Manchester United still miles off their rivals

This is part 4 of our 2024 Summer Premier League transfer grades. We did all the hard work so that you don’t have to.

Find part 1 here [Arsenal through Brighton].
Find part 2 here [Crystal Palace through Ipswich].
Find part 3 here [Leicester, Liverpool, Man City, Newcastle, Forest].

It’s been interesting to read fans compare and contrast our grades to what they are seeing in The Athletic. I don’t have any slander for what’s been published there or elsewhere, but obviously we have different backgrounds, different perspectives, and a very different need to maintain connectivity to club sources. We’re also not some YouTube channel with a need to hype everything you could possibly look at in order to generate clicks.

I mean… we ARE a YouTube channel (now/also). But sometimes a transfer window is a B- and we are just fine saying that without all the shouting.

Manchester United — Better… still not good enough

Total incomings — £206m

• Leny Yoro — £52m + £7m add-ons

• Manuel Ugarte — £42m + £9m add-ons

• Matthijs de Ligt — £38.5m + £4.5m add-ons

• Joshua Zirkzee — £36m

• Noussair Mazraoui — £13m + £4m add-ons

The theme of United’s transfer window was “super team hunting for budget buys.” Aside from Yoro — a teenage CB in high demand, but one United definitely overpaid for — they didn’t go top of market for an-y-bo-dy. That’s kind of weird, but given the extent of their needs totally makes sense.

Zirkzee is a striker who takes few shots, and came from a team with a weird tactical profile. We have zero idea how he’ll work out up top for United. Anyone that tells you they know how he’ll turn out is either a snake oil salesman [staring at TV pundits], or is lying.

De Ligt is a reclamation project. At one point he was the best young CB in the world. Then he kind of lost his way and hasn’t found a path back. Ten Hag could be his guru, if he gets time to goo. Which might not happen. But the logic is there!

Mazraoui is a good signing at a good price. He’s a bit older than you want for a new fullback, but he’s on a 4+1 contract and at this price, it feels harmless.

For his skillset, Ugarte should probably be £10m less. But for Man United’s needs, he possibly should have cost £10m more. “Be better than Casemiro” is not a high bar right now.

tl;dr I know it might not seem like it, but this is the best window United have had in years. It’s going to take three summers for smart people to rebuild this squad, and this is step 1. There’s no flash here, but not a ton of overpaying either. —TK

I think that whether or not this ends up being seen as a good window for United hinges entirely on how Yoro develops. The other players are reasonable value, and I think they will not be superstars or disasters. Yoro is a super high variance prospect who could easily be either. I also think they’re seriously missing a good 8 to rotate with Kobbie Mainoo. —KM

Ted: B | Ravi: B- | Kim: B-

Total outgoings — £93.5m

• Mason Greenwood — £27m

• Scott McTominay — £26m

• Aaron Wan-Bissaka — £15m

• Facundo Pellistri — £6m

• Donny van de Beek — £500k

• Academy sales — Approx. £20m

• Raphael Varane — Free

• Anthony Martial — Free

• Jadon Sancho — Loan, possible £25m buy obligation

The sales would be less exciting without Napoli paying dumb amounts for McTom. But they did, so genuinely well done. —TK

This is a good clearout of unwanted players who earned big wages and/or weren’t good enough to help United compete for top 4. Problem is, they had a lot of those. The only thing that keeps it from being an A from me is that they were unable to find homes for Antony and Casemiro. I understand that they were never going to collect good fees, but getting them out the door for 50% of wages paid and giving their minutes to U-21s would have been better than keeping them. —KM

Ted: A | Ravi: B+ | Kim: A-

By Man United’s recent standards, this is a great transfer window, though the bar they had to clear is on the ground. They sold some players they needed to get rid of for good fees and they didn’t spend a ton of money on anyone that I think is crap. But they need another genuinely excellent summer to get into top 4 competition; they simply didn’t make up enough ground on the better teams here. —KM

Overall grade: B+

Southampton — Ipswich’s window from AliExpress

Total incomings — £119m

• Taylor Harwood-Bellis — £20m

• Aaron Ramsdale — £18m + £7m add-ons

• Flynn Downes — £18m

• Cameron Archer — £15m + £2m add-ons

• Mateus Fernandes — £15m

• Ben Brereton Diaz — £7m

• Juan — £6m

• Yukimari Sugawara — £5m

• Ronnie Edwards — £3m

• Nathan Wood — £3m

• Adam Lallana — Free

• Charlie Taylor — Free

• Ryan Fraser — Free

• Lesley Ugochukwu — Loan

• Maxwel Cornet — Loan

• Kuryu Matsuki (loaned out) — Unknown

That is a lot of action. In fact, Southampton have created a Chelsea-esque problem for the head coach, in that there are just too damned many players floating about the training ground. Ravi’s concept of a Home 11 and Away 11 from part 2 of the Transfer Grades pod may need to come into play.

