Is this the most depressing United summer ever? (In your memory)

RedTillI'mDead

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The mood in the RedCafe has felt rock bottom.

There have been various lows, but something about this feels like its consolidated to the worst I can remember.

In recent years we've had some shockers.

The SAF retirement was always going to be bad and Moyes sacking all the background staff then buying Fellaini for more than his original buy out clause was a pretty horrible way to end the summer. However, we had just won the Premiership so think optimism was reasonably good.

The Moyes year was a disaster, but bringing in LVG with a raft of signings felt like a step in the right direction. Getting Falcao and Di Maria felt like a muppet dream. Little did we know how that would end.

The second LVG summer was off the back of a 4th place finish and whilst the football was bad at times it felt like a believable 'process' and was a case of replacing old guard with new. Depay was the exciting potential signing, along with Martial. There was plenty of other signs for optimism albeit no huge confidence.

An FA Cup win, but 5th in the league set up the Mourinho summer as one where it wasn't a great season, but at least we had won something and were back on track.

The signings were promising and the challenging year ended with a poor league finish, but dominant control of Europa Cup and a league cup win. It felt like we had a platform to build. The transfers were half there, but Perisic was a loss albeit one we may have only come to realise with more time. Sanchez in theory should have more than made up for this.

The problem was having had some years of downs with then a few progressive signs the second half of last season was pretty awful. For all the money spent the football has arguably been worse than under Moyes and versus expectations maybe even versus LVG.

Results in pre season has been as bad as any I can remember, albeit heavily impacted by the world cup. The signings have actually been decent, but just not enough to address glaring holes.

On paper it feels like having come off a 2nd place finish, with a load of our players doing well at the world cup and with a strong signing to support Pogba and a great youth product we should be happier.

So is this the most depressing summer? And if so/ or not, then why?

I know pre SAF there will have been some shockers, no least the Munich air disaster year, albeit even that year had good camaraderie and support from other clubs.

I don't know what I'm trying to achieve with this, maybe just trying to draw some context, but the mood on here has sucked more than anything I can remember.
 

peridigm

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You don’t remember us appointing Moyes and signing Fellaini on deadline day do you?
 

BluesJr

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You don’t remember us appointing Moyes and signing Fellaini on deadline day do you?
Because the window closed in September there was still optimism going into the season though, and we didn’t know it was going to be a total disaster. The vibe at the moment is awful.
 

Offside

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2014 was bad until the late flurry and 2006 was quite bad.

I haven’t seen as much obsessive bashing of the club and negavitivty on social media but I think the influx of more and more tools managing to navigate the internet over the years has more to do with that.
 

ivaldo

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For United? No. For the cafe? Absolutely.
 

That'sHernandez

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Selling Ronaldo and replacing him with Valencia and Owen (of players who would go straight into the first team) has to be worse than this window to be quite honest. The difference is we had won the league that season so the loss of Ronaldo was bittersweet more than simply bitter as it is this season.
 

YouOnlyLiveTwice

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I can only talk for post SAF, but it definitely is.

The problem is that what was often dull football last season, has transfered over to this pre-season. We lack our best players, but at the same time many of us just wanted to see some spirit and us evolving our style of play. Doesn't help that we have failed to strenghten our full-backs and winger position (could still happen). Martial who we all hoped would be our next star, want to leave. Some media are reporting that Raiola is trying to get Pogba anywhere else than United, which won't happen, but doesn't exactly help remove the grey cloud over our club.

I probably did expect us to be much further in the progress with our rebuild, but i'm not sure where we really stand right now as a club. Watching us is dull and it gives the club a bit of a bad rep (which i couldn't give a damn about, if it wasn't for the fact that i'm getting bored myself). We all just want to see United flourish, but right now it doesn't look like we will.

Hopefully many of us will have an egg on our face at the end of the season.
 

el3mel

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It's really bad but definitely not the worst because Moyes existed.
 

RedTillI'mDead

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For United? No. For the cafe? Absolutely.
This was where I was at. It just feels excessively negative.

I'm desperate for a ray of light. It could be a make or break run up to Xmas.

