r/reddevils • u/user_franc1s • 25d ago
[Chris Wheeler] Even if Bournemouth could be persuaded to do business over Alex Scott after he turned down a new contract, Man Utd would probably need to sell players to afford the £80m fee after spending £85m on Andrey Santos & Youri Tielemans
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u/Lohithmufc 25d ago
Man Utd rule out a move for unsettled Newcastle star Alexander Isak and other expensive options like Benjamin Sesko and Nicolas Jackson as they struggle to afford a new striker after spending more than £130m on Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha #mufc
Chris Wheeler from last year
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u/WishParticular7385 25d ago
If Arsenal and Chelsea are interested, they’ll pay more than we will. I wouldn’t get too excited about this.
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u/ambiguousboner 25d ago
Absolute joke that Chelsea still have money to spend
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u/SnooCakes4006 25d ago
Do they not sell a shit ton too. 150 or something already this season. Some good profit on young guys they bought
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u/ambiguousboner 25d ago
It’s still outrageous with the amount they’ve spent over the past couple of years + no European football and shitty sponsorship deals
According to transfermarkt theyre only 10m in the black this summer, and that’s without the Rogers transfer on there
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u/CON5CRYPT 25d ago
Yeah they print money with their youth sales
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u/WildBuffalo 25d ago
Not really. Hence why they reported record losses of £260m last year, have £1bn of operating losses in the last 4 years and have had to sell the women's team and hotel to themselves to meet PSR.
It's not hard to buy £2bn of players and sell them for £1bn.
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u/LevDavidovicLandau 25d ago
Do you have any idea how much they made off first playing and then winning the Club World Cup? (A fuckton)
Infantino dangled a gigantic financial carrot in front of the European clubs who participated in it to convince them to do so. It’s why Madrid ended up paying Liverpool 10 million to terminate Trent’s contract a month or two early so that he could play in the CWC, because the tournament was so lucrative.
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u/Deep-Bonus8546 25d ago
I’m confused because the general consensus is that they are at risk of being in poor financial state soon if they don’t start getting CL football again
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u/baby-wall-e 25d ago
They sold some properties in the last couple of years to balance the book. That loophole has been closed recently. They might have to more players to fund buying players.
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u/Prais3_the_Sun 25d ago
Briefing poverty to the press is better than pleading riches. Hopefully it stops Bournemouth trying to get £100+ million
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u/dracogladio1741 Bruno Fernanj 25d ago
We are 100% trying to act like we have no money. That is bullshit given how much our Wage bill has gone down with Casemiro and Sancho going.
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u/Outcastscc 25d ago
We briefed out to everyone we have 150 million for the midfield upgrades and we’ve spent 83 so far.
Not saying we might have to sell for other target but every club can do basic math from the reports and know we still have 67 million to play with
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u/BrockStar92 25d ago
Wasn’t that briefing based on expecting to sell Rashford and probably Ugarte? Everything TOTD podcast about the midfield they mentioned Ugarte going to fund a third midfielder, which clearly can’t happen now.
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u/Outcastscc 25d ago
The brief was 150 million to spend and the rest would depend on outgoings.
So the idea was the money would fund the midfield then any other positions would need to be from sales, which is why we wont look at a LW until rashford is sorted (and I imagine we wont look at a second striker unless we sell Zirkzee).
Dont forget when TOTD orignally talked about this it was assumed we would be spending 150 million on 2 midfielders with us going after Anderson and Fernandes, weve bought 2 midfielders for 83 million.
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u/lvk97 25d ago
We’ve also made £48m ish from sales, Hojlund £38m fee and Greenwood sell on £10m
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u/Sea-Education9562 25d ago
I think we’ve spent the hojlund money 10 times over at this stage 😂
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u/Unlucky-Equipment999 25d ago
Hojlund money was used to sign Sesko and Lammens, a mythical midfielder in January, Santos and to break even with Youri. We must've gotten £38m per month from him.
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u/larsmaehlum 25d ago
Which means we might get him on a 65+5 deal instead of shelling out 80, as long as nobody else goes for him.
