Duncan Castles interview

Sandikan

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At least when Jose managed us this twat wasn't constantly having a pop at us
 

jderbyshire

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I mean you can't really believe much of what he says as he's Mourinho's bitch, but there were some interesting points in the interview.

  • It was Mourinho that turned US down in '13 (find that particularly hard to believe)
  • It was Mourinho who wasn't convinced by Maguire, (who was suggested by our scouts) Summer '18 - and wanted other experienced options (Boeteng was it?)
  • The Glazers WANTED Fergie to retire - they didn't like the power he had at the club and relished the opportunity to take the club in their own direction. Fergie "agreed to retire" :lol: as long as he got to pick his successor and have a seat on the board. Fergie chose Mourinho but he turned us down for Chelsea so Fergie scrambled around and ended up hastily picking Moyes.
  • Glazers didn't like this but knew they'd be able to sack him sooner or later.
  • SOME of the senior players aren't convinced by Ole's training methods (British, Old School, unsophisticated) and Castles reckons it's also caused us to have a massive increase in muscular injuries because of the overemphasis on physical fitness training. (Didn't we have a similar situation with Moyes?)
  • Castles portrays Ole as a Yes Man to the Glazers who won't kick up a fuss for not having adequate funds/recruitment.
  • Insists Ole is vastly underqualified, not a good enough manager to run a club of United's stature - but the main blame is reserved for Woodward's incompetence in footballing matters.
  • Herrera was offered a pay cut for a new contract. Herrera understandably rejected that. He liked Ole but by the time Ole arrived, it was all done and dusted.
  • Our top priority in January is to sign a forward. Three candidates at the moment are Moussa Dembele, Ousman Dembele and Timo Werner.
  • Allegri is apparently interested but Castles doubts whether we'd even be an attractive option for him.
So there ya go. Some interesting points but whether they're believable or not is another matter.
 

redshaw

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PSG gave Herrera a 5 year contract at 30 years of age. We have made that mistake one too many times. I would have liked to keep Ander also but to give him a 5-year contract on the level that PSG did would not be responsible. The club was not in the wrong there. The "paycut" is obviously BS, but I dont think the club were prepared to offer more than a 2-year extension. Which is logical.
Yeah. Said that myself numerous times in the Herrera threads months ago.

I'm on about Duncan's pay cut and nothing else.
 

nainaisson

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I've heard the Herrera story before. Crazy how quickly fans turned on him for essentially being treated like shit.
He dives into a giant pile of oil money every day like Scrooge McDuck. It's very difficult for me to feel any pity for him.
 

Needham

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The whole premise of "Utd fans turn on" is ludicrous. When have you heard a player or manager properly barracked booed abused etc at OT? Doesn't happen. Just a few ironic cheers when we crossed the halfway line under LvG. OT is self defeatingly tolerant. Online is a different matter.
 

OhGee

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He dives into a giant pile of oil money every day like Scrooge McDuck. It's very difficult for me to feel any pity for him.
WTF did you expect him to do? He is 30 yrs old and probably into his last meaningful contract as a professional footballer. Any normal person in that position will take up the best offer available.

Any true fan realizes that Herrera knew what playing for United was all about. Unfortunately, with him leaving we are now left with a bunch of pansies at the club. He does not need your pity so take it somewhere else.

Clearly from what we’ve seen thus far, his position needs a replacement and it will cost us at least £50 million in transfer fees plus another £30-50 million in wage; whereas a 3 yr £200 k/week contract extension would have set the club back an additional £15 million in wages....
 

Johan07

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WTF did you expect him to do? He is 30 yrs old and probably into his last meaningful contract as a professional footballer. Any normal person in that position will take up the best offer available.

Any true fan realizes that Herrera knew what playing for United was all about. Unfortunately, with him leaving we are now left with a bunch of pansies at the club. He does not need your pity so take it somewhere else.

