Manchester United: Glazers Out

[doyce7]

Manchester United are one of the biggest clubs in the world, but no longer are they one of the most successful ones. For too long the Glazers have used the club to enrich themselves, they must go.

The Glazers are gone. Sir Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton are the only board members that remain. The new owner of Manchester United is, Myra Kingston. With her on the board is Barry Dederick as chairman, and directors Tegan Lewis, Duncan McTavish, Coleman Caitlin and Garland Fowler. The "Glazers out ownership group" has taken full control of Manchester United. Even with the Glazers gone however, not all is rosy at the club. The Glazers put United in debt and the new ownership group has been forced to inherit that debt. The first move upon taking over the club, Kingston has negotiated a 1B pound loan to consolidate the various debts the club had been saddled with, that loan will be repaid over the next 15 years and repayments will begin immediately. The club have also announced the hiring of young hotshot manager Doyce Kirkland, an American of Scottish descent, to helm the club in the new vision of the future.

The Glazers out ownership group has stated that the club will focus on home grown talent and domestic players. This is an effort which the club states will create a more tight knit club and fanbase. Kirkland has been tasked with clearing the club of overpaid stars that no longer possess the skill or work ethic that should embody this great football club. The task for this season, club chairman Barry Dederick says, is to finish top 6 in the league and put forth a challenge in both the Europa League and FA Cup.

Only time will tell if this new ownership group are saviors or just the next ones to take advantage of the club. One must also question the decision to hire an unproved, 30 year old American. Is this job too big for him?

 

[doyce7]

Now this is not going to be a youth only challenge but if a player from the academy is ready, he will play. If he has good potential, I will make room for him.

The rules of this save is that I am allowed to sign players that fit 3 parameters: homegrown at club players, I can sign no matter the nationality. UK and Irish players I can sign and American players I can sign. The first two are pretty straight forward and I think will make sense to anyone, the third might not, I will allow American players for one reason I am American so it would be dumb if my American nationality manager refused to sign Americans.

Any player currently playing for Manchester United CAN stay and play but I can never sign them to a new deal. If I have not sold them by the time their current contract runs out, they leave for free. My goal is to have any player who does not fit the philosophy to be gone by the end of season 3 but I expect most will be gone by the time season 3 starts.

If a player at the club will become home grown at club I can keep them if they become home grown before the current contract runs out.

I am going to be somewhat tight fisted in this save, no player will earn more than 300k p/w, no exceptions, once the likes of Ronaldo, De Gea, and Varane go, nobody will make that kind of money again. My goal will be to lower the wage budget by AT LEAST 1M p/w by the beginning of season 2.

I want to do a mix of newsy type posts and "breaking the 4th wall" type posts. We'll see what kind of mix I end up with, it'll depend on how much time I have. Don't expect professionalism here, I am not a writer and I don't do graphical designs. Any picture or news article you see will come from the game itself. I have not decided how often I will do updates(in game time), could be monthly, quarterly or I may just do one at the start or end of every transfer window, or both, probably both.

Hope you enjoy the ride, I think this will finally be the one I start and actually get some decent progress on. I started too late in the cycle last year and was already burnt out, I'm not even close to burnt out right now.

Cheers!

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the nationality rules, yeah that applies to coaches as well. Only UK, Irish and American coaches, to go along with the ruleset, former Manchester players will be considered "homegrown coaches" and thus can be hired regardless of nationality. I'm off to sell a bunch of players and sack some coaches.

 

[doyce7]

Kirkland Cleans House

Manchester United have today announced that 37 members of the staff have been let go. This includes 24 scouts, 6 recruitment analysts, both assistant managers, 2 other members of the coaching team and 3 members of the medical staff. Kirkland was not joking at his introductory press conference, when asked what he would like to say to United fans, "I would like to tell them that things will not go on the way they have these past 8 or 9 years. Changes are coming, big changes. I will not sleep until this football club is on more solid ground. It is not going to happen over night, but we will be successful."