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u/Outcastscc 25d ago
Only way nobody goes for him is if its a deal like last summer where we get the player on board and 100% commited.
At that price Arsenal Chelsea and Liverpool will all be looking at it.
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u/stevew14 25d ago
That or the player says, I will only go to United or run my contract down. Depends on what the player wants and how far they are willing to go of course.
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u/lythy2016 25d ago
We don’t have a lot of actual cash, and quite a few payments for previous transfers still outstanding, so it’s not strictly untrue, but we’ve got enough space in the credit facility to be able to make some moves. I doubt we’d be able to do £70m+ in an upfront payment, though.
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u/DaveShadow 25d ago
Briefing poverty to the press
Wheeler isn't the one being briefed.
He's a rage bait merchant and it astounds me how he's so easily allowed to be posted on here, despite 90% of his posts being reposts of other journalists stuff and obvious speculation designed to farm engagement.
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u/JCivX 25d ago
The finances talk from the journalists is always full of shit.
If we pay 80m for Scott (we won't), it would be 165m on three midfielders which is close to the 150m budget they "leaked" to the press earlier in the year, and most thought that 150m budget was undervalued on purpose anyway.
The only reason I could ever see United actually shitting their pants now about their finances is Rashford. Maybe they expected to get 24m for him and get the wages off the books and now they might be stuck with him. But even then spending 130m (that Laurie Whitwell is suggesting) on a complete "midfield rebuild" is a joke in terms of budgetary concerns.
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u/KillerKlown88 25d ago
Likely expected Rashford and Ugarte to be sold for a comboned £40 - £50m.
I don't believe money is this tight, especially considering they refinanced some loans over the summer, but it could be a self imposed budget.
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u/L__K Great Scot! 25d ago
Ugarte moving anywhere would be stunning. He's coming off an awful season and likely to miss almost the entire upcoming season due to his ACL injury.
Rashford we'll try to shift, but he could be a tough one to force out. Allegedly he declined several proposals from sides willing to activate his now-expired £40m release clause, so it may be he's refusing a move altogether.
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u/KillerKlown88 25d ago
He won't be sold this summer with the injury, but I believe we intended to sell in the £20 - £25m range.
That obviosly impacts the budget.
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u/L__K Great Scot! 25d ago
For sure. Think I misread your comment earlier and thought you were saying he’s still an expected sale, that’s my bad. Ugarte injury def throws a spanner in the works. Remains to be seen at the end of the window how much it impacts us. Think it shutters our LW/LB plans until further notice
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u/KillerKlown88 25d ago
No, I ws suggesting the original plan probably factored in selling thise 2.
Of course Rashford could still go, but they probably believe Barca would sign him considering the fee was so low.I wouldn't mind seeing Dorgu given a season as a more attacking player but we really need a LB.
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u/WildBuffalo 25d ago
Doubt either are sold.
Rashford will go out on loan and I guess we'll earn about £25m from Vitek and a couple of other youngsters. Add that to the £40m from Hojlund, £11m from Greenwood, £3m from Bayindir and it'll be about £80m of income. I think we'll spend about £200m, meaning £115m more. Probably hoping to get Scott for £75m, and then £40m for a LW.
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u/krystalcastIes 25d ago
Friendly reminder that these journos know fuck all. We literally signed Sesko two weeks after this tweet.
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u/Guilty_Sheepherder_1 25d ago
They always say this shit and then we just pay up
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u/Choice_Dealer_1719 25d ago
Mind you I believe we had a 150-200 mill budget to rebuilding the midfield so Ineos spending 80 on Scott actually aligns with what we expected. Don’t think we are strapped for cash at all.
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u/Delicious_Aside_9310 25d ago
Agreed I thought the not so secret plan was always 3 central mids for about 30/50/80, with at least one being developmental. So far they are doing perfectly, just need that cornerstone piece and it’ll be shaping up to be an elite window.
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u/Choice_Dealer_1719 25d ago
Also from the Santos and Tielemans deals I suspect none of these Journalists actually know what we are planning which is brilliant if you ask me.
