What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

GK
RB Varane Martinez Malacia
Casemiro CM
Antony Bruno Sancho
ST

Same as the above posters views I think you look at current first team options and De Gea, Dalot, Eriksen and Martial while good players are either stylistically not right, not reliable enough or just short of the quality needed.

In one more summer I think realistically we could fill those spots. I don’t have glaring concerns for other positions.
 
Basically I concur with pretty much everyone.

Striker, centre mid, right back and keeper.

So we will probably get two wingers and a CB :)

To be honest, it seems ETH knows exactly the profile of player he is after...so hopefully he gets this next summer and things can really build.
 
Utd way overspent this summer. £227mil spend rather than the budget that was £120mil. So CL is absolutely essential if ETH is to build the squad to his liking.

Agree with most on here, striker, ball playing midfielder and right back who complements antony play probably the major areas that need fixing.

I do think liverpool did well to get Arthur on loan. He can slot into so any midfield positions 6/8/10. Would have been a useful option to have, especially as we are so reliant on ericsson.
 
GK, Striker, CM (deep-lying playmaker).

RB if Dalot doesn't make the position his this season.
 
I would like us to go back to Ajax in January for ETH's first choice of Timber, to strengthen our RB/CB options as soon as possible. Makes perfect sense.

Pity about FDJ but we need either him or a world class alternative, sooner rather than later, but I can't see anything happening until next summer, unless the FDJ/Barca saga throws up a chance by January, can't see it happening now though.
We should be okay this year if McFred can both improve under the manager's tutorage and play their part over the season.

Definitely need a world class/up and coming striker as things stand, although we may see improvement with what we have over the season as ETH works his magic on the team. Let's hope the manager and scouting team have started work early on getting the right player. I'm happy to wait until next summer.

Goalkeeper to replace De Gea; Again, I'm sure the cogs are already turning on this one in the background, but next summer would be my guess, at the earliest - got to get this one right.

Timber as soon as possible and the other three positions successfully filled by next summer should see us comfortably firing on all cylinders for a few years, with the odd tweek, if ETH keeps working his magic. Not going to be cheap though.

Next stop, a piece of silverware to really get the ball rolling...
 
So, I expect to see an interesting winter-summer transfer window of 2023.

Out:

De Gea (I have confidence in Dubravka, who makes our gameplay more dynamic and modern and closer to ETH style)
Ronaldo (He is just not fit for us and I can see him going to Portugal)
AWB (Not fit for our team)
Jones (lol)
Maguire (just not good enough for us and doesn't fit to ETH)
Shaw (can be good enough, but not bothered enough to show his abilites)
Rashford (if he cannot get his head right and shows the similar level of performances as previous seasons, he has to go)
Martial (injury-prone, but if fit, he can be decent in ETH, but don't know how happy he'd be as a sub)

Total sum: huge wage budget from De Gea and Ronaldo + sales around 100 mil

In:
Timber, covering Maguire and having a decent run for RB
FDJ, getting into starting 11 with Casemiro and adding our gameplan a decent amount of options
Gakpo/Nkunku, covering Rashford/Martial and he seems to be having a pretty high potential ceiling
Sesko/Osimhen, covering Ronaldo/Martial for CF and they are both talented and suitable for ETH
If Dubravka isn't good enough, then Sanchez/Meslier would be options.
Total: 200-250 mil


So, all this I expect to see in the next two transfer windows.

After this we will have shortage in LB, a bit in CB and loads of options in midfield. An experienced LB and CB can be added as well (contracts ending for De Vrij and Marcos Alonso for instance)

