Twitter is saying his salary is right at the cap (120K per wk GBP), so salary is covered. Hopefully he's able to get back near enough to the end of next year that he can get a few matches in before the next summer window or something. Frustrating because, although he's not helpful in possession, I thought a team that was lower in the table would have liked him for around 20-30M. Oh well. He was one game away from being done for the summer, and he hadn't really had any meaningful injuries his entire career until now.

The worst part about the injury is it was friendly fire.

West Ham got their 85M GBP guaranteed. Wild.

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Tottenham Hotspur win race to sign Mateus Fernandes from West Ham United. Spurs submitted highest proposal (believed to be ~£85m guaranteed) & 21yo #WHUFC midfielder opted to join #THFC. Numbers beyond where #MUFC willing to go @TheAthleticFC https://t.co/8JMyfl8LoS

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) June 30, 2026

**** the spurs

Amad levels it.

Was probably the best player for Ivory Coast in the WC. Either him or Diamande. Amad had more production, but kept getting on the bench despite playing well in AFCON. Maybe ETH was setting the lineups in disguise.

I may live to regret saying this but no issue passing on Fernandes at 85m. But this likely sets the market for any English based player so if their backup option is Alex Scott or Adam Wharton they're likely to be asked to pay another eyewatering transfer fee that they aren't comfortable with.

I've seen too many overpriced $85MM purchases.

Go find the defensive versions of Cunha and Mbeuno.

I get the feeling that the market has been completely reset and United weren't ready for it. We cannot afford to go backwards in a Champions League year again.

Furlock Bones said:

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I get the feeling that the market has been completely reset and United weren't ready for it. We cannot afford to go backwards in a Champions League year again.

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Good lord.

A Tottenham club that nearly was relegated and brought in a new coach with promises of spending then overpaid for a player and the "market has reset" and we are now going backwards?

Why do some of you put yourself through this?

So he's not wrong about a market reset. City throwing $130MM petrodollars out for Anderson just because they can and no one will stop them is going to send some waves through the system.

Fernandes isn't worth $85MM. But that's the secondary effect of City doing what they did.

But that doesn't mean the ineos people were caught with their pants down either. I'm actually pleased they didn't try and outbid spurs. Walk away and find another cheaper target.

Aston94 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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I get the feeling that the market has been completely reset and United weren't ready for it. We cannot afford to go backwards in a Champions League year again.

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Good lord.

A Tottenham club that nearly was relegated and brought in a new coach with promises of spending then overpaid for a player and the "market has reset" and we are now going backwards?

Why do some of you put yourself through this?

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I've been more right than wrong the last several years.

I think we need a starter-level signing at midfield, and after that I don't really care if we take risks outside of EPL or wait for lower prices. Only a finite number of clubs can make 80M+ purchases, but eventually everyone has to do business in order to fill their own holes. But we do need that starting level midfielder (the third can be a younger risk, which is frankly where I envisioned Fernandes before his price ballooned to 85M GBP… he's good at a lot of things, but he's not really excellent yet at any one thing; I still can't believe he went for that much).

Furlock Bones said:

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I get the feeling that the market has been completely reset and United weren't ready for it. We cannot afford to go backwards in a Champions League year again.

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That's only true if you think United were holding back capital for transfers based on their evaluation of what they thought it would take to get their targets. I doubt that's what they did. They likely assigned a transfer kitty based on their forecasted revenues, PSR, etc and put a max money they were willing/able to spend. In that scenario, the market is irrelevant in that it doesn't affect your transfer budget. It only affects what your transfer budget can get you. But they can't control that. We'll soon find out how good their transfer planning was.

Anyway, 185m for a Tonali/Fernandes midfield is...something. Spurs are better today than they were last week but are they a top 5 team now? Far from certain. That's a **** ton of money to spend and still be considered outsiders for a top 5 spot. Even with all their recent additions, bookies currently have them finishing 7th next season. That's a lot of money to spend in order to play EL football.

I mean, this isn't the Spurs thread, but I kind of thought their biggest problem last year was scoring goals. Certainly seemed to be the problem at the end when I paid attention to their relegation push. And that's with getting double digit goals from Richarlison (I.e., I wouldn't count on a repeat). Maybe they have some more money to buy a decent striker, which is always super easy and super cheap to find.

Furlock Bones said:

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Aston94 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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I get the feeling that the market has been completely reset and United weren't ready for it. We cannot afford to go backwards in a Champions League year again.

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Good lord.

A Tottenham club that nearly was relegated and brought in a new coach with promises of spending then overpaid for a player and the "market has reset" and we are now going backwards?

Why do some of you put yourself through this?

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I've been more right than wrong the last several years.

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Where has this current management group shown they were not in touch with market conditions?

You are reading way too much into my original comment. This particular group has done well so far. I think they may have missed the market with Man Dhabi doing what they did. If Tottenham and Man Dhabi are spending the money, then that is what the market is. Whether we like or not.

My biggest concern is that I don't want to yo-yo once again. We have done that for over a decade. We can't go out of champions league in the first or 2nd rounds. And we have to be solidly in the fight for top 4 even with other teams improving.

I guess you could argue they moved too slowly (for players not named Ederson) and that if they would have moved faster they could have "beat the market". But the players that they were targeting were the ones that moved the market. Anderson, Tonali, Fernandes...all of them went for exactly what the holding club wanted. United could have moved faster. Then they could have likely bought Fernandes for 85m in early June. It's clear now they were never going to get those players for less.