Changes are indeed coming and have come already at Old Trafford. We have also learned that Cristiano Ronaldo, David De Gea, Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek and Fred have all been put on the transfer list and could be had at cut price deals if anyone is willing to take on the salary. We will keep you up to date as the major shakeup happening at United continues.

 

[doyce7]

So as we prepare for the first game of the season against Fulham, the team does not look as different as I had hoped it would by now. Martial, De Gea and van de Beek are still here. Ronaldo has gone to PSG for 5M and we are covering nearly half his wages for the season, Fred has gone to Wolves for free to get him off the wage bill. Only one player is in so far, Ivan Toney joins from Brentford for 37M to lead the line this season. There is still almost a month of transfer window left and I still have hopes that some of those other players will move on and we will be able to make more additions

Toney is basically what I want in a striker, he's big, he works hard, he's not not slow and he can finish. I expect big things

Still in the process of putting together the full coaching staff but I have found my right hand man, former Southampton head of youth development, Edd Vahid. He has everything I look for in an assistant, he knows how to spot talent, he is a good coach and he's a people person and leader of men. His age is also a factor, he could be at my side for years without worry that he may step aside to do whatever it is coaches do after they retire.

That's it for now, time to play the games and try to wrap up transfer business

 

[doyce7]

Transfer deadline day:

Busy transfer deadline day for Man United saw 1 in and 3 out.
On the outs, Donny van de Beek has joined Southampton on loan for the season with a mandatory future fee of 13.5M
Joe Hugill has joined Nottingham Forest and Tom Heaton has joined Leicester for 1M each
De Gea and Martial will be staying at the club, De Gea for the season and the Martial at least until January

The only in on deadline day and the second of Kirklands tenure, is Declan Rice! Rice, the tough, talented and hardworking defensive midfielder looks to be a perfect fit for Kirklands vision of what Manchest United will be. At 23 years old Rice also could be a mainstay at United for years to come. The Red Devils will reportedly pay West Ham 79M with 34 of that being up front and the deal could go as high as 94M with clauses.

Kirkland "Declan was our top target all summer and we are incredibly happy to see him sign today. He will be one of the first names on the team sheet for years to come"

United also reportedly had a deal to loan American midfielder Weston McKennie, with an option to buy but the deal fell through when the window slammed shut
Kirkland on McKennie "Weston would have been a great fit for the club and we had the deal agreed with both player and club but the paperwork was not able to be completed in time. It's a shame but I would love to maybe revisit the deal come January"

That does it for deadline day coverage

 

[doyce7]

Just wanted to give an update schedule for this save.
The next few scheduled updates will be
Right before the World Cup
Small World Cup update
Transfer business following the close of the January window
Youth intake and recap of on field between January and youth intake
End of season recap and summer plans

If you are going to follow along and worry that these updates will be weeks apart, fear not, I work from home and tend to get through seasons every few days. In fact I will probably get through the World Cup today so there should be at least 1 more update today, if not 2.

 

[doyce7]

The World Cup break is upon us! How have we gotten on Manchester United?

Pretty well actually, man this is a tight Premier League so far. Got off to a bit of a rocky start, only 3 wins from the first 6 including awful performances at Villa, City and Wolves. Just to show you how inconsistent this team was at the start, take a look at September. Two 3-0 defeats at home vs City and Wolves but a 7-3 smashing against Arsenal in between, and 2 of the Arsenal goals were after it was 7-1. After the Wolves defeat we managed to start defending better, and good thing we did because the goals dried up pretty badly outside of the 6-0 win at home to Forest and the out of nowhere 4-4 thriller at Brighton.

All in all I have to be happy where we are, we sit 5th but come on, 3 points separate 7th and 2nd. Man City are already gone it seems.

The Europa League has been pretty straight forward, as you would expect. Played a half rotated side in the first game against Betis but then full rotation the rest of the way and topped the group on 15 points

 

[doyce7]

Brazil wilts in Qatari heat

Wow, Brazil fails to reach the knockouts after a 2-0 defeat against Switzerland in the final game of the group.

The round of 16 provides for another massive shockwave as the Socceroos take Messi and Argentina down under! In the least shocking result, Croatia gets through on penalties over Spain

Cinderella can go home now, Switzerland, Australia and Croatia go home in the Quarters, as does England falling to France. Too soon?

