219: Striker TALKS Begin! Amorim's NEW Midfield Target!

0:04Hello, everybody. Good morning and welcome to the United Stands. I'm Mark Goldbridge and this is your latest Manchester United news and transfer news. The weekend is here. It's Friday and tomorrow, I don't know why I'm looking over there, tomorrow we will be playing this massive game against Brighton, but we've got lots to get into again this morning. Action packed. Talks contact made with Lewandowski, who is out of contract at Barcelona. Should Manchester United be making a move for a player like that? Also some story about Harry Kane, which I think we can give some clarity to on that. Amrim's got a new midfield plan.

0:39Also, we'll be talking about potential exits, a couple of other bits as well. And some comments from Arna Slott around Manchester United, which I think are quite interesting as well. And a few other bits. But look, I just want to say it's half term next week. If you've got kids or you are a kick yourself you might be off today because uh seb has an inset day today and i couldn't say um i could be any prouder this morning than going downstairs to get myself a cup of coffee and seeing him in front of the tv watching the david beckham documentary on netflix he's only eight and he's watching a beckham documentary that to me is pride um yeah learning all about free kicks goals from the halfway line the 99 season uh the red card he was getting really mad about that um so yeah look it's great it's great and also it's wayne rooney's 40th today so a day of legends i believe but let's start off with this very well look let me start off by saying that there is a live poll if you're watching live good morning let us know where you're watching from we have a live poll this morning basically saying would you take levendoski at manchester united next summer now he's out of contract he's spoken openly about wanting to continue to play at the top level Barcelona have been very open about wanting to move him on or not renewing his contract so he is a free agent this summer he will be 38 next August 76 % of you wouldn't go anywhere near Lewandowski this is the story coming in this morning and it's coming in from Sport in Spain they're saying Manchester United are one of the clubs that have inquired and reached out to Lewandowski and his entourage to discuss a possible move ahead of the expiry of his contract in Spain next summer the strikers deal at Barca expires in the summer the report claims that Amram is a strong admirer of the Polish forward and the ideal mentor to Benjamin Sesko has potentially been identified um well well that last sentence sort of adds a little bit some of something to it really because I think that, look, when we're talking about the three elite strikers in world football at the moment, we're talking Harry Kane, which we're going to talk about in a moment and his potential move to Man United next summer.

2:57We're talking Erling Haaland and we're talking, in my belief, probably Mbappe now, but Lewandowski would be somebody over the last decade that would consistently be in the top three strikers in the world. You know, leave Messi and Ronaldo alone, they are they are goat status players so I think Lewandowski without doubt is one of the greatest strikers we've seen in the modern day but I agree with Mian the ship has sailed we've done this before we've done it with Ronaldo we've done it with Zlatan we did it with Cavani and it didn't actually work out that well differing levels of success all quality iconic players but I mean I I loved Cavani.

3:38I didn't like the deal, but I ended up loving it. But I was right. He was always injured. Zlatan was brilliant for eight months. Then he got a bad injury and that was it. He didn't even complete the first season. And Ronaldo came back and we know how that ended, even though he did quite well. So we don't have a great record of going for these iconic players at the end of their careers. So for me, it's a no. I actually do see the validity of the story. I actually do see the purpose of United's links. He's going to be free in the summer and he wants to keep playing. And a player of that quality.

4:13And look, let's play devil's advocate here. I don't think I can dismiss this as nonsense. I mean, it's been rumoured for a few weeks now. Amorim obviously values experience. I mean, look at what he's about to do with Harry Maguire. Harry Maguire is not going to get any better. Harry Maguire will never be as good as he was. but he's going to get slower he's going to get more injury prone so we're keeping harry mcguire for the stories he can tell and the experiences he's had it's the same with levandowski and maybe amram looks at it and goes he is a guy i want in my dressing room look at what he's done at dortmund bayan barcelona poland he is a guy i want at this football club for the next year or two who i think would add so much to this squad it's whether the club would back him if i was the ceo or I was the director of football, I would say Ruben.

5:04There is no doubt that Lewandowski is a fantastic player, but this is the Premier League. It is the most intense and quick league in the world. You want us to bring a 38-year-old in to mentor Sesko, and yet he will be demanding probably two, 300 grand a week because he's out of contract and he will have offers from the MLS and the Saudi League and maybe other clubs as well that might want him to start. So you're basically going to ask him to come to Man United, be a backup striker in the most intense league in the world and do it for cheap. Won't happen. And that's it. It won't happen for that reason.

