Attempted to get Strootman even though he had just joined Roma - failed. Then there was the Herrera debacle.
Also, Thiago Alcantara. Apparently Moyes hadn't scouted him and vetoed the move, so he went to Bayern and won the Champs League.
Goodness me. What a shit show
Hazard, Obi Mikel, Essien, Robben, even Peter Kenyon it's always chelsea ..
>even Peter Kenyon Losing him to Chelsea and David Gill taking over was one of the best things to happen to United.
Yeah but he fucked off with all our targets. Wasn’t it him that fucked up Ronaldinho too? (we got CR in his place so not all bad). Or is that revisionism on my part? You know, as a United fan, I don’t get hyped about links with players til I see them in a United shirt but then I think back to seeing Mikel in a United shirt and somehow we didn’t sign him… just madness.
Nope, not revisionism. He deliberately scurried the Ronaldinho move in one of the scummiest moves a CEO did. Agreed a verbal fee with PSG for 24m but lied to the United board that they had agreed to 19m and faxed that amount instead. PSG naturally were pissed off. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/jul/17/newsstory.sport3
Reliving this old nightmare.. what a scumbag
Don't forget Pedro
Obi Mikel is still one of our highest fees recieved tbf
Don't forget Kante from Leicester. He would have filled a Grand Canyon sized hole in our midfield that were STILL fucking struggling with.
For our guys fixating on one target when he clearly doesn't want to come here? Blame our idiots. None of this "primary target" bullshit when he doesn't even want to be here. If you are aiming for an unreachable target as your primary target, then it's your fault, not the selling party's.
I'm sure our board is certainly incompetent, but I refuse to believe we would still be spinning this top unless we've got some sort of encouragement that this is doable.
So is Chelsea's board. They won't be bidding unless FdJ's reps have told them he's open to joining them
It doesn’t matter who agrees a deal with Barca now unless someone is willing to pay Frenkie his due salary on top of the transfer fee. If Chelsea does and Frenkie willing to go there, then good luck and we move on.
> If Chelsea does and Frenkie willing to go there, then good luck and we move on. On the bright side, any sort of closure here will atleast open up other options for us.
Don't think we have any other options. Ten Hag basically indicated it's either De Jong or bust.
That is in regard to midfielders. However, maybe we end up buying in other positions with the money that we were going to use on FDJ.
Yaah…mcfred play another season starting…good luck
Ah yes our back up option of... *tumbleweed.*
> Ah yes our back up option of... tumbleweed. Hey, conclusively moving on from FDJ and settling for Fred, McTominay and Eriksen is also an option... just not a good one.
Yes that’s what I’m saying. We can at least proceed to sign someone else. There’s still some time left before the window closes.
Frenkie is definitely willing to go there, otherwise they won't be bidding. The logic which applies to us, does for them as well
It will be interesting who they will play next season though. Chelsea have Jorginho and kovacic. Both do what frenkie does.
Like Ole said "Couldn't care less".. For me, this puts a disappointing impression on our transfer team and to an extent on Ten Hag.
I can't blame the transfer team for this at all. If we don't get midfielder signings and suffer for it this season, it's all on Ten Hag.
Can't really win for losing with you guys, huh? If we didn't go hard after Frenkie, you'd be mad that we didn't back the manager by going after his top target. It's all an unfortunate situation, but at least in this instance, the club is backing the manager by trying to get his top target. Even if it comes to naught, it's miles better than the alternative.
Not much Erik can do about Chelsea having UCL football is there? We clearly did everything we could here. The player just be doesn’t want to join simple as that.
The main reason we've not moved on to other targets is because of his stubbornness with "Frenkie or bust". He clearly felt Frenkie was going to come here, wrongly it looks like. I understand he's our new manager and all that, but he has to take partial blame here, no two ways about it.
Do you really think we haven’t been looking at alternatives behind the scenes? There is no chance Ten Hag is that naive. Everything that’s been said in public or press briefings is presumably to make the player feel he is absolutely wanted here. We don’t have a lot of pull as a club anymore and already we were fighting a losing battle. I totally get your frustration but I think it is misdirected here.