Holland and France will meet in the final! Holland has had the easier run to be sure, never really having to face anyone that could really beat them. They face a stern test in defending champions France and leading goal scorer Mbappe

Back to back!
France become the first nation to win back to back World Cups since Brazil in 58 and 62

Mbappe as you might expect wins best player and golden boot

Ansu Fati wins best young player, which is interesting since Spain was knocked out in the round of 16

Team of the tournament

Now, back to Manchester United

 

[doyce7]

Old Trafford November 15 2022

meeting between chairman Barry Dederick, manager Doyce Kirkland, assistant manager Edd Vahid, DOF Matt Norris, and chief scout Steve Brown

Matt - "So I guess now that we are in the World Cup break, we should decide how aggressive we want to be in January"

Barry - "we are pretty much spent up as far as transfer funds but we do have some wiggle room in the wage budget. Without selling, I think we are looking at a loan"

Doyce - "There are a couple of guys on bigger wages that we probably won't be playing. Phil Jones is coming back from injury, I don't expect we can get a fee for him but if we can work with his agent we may be able to find a landing spot for him"

Steve - "That would open up a chunk of wages, think we could use some of that for a transfer fee?"

Barry - "yeah we can make that work"

Doyce - "Victor Lindelof has been making noise about wanting to leave too. I wouldn't mind that now that Tuanzebe is back. Victor is definitely the better player but he could also get us back a good fee"

Matt - "I'll get on the phones and see who all might be interested and for how much"

Edd - "Anthony Martial is on a big wage too and doesn't feature a ton with Toney here, might be worth trying to find a place for him again."

Doyce - "Barry, how much of his contract would we be able to absorb to facilitate a move?"

Barry - "He's under contract until the end of next year, I could maybe see us eating a 4th of it if we can get a decent fee"

Matt - "I'll see what I can do"

Steve - "what about De Gea? His wage would open up a ton of room to maneuver"

Doyce - "If we could call back Dean Henderson then I would ok with seeing if we could find somewhere for De Gea. Unfortunately I think GK is going to be a summer task. Remember we let Heaton go on deadline day in an effort to get Mckennie over the line. If De Gea now goes, that leave Dubravka as the only capable GK"

Matt - "I second that, finding a new starting GK in January would be a nightmare and with the budgets we have now, we'd have to wait until De Gea actually left before we could sign a new one. Too risky"

Steve - "what positions would you like us to prioritize?"

Doyce - "I feel like we are a winger/striker short and doubly so if Martial leaves, budget being limited, a striker to back or compete with Toney but can also do a job on the wing. You can never have to many midfielders, maybe we can go back in for Mckennie? Hard to say what we really need until we know what we will be working with money wise"

Barry - "I think that's enough for today. We all have work to do and a World Cup to watch. Let's reconvene before the boys get back from break"

 

[doyce7]

David De Gea has left Manchester United

David De Gea has been allowed to join Barcelona on a free transfer after 12 seasons at Old Trafford
In other United news from this January, Victor Lindelof has joined Newcastle for 42M(half up front), Axel Tuanzebe has gone to Ajax for 7.75M, and Lisandro Martinez has joined Rennes on loan and Phil Jones is off to Olympiacos for 900k

Joining the Red Devils in January are
Andrew Omobamidele CB from Norwich for 16M, Trevoh Chalobah CM/DM from Chelsea for 44M(20 up front) and Danny Ward GK from Leicester for 2.4M. Yunas Musah CM/W from Valencia and Giovanni Reyna CM/W from Dortmund both join on loans with an option to buy

So very busy window for sure. I did not intend to get rid of De Gea this window and was going to just let him go in the summer but I really felt like I needed more depth in the squad for the second half of the season. Legging him go allowed the moves for Chalobah and both loans to go through so I figure I can afford to weaken a bit at GK with Dubravka for the remainder of the season, I need to be. Ward comes in as straight backup and will continue in that role next season as I expect Henderson will be my number 1 for at least next season.

