This appears to be the latest answer (bit of a non-answer):

Ten Hag on Rashford/Antony injury scares. “We don’t take risks in the last game of the tour going into the season next week … we are still 24 hours after a game. The final assessment we have to make and we will see if they are ready for the game against Liverpool on Saturday”

— James Ducker (@TelegraphDucker) August 2, 2024

Doesn't sound too serious if they are being considered for the weekend.

Rashford starting which is good to see.

Antony not starting which is also good to see.

AWB starting which is a bit curious if you believe the imminent move to West Ham rumors.

Wow. Casemiro fall continues.

Sounds like Sancho will be starting at forward against City. Can only assume that, other than Zirkzee, the late additions to training will start against City. Ironic that the players who went to the Euros all returned unscathed when several of the ones who attended the bulk of the pre-season training got injured.

I would quibble with that a bit. I saw the quote. It was in response to a question of whether Sancho COULD start at striker, and he said yes (basically) but then said something about how Zirkzee had just arrived at Carrington and it depends on training. A lot of people are just starting training, though, but I'll go out on a limb and say Bruno is starting even if he took this week off and started training next week. Not that that's the same, but I'm just saying.

I think it will obviously be either Sancho or Zirkzee, but I think it could go either way. I think we'll know a whole lot more after the Community Shield (I would expect Sancho to start there; if he doesn't then this would be pure manager-speak).

Ornstein reporting that Dumfries won't discuss Inter contract until after the transfer season. Likely to be a "trade" of sorts of AWB for Dumfries if West Ham doesn't work out for AWB.

lol this club was run like a 6 yr old playing FM before Ineos showed up

Unlike previous years, Utd are very willing sellers this summer. They want to bring in more players, they know they need too but selling players with a year to go on their contracts is not that easy or lucrative. A number of Utd players negotiated a clause in their contract that…

— Pilib De Brún (Phil Brown) (@Malachians) August 6, 2024

Chris Wheeler reporting that the current OT plan is to build a new 100,000 seat stadium adjacent to the existing stadium and then reduce the size of the current stadium to 30,000 and use it for the women's team and the youth teams. They would keep all of the historical elements of the current stadium (statues, Munich clock, etc.) but change it back to a single tier stadium.

Sounds extraordinarily expensive but if they can manage it, that would be pretty damn cool if you ask me.

Dre_00 said:

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Chris Wheeler reporting that the current OT plan is to build a new 100,000 seat stadium adjacent to the existing stadium and then reduce the size of the current stadium to 30,000 and use it for the women's team and the youth teams. They would keep all of the historical elements of the current stadium (statues, Munich clock, etc.) but change it back to a single tier stadium.

Sounds extraordinarily expensive but if they can manage it, that would be pretty damn cool if you ask me.

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love the idea. but yea sounds expensive for sure.

Dre_00 said:

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Chris Wheeler reporting that the current OT plan is to build a new 100,000 seat stadium adjacent to the existing stadium and then reduce the size of the current stadium to 30,000 and use it for the women's team and the youth teams. They would keep all of the historical elements of the current stadium (statues, Munich clock, etc.) but change it back to a single tier stadium.

Sounds extraordinarily expensive but if they can manage it, that would be pretty damn cool if you ask me.

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I'd love to see the financial model of something like that...has to be at least 10-15 years before anything like that would have a positive return

Please, this is sports we're talking about. US isn't the only place where public money is liberally used under the auspices of public development so that rich owners can build massive stadiums. They're already fessing up to the fact that they won't have enough money on their own to do it. There's a reason they are already referring to it as the "Wembley of the North".

Ineos will get their money back and relatively quickly or else they won't do it.

Dre_00 said:

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Please, this is sports we're talking about. US isn't the only place where public money is liberally used under the auspices of public development so that rich owners can build massive stadiums. They're already fessing up to the fact that they won't have enough money on their own to do it. There's a reason they are already referring to it as the "Wembley of the North".

Ineos will get their money back and relatively quickly or else they won't do it.

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Good point, I actually didn't know how much they use taxpayer money over in Europe vs here

I know Zirkzee is not a pure goal scorer who is likely to give you 15+ league goals but getting a 23 year old forward for 40 million EUR is extremely pleasing after seeing some of the prices being paid for other forwards. West Ham paid a similar amount for a 31 year old Fullkrug and Tottenham are about to pay 65 million GBP (!) for a 26 year old who has had exactly one good season in the top flight.

It's not exactly comparable because Solanke has 10M GBP in add-ons and I don't think there are add-ons in Zirkzee's fee because it was based on the release clause. And the Zirkzee fee doesn't include the agent fee (nor Solanke's, but we have reason to think Zirkzee's agent fee was higher since it was the sticking point for AC Milan.

That being said, Solanke's had one good year at top flight level. Seemed like they way overpaid to me.

Romano reporting that West Ham will move to finalize the AWB deal in the next few days after Todibo is official. That will trigger Mazraoui signing from Bayern.

Will be interesting to see if AWB starts today.

And now Ben Jacobs reporting that AWB has verbally agreed to join West Ham and talks between the clubs are "progressing positively".

If that's true, I'd be surprised to see AWB start today unless Dalot is just in no condition to at all.

Per the Athletic de Lijt signing from Bayern is official.

Deal for Mazraiui (sp?) accepted by Bayern as well. Nice to see these long negotiations reaching conclusion. The deal is contingent on AWB West Ham deal being completed, but there are reports that could be done very soon.

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Man Utd agree deal with Bayern Munich for Matthijs de Ligt. €45+5m, 5+1yr, pending medical
🚨 #MUFC €15+5m Noussair Mazraoui bid accepted
⬆️ Rests on Wan-Bissaka: #WHUFC agree £15m fee, medical slated Sun/Mon, finalising exit@TheAthleticFC https://t.co/b8kilivhMs

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) August 10, 2024

Speaking of which…

🚨⚒️ Aaron Wan-Bissaka to West Ham, here we go! Verbal agreement in place for right back to join #WHUFC from Man United as planned.

Understand medical tests already booked on Sunday for AWB! 🩺

Fee will be £15m. Man United authorized AWB to travel… Mazraoui, joining soon. pic.twitter.com/3tkpbPHBHm

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 10, 2024

AWB doesn't make roster for today's game so must be close to done.

And the answer to the question of who starts at 9 for Community Shield, Sancho or Zirkzee, is:

Neither. 2 forwards (Rashford Amad), 4 midfielders, 4 defenders. Martinez evidently playing LB for Shaw.

In the red corner at Wembley... 🔴🥊#MUFC || #CommunityShield

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 10, 2024

Just turned on the radio broadcast and hear Casemiro to Rashford. Wasn't expecting that pairing to start the season.

Announcer saying Rashford looks exactly like last year. Not doing anything.

It's been pretty even, they've had about one or two decent opportunities against us that didn't materialize, we've had about 3 that also didn't. One was Rashford with a miss that wasn't even close unfortunately.

Pretty even at the half. Both teams had some good moments

Apparently xG at half is Man City .31 to Man Utd .23 per ESPN graphic. I'm sure everyone will be subscribing at halftime to catch that amazing action.

Still trying to figure out why we paid 50 million for Mount

I don't think Mount at false 9 is a long term plan anyway. Since Sancho is still on the bench, I think that statement earlier in the week about Sancho starting at 9 is a bit of a fib.

Rashford with another 1 v 1 miss

This checks out

Garnachooooooooooo!!!!!!

Loss in PKs.

I continue to dislike Onana.