331: Martinez TRANSFER Latest! Van Der Ven BID Rejected?

0:02Hello, everybody. Good morning. Welcome to the United Stands. I'm Mark Goldbridge and this is your latest Manchester United news and transfer news as we talk a shock move for Lissandro Martinez to Barcelona. Van der Ven bid rejected. Morgan Rodgers for£100 million. Why Man United rejected signing Victor Osman. This is coming from one of our coaches, Benny McCarthy. Also, a few bits around the financials. I mean, incredible reaction to that. I mean, I'm going to sit down a few morons in a few minutes time. I mean, we did the video last night. It was very explanatory and people are just spewing shit just to protect them.

0:38I don't even think they're bots. I just think they're idiots. So we'll talk about that in a little bit as well. But look, where I want to start is, and this is the second time in the last two weeks this has happened. So this is coming out this morning. Barcelona believe Lissandro Martinez would be open to a move to Barcelona this summer. the club feel Manchester United could be willing to sell the defender nearing the final year of his deal. Now, this is the second time, as I say, this has come out around Lissandro Martinez. And we've heard absolutely nothing about this. Absolutely nothing has been going on about this at all.

1:13You know, he's had two major injuries. He's 20. What is he? He's 20. I'm sorry. He's 28. I didn't realise that. He's 28 now. His contract is up in a year's time with an option of a further year. I just worry. I worry about this a little bit, right? I worry about this a little bit. One very good player. Two contracts up in a year. You don't really want to let him go into his last year. So he's 28. His contract will be up when he is 29. You could keep him for one more year and then he's 30 and he goes for free. There's another contract there for Martinez. There's another contract, isn't there? And what worries me about Lissandro Martinez and Ineos and contracts is 28.

1:57And I'm not too sure what his wage is at Manchester United, if anybody knows. But I'll tell you what, before we find out the wage, right? I'll tell you what. If Man United think they can sell Lissandro Martinez because he's 28 and they don't want to give him a new contract, forget Greta Thunberg. You'll have Greta Goldbridge on your bloody hands. I'll be there at the airport blocking planes and boats and however else you can get to bloody Barcelona. I'll be blocking. This guy's staying at Man United till he retires. We're not selling these. These players in the modern game don't exist very much.

2:36There's not many of them. Like the dedication, the passion, the determination, the leadership, the ability, the drive, the aggression. You can't let Alessandro Martinez go. So I'll tell you what, we might be protesting about the bloody glazes. I'll tell you what, there'll be protests here. In fact, opposite of Sir Jim Radcliffe and his immigration policies, give him British money. He won't want it. He's Argentinian. But like, I don't know. I don't know. There needs to be a policy in the House of Lords to keep Lissandro Martinez in Manchester because we cannot let him go. I mean, I'm joking about that.

3:14But I'm serious. We can't let him go. We can't let him go. We absolutely can't let him go. And fans need to be vocal about this today, tomorrow and next week, because this is the second story in the space of two weeks. How long have I been muted? Am I muted or am I just getting? No, I'm not muted. Fine. So, yeah, this is the second story in the space of two weeks where it's happened. And I don't like it. I don't like it at all because who's at Barcelona? Marcus Rashford. And Barcelona, I think Martinez would suit Barcelona absolutely perfectly. So it sort of kicks into me that there might be something in this and there might be something mutually beneficial for Manchester United.

4:08And at all costs, we must stop it from happening because it's such a big deal for Manchester United. So we can't let it happen. We absolutely can't let it happen. He has to stay at Manchester United. I can't I can't let that happen. It just can't happen. but if we've got any moderators by the way if we could just block people or time them out that would be absolutely fantastic oh yeah zero blade and savage are on it yeah just get rid of them they were they were here last night on the that's football streaming we're massive we're absolutely fucking huge and this is the best community and we're just getting a few idiots at the moment we'll clear them out we don't need them they can set up their new comments and keep trying but you're gone.

4:49Get rid of him. Get rid of him. So, yeah, look, going back to reality, we cannot let Lissandro Martinez leave Manchester United under any circumstances. It can't be allowed to happen. Do I think it could happen? You never know with Manchester United. You just don't. You just don't know. His wage at the moment is£120 ,000 a week. He's a key player for Manchester United. on a serious note and I am being serious we can't let this happen on a serious note he's only got a year left on his contract and he's 28 and from his side this is his last big contract so he's on 120 grand a week he's better than that he's better than that he's easily for me 175 grand 170 I mean look if you're only Sandro Martinez and it always comes down to money if you're on 120 grand a week and Mason Mounts on double that and it is double.

5:46As scary as that sounds, Mason Mount's on double the wage for Sandro Martinez. You're going to walk into the contract room and you're going to go, I want at least 200 grand a week because look at what you pay Mason Mount. And Man United are going to go, we'll give you 150. And if that pisses him off, he might be like, well, you don't value me then. And the thing about Martinez is you can see it on the pitch. If we disrespect him, we might have a problem. So, but this is my big issue. Like the financials, which I'll talk about later, we're so obsessed with driving down costs that we might frustrate him.

