Mhsc

That is pure fan speculation, it is super unlikely in reality. Poch talked about how the system works and he (and now Maresca) are involved in chats in so far as supplying info on the type of player they need or explicitly do not need, and they get a veto to say a hard no for any player. More often than not it seems they get talked out of using their veto (e.g. Felix deal). But there's basically 0 chance that Maresca had authority to sign KDH, the club decided that and he didn't veto it.

Huh forgot we had a preseason game today what’s the craic did we win?

Madueke was 100% always a buy and flip Just the good type - one we don't need to rush to sell and can actually do a job for us in the meantime. Would think this summer is 1 summer early to flip him tbh.

Woops, thanks m8

I tuned in purely to check out Delap Can't bring myself to care about CWC in the slightest, history matters at the end of the day, plus this has the feeling of a fucking preseason tournament due to timing Delap impressed me more than I expected, even as a guy that was optimistic about him. Looked immediately at home.

Cucurella?

Can't stand seeing Nkunku coming on. Something about him has really annoyed me. Just doesn't seem like he gives a shit or has even tried slightly in his time with us.

Painful but eh, it happens. Cucu was also dreadful to the point of not looking like a professional player for a fair period. He needs to adjust and find some confidence.

Maybe a little embarrassing for Nico the immediate and obvious golf in class between Delap and him Hopefully it fires him up

Osimhen retired 1 year ago I dunno why they keep putting news out about him in the press like he is still relevant to talk about

I can understand this attitude if it is Christmas and we're looking back at the start of the season and Cherki has absolutely torn up the league, totally transformed himself from an out of shape lazy bastard into a pressing demon and City are sitting top of the league But as it stands they've signed a guy that is cheap because... he is cheap. Because he is not that good. Because no one else wants him. Because it is a bit of a cheap punt to see if he can do something with good coaching. That is some weird glazing man

If AC Milan say no they lose out on £15m (not a lot to us but a lot to them), forced to play the whole season with a GK who has openly said he doesn't want to be there and has no interest in the club, lose him in a years time on a free in a humiliating failure to retain their most important talent or at least manage the situation properly, and then have to somehow sign a decent GK with absolutely nothing in the bank - and whoever comes in knows that whatever deal they sign better be good because the club can and will fuck you over. The reality is we are fine with the GKs we have for CWC and there's probably no time to bed in a GK for it anyway, they've got to learn a whole fucking tactical system - I really doubt Maresca would rush them in over Sanchez who knows the system and ended the season well. We can do a PL season with Petrovic in goal if needed and bring Big Mike for free next year if they force us in that direction and its not even really a bad outcome for us.

They're presumably betting that Pep can break Cherki's spirit into being a hard working automaton If he creates clean chances for Haaland and they sort out his work rate they'll be unstoppable But that's a big IF.

Man Utd do the same thing every year, pay top whack transfer fees and top salaries to players that they think are sure things. Mason Mount was a sure thing just like Cunha and Mbuemo are. Probably with a £200m outlay on transfer fees and an extra £1m pw in wages they can get to midtable, no idea if they can afford that in PSR but if they can then they'll (probably) be less embarrassing next year. With the lack of efficiency in how they spend on transfer fees and wages it will cost them something like £1.5bn to get back to being a regular CL club.

Kudus is unbelievably overrated. He's powerful but virtually no technical skill, no intelligence. His output on paper is just as bad as the eye test suggests. Thought the £38m West Ham spent on him was toppy for what he is tbh. Made some sense a couple of years ago when we were really shit, but definitely does not make any sense anymore, especially for a big fee. Fuck that.

These transfers are also revealing what Maresca really thinks about our players. All year when he was talking a big game about Sanchez I was rolling my eyes because it just felt like there was no way he believed the words he was saying and was just stuck with the guy and saying anything bad would only make the situation worse so he tried to put some confidence in him to get what he could out of him while stuck with him. Curious who else might be 'surprisingly' for the guillotine - maybe the nicer Maresca is about you the more you're in danger! (he was very positive about Malo Gusto and NJ...)

One interesting question is if we do sign Mike for GK, who is our number 2 next year? Surely Sanchez never accept that. Doubt Petrovic will, but maybe? Jorgensen is terrible and if we got stuck having to play him for a long period it would basically be writing off the season. I guess in an ideal world Petrovic will suck it up and agree to compete for at least a season with Mike? It seems like a total waste tho.

A classy exit to be fair Honestly he seems like a nice guy but he just didn't do enough to pay the sort of wages he probably wants, just another player who Man Utd gave stupid money to. He should get a move back to Bundesliga or basically any league outside of PL and he will have a great career still. Good luck to him tbh

Last summer we started a new trend of going from 0 to full announcement on random names so I'm not listening that much to rumours My guess is some name(s) we've no idea about at this moment will be the real signings and most of what we see in the press is just agents paying for PR

I think people were just scared of his injury record weren't they? As we have been in nonstop injury crisis for about 5 years now. Don't recall people thinking he was shit as a player tbh

Not sure he is better than a fully fit Fofana but in terms of our CBs that actually play then yeah, agreed he is better I just don't think he's good enough to carry Colwill tbh.

Guehi is fine I suppose, very unambitious though for one of our weakest positions, and our scouts have a terrible track record of scouting CBs so I would still have question marks about his ability to adapt to a possession based team. Its a lot easier to impress for Palace - Chalobah also looked solid there. If we do a Guehi we have to sell Colwill and rebuild the whole CB pairing, if we're sticking with Colwill we need an insanely elite CB to carry him defensively (strong, tall, fast, intelligent, experienced).

For Man Utd special price - £85m plus add ons.

Not like they didn't try before - they just kept getting rejected! Caicedo and Lavia knew better

Excellent idea tbh