Yeah. Another $80MM CB.

Maybe just maybe the new guys are better at making deals than the old guys.

Well being good at deals means being good at walking away from deals. Which we aren't in the past. I'll admit 35M is a little low for a homegrown international. But if you say "35M" and Everton says "70M" and you then say "40M" and they say "70M" you have to say at some point "we are actually walking away" and do it rather than panicking in the last week of the window and paying 80M or 90M, which we like to do.

They have to get away from doing transfer deals after the quarterly financials and dividend payout. That gets them stuck and up against the pay wall where teams know they can just say "you are United and the league starts next week so pay up chumps".

Ratcliffe's deal with the Gkazers said there would be no dividends for four years (I think he wasn't very excited putting new capital into the club if the Glazers could just pay that new equity out to themselves as dividends). I think. I'm going off memory.

I don't think our habit of waiting to the end of the transfer window is financial. I think Joel Glazer is just really indecisive, and he required his approval for each bid. So we'd make a bid, it would get rejected, and he'd delay making a decision on whether to re-bid for days. United's fiscal year ends June 30 every year. Granted, we usually don't do much in June, but we also don't tend to do a whole lot more in July.

Presumably Wilcox would have agreed to make this offer which means at least there's a chance this back and forth will go differently. Hopefully they have multiple 2nd offers ready to send depending on Everton's response and send it soon after. Whatever the outcome ends up being, it should take a week to get there not a month.

Ahh the annual "young player tax" " homegrown tax" and "United tax" time of the year. My fav

Alright...let's have some nonsense transfer rumors while we (or at least I) wait for some more Euros action.

United are being connected again with Goncalo Inacio specifically as an alternative to Branthwaite. Both are left footed...Inacio is a tad bit older. Inacio has a release clause of 50 million GBP. Part of me hope it happens if only to show that United have changed and won't just up-bid over the course of months and end up paying Everton's absurd 75 million GBP demand for Branthwaite.

I missed it but ETH was apparently on the pre-game show here before the England/Serbia game. They asked him a lot of United questions but don't think he revealed anything new. He did say something to the effect "Yes, United told me they spoke to Tuchel but then decided they already had the best manager."

Fixtures are out. First 3 games to start the season before the 1st international break:

Fulham (H)
Brighton (A)
Liverpool (H)

Not exactly easing into it if you ask me.

Playing 2 matches at home and two matches against clubs with new managers in your first three doesn't sound too bad to me. Probably a good time to face Brighton and Liverpool.

That's a fair glass is half full argument.

Casemiro and others may not like ETH but the future clearly does...

🔴 Kobbie Mainoo: “I am so grateful for Erik ten Hag, I can't thank him enough”.

“He's already got two trophies, hopefully there are more to come”.

“It is nice to have that peace of mind, we know what manager we are going back to in the new season”. pic.twitter.com/OjdZQWmPNu

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 18, 2024

Ornstein posted an article about United pushing Zirkzee at Bologna, striker with a 34M release clause. I've personally watched about zero minutes of Bologna, but he's at about the right kind of price.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5572588/2024/06/18/man-united-joshua-zirkzee-transfer/

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5569696/2024/06/18/joshua-zirkzee-transfer-man-united/?source=twitteruk&utm_campaign=twitterfc&utm_medium=social

A pretty in depth article on his skillset. Sounds like he plays best as a false 9/second striker. Not a prolific scorer (though double digit goal return in Serie A isn't shabby) but very good technically and good at bringing others into the game. I would guess he would occupy a lot of the same space that Bruno currently occupies...my guess is that he would have more freedom to roam and make more runs into the box and play off Zirkzee. Sounds like the type of striker that maybe adds a modest amount of goals to the team on his own but enables others to score more like Bruno and the wingers.

Don't know how you would play Zirkzee and Hojlund at the same time without playing Bruno out of position or just not starting him.

All he provides is depth. You can't play him and Hojlund at the same time.

They need to find an ambidextrous RW. Young and not expensive would be a bonus.

I think he's basically the backup striker; since we only have one, it's probably a pretty good idea to get one so we don't just pretend Mctominay is a striker because he's tall and can score a goal.

The odd thing is he was linked to AC Milan, which needs a starting striker. So I'm not quite sure what's happening there.

Not to split hairs but I don't know that he would be a backup striker in that I don't think he would always be 2nd choice to Hojlund. I think Hojlund played far more than United actually wanted him to and ideally United want another option who is good enough to get 20-30 games (across all comps). He's clearly a very different striker to Hojlund and I don't think that's an accident. Besides, probably not a bad thing to get a player who could also actually give Bruno a bit of a rest before his body explodes at age 30.

I mean if Hojlund starts scoring a goal every game then yeah, Zirkzee's time would likely be limited to backup minutes. But seems like he could bring a lot of tactical flexibility which could very likely earn him significant time.

No Todibo per Fabrizio Romano.

🚨 EXCL: Jean-Clair Todibo deal for Man United is currently off and highly unlikely due to UEFA rules.

