344: Martinez INJURY Blow! MORE Chelsea Signings!

0:00The future of furniture is here. Why buy ordinary furniture when you can come home to King? Save up to 50 % on selected designs at the King Living Mid-Year Sale. Shop online or visit your nearest King showroom today. Hello, everybody. Good morning. Welcome to the United Stands. I'm Mark Goldbridge. And this is your latest Manchester United news and transfer news as United face another injury setback for Lissandro Martinez. and United fans ask the question, is it now time to talk about the sustainability and future of Lissandro at Manchester United? Also heavily linked again to another Chelsea transfer, Andre Santos is a deal that just won't go away and there is a FFL crossover.

0:44He was at Chelsea when they were working on this deal. So is that the link why Man United are obsessed with the Chelsea midfielder? 21 years of age, another young player. Is he better than Balaba? Maybe. Also, Man United's huge debt. We'll be talking about that. Some interesting stuff coming out this morning. And the stadium, the new stadium could be off. We'll talk about that. Also, the wage structure at Manchester. The value of Manchester United's squad is plummeting compared to our rivals. We're now sixth in the league. Does that matter in relation to United trying to get back on top? Got a few other bits I want to get to as well this morning.

1:19But welcome to the show. Hope you're all doing very well. And Ineos trying to copy Chelsea. will probably turn us into Spurs, says Matthew Robinson. Well, we have got some very interesting stuff to go into. I have said regularly, and I've tweeted it this morning, that United are paying £30 million a year in debt interest. That's been for the last three years. It's expected to be more this year. £30 million in debt interest each year. That's not debt repayment, that's interest. So if you lend me£100 and I say I can't afford to give you the£100 back, but I'll give you 20 quid each year. The£100 debt stays.

1:57I'm just giving you 20 quid each year. That£30 million that we're giving for nothing, it's dead money. That£30 million a year, what could we use that for? I mean, it's a signing. It's a decent signing. £30 million each year is a£150 million player over five years. £30 million each year instalments. So scary stuff. But look, we're going to start off about Lissandro Martinez. I'm going to start a poll here because I want to sort of gauge stage what people think. Does Martinez have a future at United? Because the update is concerning. I sort of covered it on my video last night. Hopefully you've watched it.

2:33My top five transfers. If anyone's got any comments about that, bring it in later in the show, by the way. I stick by those five players. But it was announced by Chris Wheeler last night that Lissandro Martinez will miss the Aston Villa game. He's had another setback to the calf injury he sustained and will miss the game out of precaution. His last game for Manchester United was the 10th of February against West Ham in the 1-1 draw. Hasn't played since there. So effectively, this is a month. This injury is a month. And that's significant. I mean, look, I love Lissandro Martinez. I think he's so important.

3:08I actually saw an article by one of the athletic journalists talking about how United are missing Dogu and Carrick's finding it difficult to sort the left-hand side out. I don't think it's difficult to sort the left-hand side out. Dorgou is good, but I mean, if we're now saying that United are performing badly because they've not got a 21-year-old who most people were calling shit at the start of the season, I think that's tactically pretty poor. We do miss Dorgou, but Luke Shaw could go forward a little bit and we might sort that left-hand side out. We can't be totally reliant on Dorgou. I think we are reliant on Martinez and I think missing Martinez over the last few games, I'm not so sure that we would have lost to Newcastle with Martinez because I think he would have been intelligent enough against 10 men to move into the midfield and play the right intelligent passes.

3:54So I think we've missed Martinez over the last month. Thought he was playing fantastically well. And let's not forget that with Martinez, I mean, the only point we dropped was West Ham. He was there for the Fulham game, the Man City game, the Arsenal game. So I think he's a very, very, very important player to us, a very intelligent, tactically astute player. But this injury, like many injuries for Manchester United is just another indicator of how badly the club is run. And we're going to go through quite a few things about how badly the club is run, unfortunately, because most of the news stories this morning link back to that, whether it's stadia, debt, Chelsea players, you know, not speaking openly and honestly about injuries.

4:36I mean, when Martinez missed the next game after West Ham, which I think must have been Everton, we were told it was a minor injury. We're told but it was a minor knock. And it's not a minor knock, is it? It can't be a minor knock when you're out for a month. It can't be. It was clearly a calf issue and it was clearly going to take three weeks. And I think what's happened is he's been out for two or three weeks. He's come back and he's not better. So it's a significant injury. And United always do this. We're always trying to lie. I mean, I don't think Crystal Palace or Everton or Newcastle were losing sleep about whether Mason Mount was genuinely injured or Martinez was genuinely injured.

5:19But Man United act like it's a Champions League final every game. It's a shame we don't turn up and treat it like a Champions League final, but every injury we get, there's never a proper update. And I think it's poor. I actually think it's really poor because I listen to updates from other football clubs and they treat their fans with respect. At Man United, when was the last time we had a straight update about anything? They won't even tell us injuries. The only one I remember was Dorgue where they said April, which is probably going to be right. But most of the time, De Ligt, Mount, Martinez, there's been numerous others.

5:52They just don't say anything about it. They'll go, oh, it's something, you know, we're hoping to have him back soon. Well, how long soon? You know, like if they'd said Martinez was going to be out for three weeks, we'd have all gone, okay, he's out for three weeks. But they sort of talked about it like he was going to be out for a couple of days. There was definitely info coming out when Martinez has had that knock saying, oh, it's very minor. He'll be back really, really soon. And now he's out for, well, I mean, I hate to say it, but if he's not back till Leeds, it's two months. Because we've got Villa, Bournemouth, and then Leeds is on like the 11th of April.

