Athletic with an eye-opening stat. We all know that Bruno plays an insane amount. Since 2020, he's played 22,823 minutes which is the most in Europe and a full 1,300 more minutes than the player in 2nd place who is a goalie. In fact, the next closest outfield player on the list is Declan Rice (4th overall) at 20,149.

That means that Bruno has played at least 10% more soccer than any other outfield player in European top 5 leagues. The man is going to break soon. Let's hope it's not next season.

I've been trying to keep my hopes down, but with Arsenal appearing to go for Sesko, and with him turning down Al Hilal yesterday, it's looking more realistic that we might get Gyokeres if we are able to sell some of our legacy players.

I'm still trying to self-manage my expectations

Viktor Gyökeres is a player on Manchester United's list, and Gyökeres is open to moving even without #UCL. #MUFC are assessing multiple striker options after missing out on Liam Delap.

Gyökeres has several suitors, including Saudi, although it's believed he wants to stay in… pic.twitter.com/jV6TTIK82B

— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) June 9, 2025

🚨 Manchester United keep calling on daily basis for Viktor Gyökeres, still on their list.

Juventus and Al Hilal have also called in the last 48h to be informed on situation after Arsenal contacts ongoing since May… but with Šeško advancing.

🎥 More: https://t.co/r4bUgF7fFw pic.twitter.com/nDVotL7v4t

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 9, 2025

I know we need a forward but every time I hear a rumor about one, I Debbie Downer myself mostly because of past experience. In Gyokeres' case, he has 3 more years on his contract so he'll cost a pretty penny and paying handsomely for a 27 year old forward whose only English league experience is in the Championship is the type of high risk move that usually backfires in United's face.

I don't have an alternative. I'd find a reason to be worried about any prospective forward that was linked to United.

Dortmund are indeed interested in Sancho according to the Athletic. They see him as a 10 in Kovac's system which seems risky to me but what the heck do I know. The question that likely needs to be answered is if he's willing to take a wage cut and if so, how much of one.

I'm a little more worried that we are building an Ange-like team that is too forward and open (basically, can Bruno really work from the deeper midfield? I'm not sure). But you can't not buy players. Strikers especially seem to have high rates of relative non-success. But you basically have to keep trying until you get it right. I'd rather buy Gyokeres than the alternatives. If I were to guess who we went after if we don't get Gyokeres, I'd probably guess Goncalo Ramos of PSG, but he's probably 45-50M, hasn't caught on well at PSG, and I don't want to keep buying PSG's castoffs for high money so they can buy up. I think Gyokeres is the best bet for the money we can get now.

Oh I agree they need to go get a forward. I'm just pessimistic about it all. One of the arguments people made for Bruno staying was that United would likely screw up spending the 80m they sold him for. That was always a ridiculously stupid argument IMO. If he leaves on a free in 5 years should they also not replace him because United are no good acquiring players?

Also kind of agree that the transfers/rumors so far all tilted too far to the attacking end. My hot take is that if Mbeumo is finalized, United should prioritize a central midfielder over a forward. And if they can't get a central midfielder then they should prioritize a goalie.

This is written like it's coming from the agent, so I think he is probably going to Arsenal. Oh well.

🚨🇸🇪 Viktor Gyökeres’ priority is to join Arsenal this summer despite calls from Manchester United in the recent weeks.

Gyökeres always an option amid Šeško talks with no deal sealed so far, Arsenal keep assessing situation.

United remain keen but believe deal now unlikely. pic.twitter.com/iTdDbkEcCV

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 14, 2025

Given the number of areas that United needs to strengthen, I would steer away from Gyokeres for the time being in what will likely be a messy, prolonged transfer soap opera. He doesn't want to stay and claims a "gentlemen's agreement" exists with Sporting to let him leave for a more reasonable fee than Sporting want to sell him for. No one seems willing to meet Sporting's valuation so it's all kind of a moot point if Sporting dig in their heals unless Gyokeres goes nuclear and refuses to play for Sporting or something.

Oh I think Arsenal will probably make a deal with Sporting eventually. I have no way of proving it, but I suspect they wanted him to give them priority as a condition to them engaging with Sporting so Sporting couldn't use us to try to create bidding tension. I said at the beginning that for us to get him we probably needed Arsenal to go for someone else. It looked like they were focusing on Sesko, but Leipzig was making even higher demands for Sesko, which, to be honest… he's another prospect signing that still hasn't done anything amazing. (I hope we don't go anywhere near Sesko).

There are a lot of salty fans on Twitter, but… until we get higher up the table again, Arsenal is a far more attractive destination than us for most players. It is what it is. If something happens and they end up with Sesko, I wouldn't be surprised if we re-entered Gyokeres. I don't think they would buy both (they aren't Chelsea lol).

2025-26 schedule is out. I think the EPL is trying to get Amorim fired. Tough opening 10 games.

Arsenal
@ Fulham
@ City
Chelsea
@ Brentford (maybe they take some time to find their feet with a new coach and no Mbeumo?)
@ Liverpool
Brighton
@ Forest (I do think they'll regress quite a bit but will still be a tough team)

4 of the first 10 are likely the favorites to finish 1-4 and 4 more are likely to be challenging for Europa League and Conference League places.

The AFCON games mid-season are not friendly either, which we are getting a fair number of AFCON players: Mazraoui, Amad, Mbuemo (possibly), and Onana (resisting snarky comments). Villa, Newcastle, and City (some could be back for City, it is near the end of the tournament).

League did us no favors.

Remember when we didn't care who or when we played? Good times…

It's been so long that the answer leans to "no" now.

First pre-season game is less than a month away. I would guess that most players not given an exemption due to international commitments will be back at Carrington at least 7-10 days before that. For a team that needs to make a lot of moves and is in an extremely critical preseason, they sure our taking their time to make additional moves after the Cunha signing.

