Dario Naamo a rb is set to sign on loan from St Polten with a buy clause included in the deal.

He was in the Finnish U/21 squad at the recent Euros, I believe.

ArabChris wrote:

Dario Naamo a rb is set to sign on loan from St Polten with a buy clause included in the deal.

He was in the Finnish U/21 squad at the recent Euros, I believe.

Not against the signing, per se. Though worrying it is yet another foreign player with no experience of UK football 

But the obvious priorities in the team are two Strikers and two wingers.

Another day slips by, and another chance for them to get up to speed and gel with their new team mates is lost.


 

Last season we retained an injury prone Moult, bought VDS as a back up, brought in Dalby as VDS was clearly pish, then had to bring in Paton (also pish) because of Moult's continuing injuries and VDS's continuous pishness.

Similar trend with bringing in Odada as back up to Docherty and Campbell for Sibbald, and we got about half a dozen decent games between the four of them at a push.

Strain injured and had to utilise Stephenson there, no back up for Ferry, Trapanovski flattered to deceive, had to rely on Middleton, Babunkski fell off a cliff, Oh, I forgot about Meshack.....

It turned out fine in the end but we maybe can't afford to be slow starters.

Maybe some think some of us are panicking and we know it's not that simple, but i'd rather address the areas we are short in first of all, before padding out the squad.

We're at least........2 wingers/wide players, a creative midfielder, and two centre forward types short for filling in a matchday teamsheet, let alone naming a full squad.

Our first competitive game is in 3 weeks, some might say that's plenty of time, but as above I don't want players coming in, needing time to bed in, not ready to contribute until September/October.

As things stand we've signed lot of boys from different cultures/countries, they need to form a bond.

I'd pack football in altogether if we don't get past the Luxembourg lot, but we could get a favourable tie next round, would be shite to fall short.

There's also a nagging doubt that we might have a technically very decent squad, but there's not enough Holt, Gallagher, Docherty types* in there for when we expect a battle.

I\m usually very positive about United, and whilst this might come over a bit doom and gloom, it's just thinking out loud, the 'so far' signing policy must be alarming others to some extent?


* Yet.

Last edited by David_Blunkett (02/7/2025 7:07 pm)

The mantra that we need to get the signings done in early July would have meant no Stephenson , Adeboyaga or Dalby last year.
As for the narrative that we need Scottish players for the aggressive side of the game, are we suggesting foreign players can't get the boot in ? Sevelj has done OK.
Some of my favourite no-nonsense players over the years have been foreigners

LarsErikKjell wrote:

I just think that by the 2nd of July I'm not sure I would have expected us to have done much more business than we have already. 5 officially signed and two more rumoured to be done and dusted. Whilst there has to be some focus to be ready for the euro games, the key is that when this window shuts at the end of August, we have a squad strong enough to see us through the entire season.

Having said that, I do hope we see a winger and a striker signed up within the next 2 weeks at most.

It's not really the numbers LEK (though I had hoped to have 1 or 2 more by now), it's the huge imbalance in the squad currently.

We've seen this before and it is frustrating that we go into the real stuff very soon and this hasn't been rectified once again.

I am honestly trying not too moan, as it's a big rebuild and some signings I understand will be later in the window, but the lack of attacking players currently has to be addressed and urgently.
 

redford_must_score wrote:

Tek wrote:

LarsErikKjell wrote:

I just think that by the 2nd of July I'm not sure I would have expected us to have done much more business than we have already. 5 officially signed and two more rumoured to be done and dusted. Whilst there has to be some focus to be ready for the euro games, the key is that when this window shuts at the end of August, we have a squad strong enough to see us through the entire season.

Having said that, I do hope we see a winger and a striker signed up within the next 2 weeks at most.

It's not really the numbers LEK (though I had hoped to have 1 or 2 more by now), it's the huge imbalance in the squad currently.

We've seen this before and it is frustrating that we go into the real stuff very soon and this hasn't been rectified once again.

I am honestly trying not too moan, as it's a big rebuild and some signings I understand will be later in the window, but the lack of attacking players currently has to be addressed and urgently.
 

 
I agree with this and it's the size of the rebuild (again) causing the issue. We need to get to the stage where contracts and loans together mean we're not churning so many players every summer.
But, it is what it is and things can change quite quickly, I'm not worried yet.
GK, defence and midfield looking bolstered, I'd rather wait a couple of weeks for the right player than sign more VDS Meshak Odada and just adding numbers for the sake of it and I'm sure the recruitment team will be very aware of it.

Totally agree, I’d rather get the right ones in if it takes a little longer. You can’t force them to sign can you. It’s not as if we haven’t been trying to get front players in. We almost had a striker until he was forced to do a u turn. 

Goodwin talking up VDS & his fitness levels.