6:27So is he going to be back for Bournemouth on the Friday night after the Sunday? I don't know. I would not have thought so. If he's not available for Villa, I can't see him being available on the Friday, which means he's out for two months, which is, you know, it becomes a little bit of a problem. I mean, look, 55 % of you saying Martínez, does Martínez have a future at United? 55 % saying no, 45 % saying yes. I mean, look, I'd sit in the yes category. I think he's too important to United. And you can almost say the same about De Ligt. I mean, De Ligt's been out since November, December, and we're approaching basically April very, very quickly with this international break.

7:09It's going to be April before we're playing again, really. So I think Martinez does have a future at Manchester United, and this is not uncommon. The injury that he had was very significant. We saw it with Alphonso Davies last night. Knee injury comes back. I think he's done his hamstring, went off crying. Martinez, knee injury comes back. he's done his calf this is really common we've spoken about this for years it's really common when people have long-term injuries they come back they get working and then because the rest of their body has been compensating for that they start picking up other injuries so look obviously it might become more of an issue he's a very combative player maybe this is why Man United looking at a sense back in the summer I certainly don't want us to be looking at a centre-back in the summer, but maybe this is why they're looking at it.

8:03But look, it's another blow. And I think that we've got a huge opportunity to beat Villa on Sunday. And it was interesting what Michael Carrick said about the Newcastle loss. I'll bring that in a moment. But I think we've got a great opportunity to beat Villa on Sunday. You know, losing a game, United tend to turn the switch on afterwards. And I think essentially it's a game to bounce back in. obviously it's slightly harder without people like martinez but look hopefully he can get back and start playing because i feel a lot more confident when martinez is in our team i think he's a very very important player for us um his story says he's another delit yeah but delit wasn't injury prone until he did his back so you know saying he's another delit harry mcguire gets injured a lot now so is he another harry mcguire is he another luke shaw what why do you default to delit as being injury prone when the only injury he's really had is a back injury and he's in his mid-20s.

8:58I'd say if you want to go for injury-prone players, why don't you go with the British passport, people like Mason Mount and Luke Shaw. It's funny how you've gone for the foreign centre-back, isn't it? With the foreign centre-back. I think you've got a bit of an agenda, mate. Amit says, would you get Van der Ven over Lissandro... I don't know what that means. No, I think Van der Ven, and I'm glad I got proved right on it last night, I think Van der Ven is massively overrated. I don't think he's that good. He scored a goal at Old Trafford where he ran through our defence like a bloody train and everybody thinks he's world class and every time I watch him I think I wouldn't go anywhere near Van der Ven and also Van der Ven is injury prone but I wouldn't go anywhere near Van der Ven I don't think I don't think he's that good um yeah I don't uh Henry says I saw a video about controversial football opinions that Man United is not and never been a well-run club and only had success because of Sir Alex who basically ran the club when he was here what's your takes as Henry um it might be true Sir Alex Ferguson was fundamental to United's success.

9:57It might be true. I'm not sure if it's true, but I found out today that Steve Holland was England's defence coach and England were actually good defensively, says Wub. No, it's not true. He was the assistant coach to Gareth Southgate and England did very well in international football playing boring shit football. So that's true. It wasn't just a defensive coach. He was an assistant coach as well. Anyway, moving on, I just want to talk about this transfer story that's coming out this morning, but we've just had another super chat from Grimm. People saying that Micky can't defend over Martinez is a Bastoni, Schlotterbeck-level player, and a basketball-playing defender is a must.

10:32Look, if people think we should go for Van De Ven, that's absolutely fine. I think he's massively overrated, and I wouldn't bring him to Manchester United. I also think he gets injured a lot. And I don't think he's got the right mentality. I mean, if you didn't watch Spurs last night or you haven't watched them over the last few weeks, I think their mentality is absolutely shocking. And you look at Cunha and you look at in Burmo, you look at Seska and what they were doing at their previous clubs with strong mentality. I think it's, you know, a very big thing. Just on Martinez, before we move over, by the way, Chris Wheeler is saying that sources insist the problem isn't too serious, but he suffered a slight reaction in training and it was decided to take a more cautious approach with his recovery.

11:11There we go on that one. Okay, back to what I want to talk about. Brazilian reports now are saying that while manager of Chelsea, Liam Rosinha, is a huge fan of Santos, the Chelsea board do not see midfielder Andre Santos as untouchable and would listen to offers for the Brazilian international. Man United lead the race for his signature as he is highly rated among the recruitment team, but Juventus are also watching on and could provide a regular spot in the first team. So we've got Ben Jacobs on at two o 'clock. I'm sure we can get the truth on this because he was actually talking about this a couple of weeks ago.

11:47But Amit says, I think our whole defence needs a revamp abysmal. I think with regards to Santos, I feel like at what point are we going to stop with the Chelsea obsession? Like, we should not be buying players from Chelsea for a multitude of reasons. Like, is Sir Jim Radcliffe a Chelsea fan? Because if we buy Santos from Chelsea, what we're effectively doing is giving them good money for a player they don't want. And 767 says, I like Santos. And Santos might be a decent player, but symbolically, we've got to stop doing these deals. Like, we can't keep going to Chelsea, a direct competitor, and buying players from them.

