Summer Transfer Window 2017/18 - Rumours & Signings

Lovren's odd - he either plays really well or terribly. If we do end up paying £50m for VVD then we'd have spent not far off £150m signing players from Southampton - we could have bought the entire club for not much more than that.
 
The Griezmann situation is an odd one. It sounds like he really cares about Atletico and doesn't want to weaken them by leaving, but realistically there's no way Atletico can challenge Barca and Real next season now that the other two are free to strengthen and they can't. I don't buy the story coming out of United that they want to find a more direct replacement for Ibra, they've known the situation with Ibra for weeks now, it wouldn't make sense for them to suddenly change their mind on Griezmann. My thinking is that maybe Griezmann is less sure about leaving and/or Atletico are demanding too much of the fee upfront and United are publicly distancing themselves to avoid embarrassment.

According to the BBC sport article I read today United think they already have enough quality at the number ten position. I completely disagree with that, I can't see how United can think they can challenge for the PL and CL with the current quality in those attacking positions. Lingard is currently pretty average with some potential for improvement, Mkhi was very up and down last season, Mata is clinical and scores important goals but has weaknesses, and Martial is more of a striker/winger than a number ten.
 
nicktay2605 said:
The Griezmann situation is an odd one. It sounds like he really cares about Atletico and doesn't want to weaken them by leaving, but realistically there's no way Atletico can challenge Barca and Real next season now that the other two are free to strengthen and they can't. I don't buy the story coming out of United that they want to find a more direct replacement for Ibra, they've known the situation with Ibra for weeks now, it wouldn't make sense for them to suddenly change their mind on Griezmann. My thinking is that maybe Griezmann is less sure about leaving and/or Atletico are demanding too much of the fee upfront and United are publicly distancing themselves to avoid embarrassment.

According to the BBC sport article I read today United think they already have enough quality at the number ten position. I completely disagree with that, I can't see how United can think they can challenge for the PL and CL with the current quality in those attacking positions. Lingard is currently pretty average with some potential for improvement, Mkhi was very up and down last season, Mata is clinical and scores important goals but has weaknesses, and Martial is more of a striker/winger than a number ten.
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Agreed. I don't see what would be wrong with signing Griezmann and a no. 9? Our no. 10's aren't particularly great at the very highest level. Griezmann can play as a 9 anyway, albeit not Mourinho's sort of 9.

Zlatan is probably going, and so is Rooney. That makes room for two expensive and high wage players in the 9/10 positions.

The reality is, no matter how much the likes of Martial may come good, a good portion of our forward line either aren't performing well or Mourinho doesn't rate/like them.

I think he might start playing Pogba as a 10 though, would make sense. I have major concerns about all of: Mkhitaryan, Mata, Lingard and Martial, for one reason or another. Rashford isn't really ready to be a no. 9 in every game, it's too much pressure on him too soon, great though he is.
 
The whole Griezmann situation never made complete sense to me. First of all, since when has he been a number 10? Maybe I'm wrong but I've always seen him predominantly as a centre forward and that's where I saw the problem. It's no surprise to me that Mourinho's main focus is replacing Zlatan - I mentioned it in regards to Rashford's long term future/position, Mourinho likes having a big, powerful centre forward in his sides and Griezmann isn't that.

You've then got the defensive midfield question - assuming Utd do sign a DM this summer that surely means Utd playing a 4-3-3 or Pogba moving into a number 10 role more often in a 4-2-3-1. You'd then be shoehorning Griezmann into the side in a wider role - paying that sort of fee for a player and then playing them out of position doesn't make a lot of sense.
 
Looking at other mentioned targets, Mourinho seems to want Lukaku (or Belotti) as a striker, and Matic for DM.

I've not seen Belotti, but Raiola has mentioned Everton will listen to £100m offers for Lukaku - a player who wants to leave. Now, don't get me wrong, Lukaku is a very good striker, but he's also a bit of a flat track bully. He hasn't often impressed me in big games. That's not to say he won't get better, especially with superior players, but I have some minor reservations. I expect Spurs would probably want even more than that for Kane.