6:26And like I say, it's the second time this has come out. He has only got a year left on his contract with a plus one. He's 28. He's going to want a decent contract. Are Manchester United going to spew that up? And he's a potential captain of the football club as well. so I think that you know you've got to um you've got to you've got to look at it I think some people might be muted but if you're not if you are muted it's got nothing to do with us so you know at the end of the day unlucky go leave and try again later or refresh you know we're not we're not stopping the show because of some YouTube glitch that you've got uh unfortunately so um unlucky uh lip read that well yeah lip read that unlucky sort you sort your fucking computer out or your internet out it's not our problem is it um the the point i wanted to make though instead of being um constantly put off by idiots in the chat is that i wouldn't talk about this if i did if I wasn't concerned about it.

7:34And I think that it all stacks up. And look, look, who we're talking about is Barcelona as well. I haven't even mentioned that maybe Martinez's dream is to go and play for Barcelona. I hope it isn't. I mean, I'm tired of having players at this football club who have dreams of going to Real Madrid. Ronaldo was the original and there's not a lot you can do about that. However, I think the club has shown and the fans have shown him enough love over the last few years from the start and through the injuries that I think Martinez would like to commit his future to Manchester United, but we've got to respect him.

8:08Got to respect him. You can't chuck 300 grand a week at Casemiro and Rashford and Bruno and 250 grand a week at Mason Mount. More importantly, De Ligt is meant to be on about 200 grand a week as well. So if you're playing with De Ligt, you're going to want that as well. So I do struggle with this story a little bit. It feels like it could be the start of something. And when it's the start of something, you need to put that fire out because it cannot grow into something. And as I say, we'll talk about the financial stuff in a moment, and I'm sure that's going to open up a bit of a beehive. But United are locked in at the moment on saving money, and they're very, very, very obsessed on their wage bill.

8:54And if you look at over the this was a very interesting thing that came out this morning. Manchester City's wage bill since 2015-16 is 3.18 billion and Arsenal's wage bill since 2016 is 2.31 billion. Now, Manchester United's wage bill since then is, and I had it here,

9:272.7 billion. So it's about 400 million down on Man City and it's about 400 million above Arsenal since 2016. The worrying trend is ours is going down and theirs is going up. And this is what I like. It's like you could say, well, we paid more in wages since 2000. Over the last 10 years, we've spent more on wages than Arsenal. Nowhere near as much as Man City. But in the last two years, our wage bill is plummeting and theirs, Arsenal's is going up. So it's about delving into the detail. We are obsessed with reducing wage bills at the moment. what contract are we going to offer up for Martinez? So it's a case of watch this space.

10:13But as I said, I think it's absolutely unforgivable to let Martinez go, in my opinion. Welcome to Members Club, Leo. Thank you very much for joining the Members Club. You're a legend. Yoro is on a similar amount to Martinez per week, says Paul Govia. Well, look, what you've got to remember is sometimes some of these players are on ridiculous wages.

10:40but sometimes they deserve it. I don't mind paying... Look, it would never happen at Man United but Man United would never pay a 27-year-old 400 grand a week. It goes beyond their parameters. They don't want to pay big wages and they don't want to buy people over 26. But if that 27-year-old is one of the best midfielders in the world or one of the best strikers in the world or the best wingers in the world why would I not pay a 27 year old 400 grand a week? We're Manchester United. And this is where it sort of blows my mind where people defend the club. We're Manchester United. We're meant to be up there with Real Madrid and Barcelona and Man City and all these big clubs now.

11:20PSG. But there are fans that would go, well, I agree with that. I agree with it. We shouldn't pay 400 grand a week to a 27 year old. And I'm sort of like, what? 27, you could have five years out of them. 400 a week, they could be the best player in the world. Well, I'm not paying it. I don't want to break the wage structure. Who are what? At what point did you become a moron? You're meant to be a fan of football. You meant the very simple track of a football fan is your football club winning. At what point did you start becoming data dean and going, wage bill? I mean, what's that got to do in the vocabulary of a football fan?

11:56If I was down the pub and talking about Man United and somebody says, well, let's talk about the wage bill. I'd say, see you later. I'm off to watch Countdown. I ain't interested in the wage bill. But it's coming now and we have to talk about it because it's going to have an impact. And it has an impact on everything we do. Look, Harry Maguire is probably desperate to stay at Man United, so he'll take a 50 % wage cut. For Man United, that's a win. You keep a player that's decent, regardless of him being 33, you harbour his wage bill, you don't have to buy a centre-back. Van der Ven is a prime example, right?

12:28Van der Ven. So Fabrizio Romano said this about Van der Ven. There is no serious interest in Micky van der Ven from Manchester United. United's focus remains on the midfield where they invest big in that position. It is possible that United sign a defender, but it depends on if Harry Maguire leaves or stays. We're not buying a defender. This amazing transfer window that people sort of create in their minds, it should be on fucking Inception. Dream builders. You should You should be in the film Inception. I watched it the other night. You're dream builders in your head. Well, it's all crashing down in reality.