Something doesn't feel right and we have seen it with Mourinho before, but it's hard to judge how much is media stirring versus how much real fire is under the smoke.

The big questions for me are really.
A) is Pogba truly touting for a move?
B) How will our forward line be addressed? I.e. LW filling RW or shift in personal at some point or change in formation
C) Why has momentum cooled on the transfer front, could this just be a reasonable measured approach or are we truly at risk of being the next 'Arsenal', I.e. enough for top 4.

Everything else is secondary to the above. We know Mourinho won't drastically change his style so no question there, but solving the above is pretty critical.
 

DarkXaero

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Easily the worst United related summer in memory for me. It's also the most disinterested I've been in a United season as there's nothing really to look forward to. We're dreadful to watch on the pitch, not just for top team standards, but even if we were a midtable club. Our summer transfer window has been a disaster as aside from CM (Fred), we haven't really addressed our other positions of concern. Mourinho seems miserable in media, critical of players and board publicly, and that misery reflects on the pitch in our play. Our players don't seem too happy, especially Martial who is confirmed looking to leave. I think this season, we'll really rely on how well Alexis, Pogba, and Lukaku can play, because they're the ones who will be responsible of carrying the burden to get us points. That is if Mourinho doesn't lose the locker room.
 

peridigm

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Because the window closed in September there was still optimism going into the season though, and we didn’t know it was going to be a total disaster. The vibe at the moment is awful.
Took Everton’s manager who never won a thing and put him in charge of the biggest sports team on the planet. What could go wrong. Writing was on the wall well before September rolled around. That was a depressing summer. This summer is all doom and gloom because we trotted our a bunch of youngsters who won’t play first team football after today. We’re still missing four of our most important players due to the WC. Never expected this preseason to be a goal fest.

As far as transfers go. The window is still open. You all know the bullshit Twitter machine does it’s thing to you every goddamn window, yet you still fall for it. We signed Fred and a young prospect for RB. I’ll give you the sad feelings for not signing a LB or RW but it ain’t closed until Thursday at 5. We still have a couple of weeks to sell surplus players. Until then, try to relax and have a positive vibe. We kickoff Friday.
 

MrBest

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The early window has not helped as we won't do the business expected and wanted. The world cup too played it's part. Most clubs are in the the same situation and just gone onsite things, integrated the youth And looked at team building. We played some youth they did average, Jose fumed martial went missing matic and Valencia got injured, Liverpool thumped us 4 1 we played real bad against some teams and our manager won't stop moaning. England getting knocked out also did not help.

Saying that, the moon was red a few week ago. Maybe it's a sign? Maybe I'm deluded?
 

Josep Dowling

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It’s been a whole receipe of things mixed that’s created the negativity.

The main ingredient is Mourinho’s comments in the media. Whatever his intentions it makes an easy narrative for journalists. Players aren’t happy, Board vs Manager, fans aren’t happy. All of this has been caused by his continued moaning in his press conferences. It clearly hasn’t made Woodward get the chequebook out so why does he continue?

Add to that the rise of City dominating the league last season.

Add Liverpool reaching the Champions League final then strengthening weaknesses in their squad.

Both with managers playing a style of football the majority of fans at United want to see.

That is why there’s negativity. Roll on the start of the season that’s what I say now.
 

Adam-Utd

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Pre season isn’t about results, but the performances are extremely worrying.

Yes we miss our 2 best players but there’s just 0 team chemistry.

I feel like we do no training on team work or how to keep the ball, no attacking patterns.

We look like a bunch of guys that’s been picked out of a hat and told to go play a match.

Jose’s taken us as far as he can IMO, he knows nothing else anymore but grinding out results.

If the football was working and we looked drilled with a scary counter attack I’d be alright with it, but there’s the possum without the strike back.

For the first time in my life I’m genuinely considering just not watching anymore, and that’s so sad.
 

NotoriousISSY

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I remember summer '06 being similar, where we were largely unimpressive bar the Celtic and Sevilla games.

I believe carrick got injured, rooney and Scholes carried red cards into the premier league, we hadn't signed Hargreaves and everyone hated Ronaldo and expected him to sign for Madrid.