Great

David_Blunkett wrote:

Tek wrote:

Stillliving wrote:

The mantra that we need to get the signings done in early July would have meant no Stephenson , Adeboyaga or Dalby last year.
As for the narrative that we need Scottish players for the aggressive side of the game, are we suggesting foreign players can't get the boot in ? Sevelj has done OK.
Some of my favourite no-nonsense players over the years have been foreigners

I'm not suggesting that.

We've had countless foreign players who were hard or who's physicality was a big part of their game-Mixu, Miodrag, Petric, Victor Feyrerra, Erik Pederson, I could go on and on 

But, we've seen previously what can happen when we have too many untested foreign players in the dressing room and not have a spine of experienced UK based players in the team.

That surely has to be considered a fair enough concern amongst our support.
 

Don't take this as a "Stop the boats!" "They took our jobs!" type post, as ultimately I don't care where our players are from as long as they do us proud, as long as they give it 100%. I want what's best for United.

Nobody will be arsed if they deliver a cup or qualify for Europe again..

We're not bringing in bodies from abroad to have them twiddle their thumbs, they're here to play

As things stand

.....................Ukranian
Aussie...Dutch....Moldovan...English/Irish
...........Croatian......Guinea-Bissau
Aussie......Ghanain..........Moldovan
..................Bonaire


I've include Pappoe in the XI as that seems a done deal

Then it's

Welsh no2 keeper
Finnish RB
Kenyan CM
Graham
Harding
McLeod??
Fotherinham
Thomson
Stirton
Sibbald

Only Graham and Sibbald are the two home grown players who could be considered proper 100% first team ready and even then Graham has injury issues and Sibbald isn't that good.

By all means, and i've said this before, shop in the market where you get the best for your money, but there has to be a better balance. 

I'm not sure if it's still the case but the Homegrown rule is 25 players, 8 must be homegrown and 4 have came through our academy.

Do we have 8 that make anyone's 25 comfortably? Because I reckon we're two strikers, another winger at least, a couple of central midfielders short and we're pushing the limit already.

If that only applies to Europe maybe it's less of a worry, but if the draws are kind, if we get a rub of the green, who knows, this could be brilliant or a disaster.

Never dull though eh?


Scottish players are hardly world beaters though are they? Plenty of teams at most levels have more than their fair share of foreign players but still function,Celtic are a good example.


 

A load of points to comment on....

Vds. Is not a world beater and no excuses for not getting on the score sheet all season.....however, our system was entirely focused on giving dalby the ball and letting him score. Jort often did a job, as did those around him where the idea was to give dalby a half chance. Runs and clever play open spaces - especially in 3 cb defences and I feel to be fair, you have to consider his effect on the team and not just the goals for column which is pretty awful. Not to say i see him playing a massive part this season but I've very rarely, if ever. Thought he hadn't put in a shift.

United have a number of positions they want to fill and presumably a budget for each position - i just dont think we are too far up the food chain to demand players move - or offering the kind of cash which average players could turn down....and im pretty relieved of that. I never want to see a tony watt style signing again.

I think we have to hold it together and understand that strikers have been identified and we are working on those positions.

As for the conference league game - if we go into it properly prepared, no matter which players do or dont come in between now and then we should win the tie. If we don't thats on the management team and the current players. Una strassens top scorer was on 500 quid a week at his last team - even if hes doubled his salary, we should have the quality to beat them. That's about attitude and tactics.

Long story short- it's rubbish just now - we can see what we need but don't seem to be making the deals....but 100% things are working in the background. It'll happen.  Hopefully sooner than later

Tek wrote:

kdyteejay wrote:

This reminds me of dad’s army. Jonesy shouting Don’t panic, don’t panic.

Ahh that old chestnut.

We have one fit (unproven) Striker.

We play Una Strassan three weeks tonight.

We're Doomed I tell ye


 

Anyone tell me the jist of the Luca Stephenson update in the courier this morning?  It’s behind a paywall

Good to hear the Finnish guy can play on both sides. Provides cover for both Strain and Ferry. A bit of a problem solved.

Still think another CB will be needed on top of the attacking reinforcements, but once that is tied up, I think our GK, Defence and Centre Midfield options are probably all tied up.

GK:
Kucherenko
Richards
Adams (likely out on loan)

CB:
Iovu
Esselink
Graham
SCH
Another

Wing back:
Strain
Ferry
Naamo

CM:
Sevelj
Sibbald
Camara
Pappoe
Odada
O'Donnell (maybe another loan?)
Stephenson?

Just leaves us with some gaps to fill in the forward positions. Hoping we start to see some movement or even names linked by the end of this week as right now our pool of wingers and strikers are:

Fotheringham
Thomson
Trapanovski
Sapaford
VDS
Stirton

I reckon four are needed; two wingers and two strikers. Unless one of them can play both positions well, then maybe three.

After that you are looking at late window loans etc to beef up the squad if we need to.

Pappoe completing his loan move today. Kuchurenko arriving today as well.