Manxst

Aye, righto….Like those quality players Ferguson signed like Kleberson, Taibi, Powell, Djemba-Djemba, Veron, Bebe, Prunier, Tosic, Bellion, Ljajic, Obertan, Fangzhuo…

For the money…who would you go for?

I wanted Ten Hag here but don’t know whether he’ll be a success at Man Utd or not. With us he would’ve been given responsibilities and allowed to do his own thing. If it’s true that the board at ManUtd sign players based on twitter trending and therefore possible commercial success, I can’t see it working long term. As Van Gaal says, they’re a commercial club whose priority is on the stock exchange, not predominantly on the pitchside.

Be a shame he won’t be playing in England next year. Great and completely underrated player.

Jurrien Timber if anyone, I reckon.

We’ll see on the likes of Zapata. I’ve read several reports recently about wanting to lower the age of the squad, as well as targeting younger up and coming players. I think older players were needed in the Jan window to make an instant impression, but with safety nearly guaranteed, we will want players to grow with the club now and see their best years with us, rather than being brought in at the back end of careers.

Zapata turned 31 at the start of this month. I can’t see us shelling out for a striker on a hefty contract, who will have turned 32 before the end of next season, and who relies on pace and physicality for his successful characteristics. the likes of Antony are currently on £20k pw and a move to the PL would see them quadruple or more their present salary- it’s a no brainer for them and certainly achievable for us, in the same way Bruno came. We were lucky to get him, but I don’t see him as an exception. The issue we have is other teams providing competition to us who may be able to offer European football and chance of immediate silverware. It seems that we snuck in under Arsenals nose for Bruno so potentially were the only bidder- that’s unlikely to happen in the summer for our targets, and those players you’ve mentioned- however, they’re all certainly achieveable imo, especially if the club ‘gets sold’ to them in terms of our future plans, as Bruno himself was.

Heard the Don and the Kid might be up for selling the club marra….The Lads and the Frenchies can’t both be in the CL with the same owner, obviously…

You don’t say… https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/cristiano-ronaldo-new-documents-emerge-in-rape-allegations-a-1241349-amp.html

Wonder whatever happened to all the letters they (at Grumpy’s suggestion) wrote to Companies House to try and get the takeover banned… ???

No one. Can do infinitely better elsewhere.

I know. That was my point, although granted Targett is a few years younger (Bridge was 29 when he joined Man City for 12m) and not an international per se.

Aye, 200k pw until 2025 supposedly

Arsenal/Legoheed must be kicking themselves, especially given results for them recently. I think they just took it for granted that he would join them.

Can’t see a Bridge type going for over 30m when Targett can be got for 15m? Anyway, hope that you’re right- I’m sure we’ll have a good summer whatever happens. ?

Only 61 days until we find out…

Man City bought the likes of Bellamy, Bridge etc in the year after their takeover, then spent more in the following years once the club grew as a result. It’s impossible to go and spend all the money in one go like you’re suggesting- for one thing, most ‘elite level’ players (Haaland, Mbappe etc) wouldn’t go near us right now, despite the cash available, as they would have better offers elsewhere. We MIGHT have a chance with the likes of Nunez, but even he will probably have better offers in terms of established teams wanting him, and look to go there rather than to us. The 20-30 bracket are those players who might well be elite players in a few years, and can grow with us- the Raphinhas etc. Sprinkle those with a 40m Bruno here and there, and the future of the club will be good going forward.

And ‘exceptions’ are one or two players. I gave you a substantial list. Given we need squad wide improvement in nearly every area, I simply can’t see the club spending £50m+ for everything we need. We need to keep decent money back for improvement the year or two after, when we are (hopefully) in Europe, getting established as a top team/club, and have the draw for the mega money players you want us to sign. Right now I’d say we aren’t.

The point being, that you said we couldn’t get ANY decent players for those prices. Obviously there will be players in that bracket who aren’t particular good and clubs have overpaid for, but that’s the point of decent scouting.

Odegaard, Cucurella, Tomiyasu, Cornet, Daka, Bentacur, Kulusevski, Mendy, Eze, Raphina, Thiago, Tsimikas, Walker-Peters have all been signed within the last year or two, were all within the 20-30m bracket and all would improve us. It’s easy to splash mega money on players but a decent scouting setup will go a long way to prevent us blowing money simply for the sake of it. Granted, at some point we’ll have to spend past that bracket on a regular basis simply to keep improving, but I don’t think we have to unless an exceptional deal becomes available, or if we (for example) wanted a ‘guaranteed’ 20 goal striker.

Was very highly rated iirc and got a few team records (youngest scorer, youngest player etc). Exorbitant fee though.

Would obviously love it, but can’t see us spending the kind of cash needed to get all those at once. You think the club would also purchase some young potential players on top of that too?

You just know that Warnock would’ve postponed his retirement especially for us…

£35m, after he’d played all of 12 games for Porto and one goal…

“Tottenham have two clauses to buy Dejan Kulusevski from Juventus as part of their loan deal for the midfielder. Spurs paid €10m (£8.3m) in January to borrow Kulusevski until June 2023, and are due to pay the Sweden international’s wages in full over that season and a half. But there is an option to turn the move into a permanent transfer this summer for €30m. The option will remain valid the following summer unless the second clause – a €35m mandatory buy clause – comes into play. That will be activated at the end of the 2022-23 season if two conditions are met during the campaign: that Kulusevski plays in 50% of the team’s Premier League matches for at least 45 minutes, and Spurs qualify for the Champions League.”