5:43So whether Amorim wants him or not, Man United won't do that deal. And I don't think Lewandowski will do it either because there's no way he's starting for Man United at 38 in this league when he's never played in it. And there's no way United are going to write a weekly check of 250 grand a week above for a player who's 38 either so it won't happen but I can see well never say never but for me it would be illogical for those reasons um as for Harry Kane a few people talking about Harry Kane this morning and I don't really understand why I know Ben Jacobs said on the show yesterday that there's no real talks with Harry Kane at the moment there is this release clause at the end of the season which I think is about 50 million pounds and Harry Kane is of a mindset to come back to England and break the Premier League goal-scoring record I mean is it that deep is it really that deep um he'd won nothing at Spurs and he would have broken the goal-scoring record um I don't I don't know but look Harry Kane is rumored to be on and I'm I'm not even going to be accurate on this I'm just going to throw a dart at the dartboard and get a rough score he's on between three and 400 grand a week at buy-in um his release clause is 50 million pounds and I think he's 32 or 33 so again you're going Harry Kane for me is the best striker in the world by the way I'm not saying he wouldn't come back to the Premier League and score goals next season but will he do it for the season after that and the season after that and when you spend 50 million pounds on a player and you give them 350 grand a week you need at least three years out of them And that's where it becomes a little bit like, you know, and also your team has to work for Harry Kane.

7:27And what makes me laugh about people that say Harry Kane at Man United is that the system probably doesn't suit Harry Kane in the sense that he would want to drop and we've got two number 10s. So you'd end up with three number 10s. Who's going to be the wide players to run past him? Harry Kane works really well in systems like Spurs, where you've got two wide players running past him like Son, or for Bayern, where you've got two wide players like Diaz and Elise running past him and Nabry behind him. And for England now, with Saka and Rashford and people like Morgan Rodgers, you put him in a Man United side and people are just going for the same stupid mistake we've made for years.

8:07Wow, he's world class, he'll just score goals. and you know Ronaldo did get 18 Premier League goals in a season which was incredible but I don't even know that Harry Kane suits our system you know and you have to build a team around Harry Kane so if we bought Harry Kane I'd say saf Cameron get Rashford back get a right winger and a number 10 that wants to run past him and then you're talking you know and Berno to the right Rashford to the left Kane up front and get Cunha running past him maybe that works but systematically I don't think it works either it's massively expensive as well so I don't know where this Kane talks stuff is coming from either and and it would be a lot of money there is absolutely no doubt about that huge amounts of money um but but what I would say is and we sort of touched on it last night is that it's becoming very clear that we are looking for a more experienced striker to come in and we do need one um it's it was the Manchester Evening News who reported that Xerxes He's too slow to be a number nine.

9:05Amirim sees him as a number 10, but he's his sixth choice number 10. So, you know, I sort of, I don't really understand. If I was Joshua Zerksy, I'd be sat there going, why didn't you sell me in the summer? Like, what has happened that you didn't know in the summer? Because I look at the Zerksy situation and I go, if he's not a striker, and I don't think he is, and he's a number 10 and we play with two number 10s, let's keep him good idea yeah but if you've got kunya and burmo ahmad mount bruno why keep him what why did we keep xerxi why did we keep you know a sixth choice number 10 when we sold our second choice striker and the balance of the squad coming into this season in that area doesn't make sense to me and i think xerxi maybe privately maybe not i would be a little bit pissed off because I'd be going, I presumed I was going to be the second striker, but you don't want me to be a second striker.

10:05So why did you bloody keep me in the first place? And I think that if the perception is that Xerxes is not a striker, and I think from the evidence we've seen so far, I don't think Aram does see him as that, then we will be bringing a striker in of some description in the next sort of six months. As we said at the start of the week, maybe someone like Ivan Toney, maybe it'll be a loan deal. But I think we're very, very... It only takes a three-month injury to Sesco and we become massively reliant on a Cunha or an Embermo or a Xerxi utilised as a striker or a false nine. And that's problematic for an Amrim system that really does rely a lot of the time on an out-and-out striker.

10:51So I think that's something that we certainly need to monitor. but as I said I agree with the 75 % of you Lewandowski for me he makes no sense Harry Kane best striker in the world as far as I'm concerned but massively expensive and would he not basically be going back to Spurs as well I mean I don't want to slag our own club off but would Harry Kane not be going back to Spurs by coming to Manchester United I mean we're not we're not a team for the last couple of your careers where you can win the Premier League and we're not a team for the... I mean, the worst thing, you know, obviously we're all hoping that this Liverpool game is a spark to better things, but I could take you back eight years and show you a Liverpool result where it all goes wrong afterwards.