All good with attack, as we have RW's in Antony and Sancho, ST in Nkunku-Osimhen and LW as Gakpo-Sancho or whoever is fit. So we have sort of luxury for playing same player in different positions (Nkunku, Gakpo, Sancho) and pure strikers as Sesko/Osimhen and if Martial can accept being a second fiddle, then we'd be very decently loaded in attack.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if we moved for Sasa Kalajdzic in January. He'll only have a few months left on his current deal and shouldn't cost as much as other options. Not saying he's the best but by January I expect our deficiencies in attack will be even more obvious and, generally speaking, there are fewer options in the winter window
 
mitchmouse said:
I wouldn't be surprised if we moved for Sasa Kalajdzic in January. He'll only have a few months left on his current deal and shouldn't cost as much as other options. Not saying he's the best but by January I expect our deficiencies in attack will be even more obvious and, generally speaking, there are fewer options in the winter window
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Signed with Wolverhampton until 2027. Dodged a bullet here imo
 
aeh1991 said:
Signed with Wolverhampton until 2027. Dodged a bullet here imo
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ha ha. I missed that. really have given up looking at what other clubs are doing! maybe we'll go for the Spanish guy I've never heard of and whose name I can't even remember (one paper linked us very late on in the window). young guy...
 
Going by Ten Hag's Ajax, he used to play with target man's. Strong tall strikers that can hold the ball. Currently we don't have anyone that can fulfill this role. Martial can do the hold up but he's not a physical striker.

It'll be interesting to see who we'll target, right now I can't see anyone who fits who is available. Hopefully this season someone unknown will emerge.
 
I still think Ten Hag wants to bring players in when the Jan window comes around, he keeps mentioning Jan in numerous interviews lately. I suppose where we are in the league at that time will dictate that.

My worry is the huge amount we have spent this summer. What happens if we dont get top 4?, will next summers budget be cut down considerable?, may we literally have a budget of like £50mil?, because imo we still need 5 or 6 players in the £50+ mil range. Its not just about the first team, its a squad game too.
 
It's simple. We need Roberto Sanchez (GK), Livramento/Walker-Peters (RB), Pjanic (CM), Joao Pedro (AML/ST) and Dembele (ST).
 
Rauður Djöfull said:
A ST, RB, CM, GK

All for first team

Than we can look at backup LB (assuming Shaw does not get renewed), backup CB and maybe CM or LW depends on Fred & Rashford

Someone homegrown probably needs to be signed as well ?

Hopefully some youngsters come good, would be cool if Garnacho & Mejbri can legitimately claim minutes so we don't have to shop to replace all.

Hope to see some of these as possibilities but there will definitely be some new names toutes as future stars as the season moves on and some of the positions just feel like there is slim pickings of quality right now

GK: Sanchez - Brighton / Maignan (Milan) / Costo (Porto)
RB: Vanderson (Monaco) / Gusto (Lyon)
CM: FDJ (Barcelona) / Bellingham (Dortmund, believe he will sign for Liverpool)
ST: Nkunku (Leipzig) / Osimhen (Napoli)
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I agree with both the positions required and most of the names you recommend. The ones I would go for are...
GK: Sanchez
RB: Timber
CM: FDJ
ST: Sesko and Nkunku
This would probably cost another £250m, so we would need to make quite a few sales to pay for these transfers and also to reduce the wage bill. We need to get Ronaldo, AWB, Jones and Maguire off the books, and ETH needs to make decisions on all the other squad members. Hopefully some of the youngsters can step up to be legitimate first team squad members, but I think this is a really strong first team:

Sanchez
Timber Varane Martinez Malacia
Casemiro De Jong
Antony Fernandes Sancho
Sesko

With a second team of De Gea / Dubravka, Dalot, Lindelof, Mengi, Shaw, Mctominay, Fred, Eriksen, Nkunku, Martial, Rashford, supported by the youngsters. We should be doing the ground work to bring in Caicedo as a replacement for Casemiro when his contract runs down at Brighton.
 
Watching today you can see what someone like DeJong would bring to this team so I do wonder if they will go back in for him next summer or has the opportunity gone. Eriksen is clearly a very good player but if you could get DeJong playing that role with Casemiro it would be something.

Striker is needed as well. Someone that will put in the effort, can hold the ball up and bring others in to play where you find that person who knows. Be a benefit if they were some sort of athletic freak to boot.
 
Striker who can knit things together is a must. I believe EtH has a target that he will go all out for.
 
Andersons Dietician said:
Watching today you can see what someone like DeJong would bring to this team so I do wonder if they will go back in for him next summer or has the opportunity gone. Eriksen is clearly a very good player but if you could get DeJong playing that role with Casemiro it would be something.