Then we played Fulham...and everything changed in 20 mins. 4-0 up. Bang, you knew you were in for one hell of a season.

The difference this year? I don't think Martial will do a Ronaldo. I'm not quite sure lukaku or pogba will give us the same quality as Rooney and Scholes did. We dont have a defence with players like Neville, rio, Vidic and evra.

Oh and obviously we had sir Alex.

Mourinho cuts as a miserable git and spoiled brat re transfers. It would be nice to see him say he has some quality in his group and he wants to make them into better players, which you"d expect if a manager wanted to deflect questions about transfers.
 

wolvored

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Not for me. 1974 was worse than this. We were relegated to division 2 and it felt awful. I was only a kid, but can still remember how it felt. The next season we stormed the league, won it and got promoted. This is a bad un, but not worse than that.
 

Champagne Football

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Far from worst. Fred looks awesome. Dalot looks awesome. Fellaini staying is much better than Arsenal getting him. We will sign Boateng in 2 days. That's a decent summer.

The negativity is coming from Mourinho. He's doing it as a tactic to get more players and it's not helping and the media are having a field day. If we thump Leicester in 5 days time it will be all rosey very quickly.

Mourinho livid he has no crossing specialist to pump balls into Lukaku but it can be a blessing in disguise for Rashford to step up.
 

PvsNP

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Summer 2013 was worse. By far. SAF retired, Moyes in and only transfer was Fellaini. Depressing.
 

stubie

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The worst was 1995

Rumours of Fergie getting sacked and Eric moving to Inter combined with selling Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis in the summer then losing 3-1 to Villa on the opening day indicated a nightmare season ahead.

Did not turn out too bad eh?
 

snk123

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Summer 2013 was worse. By far. SAF retired, Moyes in and only transfer was Fellaini. Depressing.
It wasn't as depressing because we were champions and had great players - nobody thought we'd finish 7th.

At the moment, we all feel we'll finish 7th. We can't string two passes together ffs.
 

Paxi

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2009 for obvious reasons and it's not even close!
 

hobbers

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Nah the Moyes summer will always be the absolute worst. Because everyone, or at least everyone with any sense, knew that Moyes was going to be a total trainwreck. The only hope was signing the likes of Fabregas and Bale to paper over his shit management, but that didn't happen obviously.

At least with Mourinho there's a chance. Albeit looking very slim right now.
 

JPRouve

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Summer 2013 was worse. By far. SAF retired, Moyes in and only transfer was Fellaini. Depressing.
I hoped for Benitez that's how much I didn't want Moyes.
 

Champagne Football

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If Fergie or Pochettino was in charge you'd be super excited about Rashford and Lindelof emerging as first teamers.

I think we'll be half-decent this season when every one is back
 

Mr Pigeon

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If my son hadn't been born I would have been *this* close to listening to Radiohead this summer.

The gen is dead right now, probably because the casual posters have all fecked off and the leftovers are arguing in about how shite we're going to be this year.
 

DarkXaero

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People keep bringing up the Moyes summer but I think that is something that has become worse in hindsight. Sure, no one really wanted Moyes but at the time, we had a squad that had just dominated EPL, we had a world class striker in RVP, and the rest of the team seemed fine too. Our actual summer transfer window (signing Felliani after chasing Fabregas, Thiago, Baines, Bale, Herrera) was a disaster obviously, but we still had a PL winning squad to fall back on. And at that point, no one really knew that Moyes was that bad, he had done well with Everton and had a reputation as a decent manager. Our preseason went well iirc, and we won the Community Shield. Just on a personal level, there was more optimism that summer than this one. Obviously in hindsight, things are different.
 

Bojan11

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You don’t remember us appointing Moyes and signing Fellaini on deadline day do you?
Yeah but we were champions heading into that season.

This season just has the feeling that things can go pretty wrong fast.
 

Bastian

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2009 for obvious reasons and it's not even close!
Yeah for me too. 2013 was more dreadful in hindsight, I didn't believe at the time that it would be so tumescent.

