Summer 2024 Transfer Window

To add, Harwood Bellis captained england under 21s to the euros last summer. There isnt a player in that team(and most of the squad) that youd get for under 20m. Seems a bargain to me, could easily be next years jarrad branthwaite given the lack of quality in that position.

I still think it's too much money for an unproven kid playing at lower levels. Maybe that's also a wider football problem.

Especially when the club have been burnt from overpaying from the same club previously and not getting much return. The one player Maybe I'll be wrong on this, and given that more educated people than me are making the decision I probably will be. But personally I don't see the attraction with buying all the City academy players and hoping that eventually one works out. You will get burnt badly by it eventually. They should have learned their lesson with Charles, Bazunu, Larios & Edozie etc.

I wouldn't hold too much water with underage stuff really myself. I remember when Rhian Brewster was the next big thing on Merseyside, and all of the talk was about him. Top scorer at the underage World Cup, banging them in every week at club level academy games. Liverpool actually cancelled a pre-season game with Borussia Monchengladbach as they were trying to tap him up. He went on loan to the Championship in January and had a great time there, scoring double figures in his debut season. Sold to Sheffield United for big money and has scored 4 goals in 4 seasons. They got burnt badly, they tried to gamble on him transferring the underage / lower league form to the big boys league. He couldn't cut it at the top adult level. And there's plenty of examples like that, he's just the easiest one for me to talk about!

Can't afford the wages though.

I guess if the Brantwaite and DeLigt rumours are true he'd be well down the pecking order so it makes sense for him.

I'm genuinely annoyed United aren't after him. Would have been my first choice cm target to partner mainoo.

He’s only young so has upside, and from a brief video of seeing how he dealt with a dopey English journalist calling him the wrong name, he seems like a good lad. Martinez picks him for Belgium, but I don’t give that much weight because he’s a poor manager (similar to Koeman picking Weghorst ahead of Zirkzee).

Personally, I think he is well over rated. And he was dropped by Everton for the run-in due to his poor form. And as soon as he was dropped Everton’s results improved.

Yes, but he has to select him for Belgium to leave room for Ronaldo. 😉

Thanks.
But point stands that just because an international manager picks you (esp when that team doesn’t perform) doesn’t mean you are a great player. £50m for a player who, when everyone was fit, wasn’t good enough to get into a mediocre Everton team is not what I’d call a great signing. It’s a big money gamble that a different manager will be able to fulfill an apparent potential. It may, or may not, work out.

To be fair, for €50m you don't want to be taking gambles. You want to have a solid, reliable player who is going to be starting most weeks. Bordering on being a star player.

50m doesn't raise an eyebrow now, especially from a premier league club.

The £50m only sounds big because it's Villa, but they're a Top 4 team right now and it's right in line with Top 4 spending.

Man City do have those €50m players on the bench - namely Grealish but also Doku (young age but only started 20 games), Nunes & Philips.

Arsenal had Partey left out of the squad for whatever reason that is not publicly disclosed and Gabriel Jesus was moved to a more rotational role this season as Havertz took the main role up front. Although he was a big hamstrung by a couple of small injuries he still made the squad for 76% of all Arsenal games but only started 41%.

Liverpool wouldn't really have €50m signings on the bench. Possibly one or two at the end of last season when out of form/recovering from injury but they would have started the vast majority of available games. Liverpool have only ever bought 6 players in their history over €50m anyways, and 1 of them has already left the club.

Man Utd do seem to have a few in that position and while they did have injury problems, you don't get the impression that any of Maguire, AWB, Casemiro, Sancho, Mount, Antony, Martial or Hojlund are guaranteed starters for the club. I'm sure some Man Utd fans will disagree on some of them, particularly Hojlund, and that's fine but I would have most of them as bench / rotational players if I was manager if not all.

Given that Villa had their own PSR worries, I think that this is massive outlay and basically spending the money received for Douglas Luiz for his replacement directly and so should be expected to be into the midfield as a guaranteed starter, given Douglas Luiz's standing in the Villa squad last year. I understand that you do need to upgrade the squad overall and bring in more bodies to compete with the CL demands rather than the EC demands and that brings it's own difficulties. I just think that this is over-paying and that a better alternative could have been found.