13:04This big transfer window that we're going to have where we're going to sign Anderson and Van der Ven and all this. Every bloody day, we get something that breaks it down. We're not even getting Anderson at the moment, are we? Because we're scared of wages. Van der Ven, we're not even interested in. Not interested in Van der Ven. And we won't sign a defender. We're not going to sign a defender because we're going to sign a... We're just going to focus on the midfield. I don't even know if we'll buy a left back

13:37because we're clearly operating on reduced budgets again. So, look, the Van Der Ben story was interesting for a moment or two, but we won't sign a centre-back because we've got Harry Maguire and he's cheap. Van der Ben might be one of the best up-and-coming centre-backs in the world and he might go to Man City and he might go to Liverpool and he might end up being the next Van Dijk. But don't worry, we're keeping Harry Maguire for another year on a reduced wage. This is why we fail. This is why we fail because everything is about saving money at Manchester United. So you keep Harry Maguire and you don't buy a centre-back.

14:22so yeah it becomes it look it becomes problematic and then martinez walks in the room and goes i want the same wages to lit i want 180 grand a week and the club go that's a 60 000 pounds a week pay increase that's a 33 pay increase we'll give you 10 we'll give you 140 grand and he goes are you taking the piss and that's what worries me this whole wage structure bollocks is gonna end up causing problems signing players and causing problems keeping players. But look, we'll have to wait and see on it. But, you know, Henry says no disrespect to Maguire. Martinez contract renewal should be priority than Maguire.

15:03And there are rumours of Man United negotiating a new contract for Maguire, who's 33, says Henry. I like Maguire, but I'd move him on. But at 33 on a reduced wage of 100 grand a week, you've just saved yourself 70 million. and this is how you need to work it out, right? Maguire goes, you need to buy a centre-back. If you buy Van der Ben, you're probably spending 50 to 60 million pounds on the fee and 10 to 15 million pounds on the wages. More than that over the contract. So you actually, 70 million is quite conservative to replace Harry Maguire because even if you buy a centre-back who's worth 40 million Over the term of their contract, you're probably going to cost, you know, 20 to 30 million in wages.

15:51So if you keep Harry Maguire overspending 70 million on another centre back, not the fee, but I'm talking about wages and the fee. This is what people don't realise. People start pontificating and theorising, oh, should we keep Maguire or shouldn't we keep Maguire? I see it and many other people see it for what it is. We talk about whether we should keep him in a footballing sense and we say 33, experienced, two centre-backs, high line, can he do this, dressing room and all that. That's what we're talking about because we're talking about football. You know what Man United are talking about? Man United on the board.

16:28They're not going 33, he's had a few injuries, but we can half his wage, the players like him. That's not what they're doing. They're sitting down and they're going, right, Harry Maguire is currently on 200 grand a week, okay? So if we bring that down to 100 grand a week, we save 5 million a year because that's 10 million a year in wages. But we get it down to 5 million a year because he's on 100 grand a week. So we've just saved 5 million for the books. If we let him go, we save the 10 million on wages, but we have to buy a new player and then we have to pay them wages. So we're down about 60, 70 million pounds.

17:05If we keep him, we save 5 million. Let's keep him. And that's how it works at Man United. that's literally how it works so you can see why we'll keep Harry Maguire also in the manager situation Deserby, Carrick or Enrique Emery right? Deserby and Carrick are free because they don't have a job and they're desperate in a sense Emery and Enrique you've got to take them out of PSG and Villa so what? 10, 20 million pounds and then they're going to be maybe a little bit more demanding. So choice again, Enrique Emery, maybe 30 million pound package, De Zerbi, Carrick, probably under five. It's all going to come down to money.

17:55And you can't say it's not going to come down to money because look at the financials yesterday. Look at the financials yesterday and look at what they're preaching. So look, It will all come down to money. And it worries me. It does worry me. People call it negativity. I call it reality. It worries me that maybe Martinez won't go to Barcelona. But what happens when he knocks on the door in the next 12 months for a new contract and United say, we're not going to pay you the same as De Ligt? Do you really think Martinez is going to knock on the door and say, I'm happy on 120 grand a week? He's going to ask for a pay rise.

18:30And he's quite rightly going to say, I'm basically the elect captain. I want the same as De Ligt. He was on about 180, 200 grand. And the club are going to go, no, you're 28. We're not going to give it to you. And then what happens? These things are worrying. These things are worrying. Apparently don't see United signing more than four players, says Amit. Odds on they will keep Maguire and Sal Martin as typical United as Ginger Red. MG34, thank you very much. Would Ben Stiller work in our midfield? Angelo would, bruh. Leo welcomes the members club. I would rather keep Martinez and get rid of Maguire, Shaw and Deleu, the butcher stays, or we riot, says Mike.

19:09How much football has he played over the last three years, says Kiel? Well, look, look, let me run a poll because Kiel makes a good point. Would you keep Martinez or cash in? You know the scary thing as well? I didn't add this. Do you know how much Barcelona think they can get Martinez for? according to reports. 30 million.

19:3930 million, because he's only got two years left on his contract. Yeah, it's not, we wouldn't get loads for him, would we? He's got two years left on his contract. One of those is his final year. He's 28. Yeah. Can you wish Holly good luck on her driving test today, says Ryan. Of course I can. I love doing those sort of things. Good luck in your driving test, Holly. well done if you pass and unlucky if you don't but I did fail first time so even the greats don't get it right first time Barcelona don't even want to pay 26 million for Rashford how are they going to afford Martinez it's nonsense Mike come on you're an intelligent person Mike Barcelona always find money pity if you don't think through the financials to the same degree when they are hiring fire managers in a cavalier and haphazard fashion says Emily Derry I want to come back to that.