2009 laid bare our lack of ambition. Now it feels like we've merely stagnated and are not looking to keep improving. Which of course is quite depressing, but to sell the best player in the world and acquire average players was a milestone low point.
 

Hephaestus

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Yeah, I'd go with that. Not the worst, that would definitely be 2013, but at least then there were parts where there was some hope even if that hope was then shat on from a great height. This summer on the other hand seems like it's just been designed to make every fan feel miserable, the manager doesn't seem to have stopped complaining the entire time. Better than Moyes' summer but I don't remember feeling this down constantly.
 

wub1234

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Not everyone will remember this, but...

In the summer of 1985, there was a big argument over the TV rights for football. You can read more about this here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...e-big-yin-knew-who-mcavennie-was-2052962.html

This meant that none of the first four months of matches were televised. The broadcasting of football wasn't as ubiquitous back then, but there were still regular live games on Sundays, and highlights were commonplace.

United won their first ten league games that season, and to this day most of the goals from these games have only been seen by the people who attended the matches (which is quite refreshing, actually). After 15 matches, United had 41 points, having won 13 and drawn 2.

Eventually, the TV argument was settled...at which point United collapsed, winning 9 drawing 8 and losing 10 of their remaining 27 fixtures, and ultimately finishing fourth, 12 points behind Liverpool.

The Scousers had won their 9th league title in 14 years, and in the same period they also won 6 major European trophies. They also did the double that season, and had already won the League Cup four times in the 1980s.

United hadn't won the league for nearly 20 years.

They were managed by Ron Atkinson, who was later revealed to be a massive racist.

1985 and 1986 must have been moderately depressing summers for United fans, I imagine.

The silver lining was that Internet forums had yet to be invented.
 
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Easily the worst United related summer in memory for me. It's also the most disinterested I've been in a United season as there's nothing really to look forward to. We're dreadful to watch on the pitch, not just for top team standards, but even if we were a midtable club. Our summer transfer window has been a disaster as aside from CM (Fred), we haven't really addressed our other positions of concern. Mourinho seems miserable in media, critical of players and board publicly, and that misery reflects on the pitch in our play. Our players don't seem too happy, especially Martial who is confirmed looking to leave. I think this season, we'll really rely on how well Alexis, Pogba, and Lukaku can play, because they're the ones who will be responsible of carrying the burden to get us points. That is if Mourinho doesn't lose the locker room.
Completely agree, as for my answer to the op, id say its been pretty shit so far but not the worst, this summer sucks because everyone expected quite a few signings and sales to improve on the progress we’ve made so far, but so far its not really happened, of course, it might all change in the next few days, but i cant see why it would take until this week to get it sorted.

I was so happy when we got Jose, but hes pissing me off now and always looks fecking miserable , surely this passes onto the players at least a little bit unless hes told everyone at the club that he’s going to portray this miserable bastard but really he’s completely happy when away from the media, who knows, but i hope the football improves this year because if it doesn’t I’ll be one who will want him to leave.
 

Rood

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summer 1995: sold Ince, Kanchelskis and Hughes - bought NO ONE

summer 2005: Glazers take over, mass protests - core section of the match going fans decide to give up their season tickets and form FC United
 

2cents

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The worst was 1995

Rumours of Fergie getting sacked and Eric moving to Inter combined with selling Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis in the summer then losing 3-1 to Villa on the opening day indicated a nightmare season ahead.

Did not turn out too bad eh?
What I was thinking. The season ended in such a depressing fashion, everything at the club seemed up in the air.
 

Ibi Dreams

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Losing Ferguson, appointing Moyes and then only signing Fellaini was obviously much worse. I don't see how anyone could genuinely argue otherwise. This summer has been a bit disappointing transfer-wise, but it's not over yet. Aside from that we've got a team that finished 2nd in the league last season and we've got some very good players, I have the feeling that anything could happen in the coming season really. I wouldn't be surprised if we were a bit crap, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were very good either.

This forum has been extremely negative given the circumstances we are actually in, though. We're in the best position we've been in for 4 or 5 years but it certainly doesn't feel like it on here.