Anyway, can't really judge them until the transfer season is over. If they're panic buying players in the last week of August because they're just throwing money at people without a cogent plan, then not paying 85m for Fernandes in June will look like a mistake. If they go on and make shrewd decisions at that adds quality talent to the squad at a similar or better price, then look like geniuses. We shall see.

Furlock Bones said:

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You are reading way too much into my original comment. This particular group has done well so far. I think they may have missed the market with Man Dhabi doing what they did. If Tottenham and Man Dhabi are spending the money, then that is what the market is. Whether we like or not.

My biggest concern is that I don't want to yo-yo once again. We have done that for over a decade. We can't go out of champions league in the first or 2nd rounds. And we have to be solidly in the fight for top 4 even with other teams improving.

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Two players purchased at a high price does not set the market. City paid a high price and Spurs overpaid. Being pragmatic is not getting left behind. Just let the market play out before worrying about being left behind (your words not mine). If United pay the same 85 million for a player clearly not rated as high then you know the market has moved and management was behind on market changes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/LX2a44IQ5g

Yes, I am sure many teams raised their price based upon Man City overpaying, but how many teams are there willing to pay those asking prices.

We will see.

man Dhabi has hijacked Arsenal's move for Jeremy Monga. 10mm for a 16 year old seems a lot of dough.

I'm not on board with blowing up the fee and wage discipline or whatever it is for Nmecha, I'll tell you that right now. I mean, at least I thought Anderson and Fernandes were both good talents who could become world class. Nmecha is ok at best, and that's also his ceiling.

Plus Dortmund are notoriously difficult to negotiate with. If we're going to Germany, I would be looking at Manzambi. Freiburg will likely ask for a lot after the WC he's had but still likely less than what the recent midfielders have gone for.

I mean, if we pay 100M for Temu Gravenberch, then we should have just bought actual Gravenberch a few years ago when we were buying every other player in the world that ten Hag knew.

(This one really has me ticked off lol)

Dre_00 said:

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Plus Dortmund are notoriously difficult to negotiate with. If we're going to Germany, I would be looking at Manzambi. Freiburg will likely ask for a lot after the WC he's had but still likely less than what the recent midfielders have gone for.

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Agreed with not dealing with Dortmund.

Furlock Bones said:

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Dre_00 said:

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Plus Dortmund are notoriously difficult to negotiate with. If we're going to Germany, I would be looking at Manzambi. Freiburg will likely ask for a lot after the WC he's had but still likely less than what the recent midfielders have gone for.

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Agreed with not dealing with Dortmund.

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After the nonsense over Sancho and Mikhitarian, absolutely. I'm tired of overhyped and double value players from Dortmund that don't work out.

If you believe the Athletic's sources, United were willing to go to 85m in add-ons but bailed when it became a full 85m without add-ons. There also was the feeling that even if they went to 85m, Spurs would have gone higher. Fernandes never made it clear that he preferred United in the way Sesko, Mbeumo, and Cunha did. Plus they weren't willing to meet the salary that Spurs offered as they didn't fit their wage structure. My guess is that the wage he wanted/got would have put him in a top 5ish position and they didn't see him as worthy of that.

Welp, FabRom reporting that Newcastle are going to make a bid for Manzambi. My guess is that they'll use a lot of that Tonali money.

In fairness, a 20 yr old with no big team or EPL experience is probably not the profile that United is targeting in midfield, but I nonetheless have become infatuated with him after watching a few Switzerland games. The guy is good.

More of an attacking mid, and we already have Bruno and Mount, but, yeah, he's had an excellent World Cup. When the rumor about Milan potentially seeking Mount (which I'm not buying) came out last week, he was the first guy I thought of (purely off World Cup so kind of fake news … but he has done very well lol).

BTW, for the "all the transfers are twice what they were and we are not reacting to the market" people, the rumors on Twitter are the bid is somewhere in the 40-45M GBP range (not great sources, and it could get rejected of course, but point being, if true, not a range that shocks the conscience).

He's more of a box-to-box mid for Freiburg but yeah, his offensive skillset is sharper than his defensive skillset...and that's likely not what United are looking for. 45m would be a steal, IMO.

If you say so. I looked back at about the last 8 games of the season for Frieburg (who I do not watch at all; if you do, you are way ahead of me) and he's either playing in the 10 position in a 4-2-3-1 or, when he's nominally in the double pivot, when you look at the average position chart he's roughly even with the player nominally in the 10. And in a couple matches he's actually the furthest forward player, ahead of even the striker. So, I mean, that's only the end of the season, but it looked like he was not actually being used in a box to box role to me.

If we had time and money to sign a potential Bruno successor, man, he has looked good. I just don't see it this year, unfortunately. (Edit: and if somehow the club proves me wrong and does it, I promise, no complaints from me! And by "no complaints," I mean until Christmas and then if he's a flop, I blame everyone at the club and pretend this post never happened; that's what that means, of course.)

Another name for the list. For me, this is another "Fine if the other signing ends up being Tchouameni or plug in starter level and the price was not too high."

🚨 Manchester United exploring deal to sign Andrey Santos from Chelsea. No club talks yet - enquiries by multiple suitors to 22yo’s agents. #MUFC keen but will depend on price. #CFC would not block move if suits all parties @TheAthleticFC after @Will_Unwin https://t.co/Tu9nemUkcG

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) July 5, 2026

Chelsea bought him for 18m. He has no realistic chance at regular football so long as Caicedo and Enzo are there. That said I'd bet that Chelsea would require at least 45-50m for him. Is he worth that? No idea.