Pizy

Perhaps we can use the fact that Norway aren’t at the Euro’s to our advantage. Buy him before United even actually come in for Sancho.

Yes, but when he’s got a release clause that’s affordable to many, many more clubs next summer each one will be upping their wage offer to sway him in their direction. It’s true that we’ll have to blow up our wage structure if we want him now but it’ll probably “only” be something like £350-400k per week. I can never see us doing stratospheric wages like what Real Madrid do. Wasn’t Bale on £650k a week? We’d surely never do that.

Saying he’s interested is a bit useless. He’s probably interested in like 8 clubs. And unless we do some kind of strange deal where we buy him now but let him stay in Dortmund for a year, waiting does us no good. By this time next year we could be outside of the CL places and coming off a poor season. Then we won’t be nearly as appealing to him. Bayern will have been tapping him up all season. And Real Madrid/PSG/City/United will be in his agents ear offering him £600k per week to sign with them. It’s now or never.

I agree that Haaland doesn’t seem like the sort of striker that Pep would normally fancy. He’s not really a guy who plays in intricate spaces and is heavily involved in the buildup. And he definitely isn’t a striker who likes standing around the box while City’s midfielders ping it around a hundred times. For me the two clubs he would fit like a glove in the PL are ourselves and Liverpool. Teams that like to aggressively press, win the ball high, and blitz opponents with pace and athleticism. He’s a monster in open space and with the runners we’d have around him that space will be available to him constantly. Saying all that, Haaland would of course score a boat load in the City team. But so would any top striker.

Player swaps never happen. Or if they do it’s ultra rare. And if Dortmund were interested in any of our players I think CHO is the only one. Tammy is nowhere near Haaland’s level so them replacing one with the other makes no sense. Any deal here will be straight cash I would think.

We’d probably shuffle around the team depending on the opponent game to game. Which Tuchel showed he’s capable of doing. I wouldn’t be worried about players being unhappy. Like we saw with Pep’s City team there may be 1 or 2 who are unhappy but that’s life at a top club. That’s the sort of depth you need to dominate.

He’s a transformational, truly generational player on the same level as Neymar & Mbappe. And in my personal opinion when you take into account his physique and overpowering skill set I’d much rather have Haaland than Neymar. If you as a club have any slim chance to potentially sign this sort of player with minimal competition you must at least try. And I hope that’s how our club are viewing this. It’s an absurd, gargantuan amount of money but if he is finally the 25+ league goals per season guy we’ve been craving for a decade then it’s worth it. He’s only 22 for goodness sake. Even if he and Raiola start trying to engineer a move in 4 years time it’s worth it. Because we’d make our money back and then some and can sign the next Haaland.

Fjortoft is normally pretty clueless and only regurgitates what he hears from other journalists, but with his Norwegian connection I wonder if he’s slightly more clued in here with Haaland…

We pull off the one in a million miracle and sign Haaland we’re winning the league. Simple as that.

I think Sergio Ramos would be David Luiz-esque in the PL. Capable of looking great with a good setup around him but also capable of many clownish mistakes and sendings off. Defniitely wouldn’t want him here.

Would people be happy with Saul Niguez who I see we’ve been linked with recently? He seems to be linked with a big move away from Atleti every window. Hasn’t he been pretty mediocre for a while now?

Still worth it. If Mbappe and Neymar went for around that much then Haaland is worth it as well. He’s going to score more goals than either and will be a perennial Balon D’or contender if he continues to develop. Waiting until next summer when every top team in Europe will be rolling out the red carpet and begging him to join them is dumb. If this were like most summers where we’ve needed 5 new top players I’d understand not being able to spend mega money on a striker. But this summer we need just minimal investment. With the money we’ll get from selling a few like Tammy, Giroud, Emerson, etc plus prize money from winning the CL and finishing top 4 we can easily afford £150m for Haaland. It’s similar to Havertz or Werner last summer. United will spunk their load on Sancho and a CB, City want Kane and Grealish, the Spanish giants are broke and making a bunch of free transfers, Bayern have Lewandowski and would never spend £100m on a player, and Juve have players in his position. We can take unique advantage here before his release clause next summer takes effect and suddenly a dozen different clubs can make a move for him. Really is now or never for us in my opinion. We can’t allow him to sign for a PL rival where he’d kill us and own the league for the next 5-10 years.