Clearly from what we’ve seen thus far, his position needs a replacement and it will cost us at least £50 million in transfer fees plus another £30-50 million in wage; whereas a 3 yr £200 k/week contract extension would have set the club back an additional £15 million in wages....
Again this. Its not a cost. Its an investment.
As long as its a young talented player and not some 30-yearish olds (or almost) Matic, Willian, Perisic or Sanchez, where their asset value will disappear over the term of their contract that Mourinho wanted to (and did) buy, its actually most times a good investment for the club as long as the market moves forward.
We bought Dan James for 15m, he is probably already worth at least double that now, probably more. We will make a very fair profit on Pogba as well when he leaves. This idea that its a cost to invest in players or that we have a "transfer budget" is so weird.
 

AneRu

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Watched it yesterday, it had some fascinating insights into Mourinho and his work behind the scenes to find out what went wrong with the dressing room as he is preparing for a new, supposedly, big job. Don't know which one, maybe Spurs? But he is bullshiter too, threw in a line about the Glazers forcing Fergie out which I found hard to believe because they had a good thing going when the old man was still in charge.
 

Castia

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Zero chance they wanted SAF gone he was working miracles on a non existent budget. Load of bullshit.
 

AneRu

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Zero chance they wanted SAF gone he was working miracles on a non existent budget. Load of bullshit.
Plus he had the football side under his vice which enabled them to focus on the money without worrying about the uncomfortable bits they don't know much about. People say we miss Gill but they are off the mark, the club just underestimated Fergie's dual role as manager and DOF and the fact that his brilliance guaranteed him a long stay at the helm.
 

LARulz

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Is Castles not pretty reliable? Him being a dick is beside the point
 

roonster09

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Not sure why anyone takes him seriously. I mean he has good sources and got few transfers spot on but he always twists everything to suit his agenda.

Offering pay cut to Herrera sounds like biggest pile of nonsense as he was already among lowest earner, Telegraph and other reports contradict this anyways.
 

fergosaurus

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Castles full of shit as usual. The idea of forcing Fergie into retirement to end up replacing him with Moyes. :lol:
 

Denis' cuff

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:lol: yeah it’s a bit confusing re SAF. Doesn’t make any sense, especially as SAF came out and specifically stated it was his decision for his wife/family and still had major input into choosing his successor, by all accounts.

Christ mate, do you believe everything you read. Fergie also said there was no value in the market. You think he actually believed that, too?

Not sure the Glazers literally forced anything. They just made it difficult to suit themselves. Contrary to popular belief, they’re pretty smart people. Bet your life they’ll sell and make a fortune. Eventually.
 

Sandikan

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I mean you can't really believe much of what he says as he's Mourinho's bitch, but there were some interesting points in the interview.

  • It was Mourinho that turned US down in '13 (find that particularly hard to believe)
  • It was Mourinho who wasn't convinced by Maguire, (who was suggested by our scouts) Summer '18 - and wanted other experienced options (Boeteng was it?)
  • The Glazers WANTED Fergie to retire - they didn't like the power he had at the club and relished the opportunity to take the club in their own direction. Fergie "agreed to retire" :lol: as long as he got to pick his successor and have a seat on the board. Fergie chose Mourinho but he turned us down for Chelsea so Fergie scrambled around and ended up hastily picking Moyes.
  • Glazers didn't like this but knew they'd be able to sack him sooner or later.
  • SOME of the senior players aren't convinced by Ole's training methods (British, Old School, unsophisticated) and Castles reckons it's also caused us to have a massive increase in muscular injuries because of the overemphasis on physical fitness training. (Didn't we have a similar situation with Moyes?)
  • Castles portrays Ole as a Yes Man to the Glazers who won't kick up a fuss for not having adequate funds/recruitment.
  • Insists Ole is vastly underqualified, not a good enough manager to run a club of United's stature - but the main blame is reserved for Woodward's incompetence in footballing matters.
  • Herrera was offered a pay cut for a new contract. Herrera understandably rejected that. He liked Ole but by the time Ole arrived, it was all done and dusted.
  • Our top priority in January is to sign a forward. Three candidates at the moment are Moussa Dembele, Ousman Dembele and Timo Werner.
  • Allegri is apparently interested but Castles doubts whether we'd even be an attractive option for him.
So there ya go. Some interesting points but whether they're believable or not is another matter.
Some believable stuff, some horrendous decision making.
 

Ish

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Christ mate, do you believe everything you read. Fergie also said there was no value in the market. You think he actually believed that, too?
Why would I believe everything I read? Did I give you that impression somehow?