12:34We can't do that. It's ridiculous. We need to start buying the next Santos or bringing in a player that's ready to go. And I don't think he fits the bill on either. He's a Chelsea player where we give Chelsea money to help Chelsea survive and then we get the player they don't want. Do you think they're going to go, you can have Caicedo? Do you think they're going to go, you can have Enzo Fernandes? No, they're going to give us Santos because they don't want him. So what? Why? We can't keep making these types of signings directly from Chelsea, but also with risk. There are so many. And I covered this in the video last night.

13:11There are so many players out there that we can sign this summer that suit what we're trying to do. Players that come in and perform straight away. I mean, like Lewis Hall would be fantastic. Tonali would be fantastic. Stilla would be fantastic. We've got to stop making these risky signings. Well, it's an ex-Chelsea player that they don't want anymore. He could work out being really good, but we've probably got to nurture him and protect him and give him time and be patient with the ex-Chelsea player who's 21, who's got talent that could be good. That's not... Everything I've said there is repulsive.

13:46you're telling me we could we can buy a 25 year old who's hungry for man united and ready to go or we can buy a 21 year old from chelsea who they don't want anymore who's potentially good and we can give chelsea 40 50 60 million quid for it i mean i mean what's to like about that and it's a huge risk why are we doing these why are we doing these sort of deals it's weird if i look at man united we are not a club that needs to be going out buying players with risk. We need ready-to-go players. You look at Newcastle, right? Newcastle last night in the Champions League. Fantastic. Nearly beat Barcelona.

14:22Brilliant. They'll be knocked out next week. They're mid-table in the league. Bye-bye Europe. Bye-bye relevancy. Have to sell your players. They're a good team, Newcastle. They're actually a good team. I don't look at that Newcastle side and go, you need half a team. They're a good team who have been swallowed up by playing in the Champions League and the Premier League every week, twice a week. They haven't got the squad for it. So Man United next season, we're in the bloody Champions League, we're back. We're not. You look at that team and you go, this isn't even as good as Newcastle and we haven't got a squad.

14:52So we need to bring players in in the summer that make us better than Newcastle now so that we can get back in the top five and compete in the Champions League. I don't think 21-year-old Chelsea midfielders would be top of my list. It could work, but it's got risk. But look, I think there is a chance it would happen And interestingly as well, Favell was at Chelsea at the time they were recruiting this player. I can't remember what January it was, but it was the one where they bought that Fafana striker from Norway. So Favell had his fingerprints all over this apparently. So it does start to make sense that Favell...

15:30And look, I wouldn't say don't trust Favell, but I just don't like giving Chelsea money. We've done this a number of times now. Matic, Mount, and now we're going to go and do it again. I just, I don't like this type of deal. And for me, I know football's lost a lot of its identity this season and the past couple of years. But we shouldn't be giving Chelsea money. We're not friends. We shouldn't be copying Chelsea. They're rivals. Why are we helping them, says Harry, exactly. James says, I think Sir Jim just secretly wants to buy Chelsea players to help fund Chelsea, says James. Well, it is weird.

16:06I mean, God, if for one second you think what I'm saying is a little bit harsh. Remember, Mason Mount had his injury at Chelsea and was out of contract in a year. We still walked in knowing Mason Mount's injury problems, knowing he was out of contract in a year and went, there's 55 million and there's 250 grand a week. I mean, I wouldn't say it's corrupt. It's just completely and utterly incompetent. I mean, we didn't even need Mason Mount. I like Mason Mount at Chelsea in England, but we didn't even need him. We could easily have gone, let's let his contract run down and see how the injury goes over the next year.

16:48And we'd have saved ourselves a million pounds a month and 55 million. so I mean Chelsea must I've heard rumours that Chelsea at 10 o 'clock every morning there's a big party at their Cobham training ground about the Mason Mount deal, it's like Christmas every day and a different member of staff walks in and says to everybody we sold Mason Mount for 55 million and he had one year left on his contract and an injury and everyone cheers and it just boosts the mood every day at Chelsea and apparently it's a bit of a myth but it wouldn't surprise me if it's true, I mean they must celebrate that every minute of every day it's one of the best bits of business well it's not the best i can think of a couple of others i mean bloody hell um you know we did give um ajax 80 million for anthony but it it was an amazing deal for chelsea to get 55 million pounds for a broken player with one year left on his contract i mean it it's incredible absolutely incredible.

17:48James says, we didn't need Mount and we even gave him the number seven shirt as well. Look, I can't even get into the top 10 worst Man United deals because they've all happened in the last decade, but it's got to be in there. I think Sir Jim's, Mark, would you take Van Heek at Brighton? 12 months left on his contract, only 25, decent injury record, good passer of the ball. It's not a bad shout. I'd probably take him over bloody Van de Ven, to be honest with you, because of the value of it. That was from Blameshifter. And watch the five must signings video. And I really like if we get a similar summer window, we can start to compete for the league, says Love Jonas.

18:22Yeah, if you've not seen that video, check it out on the homepage. And I enjoyed doing that. And I certainly enjoyed reading your comments as well. Farm Mickey says, how long till we scrap the over 26 rule? In your opinion, love the channel, been watching best part of five years. Well, thanks for your support and your super chat, pal. I don't think they will abandon the over 26 rule. I think it's the stubbornness and incompetence of this ownership to set ridiculous parameters. I think they'll continue doing it. We need a Caicedo level player, not a Santos as grim. Look, honestly, I don't think that Santos at Chelsea actually is a bad player.

