Stuck in halfway house?

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FMBlade1 said:
Of course usual caveat of it being extremely early days to discuss, transfer window not open etc but I am concerned this is a position we are/will be in.

I think everyone can agree that this squad, as it is, is not good enough to stay up.

Therefore, to stay up we will need to spend quite a bit of money. Its apparent we don't have that, and probably won't have that either.

My question, is what's the strategy? Is it:

a) throw everything at staying up (whether that be short term expensive loans or free agents on 60k a week)
b) prepare for promotion 2024-2025

If its 'b', which I have no problem with, we will/should sell Berge and N'Diaye now and reinvest that money for players to shape the team around and who will be happy to be part of the championship 2024-2025 team.

If its 'a' then we need to spend a lot, and I don't think we can. If we don't spend, we will most likely go down, and lose Berge and N'Diaye on free transfers.

Then what's the point of that? Or do we say that there's a chance that 3 teams might be worse than us and take that gamble? Its a bit of a risk!
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Prepare for promotion !!!! but not guaranteed is the problem
⚔️
 
One possibility that no-one has mentioned, we all assume that N'Diaye will make the step up and be a Premier League level player next season.

However there's no guarantee, everyone thought the same about Adel Taarabt.
 
FMBlade1 said:
Of course usual caveat of it being extremely early days to discuss, transfer window not open etc but I am concerned this is a position we are/will be in.

I think everyone can agree that this squad, as it is, is not good enough to stay up.

Therefore, to stay up we will need to spend quite a bit of money. Its apparent we don't have that, and probably won't have that either.

My question, is what's the strategy? Is it:

a) throw everything at staying up (whether that be short term expensive loans or free agents on 60k a week)
b) prepare for promotion 2024-2025

If its 'b', which I have no problem with, we will/should sell Berge and N'Diaye now and reinvest that money for players to shape the team around and who will be happy to be part of the championship 2024-2025 team.

If its 'a' then we need to spend a lot, and I don't think we can. If we don't spend, we will most likely go down, and lose Berge and N'Diaye on free transfers.

Then what's the point of that? Or do we say that there's a chance that 3 teams might be worse than us and take that gamble? Its a bit of a risk!
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I still think if we hold on to Berge and Ndiaye and get relegated then that's us fucked. Especially given how few players we'll have under contract. If you get £25 million for both then there's a chance to reinvest and have a team capable of challenging for promotion.
 
Good players won't come here because of our obsession with being cheapskates

Even Luton will be more attractive to them

Any player we want and the selling club will want at least double his true value, and we'll have to pay it because we're such an unattractive proposition that the player won't be that bothered whether he joins us or not
 
JJBlade said:
Good players won't come here because of our obsession with being cheapskates

Even Luton will be more attractive to them

Any player we want and the selling club will want at least double his true value, and we'll have to pay it because we're such an unattractive proposition that the player won't be that bothered whether he joins us or not
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Think you've got a point there pal. After reading all these posts I'm beginning to wonder why we even bother with promotion, let's get back to league1 and think fuck it..
 
Carlton Blade said:
Why does he need to go to Brighton for a smaller salary then he'd otherwise get if he runs his deal down?
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I meant Brighton have got players to sign new contracts but because they're wanted players they can and probably will still be sold. See MacAllister today and probably Caicedo shortly.
If Iliman signs a new contract (which also provides protection for him in case of injury or loss of form) he can and will easily still be sold (it's us for goodness sake and a clause could be put in the contract in any case).
If he has a good season the amount of wages he'll be offered by one of the big boys will be huge in any case.
Either way, we should be offering him a good deal in the knowledge that he can go either way.
The bottom line is if we're not at least trying to keep good players and trying to protect and develop the club, what's the point of trying to get in the big league in the first place.
 
Pedro's Winger said:
I meant Brighton have got players to sign new contracts but because they're wanted players they can and probably will still be sold. See MacAllister today and probably Caicedo shortly.
If Iliman signs a new contract (which also provides protection for him in case of injury or loss of form) he can and will easily still be sold (it's us for goodness sake and a clause could be put in the contract in any case).
If he has a good season the amount of wages he'll be offered by one of the big boys will be huge in any case.
Either way, we should be offering him a good deal in the knowledge that he can go either way.
The bottom line is if we're not at least trying to keep good players and trying to protect and develop the club, what's the point of trying to get in the big league in the first place.
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At no point have i said we shouldn't try to keep him. We should offer him the richest deal in the history of the club. But for his own career progression he will have a lot more choice of his next club if he's a free agent
 
I really hope it's not B.
Nothing is ever a given......

Put up whatever we can realistically afford to give us our best chance of staying up.
 
If there is a mentality around the club that we are somehow ok with relegation because we are planning for a championship promotion then if I'm in Illy. Anel's or Berge's football boots I'm thinking do I want to be involved in a team getting battered every week at a club which seems ready to surrender and is bringing in champ players for the season.