Southampton clearly feel like they should be in the Premier League, and there are many calculated gambles in this basket that need to pay off for them to stay up this season. The business as a whole feels pretty good? I like Harwood-Bellis a lot and Flynn Downes is definitely too good for the Championship.

I also like Mateus Fernandes and Sugawara, though the latter was more a possession FB in Holland, and he’ll be required to defend his socks off in the Premier League. This is a good start.

They are higher on Cameron Archer than I am, but if you look at it as a potential Championship signing, it makes more sense. Ramsdale was a small overpay according to Arsenal fans, but the one thing you do NOT want to do as a promoted side is go into the season with a dodgy shot-stopper. He’s at least average.

Some of the olds on here (Lallana, Fraser), should not see playing time, and I wonder who these were signed to appease.

The recruitment has some gems in it, but the degree of difficulty is now on Russell Martin to figure out what his best starting XI looks like and stick to it, while keeping everyone focused and happy. Good luck?

I thought they could stay up preseason because Wolves are pretty bad and Everton live under a storm cloud. I got those others right, but zero points from the first three games means Southampton are already in danger. 😬 —TK

This feels like the same concept as Ipswich, where Southampton knows they’re pretty likely to go down and bought guys they think they can either flip in a year or do a yo-yo with. Everyone here makes sense for that conceptually, I just think they improved less than Ipswich, for a little more money. —KM

Ted: B+ | Ravi: B+ | Kim: B

Total outgoings — £36.5m

• Carlos Alcaraz — £15m

• Sekou Mara — £10m

• Duje Caleta-Car — £5m

• Lyanco — £4m

• Romain Perraud — £2.5m

• Samuel Edozie — Loaned out

It was bad that they signed them before. It is good that they sold them now. —TK

I can’t believe they got out from under these contracts at real fees. —KM

Ted: B | Ravi: B+ | Kim: B+

This is fine. There are no egregious mistakes here. But there’s nothing I’m particularly excited about either. —KM

Overall grade: B+

Tottenham Hotspur — Massive sticker shock

Total incomings — £138.5m

• Dominic Solanke — £55m + £10m add-ons

• Archie Gray — £35m

• Wilson Odobert — £25m + £5m add-ons

• Lucas Bergvall — £8.5m

• Timo Werner — Loan, £8.5m buy option

They paid full freight for Solanke, but desperately needed him. I guess they saved up by not having a real CF last season. Sorry, Ange!

That is a big sticker price on Archie Gray. It happened early in the window, so I kind of forgot about it, but paying £35m for a kid from the Championship is a big risk and feels unlike Spurs. He could be England’s right back of the future, and the potential is certainly there.

Speaking of, Odobert was pretty aggressive as well. Yes, it’s unusual for a player his age to rack up playing time in the Premier League… and it was at Burnley… and his dribble and carry OBV (on-ball value) is really good… Okay, I talked myself into it, even if the fee was high. I reserve the right to talk myself out of it at a later date.

Bergvall is the same theme, but a much smaller price from a worse league. He’s one I’d be happy to snap up every year.

Some needs were addressed, but they paid a premium for the kids. —TK

It feels like Spurs were negotiating with the assumption that the market would keep slowly creeping up and they hadn’t got the memo that a lot of teams weren’t spending this year. None of Solanke, Gray or Odobert are egregious overpays, but none of them feel like good value for money either.

Paying big money for a 26-year-old striker suggests Spurs think they can get back into the Champions League in the short term, but I think their failure to upgrade at central midfield is going to prevent them from doing that.

I’m Bergvallpilled though, that kid rocks. —KM

Ted: B- | Ravi: C+ | Kim: C+

Total outgoings — £65.5m

• Oliver Skipp — £20m + £5m add-ons

• Emerson Royal — £12.5m + £2m add-ons

• Joe Rodon — £10m

• Giovani Lo Celso — £8.5m

• Troy Parrott — £6.5m

• Eric Dier — Free

• Ivan Perisic — Free

• Ryan Sessegnon — Free

• Tanguy Ndombele — Free

• Academy sales — Approx. £1m

• 4 senior players loaned (including Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg)

Royal and Skipp fees were gifts. Lo Celso is still super talented, and his exit is sad. When he played, his outputs were among the very best in the Premier League last season. Maybe he just misses being around Spanish speakers. —TK

Haha they got real money for Skipp and Royal hahahahahahahsdaljfhdfj. —KM

Ted: B+ | Ravi: B | Kim: A

Maybe Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert become Champions League starters and we look back on this window as a crucial one for Tottenham. But it’s equally likely that they’re mid and Spurs lose money on them. This is a pretty outlandish display of confidence that you’re the team that can correctly identify which Championship teenagers can make The Leap. —KM

Overall grade: B-

West Ham — I don’t get it

Total incomings — £132m

• Max Kilman — £40m

• Niclas Füllkrug — £27m

• Luis Guilherme — £20m + £5m add-ons

• Crysencio Summerville — £25m

• Aaron Wan-Bissaka — £15m

• Guido Rodriguez — Free

• Wes Foderingham — Free

• Jean-Clair Todibo — Loan, £34m buy obligation

• Carlos Soler — Loan, £20m buy obligation

I do not like this window, but I also think there are too many far worse teams for West Ham to be in trouble this season. Let me start with the good stuff.