Striker is needed as well. Someone that will put in the effort, can hold the ball up and bring others in to play where you find that person who knows. Be a benefit if they were some sort of athletic freak to boot.
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Yeah FDJ combined with Martinez/Toney/Mitrovic would do nicely. We wouldn't necessarily need to break bank for Osmihen
 
Ivan Toney or Mitrovic.

Both mid twenties, both doing it in the league, both hold up the ball well, nightmare for CFs, can finish, work hard, know the league.

Perfect SAF style signings.
 
Why dont we sign Gavi? They havent renewed his contract yet. His release clause is just 50m eur :devil:
 
Eriksen has been doing well in that CM role, but I have doubts over him playing there throughout the season without being exposed, and also over how many minutes he can play. We dont really have a similar player either, his backup being Fred.

That's why so many wanted De Jong, but after hearing it was either Casemiro or De Jong, I'm glad we went for the former, as I have trouble believing that a FdJ-Eriksen-Bruno midfield would have worked.

So if we get another creative midfielder in next summer, alongside a GK, RB and CF, I think our team could challenge for the title.
 
Highfather_24 said:
Eriksen has been doing well in that CM role, but I have doubts over him playing there throughout the season without being exposed, and also over how many minutes he can play. We dont really have a similar player either, his backup being Fred.

That's why so many wanted De Jong, but after hearing it was either Casemiro or De Jong, I'm glad we went for the former, as I have trouble believing that a FdJ-Eriksen-Bruno midfield would have worked.

So if we get another creative midfielder in next summer, alongside a GK, RB and CF, I think our team could challenge for the title.
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Could be hard to shift De Gea with those wages,however real chance of being able to sign the other three maybe even one in January.
 
Starting Striker and GK have to be the priorities in the next window or Summer 2023.

The other priorities should depend on how the season goes but those two need to be addressed in order to play how Ten Hag wants over time to get to the next level which takes us into the Champions League.
 
MrSingh2002 said:
Starting Striker and GK have to be the priorities in the next window or Summer 2023.

The other priorities should depend on how the season goes but those two need to be addressed in order to play how Ten Hag wants over time to get to the next level which takes us into the Champions League.
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Surely we still need progressive CM too
 
Striker and goalkeeper are the major areas we need to invest in.

We’ll also need a right back to push on or better Dalot.

A midfielder like De Jong wouldn’t go amiss, but striker and goalkeeper take priority and then some.
 
If team can reach Champions League this season, we'll obviously need more quality / depth to stay in high places.

There should be time for further clearout, too.
 
croadyman said:
Surely we still need progressive CM too
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That would be ideal but I always felt Eriksen is a starter for us and Ten Hag. Eventually it will be combinations of him with Casemiro/McTominay surely. Another CM would be perfect if we can sell Fred.
 
croadyman said:
RB who can offer similar output to Malacia at LB
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Dalot has offered more going forward than Malacia even though the sample size could be larger.

Most urgent is a striker who can play as a target player. That would give us more options up front.
 
Striker is the number 1 priority. Really need an out and out goal scorer. Other positions requiring strengthening are GK, RB (unless Laird is given a chance to challenge Dalot for the RB spot) & CM.

After that, just adding depth here and there.
 
Murder on Zidane's Floor said:
Ivan Toney or Mitrovic.

Both mid twenties, both doing it in the league, both hold up the ball well, nightmare for CFs, can finish, work hard, know the league.

Perfect SAF style signings.
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Mitrovic has many years left and is well paid. Toney makes 20K a week and will have 2 years left on his deal next summer, so that one seems far, far likelier. Would be surprised if United came for him in the summer and he didn't do everything to push for the move, he's 26 and he'd quintuple his wages, be in great position to be England's backup 9 if he can start for us (in a proper battle with Tammy Abraham I'd guess) and we're probably the only big team in England that you'd figure he'd start for, since I'm not sure he fits Chelsea as well as us and everyone else has a top #9.

Could work out well enough. As you say he's the type Ferguson liked and he'd be a real threat in the air against low blocks and is used to playing on the break and he and Eriksen had good chemistry last season if I recall correctly.
 
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