20:33And given how impulsive any are, given Pep's contract is due, you think we can have a go? So Jim, copy what City or Chelsea have or leftovers, says Amir. Absolutely no chance. Absolutely no chance we're getting Pep Guardiola. Daniel Thompson says, hope you're well, Mark. A bit injury prone now, but I'd keep Martinez as he's a great player and has a fantastic personality, which we need. If they can offer Maguire a new deal, then they can give Martinez a new one as he's better. Look, I'm willing to die on this hill. Martinez cannot be allowed to leave Manchester United. If Man United try and sell him, we've got to protest.

21:08It's ridiculous. I think players like this are so important. I hated Ander Herrera leaving Man United for the same reason. They might not have a British passport, but they have a football passport. They understand the passion of the game. They're like a fan in a shirt. we're talking about keeping Harry Maguire because of his experience I'd keep Martinez every day of the week Harry Maguire might be I like Harry Maguire and he's very popular and you know he's very popular within the club but Martinez is more more than Maguire every day of the week if I'm a coach I want I want Martinez over Maguire it's the you can't you can't buy that you can't teach that it's absolutely essential that we keep players like that in the club our biggest problem over the last decade has been toxicity laziness inconsistency bad attitude martinez's biggest problem has been injuries that's it now we might be having a hypothetical here because if maguire if martinez gets injured again he's out for a year it's mason mount time i accept that i'm talking about if Martinez can get back and stay fit, he's worth his weight in gold.

22:19Absolutely. Absolutely. Just very quickly, actually, just wanted to come back on a few things because

22:29I feel like we did a video last night. It's well worth watching. It was about the financials, right? And it's always disappointing when you read the comments and there's a few people saying something they didn't say on the show. And then you start getting out of context clips because people are bitter, right? If you ask me the question, I'll give you the answer, right? So last night, numerous times I said, I don't like those financials. They're really scary. They're going to really hurt us in the future because all we're trying to do is cut, cut, cut. And you can only cut so far before it starts to hurt.

23:05And I said, it's a one hit wonder with the cut. We've already sacked half the workforce. You can't keep sacking people to make more money. Nobody said it on the show, but then a few people were saying it online and in the comments. You're wrong. You're wrong. If we save the people who've been sacked wages, we keep saving it year on year on year. It's not a one hit wonder. And I said, I thought to myself, are people that stupid? And then I had people saying we were right to sack people because we had an inflated workforce and Liverpool and Man City now have the same as us. And this is where I thought, look, this is a new show.

23:41It's the perfect place, right? A little bit of knowledge in the heads of idiots is very, very dangerous. So this Liverpool Man City thing, I thought intelligent people knew it wasn't true. So when we sacked half our workforce, and I think we went from about 1 ,200 to 600, I might be wrong on that, right? I might be wrong on that. But I think we sacked half the workforce, right? People said, well, Man City only employs 600 people, so we're right to do it. Man City and their numbers are lower because a lot of the people that they employ are part of the city group, not Man City. That's well known.

24:19From anybody who wants to educate themselves, Man City's workforce might be 600, but there's a load of people that work for Man City who's part of the city group. So it's probably more like a thousand. Liverpool currently employ over a thousand people. So I don't understand. I don't mind debate. And I think we all don't mind debate. But what I can't deal with is lies. So when we've sacked half our workforce, we're not working to the same workforce as Liverpool and Man City. They've got loads more people working for them. So this whole, we were right to sack half our workforce to bring it down to Liverpool and Man levels.

24:53That's not true. So when you see people typing it in the comments, that's not true. And people start liking it and going, yeah, yeah, it's not true. As for the wage cuts, as for the money saved by sacking people, when I say it's a one hit wonder, I mean, you can't do it again to save more money. You can only save what you're going to save from that. So people are going, well, no, No, you're wrong, because whatever we save from sacking those people, we'll save it next year, next year, next year, next year, next year. So what you're basically saying is if you sell one of your cars, you've only got one car on the drive forever.

25:31I know. I mean, that's just bloody, that's just basic. Everybody knows that. You're not paying for petrol anymore. But that's not really how life works, is it? If you sell one of your cars and you're not paying for petrol and insurance every year, Well, of course you save that money, but you only feel the save once. I don't know whether any of you live in the real world, but if you cancel your Sky subscription to save yourself 40 quid a month, you save yourself 40 quid a month. But very quickly, that becomes the norm. You can't do it again. That's what I'm saying. It's a one hit wonder. I can't believe how simplistically people are.

26:06They think we're going to keep saving money and notice it every year. You save the money and then you live with it. So of course, we've halved our wage bill and it stays halved forever, but it's not new profit. It's done once. And then I can't believe I have to explain that to people. Also, when it comes to wage cuts, if you actually look at the financials, it comes to about£8 million that we've saved by sacking people, right? 8 million. It's not 30 million. It's not 50 million. It's 8 million for sacking people, right? We paid nearly 14 million in interest, debt interest. Not loan repayments, debt interest.

