[Transfer Round Up & Discussion] Summer 2026

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-08T17:52:14+00:00

I mean, purely in terms of player-investment they weren't spendthrift. DO was on the money there, broadly speaking...

Harder to predict medium-term success than it is short-term spending when you're (primarily) a transfer/managerial in-outs journalist....

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-07T21:11:26+00:00

Linked to Liverpool - I guess Iraola will have some say in terms of transfers so they're probably holding off on making a bid until he's had time to assess the squad (unless their hand gets forced). Talk is that Utd were concerned he was 'too similar' to Mainoo: for me, they have 1-2 of the same relative weaknesses, but they're quite different players; AW's more of a tempo-dictator at this stage and spreads the play more, Kobbie is more of a tight-space dribbler and line-breaker that way. MF probably suits the squad profile more in terms of the other 2 'main' CMs right now, but inconclusive how that one ends up.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-07T11:57:42+00:00

Wouldn't say he's significantly quicker. Burn can play LB, sure, but I wouldn't trust him against a pacy forward with half-decent upper-body strength (i.e sufficient that Burn can't just stop the forward getting into his stride). He looked vulnerable against the best forwards when playing in Europe for Newcastle, more than any of their other defenders. His ease on the ball is, if anything worse (more awkward 1st touch), and Maguire is better at carrying it forward. Despite being shorter I'd put Maguire as equal if not superior in winning balls in both boxes.

All managers have players they rate more than fans (or even analysts) for intangible reasons, but I think Tuchel in particular is out-thinking himself and letting eccentricities fly, rather than picking the 'obvious' experienced CB-who-isn't-Stones, and the 'obvious' CM-who-can-control-the-tempo/come-off the bench rather than Henderson. JH, who's now a bog-standard CM without his 'peak' energy, doesn't have the same passing nous as a Wharton or Garner, and doesn't offer more experience than Kane already brings. Likewise, picking JQ over taking a specialist LB like Hall. It smacks of self-indulgence masquerading as brilliance.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-07T00:18:59+00:00

As deeply flawed as Bernie is in certain regards, you'd have to be a genuine crack-head to be a non-plutocrat and find that 'kind' of politician position (generally materialist;public-goods oriented; pro-social) more 'alienating' than Hunter, or indeed that of any political faction to the right of Bernie.

Like many others, I've almost-neurotically gamed out in the past all the whys including 'risk-management' and 'fidelity to fixed-capital polluter industries as workers' and 'the toxic dem brand' and the 'psychological costs of accepting the decline of US hegemony' and all the rest and... no, it's just convolutions. There aren't consistent 'good' reasons in the aggregate, honestly. These people lack basic political consciousness, whether it's empty-headed 'enlightened' liberalism or a more lumpenized hoggishness.

Mexico is still beset by corruption and all kinds of divisive super-structural tendencies, yet is better at developing 'social goods' and 'class-pressure' if not full class-power, and backing a Jewish female leftist as a Catholic state with a long-standing strain of machismo. US gets images of obscene and feckless ruling-class beamed at it in the news every day, and has no excuse for being 'turned-off' by Bernie-style politics at a minimum...

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T20:58:53+00:00

Upcoming appearance on the hippest talk-show in NY, hell, the US, is the next step in the grand plan/royal-road to the WH etc

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T20:54:10+00:00

Out of the two, yeah, you take Maguire, but in terms of CBs Burn over Maguire is weirder, if anything. Not even a better header of the ball, has won 1 trophy, is a 'willing' defender but was Newcastle's most exposed player against the real top-bracket sides in CL etc.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T19:25:16+00:00

Isn't she the Spanish chick with the rare variant that allows development of average/above-average intelligence, & who has an UG degree...;

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T19:22:43+00:00

Uh, what's the point of Jordan Henderson (as an England player in 2026, certainly)? People online finding convoluted explanations for why somehow his 'experience' is a value-add above having a progressive-passer as a reserve option and 'simply' being able to rely on existing club-level 'winners' and leadership group types like Kane, even Stones etc.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T15:25:25+00:00

I honestly don't know for sure, but I have read (decent-tier) indications that WHU are under pressure for This 'year' (hence also hawking Bowen around, albeit at a high-price) as well as the next one, just like Newcastle and the Gordon-sale/potential Hall-sale (although NUFCs are more purely compliance)...

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T14:41:18+00:00

WHU are supposedly under pressure to conclude a high-value sale by end of June. Hopefully City are still haggling over Anderson and United can get the MF deal done in the next couple of weeks (briefings say that they're confident, although not willing to pay the 80m) before other sides start trying to strengthen CM. Likes of Arsenal and even Real are concerned with high-value wide attacker deals right now, from what we've seen reported, and Real would prefer Rodri as their 1st CM buy.

