I would argue some posters on here need to lower expectations. Title candidates? No. Top 4 candidates? No. Top 6 candidates? Yes, and here lies the problem. Certain posters have this self-clouded view that United should be at the top. The reality is that the club is no where near those levels due to years of mismanagement, poor decisions, a lack of strategy and vision to adhere to, and lastly too many egos on the playing side.
Ole is trying to sort this out, I'm not convinced he's the right man at this moment, but at least support what he's trying to do ffs. It's positive, respectful of the clubs attacking values and it WILL take time. (As in 2 or 3 transfer windows), it's frankly embarrassing that during every blip the same crowd come out to hurl abuse at the manager.
No manager in the world is going to work miracles with this lot atm. Once Ole has his playing team in place, judge him fairly then. Half the side is not even the team Ole wants that he has to field.
Nobody's expecting United to be at the top, nobody's expecting them to challenge for titles. N-O-B-O-D-Y. In fact, there's not a single United fan out there who will argue that City and Liverpool aren't currently miles ahead of us. Not a fecking single one.
But...
With Chelsea having a transfer ban and a rookie manager at the helm, with Arsenal being in no man's land and with Spurs going through the motions (with a manager and certain players feeling that they have already peaked at this club), not being able to even challenge for a top-four spot is quite alarming to be honest. When these teams get their act together, where it will leave us? Most likely in a permanent state of mediocrity. That's why many people are voicing their concerns on this forum.
Frankly, there's been too many blips if we are to be honest here. Soon Solskjaer will be here for a whole year. And he has already had two transfer windows. I'm all for giving managers time but that precious time has to be earned. We are still paying top wages and we're getting meagre results in return. The latest contract renewals which have kept our wage budget high all have Solskjaer's acceptance. So, if the results are poor, he'll have to share a part of the blame.
This whole "rebuilding process" is nothing more than an excuse when it becomes a manager's last line of defence. It was all Moyes was talking about, it became LvG's mantra when he was failing and even the greatest short-terminist manager in the world used it too when he realized that he was achieving nothing at United. This squad, although a work in progress, still bears the mark of its manager. And although a lot of the deadwood has been kicked out of the club, this particular squad remains overrated by its own manager. Not by the fans, by Solskjaer himself who believed that he could trim it down to the bone and still meet his short term targets. And this is nothing but a bad omen for the near future of the club.