19:02From what I've seen, I think he looks OK. He hasn't got a terrible injury record. but he's the sort of player you'd take a punt on if you were Liverpool or Man City or Arsenal and you had a spare 30 million you might go he's doing well at Sao Paulo give him 30 million pounds let's see how he does training with us over the next season he's not the sort of player that you go to Chelsea and go here's 55 million again come and be a part of our midfield because he's 21 and I think he probably is better than Balaba by the way and maybe they're looking at him as an alternative to Belaber, but why are you trying to buy a young midfielder who's unproven anyway?

19:43Why do you need an unproven midfielder who's 21? There's plenty of proven midfielders out there that you can go and get. I mean, I'd take Tyler Adams for a lot less price. I'd certainly take Stilla, Anderson over that. So I don't know. I don't know about that. The Duke Studio, hope you're doing well. He says Tottenham get relegated even if they don't. we should be in the race for Vuscovic. Andersen should be a must. Second best is not good enough, says Duke Studio there. Well, Vuscovic at Hamburg is doing very, very well. I think he's probably Spurs best centre-back as well. He doesn't actually play for Spurs this season.

20:20Inu says, how many players have we bought from direct rivals that have gone on to be a success? In my opinion, it never works, says Inu. Well, Van Persie obviously jumps to mind, but to be fair, Van Persie was a one-hit wonder, wasn't he, if we're being honest? OK, let me move on a little bit. We can always come back. So there's a comment from Michael Carrick about how the team is responding to the loss at Newcastle. He says, good. I think there's an understanding of what we can do a little bit better in certain areas and we can improve, which is really good. But it's coming off the back of good performances and a really good group of results as well.

20:54It's just putting things in balance, really, and understanding where we're at and taking the confidence that we've built up and the spirit and putting that into the next group of games, which is two before the international break and Aston Villa's a really important one. I mean, look, I think Michael Carrick is never going to be, and I've said this before we got him, I like Michael Carrick, I loved him as a player, but he's never going to be interesting in interviews. He's just not. I think on TV when he was doing punditry work, he's just very pragmatic. He's a bit of an Arteta, to be honest. I don't find Arteta's interviews interesting at all and Carrick's a little bit like that.

21:30But look at Arteta, Arsenal could win the league, could win the Champions League. So, look, of course, we love a Mourinho, a Ranić, a Jose, an Amirim interview. They're very, very good. But Carrick's never going to give anything away. And, you know, it's a very safe interview. What I suspect and hope Carrick has done, as much as he says, you know, we've just got to take it on board. We've had some good results. We're not far off, blah, blah, blah. Honestly he's got to take the feedback of Paul Sculls and many other people who said We've been shit for the last four games because we have We were shit against West Ham We were shit against Everton We were shit against Palace And we were shit against Newcastle We beat Palace because they went down to 10 men We lost to Newcastle against 10 men Everton couldn't put the ball in the back of the net And we had a brilliant breakaway And West Ham we got a last minute equaliser So the last four games when you analyse them It's not just Newcastle We have been poor for the last four games.

22:27And fundamentally, we've been poor in the last four games because we've had no energy. So I think that reflects on the coach and the coaching staff. They hopefully, over the last week and a half, haven't let players go on holiday. And they've actually got them into the training ground. And they've stopped cutting the training sessions short. And they've actually started using this extra time that we have and nobody else has to really intensely go for it. I mean, this week I'd have had them in on Monday, I'd have worked them really hard, give them Tuesday off, have them back in on Wednesday, work them really hard.

22:59Thursday, light work and then just get it back to normal. But have a couple of days where you can get, you know, make them feel tired because that's why everybody's up for it, because they're actually fitter than us. You can get into a rhythm. People think playing twice a week is a bad thing. I don't think it is. I don't think it is. I mean, I've heard Ten Hag when we were successful say it, Jose say it. When you're playing midweek and you're playing weekend, your training sessions are light anyway because of the intensity of what you've done in your games. And players get into the rhythm of that, light training, couple of big games, and they go through the season like that.

23:36We've got one game a week, sometimes one game every week and a half. We have to get some intensity into our training. We have to. and I think that's gone missing in the last few games but I'm expecting to put that right against Villa because Villa have got to go to Lille tomorrow and then come to Old Trafford on Sunday so I think that plays into our hands I think Villa will struggle big time with that one

24:03right okay I mean let's just this could have a direct hit in relation to Manchester United's summer transfer for window potentially So there's an article come out from The Athletic today. $425 million of Glazer debt due for refinancing. Impact of rising rates on 30 million annual interest costs are going to increase those. $192 million of net transfer debt due for payment this year. Club also sold$40 million of incoming transfer fees to lenders for cash. Borrowing facility now upsized to$400 million. So basically, United's football debt is just ramping up and up and up by the year. Man United have sharply increased its short-term borrowing through the revolving credit facility, reaching£290 million by the end of 2025 after expanding the facility to£400 million.