26:52So we sacked half our workforce to make 8 million quid and we're paying 14 million in debt interest. So everybody who's like trying to protect this ownership by going, oh, we're going to leave them alone. Right. Eight million quid ain't going to touch the sides of anything, is it? It really isn't. And I tell you what, cutting wage bills is going to screw us over. That's the big thing. Like cutting the wage, cutting wage bills is going to kill us because if you don't pay for the best, you don't get the best. And all all this ownership is, all this ownership is, is a fire sale. They're just cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

27:32And I'll say it again, time and time again. You can argue with me. You can defend them if you want to. That's absolutely fine. It's your prerogative. It's your right in life to have your own opinion. But this is football. Chelsea spend hundreds of millions of pounds every year. Arsenal are doing it now. Liverpool did it last summer. Man City have always done it. Their wage bills go up and up and up. Man United are trying to reduce their spend and reduce their wage bill. And like a rising tide, we're going to drop. It's just simple, honest fact that while everyone else is spending on quality and you're bringing it down, we're going to sink down and down and down and down.

28:15It's as simple as that. And they can spin it however they like. But nothing I've said to you in the last few minutes isn't fact. and also just to add into it because there are better people than me when it comes to the financials i don't work in that world anymore just just just to add into this as well um swedish rumble is gonna write something about it um more i think today but one thing he said um that's really interesting is that um there's rumors that we're making up to two million more in match day revenue per game. Don't know how we're doing that. Well, they're charging you. They're charging you.

29:06Also,

29:11the metrics in how our profit is, I don't think it includes transfers, cost of investments and financing. So look, you can go as deep or as high as you want, but anybody who's out there trying to justify United's financials as a positive thing, I don't know where you've been. I really don't know where you've been. Making cash and saving cash is not the same thing, says Kiel. And if we take the Glazers' supposed value of 6 billion from 2024, the debt at 1.3 billion is worth about 22 % of the club's value, about the same that Sir Jim Radcliffe paid for the stake. At what point does this become unsustainable to them, says Emily?

29:52Well, as I said last night, Emily, if they don't get Champions League football consistently, I think we're in big, big trouble. And remember, we are in huge debt and we haven't even built a stadium that's going to cost money yet. So I think you will pay for it, ultimately. You can already see that. How has Manchester United's match day revenue gone up? How on earth has Man United's match day revenue gone up? for the most part we've not played well that's not fair we're not in Europe we're not in a title race how has our revenue gone up on a match day for what reason and you'll be paying for it you'll be paying for it just realised they've got two weeks off next week says Mikey well it's not two weeks off actually is it we play on Wednesday night and then we don't play FA Cup weekend but we play the weekend after so it's a week and a half

30:49Kyle says I'd let Martinez go for Van Der Ben Mate you know what I wasn't going to say this about Van Der Ben but I don't care I will say it right what's the big fascination with Van Der Ben he can run fast this is a guy who apparently plays with a really good centre back partner called Romero who have been right near relegation for two years in a row I don't I'm sorry. I think if you had Rio and Vidic playing centre-back for Spurs for the last two years, even if the team around them is shit, they're not going to be in a relegation battle. So I just feel with Van Der Ven, I just think he's a bit overrated.

31:29And we'll get an influx of people while he's been injured a lot. Thank you. See you later. Bye-bye. Prove my point. Either he's shit or he's injury prone, you know?

31:43I think he's overrated. I think he's like Thomas the Tank Engine. When he gets going, he's hard to stop. But actually, defensively, I don't think he's all that. I mean, he even let fucking Isaac score, didn't he? Even Isaac scored against him. I don't think Van der Ben's that good. I don't get it. I think it's just he's either really injury prone or he's not that good. Because as I said, if you put Terry and Carvalho at back for Spurs for the last two years, they ain't in a relegation battle. You put Stam and Jonson or Adams and Keown at the back, they ain't going to be there. You can't, as a supposedly good centre-back pairing, you can't say we're really good and then be in a relegation battle two years in a row.

32:29I don't think he's that good. Stephen says he's not overrated at all. Well, I think he is, Stephen. Come back with something a little bit more than that. I think he's overrated. He's been in a team that's been in a relegation battle for two years in a row. and on top of that, he's injured a lot. I don't see the attraction. I think there's a lot better centre-backs to go for than Van der Ven. I don't know why people are obsessed with him. So, look, he's impressive when he starts running quick, but I don't think he's impressive defensively. I don't. When I watch him defensively, I don't think he's even better than Tarkovsky.

33:08When I watch Tarkovsky, he's slow, but he gets stuck in. I mean, to be fair, I'd say Maguire's better defensively than Van Der Ben. There you go. Forget Tarkovsky because people take a piss. Defensively, Maguire's better than Van Der Ben. Pace, Van Der Ben's going to hit the bloody centre circle before Maguire gets out the penalty box. But yeah, Maguire's a better defender than Van Der Ben. 100%. And there's a lot better defenders than Van Der Ben. You put Maguire at centre-back for Spurs, I bet they wouldn't be in a relegation battle. There you go. And this is what people... Look, Roy Keane got relegated with Nottingham Forest.

33:48But you could see the talent. Elliot Anderson might get relegated with Forest. You can see the talent. Spurs in a relegation battle for the second year in a row, basically. I know they weren't last year because of the three-up, three-down bullshit. But you can't be a centre-back in a team for two years that's in a relegation battle and be called world-class. I'm sorry. I'm not having it. We can't even think of selling Martinez's passings. Brilliant, says Damon. Can Kunya replace Bruno, says Kiel. Well, did you see this? Did you see this? I want to ask a second thing. 72 % of you wouldn't keep Martinez.