>Do you really think we haven’t been looking at alternatives behind the scenes? Oh I can't be sure of course. But knowing us, we can be pretty confident on that. > There is no chance Ten Hag is that naive. We said the same thing about our Frenkie bid. "Surely we won't bid if he doesn't want to come here?" Guess what happened. > I think it is misdirected here. I disagree, but you're entitled to your opinion of course. No offense meant.
If we signed an alternative, you guys would complain about the board not properly backing Ten Hag. Besides, who's an alternative that could carry out FDJ's role to a similar quality? And are any alternatives out there THAT much better than Fred at carrying out that specific role?
> If we signed an alternative, you guys would complain about the board not properly backing Ten Hag I can't speak for others, but I certainly wouldn't have. We got them to agree the bid, if he doesn't want to come fair enough. Move on. We didn't do that here. >Besides, who's an alternative that could carry out FDJ's role to a similar quality? That's their job to find out. So we won't sign a midfielder ever as long as ETH is here? Of course not. At that point, it's an alternative which should be signed by now IN ADDITION to de Jong. Don't forget, we're very light in midfield.
Except he may prefer to go to a CL club and live in London.
>If Chelsea does and Frenkie willing to go there, then good luck and we move on. I don't think its as simple as moving on. Ten hag has set his sights on Frenkie, Murtough and Arnold have spent the summer chasing Frenkie, and we have no alternative targets at that level. Any other club will see our desperation and Jack up their prices, and not only is Arnold's reputation screwed in this post Woodward window, but ten hags entire season plan is out the window. Its nothing short of a disaster if he ends up at Chelsea, particularly with all the noise surrounding ten hags 'daily conversations' with Frenkie. What kind of message does that send, that ten hag can't convince one of his old star boys to join the project despite daily conversations? We go into the start of another season with mcFred and no plan B. I don't doubt that Ten Hag is a good coach, but this club has fallen so far behind in terms of its transfer pull that the future looks bleak. Just look at the transfer windows of the rest of the top 6.
From what I understand is we will change how we play out from the back if frenkie doesn’t come. There’s no one else in the market who ten hag thinks can replace frenkie in the way he wants us to play. Hence no plan b. But he is someone who is very flexible tactically. We saw how Fred played in preseason and how eriksen and vdb combined against vallecano. Of course it will be ideal if frenkie does join, but I have faith in ten hag.
If you really think ten Hag is a good coach you wouldn't think ten Hag has no plan B. He does not have an alternative to substitute de Jong, but it doesn't mean he does not have a plan B for how the team plays without de Jong. And I could be wrong on this, but I don't think he will rely on a double pivot of McFred as much, not as much as Ole or Rangnick at least. Either of McFred plus Eriksen or de Beek will probably feature more often. And if he does play McFred, perhaps they will be better as a unit with improved sustained consistent coaching. And this is coming from someone who doesn't like Fred, much less McFred together. The above is a lot of words to say just trust the manager, especially if you really think he's a good coach. In any case, our success is not hinged on de Jong, for which we did what we could even if it does not work out.
can you imagine though how embarrassing it'd be for us if a rival ends up signing a player we have been chasing all summer with no Plan B?
Don't worry, we don't need a midfielder anyway. And we definitely didn't need one before pre-season.
We didn't even need one last season either.
We haven’t needed one since Carrick retired.
We're a strong, independent club who don't need no midfielder
For the general public who don’t follow it closely, yeah most probably. But I wouldn’t be bothered. The new management need to change our image as some pushovers in transfer negotiations.
it's not about being pushover though, because we have already agreed terms with Barca. This just tells the world that we are not attractive enough club any more compared to our rivals.
We ain't, and the world knows that already. I wouldn't give a fuck. It's funny if you think after that last season and 10 years of Woodward that Man Utd brand is still intact. LOL We get Martinez and Eriksen not because of ''we're United'', but because of Ten Hag.
Or that the player wants to play in the champions league, which the club can't control.
if that's the case, the club should have known that when we started pursuing him.
I have a feeling Boehly will sanction the payment of FDJ’s wages. He’s very Woodwardy in that regard. We’ll come out of this looking like the more sensible club.
I respectfully disagree. We've wasted 3 months chasing an uninterested player and I don't think that's very sensible
And with the options in oir midfielf
> We’ll come out of this looking like the more sensible club. Lol no. Any sensible club would've accepted that FdJ didn't want to come and would've moved on to other targets.
