Manchester United Seasonal Blog 2025/26 - Groundhog Day

[Darbyand]

Gonna assume that's the Zirk. He was awful, clearly given up and seemingly little intention of putting in some effort for basic professional pride.

[thebillfella]

And yet he has (apparently) been saying he doesn't want to leave in the summer and wants to stay and fight for his place

Yesterday demonstrated exactly why we still have a lot of work to do in the summer - we can't rely on the first XI alone to fight on all fronts and stay injury free without a drop in form. With so few fixtures this year we were able to get away with it.

[thebillfella]

Incidentally, how on earth did Nilson Angulo not get a red card for throwing an elbow at Bruno's face yesterday? Oh, Stuart Attwell was the referee again. Ok, I get it now.

[Darbyand]

To grudgingly be fair to Attwell he was on field ref and might not have had a good view. Var exists to help clean up that kind of thing but went missing.

[forestfan]

https://www.footballtransfers.com/us/tr ... k-revealed

Mason Greenwood, meanwhile, has been one of the main actors in the chaos, according to the media.

The former Manchester United player is in the crosshairs for an attitude that has been described as deplorable.

Greenwood has angered the club for numerous aspects of his behaviour. He left sporting director Medhi Benatia ‘exasperated’ by missing a marketing campaign, frustrated the club by skipping French classes and left officials maddened by his ‘lack of commitment and even gratitude’ for their faith after supporting him when charges of attempted rape and assault had been dropped in the UK.

Sounds like you made the right call there

[thebillfella]

He's not exactly a one-off in that regard is he!

Assuming agent 47 stays with Chelsea next season, I wonder who Sancho will disrupt next season...

[forestfan]

James Forrest has broken Giggs’s record for most league titles with a British club. Now, which United player’s up for claiming it back?

[thebillfella]

Who the eff is James Forrest?!!

If that's the measure, I won more league titles than both with my Sunday league teams!

[forestfan]

Who the eff is James Forrest?!!

If that's the measure, I won more league titles than both with my Sunday league teams!

Celtic’s one-club old stager…

[forestfan]

United officially sold Hojlund today, midway through the Forest match, when Napoli’s CL qualification was mathematically confirmed.

[thebillfella]

So Carrick confirmed then. At least it's not Southgate!

And in other news, Tuchel thinks Quansah and Burn are better than Maguire. And Djed Spence is more deserving of his place than Shaw. Ok then. At least they are less likely to be injured for the new season.

Also, Tuchel thinks Henderson deserves his place over Warton and Toney deserves to go ahead of Gibbs-White (I sort of get Palmer and Foden not going tbf). I suppose that helps stop their price escalating this summer if we try to go for one of them...

[thebillfella]

Rumours are Ederson from Atalanta agreed for £45m. Been tracking him for a while now, but can't say I've seen enough of him to know if he's the answer. But a good start I suppose.

[Heimi Henderson]

Looked a very good player when I’ve watched him. But then so did the last bloke you bought from Atalanta.

[Darbyand]

That price is a lot higher than the ones I'm seeing..could be £ v € confusion. Still need 2 more AND to shift Ugarte.

[thebillfella]

A rumoured cut price deal for Rafael Leao feels like going back to Woodward's Glasernomics transfer strategy. He just be a direct replacement for Jadon Sancho in the wrong way IMO - comes across as a lazy prima donna to me.

[Darbyand]

Looked a very good player when I’ve watched him. But then so did the last bloke you bought from Atalanta.

Not sure the Premier League has room for "languid" players in the Pep (and post-Pep?) era. Seems like everyone has a job in and out of possession and they all involve running, a lot of it intense. Zirkzee just doesn't seem to be interested in that. Poor signing in retrospect.

[Heimi Henderson]

Zirkzee came from Bologna.

I meant Højlund.

Agree about Zirkzee. The Premier League is much too gung-ho for him. Needs to go back to Italy or perhaps Spain.

[Darbyand]

Doh! Of course.

Hojlund was a bit unlucky to miss out on the Mbeumo/Cunha era. Garnacho and Antony had little interest in creating chances for others.

[thebillfella]

And Sancho and Rashford for that matter!

[forestfan]

Yeah, pretty much any striker needs service. In the NFL for example, you wouldn’t criticise a wide receiver for not scoring any touchdowns if you didn’t have a QB capable of throwing the ball to him.

That said, maybe there is something about a player’s demeanour or contribution when the opportunities aren’t coming his way that still tells you something.

[forestfan]

If the papers don’t go for “The Fernand-alorian and Dorgu” they’ve missed a trick

[Dr. Giggles]

Lovely trip to the South Coast to finish the season.

And we won

Nice to hand a beating to Brighton given how often they've humiliated us in recent times. Though in effectively demoting them to the Conference league, we've probably handed them a European trophy...

[Guppings]

I wonder if its true https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/footbal ... 0246&ei=99

[thebillfella]

Nope. Next.

[thebillfella]

Sounds like we are seeing "bargain option" no. 2 as an alternative to the obvious pick (i.e. Elliot Anderson) in Mateus Fernandes from West Ham, despite the fact the Hammers are asking for £80m for him (although that was quoted before the trap door opened)

Seems ok but another option that is just a bit meh for me (and if they want £80m I would say thanks but no thanks). Stop pissing about and go all out for Anderson even if you have to pay what Arsenal paid for Rice.

[Maldini]

Anderson has chosen to go to City, hasn’t he?

Fernandes might actually have a
higher ceiling as a player though Anderson would obviously be a better signing to slot straight into the team.

Enrique likes Fernandes so you’ll probably miss out on him as well.

[Luxmonk]

Seems ok but another option that is just a bit meh for me (and if they want £80m I would say thanks but no thanks). Stop pissing about and go all out for Anderson even if you have to pay what Arsenal paid for Rice.

I wonder if it’ll really come down to a bidding war between Utd and City? If so, then it’ll probably be closer to £150mio than the Rice fee.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... 0ppgdlll7o

[Dr. Giggles]

Sounds like we are seeing "bargain option" no. 2 as an alternative to the obvious pick (i.e. Elliot Anderson) in Mateus Fernandes from West Ham, despite the fact the Hammers are asking for £80m for him (although that was quoted before the trap door opened) Seems ok but another option that is just a bit meh for me (and if they want £80m I would say thanks but no thanks). Stop pissing about and go all out for Anderson even if you have to pay what Arsenal paid for Rice.

Thought we were after some dude called Ederson?

When I first read that, I wondered what the hell we were doing going after the former Man City goalkeeper

[forestfan]

Nope. Next.

There would be riots, surely…

Thought recent reports suggested he’d been a tw@ at Marseille anyway.

[thebillfella]

Anderson has chosen to go to City, hasn’t he?

Fernandes might actually have a
higher ceiling as a player though Anderson would obviously be a better signing to slot straight into the team.

Enrique likes Fernandes so you’ll probably miss out on him as well.

Maybe, but was that before Pep declared he was leaving? I think that puts a completely different perspective on things IMO.

Fernandes I don't really mind missing out on if I'm honest.