24:55It signals a more aggressive debt strategy under Sir Jim Matliff in line with Ineos' leveraged approach. The long-term US dollar debt remains at$650 million across several tranches. The largest portion is 425 million in senior secured notes at 3.79 % interest maturing in June 2027. Refinancing is expected soon and higher global rates means United will likely face several million more in annual financing costs. So this is all coming in from The Athletic. Look, fundamentally, does it stop Man United spending in the summer? No. Overarchingly, is our debt increasing and the costs increasing? Yes. So it's always there, isn't it?

25:38I mean, look, whenever it was that the Glazers lied about selling the football club and Sir Jim Radcliffe got into bed with them, this was one of the big things a lot of people spoke about. We could have sold this football club to somebody who would have cleared the debt and we wouldn't be having this conversation. We, whether you're like Ineos and the Glazers or not, are a football club that is always holding hands with debt and being led by it. Literally, Man United Football Club are holding the hands of debt and debt is way up here leading us along. It dictates everything we do. £30 million a year in debt interest is dead money and it's going to go up.

26:20In five years, that's nearly£200 million. It's ridiculous amounts of money. Plus, the club is over a billion in debt anyway, it's scary. It's scary how this club is being run. Look, other people are running debt, but this debt is leverage debt. This debt is Glazer debt. This debt is Ineos debt. This is not putting money in yourself and then borrowing the money from elsewhere and using your money to pay it off. It's concerning. I don't think it directly means we won't sign players. But the club is up to its arse in debt. And it only takes one bad appointment at this point. I was having a conversation with somebody probably about three months ago.

27:05I think it was around when Amrim got sacked. And they were like, when you look at the last 10 years at Man United, every manager they've sacked has made the problem more scary because you pile up more and more shit each time. If you go to like when Moyes was here, and then Van Gaal comes in, he's only got a bit of Moyes' shit to deal with. But then Van Gaal gets sacked. Mourinho comes in. He's got Van Gaal's shit as well. I mean, look, if you think about it, whoever the next manager is, he's got Amrim's players. He's got Ten Hag's players. He's got Oli's players. He's still got Mourinho players.

27:38I mean, we've still got Van Gaal players if you count Luke Shaw. So there's a lot of... Every time it gets bigger. What I would say is that United is the shit keeps getting bigger. The debt keeps going up and the mistakes keep piling up. So I don't know. Some people might say the bigger that debt gets and the bigger the shit gets, the more likely the club is going to crumble. I sort of do understand that Because the debt is getting bigger The payments are getting bigger The squad is a bit all over the place And becomes more problematic I mean, what I'm saying is If we recruit the wrong manager And we give him a load of money in the summer And it goes wrong How many more times can you afford to get it wrong?

28:29I suppose that's the thing, really And look, somebody in the chat said everybody carries debt, says Dan. They do. The problem is everybody isn't Manchester United. When you look at the way Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City are being run, they're not being run like this. They'll be carrying some debt, but they're not carrying it to the extent of this. And also those clubs have got what I perceive to be intelligent people in the CEO role, in the director of football role. We've also got all this debt, all this concern, and a couple of Prats in those roles, in my opinion. So it worries me. It does worry me.

29:09I don't think it'll impact us being able to spend in the summer because I think Champions League football, they can borrow off that, can't they? So I think they'll gamble off that. My concern is 12 months' time. My concern is that in 12 months' time, we're Newcastle. We spent a load of money. We're not in the Champions League, we might not be in Europe again and we have another year like this. And I think that becomes a problem. I think next season and this summer transfer window, we have the ability to do things, but it's why we've got to do the right things. Because if in a year's time, we spent a load of money and it's not going well, and we're not going to be back in the Champions League, I think that's when it becomes a problem for me.

29:48Talking of which, you might be interested in this, who can remember a year ago to the day apparently that man united did their little chat gbt create me an image that will distract the fans about the protests and they produced the circus and the two billion plan to build man united it was a year today that united did that i remember it actually because it i think it was a tuesday so obviously a year later everything moves on so So a year to the date, Man United announced that they were going to build this stadium. And a year on, nothing's happened. Literally nothing. It's about as close to happening as it was a year ago.

30:29So wasn't it a year ago that they said that this would be built by the 2030 season? Well, it's clearly not going to happen, is it? Because we've just lost a whole 12 months. It's no closer to being designed. It's no closer to being built. and they're no closer to getting the funding to do it. In fact, to be fair, there was an interesting article today in The Sun talking about it, saying that a source who has dealt with this said they've chucked Colette Roach in charge of a stadium that isn't going to happen. United have already got debt of close to 1.3 billion. So borrowing to build the stadium is off the table.

31:08You can't borrow 2 billion when you already have borrowed 1.3. another route is to significantly finance it with equity whereby the club issues more shares or sales of existing shares but that would risk diluting the glazes and radcliffe share of the ownership and a third option is um where the stadium is owned partly by the club and partly by external investors who then provide the capital needed but that could throw a spanner in the works of a future sale as the club's assets would only include a percentage of the stadium that united would own. So look, I mean, look, some people with the stadium get very excited about it.

31:44For me, I don't want to see Old Trafford get knocked down. I think it's, you know, Glazer heritage, isn't it? That has had to happen. I look at Anfield and I think, you know, they've kept on top of it. They've renovated it. They looked after it and they don't need to do anything. Old Trafford, I agree, is, you know, becoming a rust bucket because the Glazers never looked after it, which is a, I think, I think the treatment of Old Trafford by the Glazers is symbolic of the treatment of Manchester United. It's a visual symbol of what they've done to this football club. You have this amazing stadium that in the 10 years before they came to Old Trafford had been renovated and was one of the best stadiums in the world.