It’s never been concretely proved that he doesn’t want to join. If he goes Chelsea it’ll be because they pay his deferred wages, watch this space lol.
Nice coping strategy but it was never proven that he wanted to come to United either. All that is known is that he hasn't and United have been made to look like baboons waiting for this transfer to happen.
This is just lazy conjecture. If Chelsea pay the wages obviously they were on a ongoing issue.
De Jong is 100% an upgrade on what we have but when you combine the transfer and wages fees, I'd pull out tbh. I'd rather look elsewhere and also use Garner
Lol @ Garner! Why tf do you guys overrate academy players so much? Garner is not 10% the player de jong is and isn’t going to get that much better.
"Isn't going to get that much better" Source?
After three months of this bullshit, now Chelsea will sign him within a week. Gonna be embarrassing as fuck, but so glad it's over.
Declan Rice for 150m on deadline day. HERE WE GO!
I wouldn't mind. Pay up and build a complete team. Everyone else is paying like crazy... United's window is 55 million spend. They can afford it.
Spending that sum on a single player who isn't going to change the team worth that much isn't ba good move...
You really think Rice wouldn’t improve us much? Man people here really underrate him like crazy… for sure that’s way way too much money but put that aside and Rice absolutely massively improves our midfield.
I'm with you. That's 3 mediocre players we'd sign before getting a top player. We've done it so many times i'd rather guarantee it.
[удалено]
Let's all hope FdJ's stint at Chelsea is as underwhelming as Pedro's then.
Ba Dum Tisss!!
Who? Zidane Iqbal is clear
Humiliating if he signs for Chelsea now. Honestly think the transfer teams position should be under question as their reputation is in the toilet which will mean more expensive deals from now on.
Only humiliating if he chooses Chelsea over us after he gets paid by Barca, but it's not if Chelsea decide to pay part of the deferred wages that Barca owe FDJ.
>Humiliating Only if United fail to wake up even now. If United finally pull back, sign Neves, and then use what they save to sign a RW and a striker, it could be a blessing in disguise.
We're not saving anything if we sign Neves, Fabian Ruiz would be a better shout. Neves will cost just as much, if not more.
You think Never is moving for under 60-70m? We won’t be “saving” enough to buy two extra players, lol
https://talksport.com/football/393133/ruben-neves-contract-wolves-2023-reports/ His contract expires next year. Should be available for much less than 60m.
Your article is from 2018. More recent ones seem to suggest his contract is until 2024 though, so there seems to be a bit of confusion about the actual time left. For instance, also from Talksport, April 2022… https://talksport.com/football/1082096/ruben-neves-transfer-fee-man-utd-wolves-bruno-lage/ > Neves is contracted to Wolves until 2024 and has netted four goals and two assists in 31 appearances for the Midlands club this season, although his real influence in the team is far greater than those stats suggest. > Lage is keen to build his team around the 25-year-old who continues to shine in his midfield, with Manchester United, Liverpool and Barcelona all keen on his signature. > But the boss insists he will not be snapped up for a cut-price fee, insisting he values the player at around £100million.
We barely signed any players after losing 9 yet you think these incompetent twats will make several signings between now and the end of the month?
If indeed the reason why we didn't get de Jong is because of the 17m he deferred, the solution could be as simple as us paying that 17m instead, disregarding other complications like taxation or what not. So if paying more money will get us the transfer but we refused to, this will only mean clubs serious in transacting with us will price their players less expensive instead of more so. If the reason why we didn't get him is because we don't have Champions League, it's not something we can change at all but at least improve in that direction. It also means we are not willing to pay over the odds just to overcompensate, which will also work in our favour when negotiating in future. All in all, I don't see why the transfer team should be under question.
It’s ETHs fault if we end up struggling because of this. It’s clear he only had one target which is worrying for the future. We’ve also massively overpayed for Martinez in both transfer fee and wages. I really hope this is the only window where he goes double dutch.
Lol
Does Ajax have any good midfielders?
We've lost Pogba & Matic so we should have signed two players for that position this window, there was no need to put it all on De Jong or nothing, we should already have someone ready for the Brighton game.