11:37I can also take you back for the last five years where being a striker at Man United can be a graveyard shift. So imagine Harry Kane comes back to Man United. We continue to be what we've been like for the last five years. He plays for two years, doesn't get anywhere near the goal-scoring record because he doesn't get enough chances. So, yeah, I think there'd be a lot of things that would need to happen for Harry Kane to be coming to Man United in the summer. I don't think it would necessarily be a good move for him. If I was coming back to England and I was Harry Kane, I'd either go back to Spurs or I'd be looking at a Man City or a Liverpool or an Arsenal, somewhere where I know I'm guaranteed to score 30 goals a season.

12:14And I don't think at United you necessarily are. Let me talk to you about the midfield this morning. um so a few reports coming in this morning i mean i basically i think it's a bit rehashed you know the the ben jacobs interview yesterday was obviously very good wide-reaching speaking about a lot of um things and i think there's a few outlets this morning that are just regurgitating that in their own way and passing it off as themselves but i did see something about a new midfield uh shortlist for ruben amarin uh this morning somewhere yeah it's a new list that's basically got conor gallagher in it stiller in it the labor in it anderson in it and wharton i mean this is breaking news this morning i mean i i feel like i need to get off my chair and jump on my bed you know you can't see me jumping on the bed i just realized i mean it's just amazing breaking news on a friday morning a new transfer a new shortlist for midfielders which we already know um i definitely add man make sit forward i definitely add the manu coney in there anyway I think he's definitely in there as well.

13:14And I think there's a couple more players that we're probably not aware of too. The one thing that people really disrespect about Favell and Wilcox is that they are not always obvious. They're not always looking at the players that you think they are. We didn't know that we were in Francesco until later in the summer because we probably weren't, but he was on the list. and we've done that a few times as well with like people like Lemens. Lemens, no one was talking about Lemens until the summer so he's now our number one goalkeeper, Dorgou. No one was really talking about Dorgou so we will have three or four other midfielders that no one's really talking about at the moment which is why I would introduce Kone who is currently at Roma.

13:58I'd keep an eye on him as well but I've seen so many of your comments last night and a lot of people online and like let me just explain this to you right um i agree with samuel i think kone is an interesting one to keep an eye on um make sure you smash a like on the video but this morning by the way i'm just trying to remember what i was going to say yes um i don't tell me if i'm wrong here you're wrong i am when i look at the midfield and man when i look at that manchester united side and i look in that midfield you know they need they need players now you know it's too slow you know yesterday yesterday all my troubles seem so far away um yeah yesterday is when we needed a midfielder and the january transfer window offers an opportunity to go and get a midfielder it's glaringly obvious there is a midfielder that we can go and get in january but we can't get wharton we can't get anderson we can't get believer and we can't get stiller still as a maybe but i don't think we can so the four targets that we want anderson stiller the labor wharton we cannot get them until the summer but in january there's one or two that you can and that could be manu konan that could be conor gallagher and i see people going i don't want conor gallagher i don't want conor gallagher no one's saying anything about konan because i don't think they understand it.

15:33Rogue says, play JJ or Madrid. Well, I've got an update on JJ. Remind me about that. I meant to say that at the start of the show. It's a big update on JJ Gabriel. Right. Going back to the midfield situation, all the big players that we want, we can't get till the summer. So are you telling me you're happy? And I'll call you out on this, even though I'm talking to someone that doesn't exist. It might be relevant to people who are watching. you're telling me you want to wait till the summer to get two of stiller wharton belaba or and leave the midfield as it is for the whole season and you know in february when we don't win a game or jet or march or we blow top five you'll sit there and go it's fine i did say let's not get a midfielder in january because i want to get the two in the summer so we mess up the season we go into the summer and then we try and buy your two and we only get one we gotta be real We've got to do real talk.

16:27We've got to, right? Because I don't believe Man United have the money or the power to go and get two out of Balaba, Wharton, Anderson and Stiller next summer. The market will be strong. There'll be five clubs in the Champions League who've got loads of money again, and that might not be us. I don't think we'll get two of them. I think we might get one. In January, we can get a midfielder in that nobody else will be going for. And we can afford it. And it helps us this season half the way through it. We have to get a midfielder in January. I'm not buying into this bullshit that we can go. We can wait.