32:21And then since they've took over, they've just let it, left it to decay, which is pretty much what they've done to the football club. So yeah, we're going to have to probably build a new stadium, but it's no closer to being done. I would have thought when that got announced a year ago that by the start of this season there'd be significant groundwork like physical groundwork going into the area where we're going to start building. Because remember Old Trafford will stay where it is. The new stadium is going to get built behind it. Nothing. There's nothing going on. There's no infrastructure being done.

32:54Look, there's housing estates being done around the UK. And even though they're not going to get built in two years time, you can still see planners there putting in the pipe work and everything like that. There's nothing being done. There's no signing off of the money. Cynics are saying it won't even happen. It's incredible. But look, in a way, the last sort of few minutes, as slim as the hope is, still give me hope that they can't fund a stadium. The debt is mounting. Is this not leading to as full sale? Is that not logically where this is going? It feels like sometimes you go, well, they can't fund the stadium.

33:33The debt's going up. Champions League football is probably going to give them a stay of execution. But you sometimes feel like they're sort of holding on with two fingers like that. And you just, oh, it's one. And then they're gone. I hope, I hope that's the case. I hope that is the case.

33:55Because, look, football has changed. We need a billionaire who loves football, who wants to take Man United back to the top. And some of our fans have had a real problem with that over the last few years, but that's what football is now. You can hold on to your ideals and your nostalgia, or you can jump two-footed into the future. And the future is abiding by the rules, but Man City. It is. That's the future of football. You know, Citigroup, numerous clubs, multi-club ownership, investment, not running a football club like your own personal bank account, basically. There are football clubs out there like Man City who may or may not have cheated, but if they get away with it, they can operate very, very successfully.

34:52and Manchester United are just a personal piggy bank to the Glazers really that's what we are we're just a business and you know where are the Glazers getting the money from to try and bid for this IPL team I don't know. Oli Brooke welcome to Members Club thank you very much I appreciate that. Amit says your best summer targets Tonali, Stilla, Hall, Poro, Diamonde plus an experienced manager are doable. A 280 million budget for them lot is all we need. Everyone needs to go and watch that video after this because I want to see some of you fives in it. Blake Collar says, hi from Australia. First super chat after watching you for six years.

35:28Do you think United are looking at Stiller and if not, why? Says Blake. Well, I mean, I hope, I hope that we are. I hope that Favell is doing that. Look, as I said, I think that there will be some people out there that when we get Champions League football and buy people in the summer, they'll naively go, we're back. That's just optimism. I haven't got a problem with it. I have said for a very long time, my concern is 12 months from now. My concern is in 12 months time, I'm looking at Newcastle, I'm looking at Spurs and I'm thinking at the end of May last season, Newcastle and Spurs fans were going into the summer with a massive smile on their face.

36:12We're in the Champions League. get in, right? Spurs won't be in Europe next season and might not be in the Premier League. Newcastle won't be in Europe next season at all. So in two months' time, I think we will be going, we're in the Champions League, get in. But in 12 months' time, I can see us being Newcastle. I don't think we'll be Spurs. I don't think we're going to get relegated or anything like that. But I can see as being Newcastle, I can't see how this squad, even with three signings, is good enough to get back into the top five and compete in the Champions League. I think this squad, when it plays two games a week, gets decimated.

36:56And actually, the warning signs are there. Martinez, Dorgou, De Ligt, Mount. There has been other injuries as well. We've had steady injuries this season playing one game a week. Imagine what happens when we start playing two games a week. I think we'll be decimated in a very quick period of time. And what will happen is we'll end up getting through the Champions League stage into the knockout. And we'll look at the league table and we'll be like seven points off fourth. And it will be March and the games will increase and we'll be like, fuck, we might not even make the conference league. And that's what I think is going to happen in a year, which is why this summer transfer window is so important.

37:37And the manager is so important as well. a decent manager gives us a chance a decent summer gives us a chance but even if you gave me Enrique and five top players I'd still say the challenge next season is to be back in the top five I've always said this and we've failed so many times when you get into the Champions League don't start talking about winning the league because it never happens as boring as it is when you qualify for the Champions League, the next target is to get back in it. Fourth, third, second, fine. Obviously, you want to have bigger standards than that. You want to play better football.

38:18You want to move closer to winning the league. But when you qualify for the Champions League, we should all know this as United fans, the biggest priority is getting back into it. Because if you don't, you end up in the situation that we've been in where it's just constant yo-yo. So we've got to invest in this. It's almost like going, you know, you know, like the Glazers, they would recruit a manager. We wouldn't be in Europe. They'd spend money. We'd get in Europe. And then the following summer, they wouldn't spend. We need to treat this summer like we're not in Europe. And we never do that. When we're in Europe, we go, oh, we're okay.

38:55We sit back. Like we need to treat this summer like we're not in Europe because we need to make sure we are in it for two years because it's like it's like it's like it's like being promoted to the premier league first year you gotta stay up by any means necessary but second year you gotta do it again because if you stay up two years in the premier league you tend to stay up you think about fulham's and brentford's if you can stay up for two years you're a premier league club it's the same with united if we can get in the champions league for two years in a row i think we'll stay in there for three four five years um blake thank you very much i know you won't like this, but we should cash in on the Champions League part, playing the reserves and concentrate on top four again.