I think the window is closed now until after the Club World Cup is over. There was a short window prior to the start of that.

GIF Reactor said:

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I think the window is closed now until after the Club World Cup is over. There was a short window prior to the start of that.

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Early window was from 6/1-6/10 and then reopened on 6/16

The signing we've all been waiting for. Jonny Evans is deep in discussions to sign on with the youth team as a "loans manager".

First Jonny Evans, and now this bombshell. Tom Heaton re-signs for another year. The blockbuster deals are coming in thick and heavy now.

At this rate, you know what time it is?

It's peanut butter Vardy time!
It's peanut butter Vardy time!
Peanut butter Vardy, peanut butter Vardy,
Peanut butter Vardy with a baseball bat.
Peanut butter Vardy, peanut butter Vardy,
Peanut butter Vardy with a baseball bat.
Here we go, here we go!

Hey Mbeumo reiterates his desire to join Manchester United over Tottenham as United are in Phase 2 of their transfer negotiation strategy which is "increase their initial bid so that it to can get rejected outright". Phase 3 is next which is "overpay and eventually agree to the inflated price that the current club set a month ago". There were some pretty decent signings last summer (Mazraoui stands out but I also think Yoro is on the path to being a very good one) but their execution is really just a slightly less horrible execution than pre-Ineos.

Players report back to Carrington in 9 days.

Needs more stars

Welp, consider me underwhelmed. One player in before the start of pre-season on Monday. Zero players out. Each day that passes increases the odds of a poor season exponentially especially with that brutal opening schedule. Ineos is just Woodward v2.0.

another bleh season

I'm not unconcerned, but I saw a statistic that only 10% of signings in the summer window take place before the end of June historically. That said, I thought someone would have picked up one of our castoffs by now. Strangely enough, Betis had done more work to try to get Antony than any of them, and he's the one I like the least as a player. Too bad they don't have money.

I do think, for better or worse, the club World Cup increased the volume of deals a bit this year. And the Mbeumo deal being drawn out kind of makes it feel even worse, especially since it seems like the clubs are bargaining over a few million for the past couple weeks.

I wouldn't be too stressed about it except that the Ineos guys made such a big deal about how important it was to give Amorim a full pre-season with his players and how they had prepared a plan and now they were going to execute.

Liverpool have made 3 impact signings and sold 2 players they had no need for (not even counting TAA's departure). Of course I'm sure it's easier to execute a transfer plan when you just finished top of the table and not 15th and you have money to spend because you haven't been a complete disaster at transfers the last 10 years. But I'm almost certain that another part is just a fundamental inability to execute.

Their transfer philosophy is just contradictory BS. We'll tell the world we want rid of 5 players and then we'll hold on to them until the end of the window in the hopes someone will pay a higher price. We want to give our manager a full pre-season with his team but we're in no hurry to make the roster moves that everyone knows the team desperately needs. We have targets and a plan to acquire those targets but we'll fiddle around and spend weeks negotiating over 10m GBP before just paying the original price that was quoted. It's constant hedging in two different directions and it ends up leaving the club in the exact position it started in.

If they get Mbeumo in, the only part of the best 11 that I think will change will be at striker. Maybe Onana, maybe a wingback, maybe a midfielder, but… I'm not holding my breath on any of those. (I think they will bring in an #2 option to push Onana; nor is he as impactful as it seems since statistically the difference between Onana and a great keeper is only a few goals over a whole season, and his Goals allowed minus expected goals allowed actually beats Emi Martinez last year if anyone thinks that's an answer worth spending 40M on). At striker, we aren't near the front of the queue for anyone; even alternatives to Gyokeres are neither fast or easy right now.

Showstopper said:

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If they get Mbeumo in, the only part of the best 11 that I think will change will be at striker. Maybe Onana, maybe a wingback, maybe a midfielder, but… I'm not holding my breath on any of those. (I think they will bring in an #2 option to push Onana; nor is he as impactful as it seems since statistically the difference between Onana and a great keeper is only a few goals over a whole season, and his Goals allowed minus expected goals allowed actually beats Emi Martinez last year if anyone thinks that's an answer worth spending 40M on). At striker, we aren't near the front of the queue for anyone; even alternatives to Gyokeres are neither fast or easy right now.

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I'd take Emi Martinez in heartbeat. Dude has proven his mettle in the biggest moments. Other players on the field know and feel the difference.

Onana inspires no confidence.

Dre_00 said:

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I don't know when it's going to happen but that debt (about 700m now I think) will eventually either destroy the club or be completely wiped out by someone problematic. For lack of a better word, I don't see how that debt can be removed "correctly" and/or without consequence. Could be in a few years. Could be in a few decades. But one of those two scenarios is likely to happen.

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It's why I said Jim didn't have enough funds for this club.

Oh like the game we literally saw him play last where he got sent off and cost his team Champions League?

The World Cup was a while ago. About the same time Onana looked pretty great for Inter in the Champions League.

https://fbref.com/en/stathead/player_comparison.cgi?show_form=1&request=1&sum=0&comp_type=by_type&dom_lg=1&player_id1=7956236f&p1yrfrom=2024-2025&player_id2=e9c0c1b2&p2yrfrom=2024-2025

Amazon offered United 10m plus for an all access, behind the scenes documentary. Executives were keen but Amorim said no and they thankfully listened. That would have been an absolute disaster and I'm sure the ratings would have been through the roof.

In other news, Anthony Elanga appears to be headed to Newcastle for about 55m less than two years after United sold him for 15m. So yay for that.

I'm showing my age here, but when I heard this today, my very first thought was "Sidelines." Not kidding even a little.