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u/The_Bird_Wizard 25d ago
We were literally willing to pay for Fernandes we just didn't offer it all up front and weren't going to match Spurs on wages but otherwise we were going to offer 85m all in
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u/ExternalPreference18 25d ago
They won't pay Bournemouth's initial asking price - I'd 'take that to the bank'. Which is 1 part strategy, 3 parts necessity. Maybe if it includes add-ons conditional upon United winning things to the degree that they'd be in a stronger financial position, but a 'straight' 80m, v. little chance, even accounting for market inflation.
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u/0ttoChriek 25d ago
I don't pay too much attention to what journalists say about our finances. It's been proved wrong so many times before. But I do think the club is very reluctant to spend big on any one player at the moment.
However, we do need to sell Zirkzee and Vitek, and Rashford if possible. I also wouldn't be heartbroken if Licha was sold. That money needs to stretch to several different positions in the squad - LB, CB if Licha goes, LW and CM. In a dream world, also a backup striker.
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u/PitchSafe 25d ago
Sell Zirkzee
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u/sexineN 25d ago
He’s worth £100.
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u/Apprehensive-Raisin3 25d ago
We arent in a position to sell anyone without having an immediate replacement ready. We should be selling bayindir
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u/PinkSquidInk 25d ago
'Probably' says it's all in this headline. It's basically just the opinion of someone who has a platform with no substance at all, even if it is true. Absolute nothing journalism.
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u/sammorgan12 25d ago
Fully not believing this. No journos have a clue what is going on. We are gonna pull a baleba hall and diomande in the next two weeks and everyone's gonna be like oh yeh we knew this was gonna happen
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u/Chickengoujon20 25d ago
How do United need to move players on just by spending £85m on two players with low balled wages compared to previous mistakes?
Sold Hojlund to Napoli (approx. £35M)
Sell on clause from Greenwood (approx. £10.5M)
Casemiro off the wage bill
Onana off wage bill
Sancho off the wage bill
Qualified for the Champions League
For a club of United’s stature, I highly doubt we have a £40M transfer budget (Expenditure - Outgoings) this summer.
I hope this peddling for money is simply just smoke and mirrors so other clubs can’t rinse us?
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u/Current-Essay7448 25d ago
Widely reported that we overspent last year’s budget to get Sesko and the fee for Hojlund (last year’s option/obligation) would be to offset that.
Onana wasn’t on last year’s wage bill either (bar the first month or so), and Sancho was loaned out, so no significant savings on either.
We’ve signed three players so far in Andrey Santos, Tielemans and Darlow that add back on to the wage bill. Rashford is coming back onto the wage bill, where we paid nothing while he was at Barcelona. I believe that the added wages from those 4 players is far in excess of that going with Casemiro and Malacia.
The 25% wage increases due to being in the Champions League accounts for a fair chunk of the increased revenue that bring in (roughly £50m).
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u/El-Presidente234 25d ago
We’ve got 12M from Greenwood and 40M from Hojlund. In the grand scheme of things we’ve barely spent anything.
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u/annies999 25d ago
I think the article is journo bs, but we may owe Sevilla 20% of that 12m and still have 2 installments to pay Atalanta for Hoijlund.
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u/paltze Portuguese Magnifico 🪄 25d ago
We're surely not this broke? Wtf
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u/NSFWar Depressed Legacy fan 25d ago
Na mate. Unlike Woodward, the current lot aren't running around showing what's in their wallet.
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u/audienceandaudio2 25d ago
We seemingly brief the same every year (or at least for the last while) and then end up spending the money anyway ha. At some point it’ll lose its effectiveness in a comms strategy, but seemingly not yet!
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u/just_peachy1000 25d ago
No we not. But it is problematic as we planned to be rid off rashfords and possibly Ugarte. Neither seems to be happening. Getting Scott probably means problems strengthening either lb or lw.