39:35We can't do that, Saunders. We can't do that. I know what you mean, though. I have my concerns about how we're going to deal with it next year if we don't have a good window. Matthew Fox says, it baffles me people thought Martinez would be back soon. He's another broken player with De Ligt, Mountain Shore. I don't agree that De Ligt is broken. I don't. I think there has always been an agenda against De Ligt. And the fact is, in his time at Man United, he's very rarely been injured. Very rarely. He has a bad injury now. And I don't know whether he's had back injuries before. I just think it's unfortunate.

40:11And he definitely had injuries at previous clubs. But at Manchester United, his injury record's not even that bad. I mean, I was looking at it here. so obviously he's got this back injury where he's been out for 134 days he's been out since the 3rd of december so he's been out for four months uh previous to that um at man united he's only missed nine games in the years that he's been here um and his biggest injury was two weeks where he had a foot injury in April 2025. So he hasn't had the injuries here. And to be fair, when you look through his career, this is the longest injury he's had of his career.

40:57I'm just looking through.

41:03Yeah. Ajax. Game here, game there. shoulder injury at Juventus in 2020 kept him out for 17 games between August and November but he's already missed 17 games with this back injury and it's four months and that's because we've only we're not in Europe are we so if we'd have been in Europe he's missed about 20 games 22 games but this is the most significant injury of his career what I'm trying to say is I'm not worried about De Ligt. As long as he can recover from this injury, I'm not too worried about him. I know you don't want to have done that from Saunders. Oli, thank you very much. Welcome to the Members Club.

41:45Okay, let me just make sure I'm going through everything here. There was an interesting story from the Chronicle in Newcastle saying that Arsenal have dropped their interest in Tonali. Tonali's agent has put Tonali's name to Arsenal during the winter transfer window, But since then, the Gunners have held transfer meetings on summer transfer ideas and Tonali's name has not appeared in the initial discussions. So, look, I think Tonali is really interesting. Again, against Real Madrid, not Real Madrid, Barcelona last night. I thought he played really, really well. I thought I'd tell you what, the timing of my top five signings I'd make this summer, Lewis Hall.

42:25if people weren't convinced let's just talk about Lewis Hall for a moment I mean whether you're Man United, Man City, Real Madrid you couldn't fail to look at that performance last night and go he's got the potential to be one of the best left backs in the world like he is absolutely incredible at the moment and I think that I don't know how you do that deal I don't even know if you can do that deal but he did very well uh as harry said against yamal but going forward energy speed i mean almost to be fair reminded me a little bit of when luke shaw was decent a few years ago um but that that that maybe does him a disservice because i think potentially he's probably better uh still only 21 as well won't be 22 until september i mean just just i don't think we'll do it however this is why we fail because Man City, Gehi, Semenyu, they just go and get it done.

43:27You should be all over that player. You should be all over that player. Is he not another Chelsea reject, says Lucia? No, because he's performing as one of the best left backs in the world at the moment. So it's not like buying Chelsea's players that they don't want. Chelsea sold him to Newcastle. Newcastle have done the work to get him to where he is Us signing Lewis Hall directly from Chelsea would be a mistake Us signing him from Newcastle where he's the finished product would be a good idea Santos at Chelsea is not the finished product He's not playing in the midfield, is he? For Chelsea, week in, week out like Lewis Hall is in the Champions League It's a very big difference United need players that are ready to go But going back to Tonali it is interesting because the agent of Tonali clearly did try and stir something up with Arsenal in January, which to me shows that he is willing to play in the Premier League.

44:24I know there's this story that he wants to go back to Italy. It's never going to happen. No one in Italy can afford him. The fact that he was put to Arsenal, I think it's... I think you know what it is with Tonali? I think Newcastle is a bit of a difficult place to live. And we've heard this before. It's, you know, Newcastle, if you don't know the UK, Newcastle is basically it's north and it's you know we're talking Winterfell north it's a long long way from King's Landing and it's a fantastic club with a fantastic support but they've always struggled to sometimes they've had the money they've always struggled to get the influx of players like sometimes people will choose Fulham over Newcastle because it's London over Newcastle and Newcastle's not a bad place but it's like you're a long way you're a long way from home and I just wonder whether Tonali Arsenal quite fancied I don't mind being in England if I'm in London or something like that so look, Diego Manchester instead of Newcastle Manchester's a good place to live but again he was fantastic again last night Seth says this squad got into top four this momentum was unexpected if the owners won't put in any effort this squad will lose motivation because no more World Cup says Seth yeah yeah I think this is probably comment of the day.

45:44I think it's, although Emily Derry could drop one any minute, people are saying get her on the forum. You're welcome, Emily. We welcome you on. Yes, Seth, I think there's a lot of hidden uncertainties around United at the moment, isn't there? New manager bounce, something to prove, World Cup on the horizon, one game a week, light switch here and there, Other clubs are struggling. I mean, Liverpool were shit last night. I mean, I'm going to watch Chelsea tonight on Mets Football, but Liverpool were shit last night. I mean, we can't even call Liverpool a worthy adversary. They're so bad. The fact that Liverpool are in the race for Champions League football in the Premier League may be incredible because they were the title holders last year, but the quality of Liverpool is shit.

