I see G.Nev suggesting it’s been an embarrassment of a window, again.

The time to judge the success of Chelsea's window (and ours) will be much later on. They have an owner with no industry experience temporarily moonlighting as sporting director, and he seems to be having meetings with all the major selling clubs and agents, toying with gazupming various deals rivals are working on, and generally offering fees at the higher end of the market rates. It might prove in retrospect that his proactivity set up Chelsea well and the players he went for were already validated by the club's football people as sensible targets. Or it might turn out that due to his inexperience and desire to be seen as putting his giant balls on the table, Chelsea spent more money than they needed to on players who didn't improve the squad as much as others would have. I honestly don't know, not least because there will be a lot more deals in this window before it shuts.

Nit sure why the owners are catching flak for the transfer strategy again.

Arnold, let alone the Glazers aren't involved in transfers.

It has been a poor window - so far - and I’m sure Ten Hag will privately be annoyed. But a lot can still happen between now and September so let’s see what happens before kicking off. Richard Arnold talked a good game and hasn’t quite delivered. But he may still pull a couple of signings out of the bag.

comment by merrysupersteve (relaxed about the situation) (U1132)
posted 47 minutes ago
comment by Rosso out here drippin’ in finesse (U17054)
posted 1 hour, 15 minutes ago
comment by Melbourne Red (U5417)
posted 4 hours, 31 minutes ago
comment by Dwight K Schrute (U22590)
posted 1 hour, 13 minutes ago
If Chelsea got the click bait links in the media that anything with United in the title does

Kounde would’ve been held up as a long running saga which ended in a farce.

The media know running United headlines will get clicks from the huge United fan base and all the haters who love to leave insulting comments below the articles.

Just take a look at any rag. Look at any United headline, it will have hundreds of comments meaning it’s been mass visited. Compare that to other teams.

I saw a headline of Mane saying “of course we (Bayern) would beat Liverpool in the CL)….it has 7 comments

News that teamviewer won’t renew their United shirt sponsorship in 4 YEARS TIME has 261 comments.

As for backing ETH. They signed Malacia, Eriksen and Lisandro who we wanted. They supposedly agreed a few for FDJ. That would’ve been 4 players that he wanted.

What are you actually expecting? 9 incoming?
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Well we 100% need a midfielder, striker, right back and keeper so at least 7.
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Have a look back through the records and tell us the last time United signed seven players for the first team squad in a single transfer window.

I’ll give you a hint: You’re going to need a while.
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Tbf you could ask the question as to when was the last time so many first team squad players left the squad in one summer. We are left with an extremely small squad now. Particularly in attacking areas. Which is why we can forget a top four tilt before the season even starts, depressing as that is.
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2019/20 went out:

Lukaku
Smalling
Darmian
Young
Valencia
Herrera
Sanchez (loan)
Rojo (loan)

Not sure if all of those were in the summer, but that’s only one less than this time around (including Telles’ loan).

Of all the players who have left this summer, how many were really key squad players last season? None of Pereira, Mata, Lingard or Cavani were. Matic, Henderson and Telles you’d argue need replacing. But the only real key player gone is Pogba.

I’m not arguing that upgrades aren’t required, as well as replacements; but ETH has said more than once now that he wants the right players bringing in, and not just bodies. He has bodies. The first team squad currently has 33 players.

Let him do his work. We knew it was gonna take more than one window to build the squad he wants. Realistically, we went into this window knowing that it was going to take him three or four to get there. This one still has a month to run yet too.