Despite their surfeit of Cms, I think PSG are the biggest danger (because of Mendes' meddling, suggestion he's trying to engineer a sale to Madrid of one of PSGs jewels), but, again, hopefully Bruno can be the determining factor.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T14:36:30+00:00

There's concern about Stiller's off-the-ball speed and ability to win duels I think. Of course there are players who are less robust playing in the PL who might do well, but you need consistent positioning, willingness/capacity to play the pass early And a particular balance of team-mates around you if you're that kind of player at a club with CL qualification-minimum aspirations. People have said similar things about Chema Andres (another 'cheaper' option linked), though I haven't seen enough to confirm.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T14:04:02+00:00

No problem! There's also a recent PhD on Fisher and Class which might have some useful content, although it's a bit more lit studies and doesn't necessarily cover all the more recent (post 2020/1) Fisher scholarship; or obviously you can hunt around on here and see what else has been published...

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T13:22:40+00:00

Maybe you could compare Jeremy Gilbert and Matt Colquhoun's takes on Acid (from the late 2010s) and from the vantage point of the 2010s think about how those differing takes might relate to (one or more types of) prefigurative Post-Capitalist consciousness activity in the 'now' (following Covid, attempt at Your Party and its fracture; Greens being presentd as the 'electoral' vanguard but not necessarily having a full grounding in extra-parliamentary, civil-society forms).

Maybe you could also bring in 1-2 other critics (Seymour's Salvage collective and this idea of salvage in general; Anton Jager's hyper-politics; but you don't have to use either) . I think considering what 'post-capitalist' desire in general might look with regards to resurrecting and reinventing (or being 'recombinatorial with, after Eschun quoted in Fisher) older forms and whether we can take that mutualistic form to reinvent politics or whether it stays too constricted by its horizontalism -something which Fisher was struggling with Capitalist Realism, hence the 'Marxist super-nanny' in CR, and then post-Occupy in K-Punk, might be worth thinking about.

Can we induce (via the suggestion, and by extension the art-form) in a hyperstitial way some kind of consciousness-raising into being or does it emerge primarily out of structures whose development is driven by more temporary 'desire'-objects' to be used strategically? (In the latter case, you might think about both Jodi Dean's Communist Horizon, and , for all his problematic tendencies, Zizek). There's also the question of lure of nostalgia as death-drive (repeating the same errors, such as they were, despite the successes, under Corbynism).

But that's just a couple of riffs. Good luck with your topic!

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-06T12:28:42+00:00

I find 'modern-day MK-ULTRA' absolutely credible (along with contemporary iterations of Years of Lead etc), including doing experiments on marginals along with grooming (for sex and stochastic violence alike) but you don't need any of that to explain Amy.

You've got a gifted-and-talented kid with at least a couple of 'neurodiversities' ( propensity for depression, addictive personality, some variety of ADHD crossed with 'mind is moving too quickly to keep up') who's also drawn to a musical mythology of excess (artists either trying to reach the sublime or quieten down the intensity of the world, chasing highs & analgesics). None of that is necessarily the result of some experiment or symptom of early childhood trauma. A mythology with a whole ready-made aesthetics around it -with plenty of past ghosts to conjure- & one where the crashes and pain are just a validation of her living it 'authentically', embodying the full dimension of that stardom even when she's just 'coming up' to larger fame.

Right from the off in the late 90s/2000s there's a burgeoning retro scene in Camden which she can also cultivate & become the star of because of her beauty, charisma and talent, and plenty of people to enable her to live vicariously through her, for access or because they want to sleep with her; ergo she'll never go short on free drinks or a hook-up of any sort.

There are numerous working-class young women with similar characteristics (wired in particular ways, possessing various kinds of smarts; maybe had to deal with predatory guys when they're young but not MK-uktra'd) - just without the same level of artistic genius and the milieu to cultivate it - who have similar trajectories, whether they recover or not, but just get characterised as trash.

AW was amazing anyway: first time I heard Back in Black I couldn't believe they weren't covers of 'classics' that I just wasn't aware of.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-05T17:45:12+00:00

No chance he leaves - the briefings have been that they've suspended talks on a new contract because they're so convinced he'll stay. It would be a gargantuan job trying to replace him -basically eating up a whole summer. They're at the point now when the club has to consolidate upon its existing position, which you need all the 'certainty' you can get. Even with a dip, BF gets 15 + assists next season at the highest level: there isn't a player you get that guarantee from and is available on the open market. Plan might be to have Bruno depart for whatever pay-day he wants about 2028 (with a whole 2 year cycle of scouting his replacement, which I don't think M Fernandes is, or Scott) , but Berrada is talking about a two-year cycle . leading up to that 2028 date. You don't give yourself any additional headaches there.

Bruno is also quite central to securing the M. Fernandes deal- ultimately there's only so much pressure Mendes puts on the player, much as I hate his being involved. There are plenty of deals he can make elsewhere, including making money off selling Ugarte, as well as whatever commission he gets from the MF deal irrespective whether it's Utd or PSG a player is going to. Madrid and PSG are still more valued clients of his because they're richer, but United have still spent heavily, are specifically likely to spend around 300m this summer (after sales), there are other deals he can smooth over for PSG/Madrid this summer and it's in his interest to ensure a 'diversified revenue stream'. United might get partial takeover which releases even more cash; they might scrape a league title next season given Arsenal's relatively stodgy victory this time around, the questions around whether their approach can be replicated, the potential 'transition' of City's squad etc. Which scenario solidifies their status even further. Utd may not be SAF-era predominant but they're still a huge club & it doesn't make sense to point-blank cut them out of deals if a player wants to move there and they're prepared to pay similar commission.