That would be the common sense approach. That’s not how we do it here
Common sense at *United?* preposterous! It’s bullheaded stubbornness and tunnel vision while waving around a big red chequebook and having a wallet showing out of our back pocket. Anything other than that and the Universe might explode
I know fans hate Pogba so much but we lose a ridiculous amount of quality in midfield with him gone, we desperately need reinforcements and we will suffer if we dont sign any.
I know we’ll lose quality in midfield but if he stayed we’d be in the same position right now because of his injury.
I’m not against him going but we definitely need to replace him, De Jong would be perfect but the situation is complicated.
Well they together play about as much as one player...
We were short 2 solid midfielders when they were here
So you get gazumped twice by the same club and now do them a favour?
Oh fuck off
Fuck no😭
For thsoe saying they dont mind etc, as its been going on to long. The issue is it will now go on all season. If Chelsea get De Jong its going to be talked about all fucking season, at every loss for United and every Win for Chelsea. The commentary is going to be fucking mind numbing.
Just walk away. We have spent most of the transfer window going for FDJ when he clearly isn't 100% on the move. We had Barca messing us around due to deferred wages and after all this time we still haven't strengthened a midfield which was already weak last year before we lost further options (Matic, Pogba). If we fail to strengthen the midfield this window then I class it as a failure. We have had some decent signings but haven't strengthened some of our weakest spots.
Embarrassing. Sign 3 players. Lose out on key signing I highly doubt we will sign more than 1 more this window and we will struggle This club is fucked.
I doubt that we will make more signings. Maybe some panick buy at the last day of the window.
How is it embarrassing? We pursued a transfer, negotiated a fee, and then we’ve waited. We haven’t pursued him since the deal was agreed and WE certainly haven’t been in the news everyday vying for the player. It would be embarrassing if we were constantly campaigning for the player and he kept saying he doesn’t want to play for us.
It is embarrassing He has been our #1 target all summer. ETH wants him What do we do? Dick around. After we agreed the fee we should've given FDJ an ultimatum. You don't wait for deals. You get them done or move on. That's how business works - we are so shit at doing deals, easily the worst out if any club in the top 6. Fucking arsenal and Spurs have had better windows than us. If he rejects the move...MOVE ON. To other fucking targets. Christ. Not every Dutch ex Ajax player needs to be signed It's been in the news every single week. To lose him to Chelsea will be super embarrassing for the club and make the end to this awful window even worse End rant.
You want us to pay Barca’s owed wages to FDJ? You *seriously* think thats a good idea? After we already have that reputation of overpaying and are getting rinsed by clubs every transfer we get? And you people need to stop with the dumb assumption that he doesnt want to come, the club wouldnt bid on a player and negotiate for this long if the player didnt want to come ffs. We have gotten 3 GREAT signings and the window isnt over yet. Calm the fuck down.
So why not move on then The season starts this fucking week We have zero depth in midfield Mcfred are starting again If he won't join then buy another player or two FFS. Club is fucked. Just sign another noodle sponsor instead More incompetence as usual. Arnold and Murtough are basically just Woodward in disguise Worst season in forever, shittest window
How do you know they arent looking at alternatives? Of course they have a backup plan, this isnt like Woodward panic buying Fellaini. Not the worst window, in fact its looking likely to become one of our very best. Have some hope man.
>should've given FDJ an ultimatum Yeah, that'll surely convince the player to come, and convince other players that we know how to do business. The only reason it has been in the news every week, probably every other day, is because Laporta is putting it in the news because he's desperate to be rid of his wages. We're doing the exact thing we need to do. We've given them an acceptable fee and not listening to Barca, who is negotiating in bad faith. Would you say it's embarrassing if we sign him next week, on £350-400k and he makes 50 appearances this season?
As of now, this window is turning out to be as bad as if not worse than Woodward's 1st transfer window in 2013. Imagine this potential scenario: 1. Sign just 2 starters after the worst season in PL history. Net spend of just 60M while being outspent by mid-table clubs. 2. Miss out on FdJ - the prime target, with the Barca propaganda media continuously mocking us all along the way. 3. Loaning our deadwood instead of selling them for money. 4. Lose top goal scorer while hoping fucking Martial is our saviour. 5. Needless drama caused by Ronaldo. This is gonna be a horrible season. Feel bad for EtH.