I just hope whatever business we do doesn’t happen right at the last minute. Would be great to have our business done early so we don’t panic buy some striker on a punt who isn’t good enough. I would hope the club and Tuchel especially have identified “the one” long ago and are now going hard behind the scenes to secure him. TT has made it crystal clear to the club hierarchy with his team selections for months that he doesn’t fancy Tammy or Giroud. No excuses not have started the hunt for a new #9 long ago.

English media is absolutely obsessed with Foden. They think he’s Eden Hazard or something when he isn’t near that level yet. Mount is the better overall player currently and was much more important to us this season than Foden was to City. You could take Foden out of City’s team and they wouldn’t skip a beat. Mount was the heartbeat of our side.

Imagine if United sign Sancho this summer and then go back and sign Haaland next summer when Cavani leaves. 😕 Something we should be doing.

Buying just a striker isn’t going heavy on attack. Striker, midfielder, and maybe a defender of some sort. Just 3 signings and we can compete for the title.

I’m not sure Giroud would settle for sitting in the bench for a whole season again. He can move to Italy and play most weeks. Reading Twitter, it seems like this extension was triggered months ago with the promise to Oli that he could go for a small fee if someone comes in for him. I doubt he’s going to stay. Let’s hope not or we’re going to struggle to achieve top 4. And then we have no shot at him. Never mind waiting means a hell of a lot more competition.

Club covering their asses in case they fail to bring in a new striker, I guess?

Every option is going to be off the table pretty quickly by the look of it. Any teeny, tiny sliver of hope for Haaland will be gone if they sell Sancho to United. So that’ll be literally every striker we’ve been linked with (Aguero, Kane, Lukaku, Haaland) out of reach before we’ve really even got started. Is that kid from Fiorentina good enough to take a punt on?

I rate Danny Ings as a decent striker for a small team. But the champions of Europe turning to Danny Ings to solve our striker problem would be pretty embarrassing. He’s not going to worry any of our domestic or CL rivals, is he? Aubameyang makes little sense to me either. He plays best in the same exact areas that Werner plays and has a pretty much identical skill set. Never mind the fact that, like Harry Kane, he’s a hated rivals’ best player so it would never happen. Lewandowski would be amazing on a 2 year deal but Bayern couldn’t replace him this summer. He’ll probably move next summer when Bayern make a play for Haaland. I’m beginning to warm to the idea of Sancho. Rotate Havertz and Werner up top and hope they really step up. Very risky but it could work. A fluid front 4 would really confuse and unsettle opponents.

Tbf, they gave Man United a clear valuation for Sancho and they fucked about all summer trying to get a discount. If they had just payed what was asked Sancho would’ve been in a red shirt already. We have to at least try here. If they say no they say no.

True, but maybe that was out of principal. Taking a stand against a domestic rival trying to take their best player. Maybe it’ll be easier to take from a foreign club? Especially during pandemic affected times. Honestly, we’re kind of fucked here in terms of options. The irony of our club being in its best position and potential in like a decade and there are no strikers available. 😂😂😂

Welp. Looks like it’s Haaland or bust, then. Kane was always impossible, Lukaku is happy being the king in Italy where he’s the main man and free of the English media criticizing him. We can now either make Dortmund an offer they can’t refuse (£150m now I think they’d reluctantly sell rather than for his small release clause next summer) or we go the Sancho route, play Havertz up top, and extend Giroud for another year. Our options are even more threadbare now.

Seeing a manager I love at a club I utterly despise. 🤢🤢🤢 Spuds are literally the opposite kind of club that suits Conte, though. How is he going to work with Levy, I wonder? No CL football to lure top players (not that they would’ve gone there anyways) and a very restrictive budget even in the best of times. This feels like the same sort of Mourinho-like desperation gamble from Spuds. Where they get themselves a top manager who is just not the correct fit for their club model. Suppose they’ll have a considerably better shot at keeping hold of Kane with Conte, though. And maybe Bale will stay another season.

Linked with Adama and Hakimi shows that Tuchel must see RJ’s long term future as a CB/RB hybrid I guess? And he wants an absolutely lightning quick RWB. I guess I’d be fine with Adama in that role if the price is right. No defense wants to see him running at them.