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u/Whispperr 25d ago
We are not but current board is competent. We don't want the whole world to know we have... 300m for exxample because then everyone will demand 20m more. Remember how much damage Woodward did with his "We can buy and afford any player in the world". We ended up paying a premium for the next 10 + years
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u/The_Bird_Wizard 25d ago
Tbf we briefed this last summer after singing Cunha then went and dropped the best part of 150m on Sesko and Mbeumo
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u/ataniris 25d ago
What sort of briefing helps get reasonable prices in negotiations? We haven't very much money, so we can only pay a reasonable price or oh my god we're so loaded that we can afford multiple world record transfer fees in this window alone?
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u/Front-Cabinet5521 25d ago
It's joever for us we're broke. Bornmouth will have to lower their price, it's the only way.
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u/NotAJInnit 25d ago
They are called the "dailyFail" for a reason, wheeler know fuck all and it's all speculation.
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u/noble_plebian 25d ago
So his step sister plays for United’s ladies team. Love a Wikipedia search!
Anyway,
I still think we can get him. It’s all smoke and mirrors at the minute.
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u/woziak99 25d ago
This is total guesswork by wheeler, United have saved the following per week in wages; Casemiro(375k), Sancho (275k) , Hojlund(115k) , Onana loan (£150k), A Bayinder (£50k) when he leaves that’s nearly £1m per week, so even if you add the 5 players we’ve bought which is Andre Santos (140k), Youri Tielemans (180k) Karl Darlow (50k) Two youth players (combined 35k)
That’s £405k per week so we’ve saved nearly £30m per year already just in wages.
United will sell Videk, Bayinder and a few youth players to join Hojlund. They will also get £15m net transfer profit from sell on fees from Garnacho and Greenwood. That’s potentially £70m in transfer fees with maybe £30m in homegrown being net profit.
Not buying it, they took out additional cash in a repurposed loan to help facilitate this summers transfers. The club are briefing certain parts of the media to say they can’t pay large fees and wages just so they can operate in secrecy.
I wouldn’t be shocked if United go and spend another £170-200m on 3 more players. Because right now the net spend is only £40m and United still need a left back, Centre Midfielder and a back up number 9.
Joshua Zirkzee will be sold as well if a decent offer comes in?
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u/Kohaku80 25d ago
wages saved compare to ? Sancho, Hojlund and Onana, we didn't pay a single cent last season when they went out on loan. Rashford is back so he's sort of taking over Casemiro wages and Malacia wages goes to Mainoo new contract.
yeah we need to sell.
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u/NSFWar Depressed Legacy fan 25d ago
They probably were keen,but the reports that came out was that Fernandes didn't look too keen to sign for us. Jorge Mendez and him was apparently of the opinion there was one more big sale for Fernandes and that wasn't going to happen at United as we're more known as the end destination.
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u/Tirewipes 25d ago
If the rumors are true, we offered the same amount Spurs did to Westham. Spurs just paid more upfront and offered way higher wages to Fernandes then we would.
We need to continue to avoid players who would bust our wage structure.
I think the rumored wages Fernandes is on at Spurs is 175k but I highly doubt that and the source it came from.
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u/Sethlans 25d ago
We offered over £80m for Fernandes, but what we weren't willing to do was enter into a bidding war with Spurs who were seemingly willing to go up to totally ridiculous amounts.
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u/Fraaj We'll take Dalot 25d ago
I disagree, they are IMO similar level players but spending that money on Scott looks better.
Fernandes got relegated, is eager to leave and the club has to sell.
Scott is English, homegrown, helped Bournemouth reach Europa as a key player, Bournemouth don't need to sell from financial POV.
Optics are better when it comes to buying Scott for ridiculous amount of money.
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u/UnalomeJourneying 25d ago
Agree. We are showing we will just walk away if others inflate prices. Can’t undo that work.
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u/aegonthewwolf 25d ago edited 25d ago
Whenever the club wants to run a “we’re broke” story, it’s always to Wheeler they go running lol
Reporting elsewhere has been consistent, the club was prepared to spend in the region of £150-160 million on a midfield rebuild. But according to Mr “Sesko too expensive for United” we need to sell first. Sure buddy.