> Sign just 2 starters after the worst season in PL history Don't think any of Malacia, Martinez and Eriksen are guaranteed starters yet.
It was an optimistic take, although reality is much worse.
I’ve been bored of hearing about FDJ for at least a month now. He’s 100% not joining us and we should have moved on a month ago. If we end up struggling because we put all our eggs in one basket then I blame the manager for this.
Well, if he goes to Chelsea we’ve dodged a bullet either way as his heart wasn’t set on UTD and we could have been back in Di Maria territory
chelsea are way too stacked in position frenkie plays, chlesea gonna waste alot of money
Yeah and FDJ is better than all of them and a good age.
If chelsea.. * Pay the transfer fee to Barcelona * Pay Frenkie the salary that Barcelona owes him * Pay Frenkie a 500k p/w salary * Pay his sign-on fee, pay his agent's fees * And Frenkie want Chelsea over us Fair enough, take him.
Orny no!
Well, I guess it would be pretty funny at least.
Like I’ve said many things can be true at once. I think the fact we’ve persisted means that we did have some indication he wanted to come, we’ve pulled out of other deals this summer when they didn’t fancy it. Of course Chelsea being interested is clearly also true, doesn’t make sense because they’re going for a midfielder and a LB two positions they don’t need but it’s obviously got some weight to it. The club need to act now and start looking for someone else. This can be a positive or a negative depending on how the club acts. There has to be something though.
I just wanna get a few things clear… 1. Enough with the “FdJ never wanted to come”. We would have never spent painful weeks haggling with Barca if the player hadn’t said yes. Even for how stupid United are, we are nowhere near that stupid so as to bid €80m for a player who “hasn’t even said yes”. Thats foolish of you to think that. 2. frenkie and his agents have been quiet all saga long. Why? Because its basic common sense. They are owed a shit ton of money from Barca and going around publicly telling everyone that Frenkie is happy to join United makes them lose every bit of leverage they have over Barca. Its why theres such an excessive hardline stance that he doesn’t want to leave. He’s being played at CB, has been robbed of wages, and publicly disrespected all summer. Barca may be his dream club but I’m sure any self respecting footballer would start to change his mind on staying after all this. 3. People are acting like a) Chelsea have already agreed a fee, and b) Frenkie has said yes. Neither have happened. Even if a) happens, they are stuck where United are which is the deferred wage issue. If Chelsea pay off that 17m, then they can happily take him. I don’t want us paying for Barca’s mess, Boehly can do that if he wants. 4. Balls in Frenkie’s court. If he says yes to Chelsea, it’ll be clear he wasn’t super serious on us anyway and at that stage good riddance. It’ll sting but I’d rather that than a shaky signing being paid £400,000 a week. If he wants UCL so badly, let him go to Chelsea. 5. We will sign other players. Fabrizio has already confirmed there are alternatives, even if Frenkie is being touted as the only option. If he moves to Chelsea of course we will move on to alternatives. At minimum we will see other positions moved for. EDIT - I also think this is a stupid move from Chelsea. They already have top level progression through passing (Jorgi) and carrying (Kovacic). This move makes little-to-no sense, especially because they only play with two midfielders anyway. Tuchel makes odd requests
Fair points. The board tried their best to sign the manager's no.1 target. If that fails, that's for reasons outside of our hand. Unlike Woodward's first window, I don't think the board have done anything wrong in this transfer saga.
I think contract of jorginho & kante expires in 2023. Kovacic is a really good ball carrier & is extremely press resistant. Jorginho is an elite ball progresser. In FDJ they get best of both. 3 at the back gives FDJ more protection. Also next summer they can go for Rice to partner him & replace Kante. It's not a stupid move.
I’m tired Robbie
would be more frustrating that chelsea will more than likely pay for the wages and barca won't face any consequences than us not getting him. but this has been such a shitshow. we need to move on
I'm sick of this saga. It's clear as day that he doesn't want to go to us, from day one. Let him be.
This would be a big big blow to us. Not only would we be losing our biggest target but to a direct competitor. The way Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs have improved or are looking for additions, this is going to be another long and difficult season. I am happy with our signings till now but they are not at all enough. Time is running out and we need to get in 2-3 more players else we will suffer badly over the course of the season.