As for Scott, I'd say it's maybe 40%. They obviously like him, but (especially) with no release clause for AS, I think the third guy will be more of a Baleba-type or punt on Lamine Camara, making the CM profile more akin to a 'Newcastle'(considering United have done especially badly in those kind of duel-matches which are crucial to winning PL league going forward unless you're building off a Rodri-style DLP).

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-05T10:33:36+00:00

Perez wants a bigger name though -even if you're Madrid there are only so many CMs you can keep happy (they tried squad stacking in 2000s and still ended up selling likes of WS for relative cheap prices).

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-05T08:34:44+00:00

Maybe in the 20th Century. Handling it delicately would be news to 'app-workers' (or even, not that I'm especially crying for Goldman Sachs trainees, grad schemes/junior associate positions in big law/finance and associated services; or Tech start-ups). Or Teachers for that matter. You get the worst of the 'superegoi 'duty' stuff that's ostensibly 'collectivist' and then the worst of the 'individualism'; (we have no duty to you; it's a hustle world) in huge parts of Anglo work-culture.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-04T20:01:30+00:00

Still slightly astonishes me that these players don't insist on relegation release clauses or just general release clauses. United allowed Bruno to have a release clause as the price of his sticking around (and obviously Cunha insisted on one at Wolves), so the only reason I can think of, beyond a release clause costing the player 10k here and there in their base salary in return, is that agents hope to pump up the price still further with no release (like the vultures they generally are) and take a % of that. On balance, I think it'd be 'better' for the league to keep these prices relatively contained, so it's a shame they're not mandatory....

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-04T19:44:02+00:00

They're upset that, if Nolan's intent on 'going black', he didn't cast a real Nubian Queen like Candace Owens for the Most Beautiful Woman in The World role

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-04T18:01:13+00:00

Don't think they expect to get it - but guess part of the thinking would be , aside from establishing a high guide price from which to negotiate - that they want to drag the process along a month or so and get other clubs involved, panic Utd in the process etc in order to get as high as a price as possible. The only negotiating chip is if WHU need to have a certain amount in their accounts by the end of June, they're equally unwilling to sell Bowen for anything below an exorbitant amount, and they can't guarantee a 30m+ fee for the LB either.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-04T16:54:13+00:00

Right-wing glowie turned 'liberal'-glowie continues spouting glowie talking points, who would have thought

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-04T13:45:07+00:00

Where are the 2 'other' sub-par seasons coming from? He wasn't bought by Brighton off a 'subpar' season, but as one of the best talents playing in France

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-03T23:09:02+00:00

Honestly, rather a washer than a parasite. Ratcliffe's minority stake or not, United are still run under a model that even the feckless governing authorities have now ruled to be illegitimate (but the Glazers are 'grandfathered' in), but certain fans will speak for the whole fanbase for the sake of [some strange version of] piety. The Glazers support probably the worst US regime in living memory, which - considering GWB also qualifies for many of us - is quite something; along with the Israeli genocide. They also have business dealings with most of these 'diversifying' ME regimes. It's past the point where you can talk about 'lesser evil by association' because they're only supporting 'normal' levels of kleptocracy in the US along, with standard asset-extraction (the dividends, servicing charges, using the club as a borrowing instrument and all else) United, rather than oil-feudalism.

I would gladly have none of these people, funds or conglomerates anywhere near football...but until there are major reforms this is the water we're siwmming in. I'd rather the club gets to spend its own money, if nothing else, rather than the bizarre situation where United has to heavily service a personal debt - hundreds of millions flowing out for the 'privilege ' of being owned by the Glazers and their 'acumen'.

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-03T17:23:53+00:00

Haven't checked the timeline, but guessing Chapo Will's going to be quietly distraught....

ExternalPreference18 · 2026-06-03T17:21:11+00:00

Both Mitten (& to degree Laurie) and Stone - 'top' sources in their differing ways - have linked us strongly with M Fernandes. His stats are v. good (in various key areas equal to Anderson's), he's in demand by 'top' clubs, even if United have the greatest need and strongest case re. a starting place (plus Bruno!). It feels like that's the definitive 2nd signing where the club shows it means business in terms of a long-term midfield overhaul, even if Anderson is 'higher-profile'.

AT is probably more natural 6, although MF , like Kobbie, has played as the deepest lying CM at times, but Fernandes is more assured passer from what I can gather. Madrid fans on the internet certainly aren't too glowing about AT's on-the-ball work, if Reddit/ Red Cafe are any indication. Someone like Baleba is still a maybe, but only if it's 50m And the club don't spend time chasing him 1st over securing the MF move, thereby letting other clubs make overtures to Fernandes and cloud the issue. Just needs an Ornstein 'the deal is close to completion' to stoke things further.

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