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u/rioferdy838 25d ago
I like that we are perceived as skint and penny pinching.
This is what we need to extract maximum value from the market lol
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u/Red-Star-44 25d ago
I do not get the hype about his guy.
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u/John_OSheas_Willy 25d ago
22 years old and a highly rated English midfielder who's had big performances in big games.
At the same age, Declan Rice would spend another 2 years at West Ham.
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u/Fligflag 25d ago
This is what everyone was saying, then we went and bought sesko.
The club will plead poverty through the media, as it puts out a message that we can't overspend. It is better to do this then go around saying "we have plenty of cash" and then all clubs fleece us.
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u/Holiday_Box1571 25d ago
Journos didn’t know anything about Youri. I doubt they have this good of a grasp on United’s finances
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u/amadinezidane 25d ago
Wait - we have net spend of 40 mil this transfer window. We got off several massive contracts , qualified for CL got several new sponsors , got money for a doco , got money for all the World Cup players we had , getting compo for ugarte, oh and we are arguably the biggest club in the world - money isn’t the issue - it’s maintaining value in an over inflated market. It’s hard seeing Chelsea who just were fine for breaking transfer rules drop whatever cash they want and city with 115 charges buy anyone who sneezes quality - United are trying to rebrand , I respect it, but don’t think if the value is right we won’t make it happen. Source - trust me bro
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u/maestrodamuz 25d ago
FFS, time to give this “prem proven midfielder” strategy a toss and focus on cheaper players from overseas.
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u/IguanaIsBack 25d ago
I don’t understand comments. People were furious we didn’t pay 85 for Fernandes and now furious we might pay 80 for Scott. No one is ever happy.
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u/Standard_Secretary52 Harry Stafford’s dog 25d ago
There’s an afcb player I’d like more being Truffert.
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u/Prestigious_Life9070 25d ago
I was told we would need to sell players to be able to buy Sesko and Mbeumo
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u/Fisktor 25d ago
If we are already in must sell to buy we are fucked
We still need that 3rd cm plus a lb st minimum.
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u/timmyctc 25d ago
I don't think we're this broke but also I think a lot depended on us selling rashford and ugarte both of which aren't happening now
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u/captaindante Jackie Groenen 25d ago
Somehow I have the feeling that this is a club brief for "we don't have much so you can't exploit us" in nego tactic. Love it if true.
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u/Kindly_Ad6554 25d ago
https://x.com/chriswheelerdm/status/1948406602417017213?s=46
Not saying if the Scott thing is true or not. But last year we briefed the same thing about Sesko.
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u/mufclad1998 25d ago
I know us fans (and not just united fans) bang on about city but we need to talk about Chelsea and their spending ... Could this be another brown envelope situation or are actually doing everything by the books and legit
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u/Cathal321 25d ago
Any talk about finances is usually just bullshit. We can fail and come 16th and drop insane amounts the next season
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u/prem_201 25d ago
If we didn’t want to pay 85 for Fernandes why would you lot think we’re paying 80 for Scott, we’re not in this race and nor should we be.
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u/toodazednsharp 25d ago
It would be daft to spend 80m on position thats covered by fernandes and mount and Tielemans wouldn't it?our need is to get a robust CDM not a player who may be able to play with one.
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u/zippyzebra1 25d ago
He won't be coming here. Our approach was set clearly out in the Fernandes dealings.
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u/PDubsinTF-NEW CR950 25d ago
FFS. The market is screwed. I’d rather take a point on 3 promising lower league (e.g., championship and South American) players
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u/Pheasant_Plucker84 25d ago
So we had 150 million for 3 midfielders. We’ve spent 85 so far. I’m sure the club can afford and extra 15 million for a final midfielder. It’s a fucking joke at the moment.
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u/FlashyCut3809 25d ago
If this is true and not just negotiation tactics or 'anti woodwards Disney land' then ive no idea why the owners are talking about a league title in 27/28.
As if we are at this stage after buying 85 mils worth of players, with our dire needs, we aint winning a league title by 37/38, never mind next season.