34:2128 % of you would. You see, this is why it's important to do polls because I'm very, very passionate about not letting Martinez go, but some of you would, which is fine. Maybe you should tell us why. The next thing I wanted to ask you is, would you sign Morgan Rodgers? Wait for it. Wait for it. For£100 million.

34:46That is the story this morning that apparently, let me just get it, Villa could allow England midfielder Morgan Rodgers to leave the club this summer, but would demand up to£100 million for the 23-year-old. Villa narrowly avoided breaching Premier League's PSR rules in 23-24 and they may need to sell again. So, look, would you pay£100 million for Morgan Rodgers? I really like him and I think that if I had£100 million and I desperately needed a number 10, I probably would. I don't think we are going to have the money to spend£100 million on a number 10. To me, money really doesn't matter. Not on my personal life, if it does, but like in football, it doesn't.

35:35If there's a player there, and I think the mentality needs to change in this fan base, right? Because it's sometimes, I wouldn't pay a hundred million pounds for Belaber because I don't rate him, but I rate Morgan Rodgers. And if it takes that to get him and you've got the money, I'd do it. I don't think Man City looked at Gehi and went, is he worth the 25 million and 300 grand a week? I think they did it because they knew if they waited till the summer, they might not get him. They overpaid. They've given him a massive wage and he's free in the summer. That's the mentality of a football club.

36:09And our mentality has changed because who owns us? The Glazers and Ineos. They've poisoned our minds with wages and transfer fees to the point where if I say, would you pay£100 million for Morgan Rodgers? We've got people in the chat going, no. Now, unless you don't rate Morgan Rodgers, why wouldn't you pay£100 million for him? 23 starts for England. one of the most exciting number 10s in the Premier League, you wouldn't pay£100 million for him. Why? What would you pay? Well, if you pay 80, why wouldn't you pay 100 to make sure you get him? You'd walk away rather than pay the extra 20. I'd pay it.

36:46I'd happily pay it. Because the money doesn't matter to me. In football, you get what you pay for. And I think he would be good. Him and De Ligt partnership looks well balanced, says Kyle, Well, if we can ever get bloody Dalit back. Yeah. Yeah. You can't save yourself to success in business or sport. You're either growing or shrinking. We will save ourselves to mid-table mediocrity. It's a deep conversation, Jeff, and it's one that some people can't have, don't want to have or lie about. but a reduction in wage hits us both ways. One, you want to buy Elliot Anderson and you can't pay the wage Man City wants.

37:33Two, people like Martinez walk in for a new contract and you say you're not going to give them a good wage and they walk out the door. It's going to hurt us both ways. There's nothing positive about reducing a wage bill for a fan. There's nothing positive about reducing our wage bill for us. There's a huge upside for Ineos and the Glazers to make the club more profitable. But for us as fans, it's depressing. It's a depressing thing to hear. And so Jim Radcliffe sat there and done it. He wants to drive costs down. It always makes me laugh when we sacked half our workforce and there was that propaganda piece about a certain person who was employed on 100 grand a week to, I don't know, mind therapy or something like that.

38:22I can't remember what it was. And the amount of people that jumped on that bandwagon to go, yeah, this is why we need to sack 600 people, like one person that we might have needed to remove, and it justifies 600 people. But I don't care if we employ 1 ,000 people or 2 ,000 people. If that's what it takes, do it. I do care when you halve it because I go, there's no way 50 % of Man United's workforce was deadwood. There's just no way. That's just, and also what you forget is, is some people in this chat, some people in this chat know people who lost their job and I certainly do. And knowing what they did, I know that some of them people were sacked and people who kept their job are now doing two people's job.

39:12So anyway, we're delving into stuff we probably shouldn't do. Emily Derry says, if we take the Glazer's supposed value... I've done that one from Emily. Thank you so much. Martinez is made of glass and pushing 30. It's a sweet cheeks. Sentimental nonsense. What happened to ruthless aggression? God, it's amazing how many times you can miss in three sentences. You may as well call yourself Timo Werner. I don't know about sweet cheeks. Martinez is made of glass and pushing 30. Well, he's only just 28. That's not pushing 30. And he's not made of glass. He's had two significant injuries that are very different that could happen to anybody.

39:52How can it be sentimental nonsense when he's proven himself on the pitch very recently? What happened to ruthless aggression? Well, it doesn't apply to Martinez because ruthless aggression is removing players that shouldn't be at the football club. i.e. Luke Shaw.

40:13Martinez isn't on my list as a player that I would remove. So how can it be ruthless aggression? Curley says, I like Martinez, but we have strong in the defence and his sale could help us buy another midfielder or invest in a striker. Oh, my God. It's crazy, isn't it? But it's an opinion and it's an opinion some of you might agree with. And we'll leave it there. Goldbridge should replace Roger Bell as United's accountant. no I don't think I should do that Amit I just I understand the basics and what annoys me is when people start lying saying we were right to sack half our workforce because Liverpool have only got 500 employees and they've got a thousand it's the lies that people put out there nowhere close to being worth 100 million pounds as PX is worth what people are willing to pay for him mate you're just uh you've just been indoctrinated into the Glazer mentality as a football fan you shouldn't be thinking, I want that player, but this is his value and I won't go above it.