Matic again, good player, not amazing but a decent holding midfielder who pops up with the odd goal too. Him and Pogba would be a serious physical pair in midfield. Would Chelsea sell him to us at a fair price? Almost certainly not.

Beyond that, another attacking priority should be a winger of some description. A very fast, direct player who can stretch teams, we don't have one of those, except maybe Lingard, who isn't good enough.

And a defender or two, but one thing at a time. :p
 
Raiola's comments were quite telling - nobody will sell to Utd for a fair price. As he said, as soon as a PL club comes knocking the price goes up and that's never been truer than with Utd. You asked the question why Utd can't sign Griezmann and a striker but you've explained why yourself. A centre forward is going to cost you a bomb, you then need a winger, DM, fullback, centre back and possibly a keeper too - it's going to cost a lot to buy all that.

You're not getting Kane, I only mentioned him earlier to wind CM up. Lukaku seems unlikely too - talk for a while now is he's Chelsea bound and you have to remember he left Chelsea under Mourinho because he wasn't getting enough chances. I've not seen much of Belotti but Morata must be an option - he's available and fits the bill.
 
Belotti looks like a poacher who is strong and very good in the air. A bit of a 'traditional' number 9. The PL is a big step up though, so he'd be a gamble.

As you say, Mourinho never seemed that keen on Lukaku, he's not a massively different player now.

I like Morata, but he's at a club who will be deliberately awkward as they likely will want our goalkeeper. Great.

We've got quite a gap to bridge in order to challenge for the league and certainly Champions League. I would have thought Griezmann could play on either wing and behind the striker, or indeed as the striker. He's pretty versatile, even if he's not an out and out winger type player.

Then there's Mbappe of course, but the prices being talked about for him are staggering (£100m+) and he's not 19 until December. Huge risk and we have Rashford who is along the same sort of lines.
 
I don't even understand why we'd want Lukaku. Certainly not for the ridiculous fees mentioned.

I need to stop listening to the rumour mill, it's just depressing. Hope we pull a Bailly type out of nowhere signing at some point because the people we're linked with are either unlikely or just don't improve us at all.
 
As long as we are not complete set on getting a particular player I don't see why we should be paying any more than most other clubs for players. They have the choice of getting a large amount of money for a player or nothing if they don't sell. If they want ridiculous money then tell them to do one and we look elsewhere.
 
The concern and the focus has to be on scoring goals, we were way behind our rivals in the PL in terms of goals scored. Yes, we probably do need a LB and maybe a CB, but generally our defence was solid last season. We only conceded 29 goals last season - second best behind Spurs - but scored 30+ less goals than Spurs and Chelsea, so clearly goalscorers are the priority. I'd love to sign Griezmann, but 16 goals and 8 assists in La Liga isn't massive, and he'd likely score less in the PL. Couple that with potentially losing Ibra's goals and it's clear that Griezmann alone was never going to be the solution. I'm sure United were aware that we'd need a no.9 as well as Griezmann, which is why I thought it was odd that United are suddenly distancing themselves from him. I don't think buying Griezmann and someone like Bellotti or Morata would be a problem financially either, a large chunk of Griezmann's transfer fee has already been accounted for with the sales of Schneiderlin and Depay, plus the money from winning the Europa League. Also, if we can get Ibra and Rooney off the books that frees up a huge amount of money in salaries.

In terms of the strikers we've been linked to I'm not convinced by Lukaku for the sort of money they are talking about. He's a very good striker but anything close to £100 million seems excessive, plus I question why Mourinho would want to sign a player he let go and whether Lukaku would want to play for Mourinho. I think Bellotti or Morata are the best options. It sounds like Mbappe is set on going to Real and I wouldn't want United to pay £100 million or more for him. He's class, but he's only a teenager and still has some way to go before being worth that sort of money imo.
 
Goalscorers are the priority, but not the only priority. They wouldn't have helped in any of the matches against the other clubs in the top 6 last season where we created nothing. Lukaku is alright but his attitude stinks, he's been booed by his own fans twice against us and shouted at by his own teammates once.
 
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