Martinez wanted out but nobody had the money to bid for him so I let him go out on loan where hopefully he will play well and go for a big fee in the summer. Tuanzebe I had planned to keep but when I saw that I could bring in 2 CBs I liked better and both being potential long term answers at the position, it made the decision to sell really easy.

Musah and Reyna will come in and cover the midfield and out wide of both sides and if I have the money both will become permanent deals.

I am only given 45% of incoming transfers so doing this much, has required a ton of work.

Nobody ever bid on Martial, so I will continue with him as backup to Toney and try again in the summer but it's looking lik he may just walk for free at the end of 24.

Here is how the squad will lineup for the best of this season

As far as things on the pitch, we got off to a bad start coming out of the world cup, losing to Brentford in the cup I am not worried about but in the league, they equalized in the 93rd minute from a corner. We then played really really bad at home, losing 1-0 to Spurs but we turned things around in January and won every game

Man City not running away with the league like they were, Liverpool might have a shot to catch them but as you probably would expect, nobody else really has a shot. Things are still pretty tight but a gap is emerging between 6 and 7 now and Aston Villa continue to hang on to Champions League place

Lastly we did have a youth intake preview, I put no stock in these at all but it says golden generation.

 

[doyce7]

March 21 2023

Nick ***, Head of Youth development

Doyce, now that the international break is upon us, I thought now would be a good time to send you the list of youth players ready ready to step up into the u18s

A couple of these kids have a shot to be something really special some day. There are four that I really think could play for the first team in a few years time.
Michael Babatunde is an English striker of Nigerian descent. He is already first team level with the ball at his feet. He's a very determined player who works very hard. Needs some work on some of the finer points, his composure and anticipation, for instance. Obviously being only 16, he will need to work to develop the physical side of things as well but that will come with age

Nathan Mckenna is from Northern Ireland and he has the potential to be a dynamic defender, probably too small to ever be a CB but at RB I think he will flourish. Pretty quick for his age and his positioning on the pitch is as good as I have seen from a 15, nearly 16, year old kid.

Simone Marrazzo is an Itailian and English winger. Very determined winger and pretty quick for his age, decent dribbler and could even make for a RB in the future if developed that way.

Aaron Caswell is an English winger/striker who has played on the right as an out and out winger. I know we do not play with wingers but I think he could be taught to play as an IF on the left if we work with him.

Persijn is a Dutch and English number 10 but I could see us training him as either a Mez or striker depending on what you want to do with him. He's a big lad, already 6 foot tall but light and not very strong, even for his age. If we want to play him up front then he will need to really get much stronger, if we train him as a Mez then he will need to work on his defensive responsibilities. He is fairly well rounded and we have many ways we could go with him. I could even see him playing as the IW on the right if we wanted to put him on that path.

I'll continue to work with the others as well and will keep you apprised of any and all development.

Respectfully,
Nick ***

 

[doyce7]

February and March
The last two months have been, a mixed bag you might say. Which has kind of felt like the story of this season, really. Sometimes we look great, 4-0 vs top 4(at the time) Villa, sometimes we look terrible, 2-2 FA Cup defeat at Championship West Brom. Sometimes we even do it against the same opponent, see the Europa League results. After Toney put us up 1-0 on 7 minutes, we were dreadful. 3-1 actually flatters us a bit but then in the second leg it was the opposite, we were all conquering. And it's not just home vs away, not entirely. We are actually 5th in away points this season, we are just not consistent.

With that said, if you had offered 3rd at the start of the season, I would have taken in there and then.

 

[doyce7]

There are 2 games left in the Premier League season...
We have Man City at home and Crystal Palace away
Newcastle have Crystal Palace at home and Man City away
Spurs have Chelsea away and Brentford at home
Drama

Oh and Everton is probably getting relegated, which means Calvert-Lewin and his relegation release clause could be active soon...
I'm going to talk about that Ajax result here in a sec.
April and May have gone, fine. The Newcastle game may come back to haunt me if we lose out to them in the Champions League, It was an 87th minute winner by Isak, who had a hattrick.