17:11There's two issues I've got with not getting a midfielder in January. One, it's total nonsense to think that we can get through this season with what we've got and it'll be OK. It's the same people who said we can't turn on Amrim if this season goes bad because it's on the glazes for not buying a midfielder. You lose to Brentford, Amrimah! Amrimah! We know that will change. So we need to get a midfielder in yesterday and the first opportunity is January. Secondly to that, I also do not believe we will buy two midfielders of the quality we want next summer. So get one in in January. He's probably going to be better than the midfielders that are available in the summer if we can't buy two.

17:49Conor Gallagher. Go and get Conor Gallagher in January. Blame it on me and anybody else that thinks this is a good signing. I see so many people that are against it and I don't really know why. I always liked him at Chelsea. he's an honest all-rounder midfielder who never stops running and okay okay he may not be Rodri and he may not be Gravenbirch and he may not be Declan Rice but hello we're not Liverpool and Arsenal either we are a football club that wants to go from 15th to 1st and I said this before over the years. We need to be a football club that goes from 15th to 5th to 4th to 2nd to 1st.

18:34By definition, this is a three-, four-year contract. And in year one, you don't actually have the Declan Rice or the Rodri. You have to go for the Conor Gallaghers, who will help us go from 15th to 5th to 4th, and then maybe becomes third or fourth choice midfielder as you go and get a better midfielder in. We've got to walk the path. We can't just teleport from where we are to there. I mean, this is a very intelligent signing for a player that is better than Bruno, better than Casemiro, better than Maynou and better than Agate as things stand. Maynou and Agate can't even get in the bloody team.

19:13Casemiro, we know his limitations and Bruno's not a midfielder. I would be all over Conor Gallagher to Manchester United in January like gravy on chips it it just makes so much sense and I do not understand for the life of me why people are so against it when I know it's not belabor but that's the whole point we don't we're not gonna buy 70 million pound players for every position we haven't even got a best 11 we also need to you look at Arsenal they've got a best 20. We've got to build a squad out. And I'm absolutely on board with the reality that we do not have any other midfielder that we can move for in January, other than the likes of Connor Gallagher and maybe a Manu Kona.

20:00And we've got to get a player in like that, that, you know, maybe becomes a bench player in the future, but goes into the first team now and makes us better. And that's what I'm talking about. When you play career mode, when you play football manager you're limited you know unless you cheat you're limited you look at your team and you go you know you might be playing a Salford and you might see a Birmingham City mid-bench player that's not getting game time in the championship but if you put him into Salford's midfield in league two he's one of the best midfielders in the game you might go it's not as glamorous as I want but he'll get us promoted he might even get us into the championship and then we're in the championship I'll get a Premier League player to come in and he can go on the bench and that you know that's how I've played football manager games for years you look at what you can get that makes you better now but you don't necessarily look at it to be the best player in the world you look at it to move you to a certain position and then you go and get somebody else and that's how we need to look at it and I think I cannot subscribe to the view that we do not need to buy a midfielder in January I really really do think that we do um but there seems to be a lot of people who are against that and I'm not too sure why um I'm just going to talk to you about JJ Gabriel very very quickly but just some of your comments coming in this morning we've got nearly 8 ,000 legends watching this morning please do share the video Tom Grant says morning morning Tom he says Gallagher could be pricey but good short term what were your thoughts on the JJ Gabriel news hope he gets a chance definitely maybe well I'll answer this question now because it's perfect timing so this is what we are getting um just on conor gallagher i don't think he would be that expensive to be honest with you because he's um he's not starting for atletico at the moment and he's desperate to get out and there's probably a loan try before you buy a deal we could do as well atletico have been very open to those sort of deals for years whereby in january they'll let a player go um i think they did it with griezmann didn't they but yeah they'll do a loan deal if we cover his wages off um with a potential to buy in there as well but no on jj so i only found this out today uh where was it

22:26yeah here we go so manchester united talent uh jj gabriel was involved in first team training yesterday as we know he's 15 years of age and he was playing with the first team which is a huge achievement however as per the Daily Mail now this is this is this is bad news but logical news there's nothing we can do about it so we've seen Dowman of Arsenal at 15 playing for Liverpool playing for Arsenal this season at Liverpool and I think he came on in a previous game at the Emirates as well so this is what Nathan Salton the Daily Mail is saying is JJ Gabriel will not be able to make his Premier League debut this season because of the current rules.

23:06He was 14 when the season started. The earliest he could debut in the league would be next season. So there's not a lot we can do about that. And I clarify that because on the evening show last night, I was saying that I very much expect him to be playing for the first team very, very soon because Man United are so desperate to keep him at the football club because it's dangerous when a player is like 14, 15, 16 because you can get them out like we did with Aidan Hevin and we did it with Obi at Arsenal as well. There's something around their contracts that you can, I don't think they can sign professional terms until they're 16 or something like that.

