Manchester Utd vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Beard82]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.

Alrighty then.

So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him  and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough

Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.

True, but the restrictions meant we shopping in that market when we really needed to be buying a much better calibre of player. 

I genuinely can't believe how bad some of those players have been over the past few weeks.  Some of them have got bad attitudes as well to boot.

Asensio£7.5m instead of Guessand  , Ben chillwell (free) Grealish on loan instead of Sancho ,James McAteer £21m  ..

Erm, that is literally the definition of scraping the barrel, however you cut it. They spent 60-70m three times. We didn't spend anywhere near one of those on all three. Has recruitment been shit? Generally speaking, yes. Is that partially due to having to shop in a lower tier than we want to/our position these days should allow? Fucking damn right.

How has £50m record signing Onana done since joining?

I'd sell him.

I think people are being hysterical. The goalkeeper, defence and midfield are a match for anything in the country. The problem is attack. It was clear in the summer and I remember saying as much. Rashford, Asensio and Ramsey all left, leaving us to get a load of cheap last minute shit in due to financial constraints. Now we can't score goals.

Considering we needed a full Premier League attack, what we got was 30m and a couple of loans. Meanwhile United signed Wolves' best player, Brentford's best player and Leipzig's best player. If people think that's a fair competition, then crack on with that.

I agree with Mellin - issue is attack the rest is compariable with anyone.  Our attack is woeful.  And we cant spend the money we need to make a difference.

[9fingers]

Bailey is fucking shite.

[PeterWithesShin]

No PL side with serious CL ambitions is starting any of Mings, Digne, Barkley, Buendia or bringing Bailey on as first sub. We started them all and did bring on Leon.

No but we didn’t have to start them - Pau, Maatsen are definitely better choices. Doug is better than Barkley, but he’s played a lot of late.

But we did start them. Whether we had to or not isn't the point. We're dropping out of CL contention because we're too reliant on too many players that aren't consistently top 5 quality. Of our starting 11 today i'd say 4 are of that standard, even with the Unai factor it's not going to get you there over a season.

[Villan82]

Monchi messed up in summer 2025. Hence he was moved on fairly quickly

But there will be a rebuilding job in summer 2026 and with Olabe in as a new sporting director it is fairly important that we know that the Unai set up is 'all in' for another go.

[dave.woodhall]

For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.

[Yeltzbagger]

Where was Alysson? Surely he'd have been better than Bailey and he was never going to bring Eliot on. Is he injured again? He's only played about 45 mins in total. He's looked very promising when he has come on.⁷
.

[Villan82]

For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.

Well said.

[Rigadon]

For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.

5 year net spend. Them £0.7bn, us negative. 

That’s not the whole story but it’s a main chapter. 

We have been playing without a functioning centre forward and right winger all season too.

[PeterWithesShin]

Unai interview

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1647842853021283

[Ads]

For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.

There is no excuse to play him though. Our hands are absolutely tied, but they're not forced with selection.

Bailey, Mings, Buendia- I wouldn't have them anywhere near the side.

[Brend'Watkins]

Only Barkley and Mings can feel hippyish with their performance today. That chance we had near the end summed us up pretty well. Reminiscent of the chuckle Brothers. Thursday is now very important.

[Demitri_C]

Just utterly predictable why did we bother  tuning in. We knew they would let us down again at OT

[Baldy]

Farting around at the rear.
Too spread in the middle.
Thin on top.

Bit like myself.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.

We had little choice regarding Bailey, Roma are paying the full season loan fee to have him away from their team. I suppose we could have said, he's your problem, don't play him if you don't want, send him back in the summer but that wouldn't have helped with his resale value. I do wonder if Bailey and Watkins are being played in an attempt to increase their transfer value in the summer? Right now it's the only logical reason I can think of for their selection.

[PaulWinch again]

For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.

There is no excuse to play him though. Our hands are absolutely tied, but they're not forced with selection.

Bailey, Mings, Buendia- I wouldn't have them anywhere near the side.

No and that’s the issue. Poor recruitment has narrowed our options (and as Dave says we are more exposed to errors) but we’re not making best use of what we do have.