Now, the Ajax tie in the Semi Finals, Ivan Toney, Antony and Rafael Varane were all injured, Omobamidele was not able to be registered due to only being able to add 3 new players in January(Chalobah, Reyna and Ward). Which means that Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire had to start. Maguire gets abused for pace by Ajax, particularly by Lucas Ocampos, who would score all 3 of the Ajax goals across the tie.

In the second leg, Ivan Toney is back, yay, Toney gets sent off in the 2nd minute, boo. Reyna comes in to play on the left and Rashford moves up front. In the 6th minute, Harry Maguire, for some reason, is just sitting on the ball about 3 yards INSIDE his own box, Ocampos takes advantage and slots home 3-0 on aggregate. With us down to 10 men and the best goal scorer not on the pitch, this is game over right? No. Wan-Bissaka releases Jaden Sancho down the right wing, he is headed for the byline and cuts it back to the onrushing Martial(Rashford got hurt so Martial came on) who fires one past the keeper, 3-1. About 14 minutes later Casemiro plays a beautiful lofted throughball over the top of the Ajax defense, Sancho brings it down nicely on his right and fires it near post with that same right foot, 3-2, 72nd minute. On 81 minutes, Malacia and Martial play a 1 2 that releases Malacia on the left. He takes off down the wing, waiting for the right cross, he puts it in, IT'S BOBBLING AROUND THE AREA, MARTIAL FINDS IT, BANG! 3-3! 3-3! 3-3! MACHESTER UNITED HAVE COME BACK FROM 3-0 DOWN WITH 10 MEN!
Extra time was a complete nothing so it went to penalties
Ajax was first up, Ocampos, Berghuis, Bergwijn and Brobbey all scored to start off
Martial, Sancho, Rice, and Casemiro match them for 4-4 going into the 5th.
Grillitsch was the man to step up for Ajax, he takes his short run up, SAVED! Dubravka goes the right way and United can win it with Reyna! The 20 year old American loanee steps up for the biggest kick of his life, he looks calm, the run up, the kick, Dmitrovic goes the wrong way and Reyna slots it in!!! United move on to the final!
What a game! What a comeback!

Should be an exciting finish to the season, 2 league games and the Europa League Final vs Porto!

 

[doyce7]

End of season
I don't want to talk about it

I really don't want to talk about it

Please stop asking, I really really do not want to talk about it

This is more fun, but honestly it was a super dull final. Sancho switches the play to Rashford who drills low and hard for Rice to turn in at the far post and then NOTHING for the remainder of the match. A trophy though! and with that a Champions League place next season, which is much needed, the finances are not looking great and may look worse before they get better. More on that later.

Best 11 for the season, Ivan Toney was exactly what I wanted. Martial did really well, considering I was literally trying to get rid of him the whole season. Injuries at the back kept forcing me to go back to Harry Maguire and I was really disappointed in Declan Rice, I expect better going forward.

 

[doyce7]

Summer Plans

This is a huge summer coming up. I have a ton of players to unload.
Martial, Telles, Lisandro Martinez, I would like to move Antony, Casemiro, Varane, and Bruno out as well to really rebuild this squad. I highly doubt I will be able to get all those out and still bring in enough players to have a good squad. I need to lower the wage bill, and create a deeper, more balanced squad. This team was running on fumes at the end of the season, I could not even fill my bench with first teamers every game down the stretch. This will not be an easy summer.

We do have some cash to splash around.

Targets

Number 1 target will surprise no-one, Jude Bellingham. He has a 98M release clause and I doubt Dortmund will let him go for anything less.
Everton did get relegated which means that Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be available for 25.5M due to his relegation release clause, that would be a steal and I need to trigger that
Other Everton players we could target are Jordan Pickford(though I will probably just go with Henderson) and Nathan Patterson who could replace either Dalot or Wan-Bissaka. Dalot is home grown at club so I do not have to sell him but I am not a huge fan.
Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori are always going to be on my list but my guess is that they will both bee too expensive for this summer.
Noni Makueke is an option to provide depth on either wing but we'll see what PSV want for him.
Southampton were also relegated so James Ward-Prowse should be pretty cheap. Walker-Peters and Livramento are options from Southampton as well.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is transfer listed at Leicester for 30M as well.