23:50I don't know, but United are desperate to showcase his importance to him and those around him and they want him to be part of Man United's future, but there are other clubs looking at him. So we're basically wooing him, really. We're sort of like, you know, train with the first team and, you know, we want you involved. But by the looks of it, we're not going to be able to give him a debut this season because of the rules. He was apparently 14 when the season started and that makes him too young this season. So he probably, if that's true, he can't make his debut for another 12 months, which is in one way disappointing, But in another way, it shows you just how young he is because he will only just be, well, he'll still be 15 then at the start of next season, won't he, if he was 14 at the start of this season.

24:40So, yeah, we might have a bit of a wait for that one. Seth says Gallagher's perfect for the Prem. He's primarily proven. He's got an engine. The only issue I see is whether he's proven experience is enough for Amram to start him ahead of Casemiro. I think he's a better player than Casemiro. I think Casemiro two years ago was way better than Conor Gallagher, but I think now there's a lot of players that are better than Casemiro. Casemiro still has moments. His aerial ability is good. His passing is good, but there's glaring obvious problems in his fitness and his suitability and speed for the Premier League.

25:18What would you think if we sold Bruno and had a midfielder of Stilla and Mainu with a new left wing back and striker? is that good enough says d so bruno goes stiller comes in no i mean you still need two because you'd be left with stiller menu agate casimiro that's still not good enough for me we need to why is him why is embermo posting josh the silver says mufc um if we don't get two centimeter fielders before a striker i am done says keel happy birthday to my legend rooney and me says dk well happy birthday to the legend of the chat dk but also to wayne rooney i'm going to talk about in a minute uh emily derry says levendofsky is probably close on profile to sesco but he's very expensive short-term option he would also demand to start every week and yeah if we're not in europe um next season then um how would he play pay as you play why not sesco could earn a lot i mean i think we're talking about levendofsky there aren't we dle look pay as you play is fine if Lewandowski is desperate to come to Man United on a pay as you play deal but he won't play and he won't earn much money whereas in the MLS and the Saudi League they'll be desperate to get hold of him.

26:32Big Z welcome to Members Club thank you very much we need a young prolific striker like Harland says Daniel Winstanley and Manchester United is not a retirement home says Rajat. You know what it is Friday and if you're part of the Bundesliga crew on that's football every Friday night on that football we have live Bundesliga match action um literally the match and it's Union Berlin again tonight um if you're talking about striker and there's quite a few um I mean Lamala at Cologne looks like he's the next Wayne Rooney two goals in two weeks absolutely incredible but Ilias Anza at Union Berlin he's 20 he's an absolute beast um you You know, I don't know how tall he is, but he's a hell of a unit and he's got amazing feet.

27:24I would be stunned if someone like Favell is not looking at the Bundesliga this season. I mean, I'm looking at it and I'm sure a lot of you are looking at it. And the Premier League was definitely looking at it last year. When you think about Eketike, Volta Maeda, Verts, Frimpong, there's been so many coming in this season. and we've already spoken about Stille, but there are some interesting young players in the... There's some interesting young midfielders as well. Union Berlin, I forget the name of his name, the midfielder there. Very, very good. But yeah, Elias Hans is an interesting player as well.

28:02My point is, there's probably a striker like that in France. There's probably a striker like that in Italy. There's probably a striker like that in Spain. I'm sure there is. My point is, you don't need to go to Lewandowski at 38. There is the next Lewandowski who is, you know, potentially, excuse me, potentially Seska. So I would be looking at other players, certainly. I think it's an interesting market. And I think that there are players that we could bring in. um that's i said it last night for me i don't want an experienced player for sesco i would rather go with you know someone like an answer or somebody who is playing first team football in a top five european league and doing well who is under 23 i would go for at united um And in some ways, people might say, well, what about Rasmus?