41:07We shouldn't think like that. That's Lasernomics. That's what that is. We can't even think of selling Martinez at his passing. I just sent something by Beth here. It's probably some Luke Shaw propaganda. Okay. No, no, no. No, it's not. It's a second favorite player. It's Maynou. It's coming in from the sun. Man United are yet to formally reopen contract talks with Maynou. No talks are currently occurring. Manu's under contract at United until 2027, but the club has the option of additional year. His last deal was signed in 2023 and he has since become an established Premier League regular. I mean, it's in the sun.

41:45So I would say straight away, it's not the best source. But, but does that not feed in? And thanks, Beth, for sending it over. Does that not feed into what we're talking about? Manu's on about 50 grand a week. He's starting for Manchester United every game in the Premier League. is knocking on that door and he's saying, I want 150 grand a week. Maynou's more relevant than Martinez because it's happening right now. Man United are arseholes if they sit there and go, you've got a contract for another year we don't need to speak to at the moment. 50 grand a week is pitiful, absolutely pitiful. So it'd be very interesting how those Maynou contracts works because look, again, I'm not up for giving people wages they don't deserve.

42:31but Mainu has been on 50 grand a week for two years he played in a Euros final two years ago it's pitiful for a modern day footballer and it would it pisses me off so imagine how he feels you wake up every morning and you know that Mason Mount's on five times more than you it does your head in at any walk of life if you go to work tomorrow and you're working harder than somebody else who's on five times wages more than you it's gonna piss you off you're gonna feed You're going to feel devalued and you're going to look at your boss and you're going to go, you're devaluing me. You're disrespecting me.

43:04You are disrespecting me. You're taking the piss because I'm under contract on a cheap wage. You're just not doing anything about it, but you're not rewarding. You're not inspiring. This is how football clubs should work. You should be going, Kobe, let's sit down. Right. What do you want? 150 grand a week. Yeah, we can't do that. We're not doing that. That's 100 grand. We're not doing that. What we can do is we can give you £225 ,000 a week with some performance bonus and an obligation to review this in 18 months. I'm happy to do that. So I'd watch that one. It'd be very interesting how that plays out because how we value these players going forward doesn't just mean we're going to miss out on signing players who go to other clubs for better wages.

43:50We could have people knocking on the door to leave as well. So we've got to be very careful about how we handle this. uh also just just just another point as well um in relation to man united's profits that they've just announced obviously seven and a half million was from sacking people don't forget rashford's wage is in there sancho's wage is in there and so is rasmus and ananas so whatever that adds up to I mean, Rashford and Sancho's got to be over half a million a week. So two million a month. So you can't double count those. We're saving those wages at the moment. They'll be in them books because they're on loan.

44:34They're being paid by somebody else. So I see people out there going, oh, we're going to save a load more money from Rashford. We're already saving the money. it's already on the books so that profit that we were making yesterday that includes no wage to Rashford people want to double count it and go and imagine when we know we're already saving Rashford's wage it's not there it's being paid by Barcelona if we get 25 million off Barcelona that's more but again people don't think Sancho I saw someone yesterday go well we haven't made that much profit but imagine in the summer when we remove Sancho we're already done it.

45:10It's already there. We're not paying that wage. High wages did make it hard to get rid of some players, says House of Zoom. Yeah, I don't know what the point is, but obviously you have one. I got school in an hour in the USA. We should sign Stiller and Tonali. Anderson is too high a demand, says Edits. What other playmaker centre-back can we get that will fight for this club? Martinez is different, says Sir Ratcliffe. Exactly. And does the winner of United Stand Super 6 win anything, says Kreacher. I didn't even know we had a United Stand Super 6. Snooze to me, mate. I can't answer that, creatures.

45:46Thank you very much. I want to bring this in because we're flying through the show today, but I wanted to certainly bring this in. So Benny McCarthy, who was our striking coach under Eric Ten Hag, and I think he left when Amrim came in, didn't he? Really interesting. So this would have been the summer of Rasmus. I was trying to figure out when it was so this is an article he's done with the BBC sport he said if you spend 100 million on a player you don't want to lose him for the AFCON I think with Osserman he would have been very successful but the AFCON was a big stumbling block losing him for so many important matches the team suffers not having the main striker there so the decision was made literally because of the AFCON and Osserman's name got stretched off not a player of interest because of that.

46:34United instead signed Rasmus Hoyland from Atalanta for£60 million.

46:42It's mad. It's crazy, isn't it? Because you look at that decision, which would have been Richard Arnold, Eric Ten Hag, Benny McCarthy, John Murtagh at that time. And then a year later, We're buying Embermo, who goes to the AFCON straight away.