I'm off to see what can be done. There might be a couple of updates during this summer window

 

[doyce7]

July 1 2023

Major shakeup at United

Kirkland has wasted no time this summer in attempting to remake this Manchester United team.
Anthony Martial has gone to Arsenal for 35M, Facudo Pellistri to Middlesbrough for 11M, Eric Bailly to Marseille for 8.5M, Donny van de Beek to Southampton for 13.5M, Alvaro Fernandez to Freiburg for 5.5M, and the biggest of all, Raphael Varane to Barcelona for 25M

The only players to come in so far are James Ward-Prowse from Southampton for 13M and the big one, he landed his man, Jude Bellingham has joined Manchester United for 81M(60 up front).

Doyce had this to say "Jude is a wonderful player, he fits what I want to do and he could be in this midfield for the next 15 years or more. I expect he will be. Even at such a young age, he shows the maturity and leadership that you look for. He's a great player on and off the pitch and we are very happy to have him. This is a proud day for the football club"

United did miss out on Dominic Calvert-Lewin who chose to join Chelsea instead. Kirkland would not comment on if any other deals were in the works or if other players were on there way out.

We will keep you posted on any further developments at Old Trafford

 

[doyce7]

August 1 2023

Four more signings for Manchester United and a few more exits as well.

On the outs, Alex Telles goes to Southampton for 3M, Amad Diallo to Rennes for 7.25M, Casemiro to Newcastle for 30M.

Coming in, Giovanni Reyna from Dortmund for 38M(release clause), Jordan Pickford from Everton for 14.5M(10 up front), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester for 26M(20 up front), and Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa for 37M(22 up front).

Explanation

Telles frees up 100k on the wage bill, Diallo probably wasn't going to make it. As for Casemiro, well he was making 300k, getting older and his value would only go down. If there was one player from Uniteds 2022 real life transfers that needed to go this summer, it was Casemiro. I wish I could have gotten more but here we are.

Rayna coming in was a no brainer, he will be worth far more than 38M and has the potential to compete both wings and Mez.

I know I said I would be ok with Henderson this year and that is still true, but Pickford is better and when I saw that Everton had cut the price in 1/3, I knew he had to be the guy. I'm not sure if I want to sell Henderson, loan him out, or keep him as backup and get rid of Ward. Remains to be seen.

Dewsbury-Hall... He's solid, well rounded, not likely to start most games but only 24 and will provide great depth for a pretty good price.

Olie Watkins is fine, I guess. Not a huge fan of this transfer but I can't get enough money together to go get Abraham and I don't really like the other options. I mean, Danny Ings? Ben Brereton Diaz? Jonathan David? He's 100% a downgrade from Martial but he's English and isn't costing 250k p/w. So who knows, maybe this is a great signing, maybe it is terrible. I have no idea

One of these seasons I am going to go get Tammy, but Roma are insane. Look at that value!

I have yet to find an acceptable bit for Bruno Fernandes, Lisandro Martinez or Antony. If one or two of those players leave before the window ends, more moves will be made but we're about out of money. I have one more deal on going and that will run the coffers dry but I'll tell you who it is in the next update.

Which will probably be in a few hours

 

[doyce7]

Deadline day has passed and not much more business was done.
But two more ins. Tino Livramento joins from Southampton for 18M

Yunus Musah joins permanently after his loan last season for 15M

Only 1 more out. Diogo Dalot leaves to join Villarreal for 18M

Should be able to get out of this group

As for on the field, rough start to the season with no wins in the first 4 games. Had wins in the bag against both West Ham and Man City but threw them away in the last 5-10 minutes, smashed by Chelsea and honestly they probably deserved 5. Did end the month with a comeback win on the road against Spurs.

 

[kasisbook]

I won’t lie I haven’t been following it much since the World Cup has been on, but the last I heard Apple was interested in buying, which seems completely ridiculous, and so was Jim Ratcliffe.
Who is most likely to buy the club and will they do us any good?