*Official* English Football Season 2022/23

[Furball]

Is it just me or does Man Utd's 'sign all the Ajax players' policy feel like it'll fall flat, with people wondering in 2 years how they're going to shift all these flops?

 

[Uppercut]

Is it just me or does Man Utd's 'sign all the Ajax players' policy feel like it'll fall flat, with people wondering in 2 years how they're going to shift all these flops?

Signing a bunch of guys you know is very David Moyes. I don’t know the players so I can’t really comment on the result but I don’t love the process.

I still think De Jong is fantastic though, hopefully we get him.

 

[GIMH]

It's a pretty common thing for managers to do outside of non-elite clubs wherever they have control of transfers. It can work if you've been successful previously and it was recent but it is also why some managers have such short shelf lives in terms of actually being effective.

 

[sledger]

It's one of those things that will look like a masterstroke if the players in question are actually objectively good, and will look disastrous if the players in question are just good relative to the quality of their peers in the Eredivisie

 

[BoyBrumby]

It's a pretty common thing for managers to do outside of non-elite clubs wherever they have control of transfers. It can work if you've been successful previously and it was recent but it is also why some managers have such short shelf lives in terms of actually being effective.

Yeah, Cloughie was the first manager I thought of when I read that.

Had Archie Gemmil, John O'Hare and John McGovern at both Derby and Forest, and the latter two even followed him to the Dirtys for his brief spell there.

 

[Uppercut]

It's just light years behind the way that City and Liverpool do transfers. Or even, like, Brentford.

 

[GIMH]

Or United a decade or so ago?

 

[Jarquis]

To me this feels less like ‘sign players from your previous club’ and more ‘copy the way Ajax have done their transfers’.

it’s not just signing Niko Kranjcar - there’s good quality and highly technical players who got to the semi final of the CL on a shoestring

 

[Uppercut]

To me this feels less like ‘sign players from your previous club’ and more ‘copy the way Ajax have done their transfers’.

it’s not just signing Niko Kranjcar - there’s good quality and highly technical players who got to the semi final of the CL on a shoestring

That only really applies to De Jong. The other links are with Antony and Lisandro Martinez, who weren't there when Ajax made the semis. Malacia was signed from Feyenoord.

I'd say copying the way Ajax do transfers is probably the long term goal. Right now he's just walked in, seen a squad that's falling apart and no recruitment department to speak of, and concluded that signing players he knows is all he can really do for now.

 

[andruid]

Signing a bunch of guys you know is very David Moyes. I don’t know the players so I can’t really comment on the result but I don’t love the process.

I still think De Jong is fantastic though, hopefully we get him.

Tell that to USMNT-Yorkshire, Red Bull Leeds, Leeds United

 

[Pothas]

Hey @Furball tell me how good Hickey is.

 

[sledger]

Better than Kieran Tierney I imagine

 

[Furball]

Better than Kieran Tierney I imagine

Keep up, it's Andy Robertson who's an insufferable dick. Tierney's better than him.

Honest answer about Hickey is I don't know, I don't remember much about him from Hearts. Broke into their team very young (I'm sure he played in the 2019 Scottish Cup final against Celtic aged around 16), seems to have done very well in Italy.

Didn't have the greatest debut for Scotland against Ukraine, but he played at right back and I'm not sure if that's because he's a left back who can also play comfortably on the right. Our dinosaur tactics under Clarke won't have helped though.

 

[Pothas]

He will definitely play mostly right back for Brentford, is actually right footed apparently.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

He was amazing on Football Manager a few years ago. Then again so was Souttar.

 

[Furball]

He will definitely play mostly right back for Brentford, is actually right footed apparently.

Yeah I genuinely don't know if he's a right back who can also play comfortably on the left or vice versa.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Keep up, it's Andy Robertson who's an insufferable dick. Tierney's better than him.

Hard to be better than anyone when you're on the table 30 games a year.

 

[Furball]

Happy Chiellini Day everyone.

 

[Niall]

Is it just me or does Man Utd's 'sign all the Ajax players' policy feel like it'll fall flat, with people wondering in 2 years how they're going to shift all these flops?

Its a very weird summer so far for them, another squad full back which didn't seem like a huge priority.

Obviously a few weeks to go, but on paper they look weakest of the so called big 6.

They need to tell Ajax to stop been silly with the valuations of Martinez, Antony etc and move on because for the wild numbers quoted oh boy.

Also looks like Ten Hag is going to have to fix a lot of players on last season's form alone are barely championship quality such as Rashford, Martial, Maguire and also figure out how to stop Varane getting injured.

Pereira been sold today to Fulham was a win for everyone except Fulham, that's one thing City, Pool, Chelsea all do so well, get good value for ther squad players, i think Pereira and James are the only 2 duds they have ok financially on in the banter years.

 

[Tangles]

United being able to do more than 1 transfer at once is an improvement. Erickson is a good player but where he plays given the existing midfield options will be interesting. Martinez looks good but Malacia looks like a backup without a LB being sold.

Spending so much time and effort on De Jong who clearly doesn’t want to leave Barca looks like a mistake.