47:11So Brody says this is just fake. Well, it's not fake. It's Benny McCarthy in an article for the BBC, a direct quote. Mate, see what I mean? This is what we have to put up with. It's what we have to put up with. It's not in the Sun, mate. It's a quote from the coach at Manchester United with the BBC talking about why they didn't sign Victor Osman. it's not fake is it you might not like it you might not want to believe it but it's not fake it's literally a quote from him who works with Manchester United with one of the most reputable sports outlets in the UK

47:47look my honest interpretation of it is I mean I don't think it's fake I don't think it's fake I think it's just typical and ultimately I think it probably wasn't about the AFCON it was about money I would imagine in that boardroom one player was 60 million and one was close to 100 million and they used AFCON as a reason to say well we can't pay that for a player that's going to miss a month but we've just done it and it does hurt you I mean look it hurt us if you think about that month where we didn't have Mbermo Ahmad and Masraoui it did hurt us it did like we went out of the FA Cup with Fletcher because we didn't have them you know Carrick's first game he had them all back Fletcher didn't have any of them so it did hurt it does hurt you but I think I think an experienced top class striker at Manchester United would have been very very interesting does the winner of United States Super 6 win anything you've asked again creature and we don't have a United stand Super 6.

49:00So I don't know what you're talking about and I won't be answering you again. Thank you very much.

49:07Freddie says, love from Kenya. Do you play fantasy? Nope. Don't play Super 6. Don't play FPL. So just an excuse by the coach for a bad transfer, meaning it's a fake reason by the coach, says Brody. And it's because we usually only have one striker when we have multiple tens, says Makatak. Right, OK, let me just make sure I've covered everything off here today. Oh, just, yeah. Right. Manchester United are not after Mane from Wolves. We're just not. We're not in for him. We're not looking at him. People keep putting it out there for clicks. We're not in for Mane from Wolves. Another story today about Liverpool and Man United fighting it out.

49:51We're not after Mane from Wolves. We're not looking at him. doesn't mean we won't be looking at him in the summer if things change but right here right now he's not a priority for manchester united manchester united have got their priority list manchester united's priority list is midfield wise elliot anderson carlos belaba tonali stiller maybe and mitcher someone like that on the wing is diamonde leipzig and maybe angia at everton and that's it. There is no left back. There is no centre back. There is no striker. That's it. That's all Man United are looking at at the moment. Midfielder, left winger.

50:30That's it. We should be looking at a lot more but that's all we're looking at at the moment. Midfielders and a winger. That might be our summer. We all know we need a left back. I think we need a right back. I think we need another striker. I think we need a backup goalkeeper. But right here, right now, midfielders and a winger. That's all we're looking at. And the players I've mentioned are those players. Now, if we don't get Diamande and NG, maybe we will look at somebody else. But at the moment, and we all know United have got a limited budget, even if we get the Champions League, we'll have a limited budget.

51:03And also we've got a very short transfer window with the World Cup and we're very slow at doing things. Jay says I think United will give a contract to Martinez to replace him they need to spend 50 more in which spend 50 more which is more costly says Jay well hopefully that's how they'll look at it Jay it's the same as Maguire isn't it the player to buy from Villa is Kamara not Rodgers

51:29Bale with Justice you've just identified a very good player at Aston Villa in Kamara But the problem is he's had two significant injuries in the last two years, both knee. Finally, I just wanted to bring this in. This came in from Greg, our producer. So player sales in the last 10 years in millions. This is incredible, right? So I think it's from Kieran Maguire. 1.2 billion in player sales from Chelsea in the last 10 years. 765 million Manchester City, 600 million Liverpool, 400 million Spurs, 390 million Arsenal, 250 million Man United.

52:29so Chelsea have made a billion more than us in sales in the last 10 years they're at 1.25 we're at 25 250 million

52:43it's scared as I said last night nothing nothing today has changed that doesn't scare me about this football club in the long term I'm scared in the short term I'm excited Champions League football. But everywhere I look, they will look at that and they will go, we need to sell more. I don't think we need, you can only sell what's good. You can only sell what's good. We don't need to sell more. I don't want to sell Martinez to get that going up and get the wage bill down. And I'd look at things and I'd go, if they're looking at, we need to sell more. We don't need to sell more. We don't need to sell more.

53:21We need to get better players in before we start selling more. Wage bills coming down. We're not very good at selling. I don't know. I'll have to see. I'll have to see. I just think like Savage says our revenue model needs to change. Man United's revenue model at the moment to me seems to be to increase the cost to watch Manchester United for you as a way to make money whilst diluting the product by spending cheaply on managers, coaches, players, and reducing wages. I don't see how that works, to be honest.

54:10because...

54:15Yeah, I just don't see how you reduce costs and charge your fans more for it and then get success. But maybe the fans will be happy to pay for it. I don't know. Right. I think we've got Ben Jacobs at two o 'clock. So that should be interesting. Quite a lot to get into and an eight o 'clock show with me tonight. Great show this morning. Thank you so much, everybody, for tuning in. 78 % of you wouldn't pay £100 million for Morgan Rodgers You're all Glazer Ikes, you've all fallen into the trap haven't you, you all think like bloody accountants instead of like a football club I'd pay it, if we had£100 million I'd pay it Bruno would have to not be here I understand that context but if Bruno wasn't here I'd pay£100 million for Morgan Rodgers definitely and Cole Palmer I'd pay£150 for Cole Palmer If Bruno leaves, Morgan Rodgers or Cole Palmer I would go and spend the money on definitely right uh thanks everyone for watching take care stay safe and i'll speak to you a little bit later