Wan-Bissaka and Summerville are probably strong buys for good output. It won’t propel them into Europe, but they are likely to be average or above Premier League players. Todibo is also a good and unexpected pickup for them. It feels like a stop-off on the way to somewhere bigger, but one that West Ham can surely profit from given the price they paid.

Kilman is a big fee, even with the left-footed CB premium. Maybe he’s a lot better than what he showed at Wolves, but he’s 27 too. £25m would have made more sense.

Carlos Soler is more a shrug. I loved him as a kid, but he never got any better. (A recurring theme if you have been around football long enough, and an important one for discussing this summer.) He’s a luxury midfielder that isn’t elite at anything, and could never earn a steady place at PSG. The price isn’t awful, but he’s probably not making West Ham significantly better.

Fullkrüg is a mistake and Dortmund fans are so grateful for it. The price, the length of the deal, the quality of player output… just no. Bad buy is bad.

Guilherme is part of the theme of the summer: buy young Brazilian kids for eye-watering amounts, hope you profit in the future. Speculating when you are West Ham feels like bad management. —TK

This is pure speculation, but this window leads me to believe that West Ham management have a tunnel vision problem. The process works to a point: they set a profile for a player, their scouts file reports, between evaluating those reports and conversations with agents, they’re able to identify a target. Then they have tunnel vision on that target and end up overpaying. —KM

Ted: C | Ravi: C- | Kim: C+

Total outgoings — £41.5m

• Flynn Downes — £18m

• Said Benrahma — £12m

• Thilo Kehrer — £9.5m

• Nathan Trott — £2m

• 4 senior players loaned (including James Ward-Prowse)

Thilo Kehrer has been great as a centreback at Monaco. And he was really rather good for years at PSG. This was a Moyes cockup that came home to roost, and Monaco are the lucky beneficiaries.

Downes was a good sale, though part of me wonders if he wouldn’t bring more to the team than Soler will over the course of the contract. It was time for Benrahma to officially go do other things in other places.

The senior loanees are classic regime change waste product. —TK

Not getting fees or buy obligations for any of the loaned players is really bad. Getting their wages paid by someone else is better than nothing, but that is an unreal set of balls and chains. —KM

Ted: C | Ravi: C+ | Kim: C+

West Ham are too good to be under any threat of relegation, and I don’t think it’s impossible they added enough to compete for Europa or Conference League. But I think they also added a future set of balls and chains that will replace the likes of Ward-Prowse and Zouma on the unwanted list in 2 years. They’re just doing the same shit over and over again. —KM

Overall grade: C

Wolves — Smart? Not really. Awesome? Absolutely.

Total incomings — £62.5m

• Andre — £21m + £2m add-ons

• Rodrigo Gomes — £12.5m

• Sam Johnstone — £10m

• Pedro Lima — £8.5m

• Tommy Doyle — £4.5m

• Bastien Meupiyou — £4m

• Jorgen Strand Larsen — Loan, possible £25m buy obligation

• Carlos Forbs — Loan, £11.5m buy option

I feel like someone gave me their pack of lottery tickets and asked me to grade their numbers.

Ignoring bankrupt Everton’s window and potential further points deductions, Wolves came into the season as the non-promoted team most likely to be relegated. There’s nothing in these buys that makes me think that changed. They started the season against Arsenal and Chelsea, so that will get a bit easier, but it may be a tough watch all year for Wolves fans. —TK

Classic high risk/high reward signings from Brazil and Portugal for Wolves. All of them have insane YouTube mixtapes set to EDM bangers. I wouldn’t run a club like this, but as a football fan, I love that Wolves exist. —KM

Ted: C | Ravi: B+ | Kim: B

Total outgoings — £99m

• Pedro Neto — £52m + £2m add-ons

• Max Kilman — £40m

• Daniel Podence — £5m

These sales are otherworldly. Pure standing_ovation.gif stuff. —TK

Ted: A+ | Ravi: A | Kim: A+

This is the weirdest collection of players. I have no idea if they’re any good. But they got £54m for an overrated guy who’s always injured so I’m willing to give them a pass on any questionable decisions for a while. —KM

Overall grade: B+

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