46:33They are absolutely crap. I think we will beat them at Old Trafford in May, and we'll probably have top five by Ben anyway, But the fact that Liverpool are competing with us gives me huge confidence because we may be turning the light switch on for a few weeks, but Liverpool have never turned it on. So I think you're right. I think there's a lot of hidden. I don't think either I said it or one of you said it a few weeks ago. I don't think there's a lot you can learn from United this season to take into next year. I don't. I think Le Mans, yes. Gorgou yes Sesko yes Kunja and Mbemo have settled yes but beyond that is there a lot we can take into next season I mean Bruno's Bruno even Manu's uncertain at the moment Casemiro's gone Deleuze sure have been bad Masraoui's had a lot of in and out the centre-backs have been unreliable in relation to fitness Ahmad's been a bit up and down there's not a lot from this season that you'd go we're alright next year there's things to build with but there's not a lot of continuity I don't think I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done this summer and I think we go into next season with a lot of uncertainty and what I mean by that is you can look at Man City and you can go if Pep stays and they buy well in the summer they're going to get better you can see Man City going to get better Arsenal are going to maintain what they've done next year they're going to be a good team next year but United and Liverpool you sort of look at them and go I don't know what you're going to be next year because I don't really know what you are at the moment.

48:04But I think we're in a better position than Liverpool. But I don't think we've got momentum into next season. I really don't think we've got a style of play. I don't think there's much of a vision. I think we're still very reliant on individual talent. And that's got to be something that needs to be addressed next year as well. Right. I want to bring this in. I sent this by producer Greg. So shout out to him. He sent me this today. It was from the mail yesterday. So a new study has revealed that United have the sixth most valuable squad in the Premier League. It is three and a half times less valuable than Arsenal.

48:39So look, this is in the mail and it basically says that the most expensive squad value in the league at the moment is Arsenal's at 2.2 billion. This is squad, by the way. And I understand why Arsenal are first because obviously they've got a very good squad. So 2.2 billion. Second place is Liverpool with 1.8 billion. Man City value is actually 1.1 billion. Chelsea 1 billion. And then Tottenham 763 million and Man United 626 million. So effectively, our squad value is on paper nearly half of Man City's, a third of Liverpool's and three and a half times less valuable than Arsenal. I've said this so many times.

49:31This is what happens when you reduce your wage bill and you don't get rid of shit. there isn't actually a lot of value in that team when you think about it and it's not all about value i know but luke shaw has no value harry mcguire has no value casemiro has no value i'm just going through the first team martinez doesn't have much of a value at the moment um the low doesn't have much of a value so bruno 50 million yeah may knew probably not as valuable as he was would what would you say Maynus value is at the moment, 40, 50. Ahmad has value. Embermo has value. Kunja has value. Sesko has value.

50:16Dorgue has a bit of value. Mount has no value. Xerxi, Agate. So you can sort of see that on paper, the value of our squad is very, very low. What does that mean? Not a lot, if I'm being completely honest, but a lot. It doesn't mean that we can't be in the Champions League. It just is a slight indicator that the future might not be bright. It's a big indicator that Arsenal could win a treble or a quadruple and have the most valuable squad in the Premier League. There is a direct correlation between the value of your squad and your chances of success. I think you can get into the Champions League, but I don't think you can win the league with the value of a squad like that.

51:01I think it's just an indicator that it's not a limit to certain success, but it is to major success. To the standards we want, we need to increase that squad value. You need a left back that's worth 50 million, a right back that's worth 50 million, centre backs that are worth 100 million combined, a goalkeeper that's worth 50 million. Your squad value goes up when every player has value. I think at United, we've got quite a few players that don't have value at the moment. This squad got into top four, this momentum. I've done that one, thank you very much. Okay, well, look, we've got Ben Jacobs on the show at two o 'clock.

51:34I've got a few questions I want to fire into him as well. If there's anything you want, whack it in the comments and I'll check back in a couple of hours and we'll take some of those. I basically want to ask him about the Bruno situation, the Belaber situation, the Santos situation, Anderson, how the debt impacts us this summer, the manager situation. There's a few things I want to talk about. so but let me know anything in the comments and i'll come back into the comments in a couple of hours time uh there was one more thing i wanted to talk about bear with me i will remember it um what was it what was it uh oh yes tonight um i'm on the um what am i on last night sorry there was no eight o 'clock show last night because of um the champions league like liverpool was a quarter to six and then obviously we had a couple of good games at eight o 'clock so there was no time for an eight o 'clock show or even a seven o 'clock show uh same tonight i won't we will have some content for you but we will um we will be over on that's football for multiple hours watching the champions league um which hopefully we will be in next season okay I have pinned in the live chat the five signings we must make this summer if you didn't watch that last night please do go and check it out because I'm compiling the comments on a lot of your things that I want to bring into an 8 o 'clock show this week like the rough averages of who would go for who so that's pinned in the live chat at the moment please go and give it a watch 50-50 on whether Martinez has got a future at Man United or not by the way take care everyone enjoyed the show this morning some interesting topics as always please do smash a like on the video we're only a couple of hundred away from a thousand and uh obviously tomorrow we've got preview for arsenal for aston villa as well so at least we're back playing a couple of games coming up in the next week which is well overdue uh daniel says i love the video uh the great uh the five signings yeah it's in the live chat i'll put it in the video description as well make sure you go and give it a watch take care i'll speak in a bit