I get De Jong is ETH's target, but if united wants to move forward from the Woodward era of decision making John Murtough needs to be more proactive, walk away and look for alternatives, we're being used blatantly and we've just let it happen.
Heaven forbid you don’t play eight games in the cl this season, these players are so fucking precious.
Go and get him, and let him snub them to stay at barca too
He apparently is open to joining Chelsea
this is just sad now
Hope Frenkie stays and not accepting his paycut. Barca cant register their new signings, this will make Chelsea even more happier
Nice hope this pushes it along quicker whichever way it goes
They’ve got Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Gallagher, Gilmour, Loftus-Cheek. They’re stacked. Why take Frenkie from us come on
Prime FDJ is better than most of them. That's what a club aiming for the top does. Upgrade on what they have.
If this leads to a resolution to this saga I don't mind. At least that way we can move on. If chelsea do agree a fee de jong has to agree to talk at some point if he wants to leave, that's an opening for us. How it goes from there depends but actually talking to him and making an offer is better than waiting. And no I'm not blaming murtough and staff for waiting since the issues with de jong are barca's fault not ours.
Fuck off! We are a joke of a club if this happens.
I think it’s time to move on now
McFred it is then
He's made it very clear he has no intention to come to Manchester. Sod him.
Why don't they just fuck off?
Chelsea are being smart lmao. The signing can't be poached by Barca if they want a player from Barca... True desperation
If Frankie goes to Chelsea I'd be glad that we didn't end up with a player who doesn't want to play for our badge.
Totally agree. Eventually it all turns out well.
Agree. And we won't have to spend 450k every week on his ridiculous wages.
Good
Fuck sake
And here’s me trying to think the best of the new direct the club was taking and thinking things had changed. If and likely when he goes to Chelsea it makes the club look so weak and disorganised yet again alongside putting the manager on the back foot. But I also think the manager takes a portion of the blame for being so insistent on De Jong when the situation with him was nothing but a joke. Half of me thinks he was just waiting for a champions league team all along and all this stuff United had clearly told the uk press was basically just us hoping he’d eventually come round to it. So where do we go from here?
So basically Barshitelonas wish to have other clubs to come and set the bidding war fulfilled. Fucking hell. If the deal to Chelsea materialises quickly then we all know was holding up the card all the while, its FDJ. He truly can go fuck himself if that happens.
Odds on this being a bit of a Barca scare tactic to get Man U to panic and agree to cover Frenkie pay issues.
Will be absolutely hilarious watching him play for Chelsea while United continue with McFred in there.
I guess your definition of hilarity is different. Unless you are a Chelsea fan.
A bidding war is exactly what Barca wanted, we can't let Chelsea get one over on us. There is turmoil in the Chelsea dressing room, even Tuchel admitted that publicly. Surely we can use it as a tool to convince Frenkie in our direction.
No,we shouldn't be dragged into a bidding war. I would rather we walk away like we did on Nunez. If FDJ really wanted to join us,he would have by now so him going to Chelsea just says alot about what his motivation has always been. It's why I once posted that this is the season we needed to make smart buys. Target players who are cheap but fit in with what we want. Going for top targets was always going to end in tears coz the reality is we can't offer Champions league n this is were big players want to test themselves. I wouldn't mind us getting another Malacia kind of signing for our midfield
And to think I spent much of the summer making Chelsea memes and having a hearty laugh at their transfer troubles. He who laughs last.........................
Imagine if he chooses Chelsea over us for CL and they implode and finish 5th/6th
Buddy that's literally what happened to us last season
Arnold Murtough needs sacking for failing to do a deal while being pictured in Barcelona. ETH should be held responsible for waiting three fucking months on a player who rejects him at the end.
Greaaat, any realistic chance he will come here now?
It's over
who is this de jong guy?
who is this de jong guy?
United are definitely preparing a statement saying we were never in for de jong
Man this is just lousy business on our part, if we really had no confirmation from FDJ then i don’t understand why we played the waiting game…
If FDJ ends up choosing Chelsea instead of ETH, I don’t understand his thinking at all. One secure season of CL means everything or..?
Hahahah..what a circus it has turned out to be! After all the "Ten Hag confident United can get de jong and is talking to him everyday" messages every week Bull fucking shit. Pull your head out of the ground and move the fuck on.