Should have gone with November edition 1987, no one could say no after seeing page 12.

Congrats again on 6th and best of luck in those tough upcoming Europa qualifiers!

Was it a pile up?

Still wondering when United are going to actually sign someone, our only result during this window was getting Maguire out on bail which is like stopping your mother in law from driving off a cliff in your brand new Bentley. Mixed result me thinks. Anyway my fellow reds any ideas who we should sign or positions we need to fill most?

Not expecting much. We'll faff about with Sancho for a few more weeks and then load up the scattergun near the deadline. Prob get 1-2 done, someone like Brooks or Van de Beek wouldn't be too bad.

Sancho would be great, Dortmund know Woodwood is a clown and are pissing around holding out for more. We have a striker, Devon Arnold on trial from Yeovil Town so at least they are taking my pleas for a forward seriously.

I'm not quite 100% convinced but I actually think we're serious and won't sell Sancho close to the end of the window.

No offence bro but you are in the VIP section of a club in a tight dress waiting for some geezer in a pinstripe suit to buy you a drink. You are just waiting for Woodward to buy you some Cristal.

With his contract running through 2023 it's extremely likely that we'll still get a ton of money for him next summer.

Well you could but you are horny and Ed has his credit card in his pocket so why not seal the deal tonight?

You do realise you’re not in PM, right? We can all see this.

If it was in PM there would be a pic attached, provided it was a hot female and not a poker faced German football fan.

Instead of haggling, Woody should have just paid up and been thankful that Dortmund are only asking for 108m and didn't decide to rinse him for more.

If we look at last years top transfers, do each of the top eight here regret the purchase? Provided we pretend that covid never happened and the financial outlook is the same as a year ago.
Numbers from (lol) transfermarkt

Joao Felix - €126M
Griezmann - €120M
Hazard - €115M
Maguire - €87M
de Ligt - €85.5M
Pepe - €80M
Hernandez - €80M
de Jong - €75M

Lukaku is next and everyone including me lol'd at that transfer at the time but suddenly he's the one who clearly has worked out. Market just seems all kinds of weird and buyers seem to be getting scammed way more often than sellers. If Woodward is the only one willing to go that high on Sancho then I'd be looking to do the deal ASAP. One bad season and his price drops by like 40M so clearly there is risk in standing pat.

The Kraken was always great.

Yeah, you're probably right. United were just bad at releasing him. Also, welcome back to the prem

I think Arsenal and Barcelona regret their purchases least. Arsenal definitely overpaid by ~25-30%, but he's still a good player. We almost spent nearly as much on Thomas Lemar, who is nowhere near as good.
Felix is obviously talented, but that Simeone won't start him in a CL KO is just not a good match.

Lukaku has worked, but he's not the best attacker there and if they sell Martinez that's unfortunate.

In the current market, Arsenal overpaid by £50-60m.

You are not wrong here. One of the main reason Raul was fired.

I mean left on a mutual consent.

i like rodrigo and itll be fun to see him under bielsa but he's not really best as a #9 lone striker and it seems like thats what theyre buying him to play?

United probably happiest with their business here.

I think Juventus are happiest, followed by United.

Joao Felix - €126M - Not worth the money yet but still very young and super talented so there's time.
Griezmann - €120M - Have to be unhappy about his first season but there's hope for improvement if Messi leaves, earns a super ridiculous wage though
Hazard - €115M - Have to be unhappy so far as well but could easily find his Chelsea form next season
Maguire - €87M - Happy
de Ligt - €85.5M - Happy
Pepe - €80M - Promising first season I'd say and can be worth the money if he improves in his 2nd season which I expect to happen
Hernandez - €80M - Yeah this absolutely hasn't worked out yet but let's see how next season goes
de Jong - €75M - Not quite as good as expected but I think he'll show his class next season

So I'd say not a lot of smash hits here but nobody has to be written off yet.

If anything it only underscores that there is no such thing as a sure fire hit - even if paying top dollar - and recruiting players is super high variance /stating the obvious

the fees paid for players on their last year of contracts always seem absurd to me. i get that transfer fees shouldnt be linear functions of the years left, but the market still seems way out of line with the fees way too high

I think Barca are happy with De Jong and Juventus are very happy with De Ligt

As much as people like to laugh at United for paying £80m for slab head, I think he has been worth it to them.

Joao Felix is too early to judge imo. He's shown class at times but still had a season with injuries and inconsistency, but he's still 20. So while Atletico obviously hopes he's gonna Mbappe immediately, it's not a bad deal just because he hasn't made a complete breakthrough after 1 season. Pepe at Arsenal is also too soon to call a flop. When you break bank to buy a player in their mid twenties, you expect more impact than he's had, but if he steps it up in the coming season, I don't think people will care he had a slow start. But he will have to show more this year or we're in flop territory.

Griezmann is allegedly paid something insane like £800k per week, which is an absurd amount for someone who doesn't immediately transform the attack. He can still come good if Messi leaves and he can play a more similar role to what he did for Atletico, but it seems like a senseless transfer right now - and even looking back.

When you consider Madrid could have potentially gotten Hazard on a free this summer (though I doubt Hazard would have ****ed over Chelsea so much), it looks like a bad deal, but it's not easy to predict he'll be fat/injured. If he can find his form from his Chelsea days I doubt they'll care, though, he can still be a great player for them.

Bayern paid a very steep price for a player they thought they needed, but with Alaba transitioning to CB and Davies filling the LB there's no obvious starting spot for him. There might still be because he's possibly good enough to start when he's fit and in form, but he's been injured a good bit - which doesn't seem very surprising considering that was also the case last year with Atletico, a club he managed to play only 109 games for over 5 seasons, so I think it was a considerable gamble. But I guess Bayern love their injury prone CBs.

Lukaku being great is one of the less surprising things from last year imo. We're talking about a player who scored his 100th PL goal while he was 24 years old. His first season at United wasn't bad, but he was a poor fit the second year.