Dunno. Neither is a confirmed transfer as per the internet as of yet. Maybe then they will get some traction.

You do know the only thing worse than being talked about, right?

Had Yoro not stated he'd prefer Real Madrid?

the money Real were offering was never acceptable to Lille, so United had to bid more for a bid to be accepted.

I do think we are overpaying though.

As for him being on a free next summer, that doesnt matter to united. if he had ended up on a free he would have gone to madrid, imo. So we had to buy him this summer if we were ever going to get him.

I do think if Yoro had said 100% he was going to Madrid, Lille may have caved to a lower bid from Madrid - rather than lose him for free. maybe around 35m or so, but United were also never going to have that leverage.

I like the signing, but I don't think it is an amazing signing for United - not just at the cost, but because I think there are better CBs around for less money now. The money we are spending now is in the belief/hope that he will be truly elite in a few years - which requires good coaching (not a strength of United) and also a belief he will stay at United rather than pushing for Madrid in a couple of years.

Plattenburg is saying the wages are 115K rising to 135K a week. If that was Woodford he'd have just offered him 200K a week straight.

Real spent 70 on endrik after a handful of matches.

I think it's fair to assume that most people here wouldn't have heard of Leny Yoro before the last 2 weeks, let alone seen him play. I am certainly in that boat. Which makes the massive fee a bit more difficult to understand as usually with these big emerging talents are being talked about during the season etc. Maybe I'm wrong here but usually when a player like him is playing against an English side in Europe there is lots of talk about them in the build up - eg a 19 year old Haaland when he was playing against Liverpool in the Champions League.

When I'm looking at the data on him, it looks like Yoro is excellent on the ball. A brilliant passer of the ball (in terms of passes completed percentage) and also strong in the numbers of passes attempted. Quantity and quality there, but across a wide range of passes, so he is not just keeping it safe with 5 yard passes.

He also seems to be quite comfortable at carrying the ball too. Which shows somewhat of a maturity / confidence of knowing when to carry and when not to, seeing as he completes the majority of these.

But the big worry I would see jumping out at me is his reluctance, as a CB, to try and win aerial duels or tackles in general. There is already one of these at the club that is heralded by Man Utd fans although he is a lot better at the ground stuff than Yoro is. He only wins 1.5 header per game. Of course this could be caveated by play style at Lille but this data makes him sound like he is a backup for Martinez instead of a partner. He doesn't exactly scream defender defender whereas the top CBs across Europe can do the defending but also pick a pass, not just adept at one or the other.

He's young. There is plenty of room for him to develop further with top class coaching.

Top class coaching hasn't been seen at united in years so fingers crossed times are changing.

Lille wanted money for him this summer if he wouldn't sign a new contract.

If he was good enough you could have seen him play beside Rudiger or Milato for Real given they can't play every game.

I think Yoro wll be an excellent signing, but I don't think he will look an excellent signing this season - and I worry about him being torn apart by the press if/when a guy like Haaland or Toney or Nunez (or any quick, physical striker) dominates him; which is bound to happen. He has an amazing toolset but doesn't have the muscle or experience yet, and that will be exposed at times.

As things stand, I would argue Maguire should be first choice ahead of him.

You'd think not - but then with the current CBs, EtH doesn't like to play a high line if Maguire or Lindelof or Evans are playing - so if he wants to play a high line then Yoro has to start.

Its why I think we should be selling either Lindelof or Maguire and then bringing in De Ligt (the most linked other CB) which would enable us to rotate more easily between De Ligt, Martinez and Yoro.

As it is, if we don't start Yoro, the tactics (or what I assume the tactics will be) would fundementally need to change.

Also, we could very well have sold him on the idea of coming to United now rather than commiting to Real Madrid and signing them for free next season if Lille didn't accept a much lower offer than United's this summer - which was a distinct option for him (and the one I assumed he would pick).

Agreed on all counts.

But I think we may not move for De Ligt until we sell Maguire or Lindelof (I think Lindelof is more sellable, lower value, lower wages, more likely to have suitors around europe and being happy to travel - I imagine the transfer fee United would want for Maguire, his wages and maybe wanting a higher tier club/league make him difficult to shift).

Personally I think United need to look at a midfielder next because no matter who the CB partnership is, if it is Casemiro in front of them they are set up for failure.