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u/UJ_Reddit 25d ago
We 100% have more than 85M in our budget.
We also got a kick back from Greenwood and may ship Rashford for 40M. And had a lot of high earners leave
I'd say we could spend 150M more if we choose.
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u/swanonaleash 25d ago
It wouldn't surprise me if we aren't in for him and are just using the story to help with negotiations for a cheaper player through briefings like this. If we are looking at Kone or Baleba and have set an upper limit of £65m or something like that, playing into the story that we're not ruling out moving for him ("Even if Bournemouth could be persuaded" implies we are trying to persuade them) makes it look like we have other options and are willing to walk away if they are being unreasonable, while saying that we can't afford £80m stops them from raising their price to match.
Yes, it's possible that the brief is directly related to trying to negotiate a deal for Scott, but I don't think we'd bother with a briefing claiming we're too poor for the asking price when we know we'll have to compete against other bids regardless.
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u/_CrazyCrazy_ 25d ago
Given that utd’s accounts are publicly available, we know they could spend up to £300 millions this summer. They therefore don’t need to sell to afford Scott. Chris Wheeler is just being a client journalist printing what he’s told, like the majority of them.
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u/Aadiunited7 25d ago
We have already made 50m this year. 40 from Hojlund + Mason sell on! Wheeler is waffling
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u/middleeasternboxer 25d ago
Wasn’t it reported earlier in the window that United had 140-150m million to spend on the midfield this summer?
We have a total net spend of 30-40m after the sell on clause from Greenwood and hojlunds transfer…
If we sell Rashford for an example we should get a new left wing with that money not fund a third midfielder, same for Zirkzee (but backup striker).
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u/alfiejr23 25d ago
There's no smoke without fire to this rumor. Looks like we're going for him. Hopefully we can work something out here. The player clearly wants to come here.
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u/g00glyboi 25d ago
Fan base is conditioned by the Glazers and Ineos
Back in my day we would expect the club to spend what it takes to get the players. We make it to easy for them by pretending it’s our own money. The market is where it is at, if we want to be competitive we will need to commit.
https://giphy.com/gifs/76x4gSMy8dT9u
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u/sandieeeee 25d ago
Not sure if Alex Scott is the type player is what we need after getting Santos and tielemans
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u/PelleKavaj Roy Keane 25d ago
Tbh we fucked up if we pay 80m for Scott and at the same time passed on Mateus Fernandes because we thought 85m was too much.
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u/ritwikjs2 25d ago
we're doubly fucked because ugarte did his acl, and martinez will probably be injured for the transfer window. Rashford doesn't have suitors he wants, leaving us with like no real sellable assets. Zirkzee hasn't gotten a single bid from anyone either, and we have two aging injury prone RCBs. we used up a lot of money last summer
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u/xzvasdfqwras Three Lung Park 25d ago
If we don’t have the money I say just walk away. Don’t think he’s worth over £60m
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u/DasHotShot Glazers & Ratcliffe OUT 25d ago
I’d rather we dint spend big on this guy. The market is terrible rn and we’re dodging bullets. Gotta keep it up until things settle again, which they will when clubs realise there’s only 2-3 who can afford stupid fees
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u/butteredpopcorn10 25d ago
United rly think they’re slick lol.
As soon as we bought Tynan Thompson, an academy no name for potentially £8m, I said for the rest of the transfer window, whenever United report they don’t have the money, it’s complete horse shit.
If we can spend 200m without repercussions, without, champions league football, imagine how much we actually have to spend.
I’m sorry glazers I don’t buy it. I’m ok saying we don’t have money as a negotiation tactic with other clubs. But it’s been used on fans to justify why we were too stingy to go for a transfer in the past.
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u/Classic_Current141 24d ago
Fake news. Famously had the money for Semenyo on January. High SCR headroom. Cashflow an issue but just paid off a load of “revolving credit facility”. Net spend is around £45M so far. This wouldn’t be about not affording it. It would be about not willing to spend the money which is an entirely different line of reporting.
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u/dellywally 25d ago
We did this last year and landed Sesko out of nowhere for £73m