Talks were advanced with all parties keen for months but Nice and Man Utd with same ownership playing same European competition next season means no green light. pic.twitter.com/fQPU8qr5BT

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 19, 2024

Isn't City buying a wonder kid from Girona this summer? How does this kill our deal with Nice, but City buying from Girona is no big deal? (Or is it a problem for them as well?)

Edit: I just posted his tweet without looking at his replies; apparently I have the same question as most United fans lol)

I guess this is why he hasn't been in the rumor mill much recently. And maybe even why Ratcliffe is selling Nice.

This situation is so weird for y'all.

Leipzig gets a ton of players from Salzburg.

Ineos isn't even a majority owner of MU either...

Ratcliffe confirmed the Todibo situation in a Bloomberg interview. I really wish that Man United bias that everyone has been screaming about for the last 30 years was more effective.

Btw, in case anyone was wondering, Manchester City made Savio's parent club a Ligue 2 side they owned (which obviously couldn't make champions league) and then loaned him immediately.

How many games has he played for his parent club, you may ask? Zero. After two seasons. And he's a Brazil international. I think we can all see what's going on there. Great rule making, UEFA.

It seems like we've been out of the running for a while, but David Ornstein is reporting that Michael Olise will be going to Bayern.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5582013/2024/06/21/michael-olise-bayern-munich-transfer/?source=user_shared_article

deadbq03 said:

---

This situation is so weird for y'all.

Leipzig gets a ton of players from Salzburg.

---

Well, I can explain this now. I learned the rule in question is new, as of summer 2023… so Leipzig got away with it in the past, but probably won't be able to do it anymore in the future.

They can just make anyone they might want to move from Salzburg to Leipzig technically NY Red Bulls players and then loan them to Salzburg. Then if you want them to go to Leipzig, you have no problem. Like how City did it.

The more I think about it, the more it strikes me as an extremely weird rule that only exists to provide a perception of fairness to the multi-club ownership model. Why is it not OK for Nice to sell to Man United when they play in the same European competition but it is OK when they play in different ones? I mean if the fear is that Nice will sell Todibo to United at cut rate prices or in another unfair manner and ruin the integrity of the Europa League, would that not ruin the integrity of two different European competitions if United were in the CL or Conference League?

It's like they knew they couldn't stop multi-club ownership, knew they couldn't impose any league restrictions to the multi-club owners, and so they decided to do some half-assed rule to appear like they're tough against multi-club owners because it was what they could do but they didn't even do as much as they could have done.

Yoro has told Real Madrid that he wants to join them. Was expected but now official it seems. Well the contract isn't but his intent is.

Apparently United are close to signing Zirkzee for 34 million. Would be a pretty sensible signing all things considered if it happens.

Romano reporting that United are trying to add Ruud van Nistelrooy to the coaching staff. He's also been linked with the Burnley job. Kind of weird he hasn't been linked with bigger jobs. He did pretty well in his one season at PSV...granted they even better after he left but they also added a lot of talent after he left.

If nothing else, I hope that this disturbingly boring display by England have convinced the new owners that Southgate should never be considered for a future United job. I get it...international soccer isn't club soccer. His club team might play and look better than his international team. But god this is dire and there's nothing in these performances to suggest he should be given a manager role at United.

I kind of don't want to see United players playing, oddly enough. For Shaw, I don't want him to rush coming back and get another injury like he did in late winter early spring. For Mainoo… I just love him so much that I don't want him to get any England stench on him. Let Trent, Foden and Gallagher take the English press blame game.

Completely agree. Shaw training but not playing is probably the best thing you could ask for as a United fan. Mainoo needs some rest and has mostly gotten it although I think it's very likely to start England's Rof16...unless Southgate pushes Foden into midfield and starts Gordon.

Hojlund is unsurprisingly getting a lot of minutes with Denmark which I don't love. Eriksen is too though that's not a bad thing. Lisandro getting minutes with Argentina is probably a net positive given that he missed a very large part of last season. Garnacho is unlikely to see a lot of minutes which is another plus. All in all, United players are getting (or not getting) the minutes I would want them to get as a United fan.

Ornstein reporting that Marseille is interested in Greenwood and that Greenwood favors them over other options. The most that Marseille has spent in recent years is 32 million EUR on Vitinha and they typically max out around 20 million in a given season. Which is to say I highly doubt that United are going to get their 40 million GBP asking price out of Marseille. Maybe they'd go for 30 million plus a sell-on clause but even that would push Marseille to near record transfer levels.

https://www.skysports.com/football/live-blog/11095/13025492/man-utd-transfer-news-rumours-and-gossip-live-updates-and-latest-on-deals-signings-loans-and-contracts

Noise around naming rights for OT.

Many years ago Bowen Loftin spoke to my Rotary Club and the question of athletic funding came up and sources of alternate funding. He said that the naming rights to Kyle Field were always on the table and they would listen to any reasonable offer provided the opening bid started at half a billion dollars.