fastwalker
Full Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2019
- Messages
- 408
United are the biggest club in in the Premier League and one of the biggest in the world. Which measure do you want to use? History? Quality of players that have represented the club? Trophies won? Fan base? Brand value? Revenue generation? You name it, United are immense. Look at City today, as successful as they have been in recent years and as successful as they might become in future, it will take a lifetime before they get anywhere near United's success.
But here is the problem, United have become a big club with a small club mindset. Here are five examples of 'small club mentality' that United now exhibit:
But here is the problem, United have become a big club with a small club mindset. Here are five examples of 'small club mentality' that United now exhibit:
- small clubs set themselves a floor not a ceiling - a floor is a level below which you do not want to fall, whilst a ceiling is the level to which you want to rise. Increasingly, the ambitions around United are being set lower and lower. We are aiming for fourth, but preparing to finish fifth and expecting to finish sixth. Constantly lowering expectations and settling for less is a classic sign of small club mentality.
- small clubs constantly making excuses for failure - if you are a small club you can blame your failings on lack of resources, lack of quality and not getting a fair crack of refereeing decisions. Now look at United and see how every possible excuse is being offered for failure. Just take a small sample of comments following the Palace and Southampton games, they are laughable.
- small clubs can't spend, don't spend or find reasons for not spending - just look at United's net spend in the summer window. For a club with the revenue generating potential of United and with realistic expectations that this club should have and with the improvements that need to be made in our first 11 (let alone our squad), a c£70m net spend is negligent.
- small clubs see themselves less relevant - in the grand scheme of things and by dint of size, small clubs see themselves as less relevant than clubs that are bigger. Again, just look at how United fans now talk about our club in the context of City and Liverpool. There is defeatism and resignation. We recognise our success in their failure.
- small clubs look to their last big success not their next great achievement - history is a wonderful thing in football. But when a club spends its time talking more about what it did last and less about what it needs to do next, that is not a good sign. I describe that as the 'Liverpool syndrome'. For years that club spent more time raking over past glories than their ability to create new ones. They became the smallest big club in world football and we are in danger of replacing them.