WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Once again, José Mourinho is using his press conferences to try and shame Ed Woodward into action.

Obviously the two don’t speak very often or this tactic would be unnecessary.

Mourinho has expressed his desire to add at least another player, preferably two, to his squad in at least three press conferences to date.

As the CEO or MD or whatever he is nowadays, Woodward will keep an eye on the goings-on with the media so that he is up-to-date with what his manager is saying, so it is a reasonably sure-fire way of getting his attention.

Mourinho’s request is pretty straightforward and, reading between the lines, there are only three players who fit the bill as to what he is looking for.

He wants an attacking wide man. Simple, that’s Ivan Perišić of Inter Milan. He hasn’t been bought yet because, reportedly, United think he is overpriced. We think that’s a load of nonsense. A player being overpriced has never stopped Dithering Ed from buying him in the past. In fact, at one stage it appeared as though he would ONLY buy players who were overpriced.

Pay the money Ed and get the deal done.

Mourinho also wants a defensive midfield player and both Nemanja Matić of Chelsea and Eric Dier of Tottenham Hotspur fit the bill.

The sensible option would be to pursue Dier as he is four years younger than Matic and would probably cost about the same. We are fed up hearing about Daniel Levy and how difficult it is to do business with him and how he won’t budge on a price etc., etc. It didn’t seem to be a problem for Manchester City to get Kyle Walker. They just paid the asking price and, surprise surprise, there he was!

There is also a rumour that Chelsea are playing hardball with United over the Lukaku signing and that this is why Matić isn’t already a United player.

Again, this has to be nonsense, otherwise Chelsea are one heck of a childish club running their business in a very unprofessional way.

Pay the money Ed and get the deal done!

The only reason we here at WSA can think of to explain the fact that none of these players have yet signed for United is that Dithering Ed has gone rogue. He is now deciding a player’s value rather than asking people such as Sir Alex Ferguson or José Mourinho for advice and, because of this, he has suddenly decided that some fees are too high after spending the last three years throwing money around like confetti.

Either that or the Glazers have told him to be more careful about what he does with their dividends!

Whatever the reason behind his lack of action, he needs to start moving on bringing in the players requested by his manager or he risks losing that man’s respect and trust, (if he hasn’t already done so).

TRANSFER FEES

Many people have asked why transfer fees are so high, particularly for average players.

The answer is because they are so high for the best players! The bar is set by the amount paid for the world’s “top” stars. So, for example Paul Pogba, who isn’t considered to be among the world’s top five players, was sold by Juventus to Manchester United for a world record fee.

This then impacted on all players of all quality ratings. A player who may have been worth €20 million before this deal, suddenly becomes “worth” €40 million and the ridiculous situation is created where goalkeepers can be sold for more than €30 million and defenders for more than €50 million.

It will all come to a crashing halt one of these days because the spending, at some stage, has to be controlled. There is already an “us and them” culture in European football where a few elite clubs benefit from having the most money and, because of the economics of capitalism, they continue to attract the most money. In other words, the rich continue to get richer.

It is a business model which cannot be allowed to continue unchecked for much longer.

For those interested here is an enlightening article from Paul Wilson of the Guardian on the subject of transfer fees.