29:03But I don't mean what about Rasmus in relation to let's bring him back from Napoli. I mean, like in relation to why did we let him go in the first place? But, you know, I think that in hindsight is probably the right move for everybody. But I do I do. I don't think we need an experienced striker because as as as was said there by Emily. there will be um there will be a demand to play games and there's no guarantee that we're going to be in europe next season uh in in fact when it comes to europe for man united next season i think the margin is so fine between top five champions league and then sixth or seventh europea league i mean i would expect us to be in the europe league but it's not a guarantee is it uh just just a little thing from romano as well if there's any future sale united will receive 50 of the transfer fee of mason greenwood um and clubs were prepared to big pay big money last summer but marseille refused to sell um so yeah look united potentially next summer already could be earning 50 million quid from greenwood and rashford as well so um um and the rasmus money so there's there's money coming in next summer with even if we don't sell bruno did you i think it's 50 of the profit as well because marseille did pay 25 for greenwood so if they got 70 you take the 25 off which is 45 and then you have that so we could get another 25 at the Greenwood deal uh 25 for Rashford and 40 for Rasmus but obviously about 30 of that would be gone on the fact that he's only in year three with us so yeah you could yeah we should make about 50 60 million quid the next summer just if things continue as they are um I wanted to bring this comment in is it sour grapes yes is it relevant yes uh do we care well you can tell me Arna Slott talking ahead of his game against Brentford said that in the last four or five games we've played we were not able to press the opponent how we like to for example Manchester United the ball wasn't on the ground it was in the air well look

31:32I'm old enough to remember Sir Alex Ferguson and as much as people say oh cry me a river and sour grapes, you're absolutely correct to say that, Sir Alex Ferguson would be the same. You know, winners hate losing. And it just, I always knew it was Sir Alex. And you can tell with Arnest Lark, this is somebody that's rattled by losing to Manchester United. And it's trying to justify it by saying, well, look, we're trying to play football. They're hitting the ball long. We won. Hold the L. End the conversation. apart from there is part of me that does agree to a certain extent that the Premier League has become very direct and I was never a big fan of Pep Guardiola's pass pass pass pass pass pass pass but I wouldn't say I'm a massive fan of long throws into the box and long balls either but at the moment we're going through this really weird stage in the Premier League and did Liverpool not themselves take the game away from Frankfurt from two corners it's part of the game as long as there's a balance to it it's part of the game at the moment so as I said on the preview last night I don't think we're going to see Man United pump long balls from a deep defensive line tomorrow I think we'll play in a different way like we tried to um against Arsenal and Fulham so I don't I just think it's I'd almost say to Arna Slott what did you think Man United were going to do?

33:01Did you think they were going to try and pass out from the back at Anfield when we can't do it? Did you go into that game thinking, oh my God, they're hitting the ball long, we can't press them? I mean, what did you think we were going to do? We spoke about it in our preview a week ago. I said, if I'm Amorim, I'm playing a deep defensive line and I'm bypassing their press with the long ball to relieve the pressure. I literally remember saying, Sesko's really important in this game because if you try and play through Liverpool from the back and they press you and they win it back, the right in on goal.

33:33But if you boot the ball long, Sesko can compete for it. And as a defence, you can move up the pitch and have a breather. So look, if we're meant to be offended because we played long ball at Anfield, I don't know what the offence is. Like if we tried to play the way Liverpool play, they're better than us. They would have beat us. We went there with a different tactic and we won. There's nothing to say that we can't do it. Of course, I want us to progress to a point where we play football you can be proud of like we used to all those years ago. But we're not there yet. We've got a manager that's basically, before that Liverpool win, trying to survive and people wanting to go to Anfield and play out from the back.

34:13He's writing his own sack notice, isn't he? Resignation letter. So look, it is what it is. you know i understand the bitterness i understand that you know when you want to play football and you're up against teams that are playing you know the way we played and other teams are playing it's not you know i'm not a big fan of it i'm not a big fan of long ball i'm not going to pretend i am but i am a big fan of winning at anfield and what do people expect us to do um if we were to sign a striker i would like someone with different attributes i'm thinking a real speedster that can punish on the break when we're under pressure experience not importance as dave the brave well my career mode's back tonight at five o 'clock um and if you've been following my career mode make sure you're watching at five o 'clock tonight but i actually have done that and look it's career mode it's not the it's not the real um it's not the real world of course it's not but you try and make it realistic because you immerse yourself in the game i have sesco and i have wahi from frankfurt who is smaller and quicker so literally for that reason and why have i done that i suppose subconsciously that's what i think man united need i think we need a foil i think we need something a little bit different now some people would say no no no no you if you take sesco off you want to bring a striker on that's like sesco so everything continues the same um i suppose it's just personal preference really but i think the main thing is we need a second striker 75 of you would not take levendofsky at 38 next summer that's quite conclusive um yeah alan reeder makes a good point he says just look at arsenal they've taken six years to get the squad they have now yeah but you know what i think i think you can learn a lot from what art has done at arsenal um in the sense of how long it might take for Manchester United to achieve.

