manera

6h

What makes you say that in regards to the board?

I would've preferred an Elliot Anderson, Bruno G or a Tchouameni type s-tier superstar signing in the midfield vs what we did, but I also think it's pretty fair to say we aren't exactly THERE yet.

There's still a lot to figure out with the players we have (can Kobbie be the kind of player we build a team around, does Amad have a future with us, how good are Yoro and Heaven, etc) and it makes sense to build the base of the squad out first, imo.

Last season's transfer window was objectively amazing too

ANTI

2h

Copy/pasting my post from the other day:

Santos has looked good in the preseason so far and the Tielemans deal was a pretty pleasant surprise but I’m not going to give INEOS any credit for essentially being shrinking violets all window.

The notion that “we’re being smart” is an idiotic one. We are being comfortably outspent by every other team in the big six FOR PLAYERS THAT WE WANTED, and it’s gotten to the point where every other big six club has at least two to three big money flops attached to them (or has had in recent years) but of course your Jamie Carragher’s will ignore that in favor of bringing up United signings from a decade ago. Only our spending comes under scrutiny, even in hypothetical scenarios.

Santos and Tielemans weren’t beginning of window priorities, they were mid window pivots after we pulled out of or were outbid on our actual priorities.

It was not an attacked or pursued strategy, nothing they’ve done since taking over the club has been. I sometimes wonder what the window last summer would’ve looked like had Cunha, Mbeumo and Sesko not rejected the other clubs interested in them.

I can’t help but think about who our manager would be right now had Carrick been worse last season and not done their job for them.

And now to add to that with Baleba. This is again a player who we know was desperate to play for us, a player who, after a very poor season had no other clubs seriously pursuing him, and is significantly cheaper now. Why is this deal happening in August after literal weeks of nothing?

If this deal happens in late June or early July and the club sends the message of, “We think last season was an anomaly, this is the player we want and have always wanted” then great, I have nothing to complain about. But it’s instead happening in mid-August just days before the start of the season. I’ll fall short of calling it desperate but it very much feels like they’ve settled. The midfield market at this price range is still pretty rich, especially across Europe. To the extent they pursued that market we’ll never know, but past experience with this board would likely suggest not very much. They instead go for the gurarantee.