Or shall I grab a huge wage increase at Palace, Fulham etc (pretty much anyone except Luton or Burnley) a juicy contract that sets me up for a few years with a release clause for a bigger move if I prove myself and the chance to have an enjoyable season and stay up

It's certainly what their agents might be telling them to engineer a pay day all round
 
JJBlade said:
Good players won't come here because of our obsession with being cheapskates

Even Luton will be more attractive to them

Any player we want and the selling club will want at least double his true value, and we'll have to pay it because we're such an unattractive proposition that the player won't be that bothered whether he joins us or not
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It was often said,the Blades were a 1st Division club with a 3rd division mentality.
 
FMBlade1 said:
One possibility that no-one has mentioned, we all assume that N'Diaye will make the step up and be a Premier League level player next season.

However there's no guarantee, everyone thought the same about Adel Taarabt.
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There's absolutely no guarantee but I would argue that Ndiaye's attitude and work ethic puts him in a much better position to succeed at the top level than Taarabt. The kid's a grafter and even if he doesn't have the same impact as he did in the Champ, he won't be a passenger in the team. He'll press, he'll tackle and he'll track back and his contribution to the fight will still be considerable.
 
Kev Gee said:
I really hope it's not B.
Nothing is ever a given......

Put up whatever we can realistically afford to give us our best chance of staying up.
Click to expand...

We, of course, don't know what we can realistically afford.

We can speculate on how much money we would need to have a fighting chance, and I would guess at least 25 million. I don't imagine we can realistically afford that amount.

If that's the case, then we have a choice. I'm sure Berge and N'Diaye have been offered new deals, but they haven't accepted them.

I'd suggest that we set a deadline and if they don't sign, they're off, like other clubs do. The poster above made a similar comparison regarding Kane, no way does Levy let him leave on a free next year. Then we can make plans for long-term.
 
Carlton Blade said:
Anyone wanting to sell the best player we've had in 50 years on the off chance we can sign 2 or 3 decent Championship players in 12 months is crazy
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I love Ndiaye but no way is he our best player in 50 years
frechyblade said:
Do you know Berge & N'Diaye want to leave? I'm by no way ITK but i have been tod that they both want to stay, from my point of view that's great news but we would need to get them on new contracts, to protect our asset. Especially if illi is still on the youth contract!

I think keep them and there will be at least 3 teams worse than us.

UTB
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Of course the want to stay, they can leave for free at the end of the season and earn massive signing on fees at any new club. They’d be crazy to sign new deals at United, especially Ndiaye.
 

Rebster72 said:
I love Ndiaye but no way is he our best player in 50 years

Of course the want to stay, they can leave for free at the end of the season and earn massive signing on fees at any new club. They’d be crazy to sign new deals at United, especially Ndiaye.
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Who's better?
 
Carlton Blade said:
Seriously?
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Yep. Mousset scored 6 goals in his first season in the PL, several of them were in 1-0 wins.

How many goals do you expect N'Diaye to score next season? (and assists, if you insist).

Mousset therefore, has done it at the top level for a season, N'Diaye hasn't yet.
 
Carlton Blade said:
At no point have i said we shouldn't try to keep him. We should offer him the richest deal in the history of the club. But for his own career progression he will have a lot more choice of his next club if he's a free agent
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and he wants to go to Marseilles who aren't paying big money for him.
 
FMBlade1 said:
Yep. Mousset scored 6 goals in his first season in the PL, several of them were in 1-0 wins.

How many goals do you expect N'Diaye to score next season? (and assists, if you insist).

Mousset therefore, has done it at the top level for a season, N'Diaye hasn't yet.
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If you think that in any way shape or form Mousset has "done it" in the PL then I'm not sure there's much basis left for a further conversation. 6 weeks of contribution versus a player who, at times single handedly carried a team to promotion
 
Rebster72 said:
I would argue numerous players are better than Ndiaye but the absolute stand out is Brian Deane.
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I said potentially the best player for 50 years. He won't, but if Ndiaye made as many appearances for United as Deane I'd be confident he'd be seen as the best player we've had.

Brian Deane is also my favourite United player of all time
 
Swannyblade said:
There's absolutely no guarantee but I would argue that Ndiaye's attitude and work ethic puts him in a much better position to succeed at the top level than Taarabt. The kid's a grafter and even if he doesn't have the same impact as he did in the Champ, he won't be a passenger in the team. He'll press, he'll tackle and he'll track back and his contribution to the fight will still be considerable.
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Agreed, in terms of workrate. He's unlikely to have as much of an impact though. 10 goals would be surprising, imo, but his teamwork works in his favour.

As a cautionary note though, players like him who joined EPL teams (Bowen, Buendia, Eze etc) didn't have that much of an instant impact in terms of goals and assists. I really doubt he'll get 10 goals next season.
 

Carlton Blade said:
If you think that in any way shape or form Mousset has "done it" in the PL then I'm not sure there's much basis left for a further conversation. 6 weeks of contribution versus a player who, at times single handedly carried a team to promotion
Click to expand...

Mousset has 'done it' in the PL, across that season in total he showed his worth of being a PL player. N'Diaye has done very well, but at championship level.

How many goals do you think N'Diaye will score next season?
 
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