36:16But the thing that Arteta did manage to do was never finish outside the top 10. In his first two years, I think he finished eighth. He did win an FA Cup and he managed to survive. You know, there were Arteta out T-shirts. There were people going Arteta out and there still are, crazily. But he survived. Whenever he got close to the edge, he'd find a result. And that if Amram is to build something like Arsenal and Arteta, and I'm not saying identically, that's ridiculous. Klopp built something at Liverpool as well. You know, Sir Alex built something at Man United. Wenger built something at Liverpool.

36:54The consistent theme is you must survive. You may get close to the edge of the cliff, but you must hang on and climb back up again. I think Amram's result against Liverpool last Sunday was certainly in evidence of that. and maybe you'll go back to the edge again or maybe you'll just move further away now maybe this will be the point where we he never gets close to the sack again and he's here for the next however many years and that would be great but the point is you have to survive um and you have to keep surviving while you're building um you know it's a little bit like building a new house isn't it and you know there's some bad weather coming there's some storms high winds will the building hold up or will it fall down again and as an analogy i think that is exactly what we're looking at with Amarim now you know some people might look at what happened last week and go we're fine the foundations are in it's going to take time to build but we're never going to go back down to nothing again some people might look at it and go it's shaky it's shaky that that could still come crashing down again and I think for Amarim it is about building while surviving and that's exactly what Arteta did at Arsenal you make a great point um I think that But when I look at Amrim in the two transfer windows that he's had, I thought the January transfer window was appalling, but you still take Dorgue out of that.

38:10He's a good player and he's for the future. You look at the summer transfer window, Cunha and Mbema have been brilliant signings. And I think they'll continue to be, even though it's early days. Lemens looks very interesting as well. And Cescou looks very interesting as well. So if next summer and January, this is what I mean. I don't think Dorgue last January was enough. but it is a progressive signing. One midfielder in January is better than nothing. And then, you know, get another three or four in the summer. In a year's time, if he survived, that team's even better. That's gradual. That is progress.

38:46But he's just got to survive. He's just got to survive. He's just got to survive. He's just got to survive. Dave the Brave says, if we were to sign a striker, I've done that one. Mark, Dortmund's end meter is one to watch. Thoughts? I think he is Seth. I think that's another name. Yeah. I don't know how old he is now, but he's certainly a player to keep an eye on. He's a player that we've been linked to before. Yeah, 100%. Emily Derry says, bedding in two midfielders in a pivot is a big risk. We're fortunate that Cunha and Mbermo settled as quickly as they did. Makes more sense to get one in January, so we're bedding in one at a time.

39:21Absolutely spot on. Completely agree with you. And as I said, I think I get it. I get it. ideally you're taking two from still a believer wharton and anderson i get that 100 take two of those brilliant one where's the money coming from two what's every other top club in europe doing playing golf i mean even getting one of them is going to be difficult like imagine next summer right we've got we've found the money we want two of anderson wharton believer and still a right we decide which two we want and it's Wharton and Balaba and we go to Palace and they say yeah bidding starts at 80 million and he's already in advance talks with Liverpool and Real Madrid and you come out of that and go yeah can't do that deal doesn't want to come here and you know it's too expensive right let's go for Balaba okay uh yeah Balaba is already in advance talks with Chelsea and PSG and we're starting the bidding at 85 million yeah we can't get him Elliot Anderson's already gone back to Newcastle and that leaves us with Stiller we need two well Stiller's talking to Bayern as well fuck and that could happen that could easily happen those four players could go to other clubs really quickly in the summer so I can't sit here and go let's not do a deal in January because you know there won't be many clubs looking for a midfielder in January we won't be able to get one of the star players but we won't get two of them anyway we might not even get one so for me it's it's an absolute no-brainer and it's realistic as well um Roscoe says hi Mark I've been watching you since 2019 I love how you stick to your opinions even when odds stacked against you love from South Africa mate you you gotta back yourself until you until you're proven wrong um but no i mean i think that's the whole point of this community isn't it it's the it's the opinions and debate which makes it what it is and you know as i've said you're not always i'm sure sometimes i'm sure a lot of time you do believe you do agree with me and go he is actually right again but on those occasions where you don't that's good it's not about agreeing it's about it's about having your own opinion isn't it um a little quote coming out from amad here there's a lot of interviews from Mangania this week it's almost like it's almost like they've been waiting for a week where we win a game because I've never seen so many Mangania player interviews but probably a good idea would not have been an idea to do it after Brentford he says the player must be ready to play in any position I'm just here to give my best in every match hey I'm a big fan of Ahmad don't understand last week why he only got seven out of ten I thought he was our best player on the pitch but he just got subbed off a bit early because the yellow card maybe somebody in the chat can tell me what it is about Ahmad that makes him you know not that popular uh not as popular as I think he should be but but let's be real here I'm a big fan of Ahmad I thought he was brilliant last week but I think he's been crap this season I think honestly this season he hasn't been very good so you know if he's given his best every game it needs to be what he did against Liverpool.