Nobody was talking about a top four finish before the window opened, and nobody should be worried about that now. If it happens - which isn’t impossible - it’ll be a nice bonus. The important thing, I thought we had all agreed, was to see the right directions of travel in terms of squad building and in terms of style of and coherency in the play.

comment by Slippin’ Robb (U22716)
posted 4 minutes ago
It has been a poor window - so far - and I’m sure Ten Hag will privately be annoyed. But a lot can still happen between now and September so let’s see what happens before kicking off. Richard Arnold talked a good game and hasn’t quite delivered. But he may still pull a couple of signings out of the bag.
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It’s completely irrelevant how a window appears to have run until it closes.

comment by Rosso out here drippin’ in finesse (U17054)
posted 20 seconds ago
comment by Slippin’ Robb (U22716)
posted 4 minutes ago
It has been a poor window - so far - and I’m sure Ten Hag will privately be annoyed. But a lot can still happen between now and September so let’s see what happens before kicking off. Richard Arnold talked a good game and hasn’t quite delivered. But he may still pull a couple of signings out of the bag.
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It’s completely irrelevant how a window appears to have run until it closes.
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The seasons starts today so you can legitimately be frustrated that we go into the first PL game with McFred still there. Doesn’t make it a bad window per se, but you are allowed to judge it one where a lot of the failings of the club still exist.

I know you’re keen to say top 4 wasn’t on the cards but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t have been a target. It is possible to reboot the club and compete for a minimum target. Especially as getting CL football is quite important when it comes to getting the very best players.

Again, I’ll judge this window properly once it gets to the end but so far - with the season starting this weekend - it’s not been great. Especially when our top 4 rivals have done their business early. There’s no reason why we couldn’t have done the same.

I don't think Koulibaly will be a huge improvement on Rudiger, or will noticeably change their results, there's no guarantee he'll be better than him at all. Obviously a good player non the less.

Sterling is a good signing, but I don't think he'll be close to replicating the numbers he got for City over the years, he'll need to do a lot more for himself as Chelsea don't play similarly to City at all.

Don't know anything about the lad from Villa tbh.

Brighton left back as rotation for Chillwell is a good option, if not a little overpriced.

I'd add Greenwood to that list, Rosso. This time last year he was a major reason most of us perceived the attack to have pretty good quality, depth and balance. In practice we didn't get much output from either him or Cavani last year for various reasons. But with them out of the picture, the obvious perils of overreliance on Ronaldo, and questions over what we can expect from Rashford, I'd say that is a fairly dramatic drop in resources at the manager's disposal.

Just nit-picking. I totally agree with your broader point.

comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 3 hours, 47 minutes ago
I see G.Nev suggesting it’s been an embarrassment of a window, again.
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I don’t take his opinions of the club at face value to be honest. He sat on the fence during the debacle of last season under Ole when he really shouldn’t have done.

And after his fiasco at management it is hard to take him seriously anymore on that subject.

Agreed, VC. Neville can be quite astute talking about football in many respects. But talking about how United should be run and how it's being managed, his views are undermined by the combination of two things. 1. A need to be loudly opinionated because that's his brand. 2. Relationships with and loyalties to certain figures within the club that constrain who gets criticised.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
I'd add Greenwood to that list, Rosso. This time last year he was a major reason most of us perceived the attack to have pretty good quality, depth and balance. In practice we didn't get much output from either him or Cavani last year for various reasons. But with them out of the picture, the obvious perils of overreliance on Ronaldo, and questions over what we can expect from Rashford, I'd say that is a fairly dramatic drop in resources at the manager's disposal.

Just nit-picking. I totally agree with your broader point.
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I'd completely forgotten about Greenwood

There's still a heap of work to do, obviously. But we're back to the same points:

- the window is still open for close to another month;
- I think we *as good as* know that the transfer team is actively working on multiple signings, closeness to completion of any of which we cannot hope to even guess;

- with all the will in the world, there is a limited amount of work which can be done in any one window (regardless of the number of outgoings);

- and we all agreed before the start of summer, to a poster I'd reckon, that the most important thing was getting in the right players over the next few windows - being players that the manager wants, and will suit what the manager is seeking to build over the medium to long term.

On that last point, some usually very sensible and patient posters seem to have pivoted a little towards the old "so-and-so club have signed so-and-so player; why weren't we in for them?!" position, which is everywhere United *really* don't want to be right now (and something else Neville specifically called out in the new episode of Overlap).

United should be absolutely ignoring what other clubs are doing in the market, and focussing right in on the strategy and priorities understood and agreed between the manager and wider transfer team.

For the life of me I will never understand why some of our fans worry so much about what other clubs do.

Rosso, yep, agree with all of that