42:44Whatever he did against Liverpool, the preparation, the motivation, the way he played, the mentality, he needs to bring that. If he's talking about giving his best every game, that's not good enough. What we need is what he did against Liverpool because that is Ahmad. I don't think we've seen the best of Ahmad this season for whatever reason. And it probably could be as simple as being utilised in a position he doesn't know. And I think that takes a little bit of time so I'm looking forward to Brighton tomorrow because I see no reason now why Ahmad can't replicate that result that performance week in week out because I think it was about adjusting to a new relationship with Embermo and a new position but I thought to go to Anfield and basically play as a right right wing back against Gakpo who did get chances let's be honest um I mean Gakpo could have had a hat trick although I think Ahmad was off the pitch for a couple of those chances but I thought I played really well and I do think it is strange how I do detect in the fan base a little bit of uh

43:51uncertainty around him and I don't know why but I'm hoping he can really kick on from here and I agree with Trigger I think he's adjusting to the system and that's why he had a slow start to the season um John says his defending was on point if Ahmad focused on assisting he'll be great for us because a lot of our players want to shoot instead of create unfortunately yeah i mean i've said that before about ahmad i mean if there's one area of his uh one area of his um um

44:19game i think i would improve it's the um he he is he is still a little bit infected by the gamacho rashford anthony era where if you're a wide player you shoot and sometimes he does still do that and sometimes I do want him to do that but I also want him to be more if you're going to play as a wing back I don't want you to shoot as much it's as simple as that if you're number 10 I can sort of understand it but even then I want you to pass but as a wing back I think we need to get service from there a few quotes coming in from Herzl the Brighton manager literally just landed in the last few minutes he says I'm really looking forward to facing one of the best managers I think they play in a more direct and vertical way with more long balls towards Embermo and sesca to try and win the second balls and continue on the wings they try to attack with runs in behind and of course they have a lot of individual quality they can change the course of the match with a single action they're dangerous to us and we need to stay vigilant for 90 minutes as they can score in every phase of play so there's another manager calling us a long ball team i didn't realize that we were so long ball like as i said on whatever night it was we're second in the league with long balls this year like second in the league we're very low for crosses into the box our pass accuracy is not very good I have to put my hands up and say I noticed it against Liverpool but I didn't really notice it against Sunderland Chelsea Brentford I didn't notice it but obviously it wasn't just a one-off and a lot of managers out there and a lot of the stats back up the fact that we are very direct this season and we are looking to hit long balls And obviously, obviously, that does play into the hands of a certain midfielder in Bruno Fernandes who loves the Hollywood ball.

46:08And look, maybe that's what we're going to see this season, because I think if you get rid of Bruno in that midfield, that stops. I personally want to see Bruno playing a 10-yard ground pass into the feet of Kunia or Mbembe. I don't really want to see long balls, but, you know, in this survival era, maybe we're just simplifying with the tools that we've got and playing to the strengths of what we've got. So that's something to keep an eye on tomorrow. And I think Herzl is right. It's difficult. You know, it's difficult to be a possession team, as Liverpool saw, and be progressive against a team that when they get the ball, they go bang and they try and exploit the spaces quickly.

46:46But in many ways, it's a little bit like the way Oli used to play. You know, you defend, you defend and you counter quickly with pace and you rely on those moments from people like Rashford and Bruno and Greenwood and Martial, who we had back in those days. Maybe it's a short-term plan because he hasn't got the players to play that he wants to play. Yeah. Do you think it's a bit of mind games from Tune On Tours? do you think he's trying to play mind games yeah and i don't blame him for doing that you know you drop that out there that united are a long ball team and then we play tomorrow and we're a long ball team and and potentially that's what it's all about a little bit yeah i don't know anyway thanks everyone for watching we've got amrin's press conference at half past one get ready for that um join us live for that we've got our eight o 'clock show as well and i've got bundesliga on That's Football Tonight as well.

47:42And we've done Premier League predictions on That's Football as well. Great show this morning. Thanks a lot for watching. Stay safe. The weekend is here and we can't wait for Brighton tomorrow. Take care. I'll speak to you in a bit.