I believed SAF when he gave the reasons for his retirement because it makes sense for various reasons. So no, I don't believe everything I read, but I do try and form my opinions when I have gathered as much information as possible. My opinions, like everyone else's, is just that, an opinion. It just doesn't make much sense for SAF to have lied about the reasons for his retirement (his wife was lonely, after her sister passed away, iirc, and he has dedicated his entire life to football. he was always close to retirement years before....).
 

Catt

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He's full of it but I can see some wanting to believe him.
 

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He says nothing that can be either proved or disproved. True journo.
 

Denis' cuff

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My conspiracy theory with SAF retiring, really out of nowhere was that the Glazers wanted to replace Gill with Woodward to increase the commercial income.

SAF quite rightly, thought was a recipe for disaster and punched out. His hand grenade through the door being Moyes.

All bollocks (probably)

That’s a sound theory.

The Moyes part possibly pushing it a bit but you couldn’t rule it out.
 

Denis' cuff

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Watched it yesterday, it had some fascinating insights into Mourinho and his work behind the scenes to find out what went wrong with the dressing room as he is preparing for a new, supposedly, big job. Don't know which one, maybe Spurs? But he is bullshiter too, threw in a line about the Glazers forcing Fergie out which I found hard to believe because they had a good thing going when the old man was still in charge.
Depends how you view “forcing” him out. Imposing their own will on him doesn’t mean they wanted him out or even wilfully forced him out but maybe it became intolerable for Fergie, who must’ve had his eye on retirement, anyway.
 

GBBQ

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  • It was Mourinho who wasn't convinced by Maguire, (who was suggested by our scouts) Summer '18 - and wanted other experienced options (Boeteng was it?)
  • Herrera was offered a pay cut for a new contract. Herrera understandably rejected that. He liked Ole but by the time Ole arrived, it was all done and dusted
So these two are interesting points and probably carry the most likelihood of being true if Castles is still in with Mourinho.

Re: Maguire, if United wanted him but Mourinho didn't then it kind of puts paid to the suggestion that Mou wasn't in control of signings. We're back to a scenario of the hoard being reluctant to sign older players and a 30 year old injury prone Boateng would have been extremely short term recruiting.
Re: Herrera, he had already made his mind up before Ole joined so the likelihood is that prior to this Mourinho didn't fight for a better contract for him and most likely endorsed the pay cut (Herrera was a bit part player at best under Mou). The talk of an increased contract, if true, was likely at Ole's behest who used him more frequently but Herrera's decision was already made.
 

Affirmation

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I can concur that the points he makes in the Full Time Devils interview he has stood by for years on his Transfer Window podcast. He explained in more detail about the Sir Alex Ferguson power struggle on that and even made a claim that when Jose Mounrinho became more and more frustrated with Ed Woodward he suggested that Fergie should be given a role within the football side of the club to act as a "middle man" between the two on things like Transfers and such. As for Jose turning us down in 2013, it does line up with what is being said if you think about it. Fergie talked about a "long process" of trying to find the next Manchester United manager and yet David Moyes was pretty much appointed over the course of a day or so. He claimed on the Podcast that Jose deciding to go back to Chelsea was ego driven due to them firing him and his family wanting to remain in London instead of potentially having to relocate or Jose traveling back and forth between the cities.
 

AneRu

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Depends how you view “forcing” him out. Imposing their own will on him doesn’t mean they wanted him out or even wilfully forced him out but maybe it became intolerable for Fergie, who must’ve had his eye on retirement, anyway.
Watch it again, he said they told him to retire and he said they should allow him to choose his own successor. Given how the man made them so much money by winning on the cheap and thereby keeping the fans at bay I think they would have kept him on forever even to the extent of pushing him in a wheelchair to Carrington. If Fergie could accept to work in the 'no value in the market' era there was no point of conflict between the two, its B.S.
 

AneRu

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My conspiracy theory with SAF retiring, really out of nowhere was that the Glazers wanted to replace Gill with Woodward to increase the commercial income.

SAF quite rightly, thought was a recipe for disaster and punched out. His hand grenade through the door being Moyes.

All bollocks (probably)
Gill and Woodward are two sides of the same coin and the only difference between the two's fates is that one had Sir Alex to hold his hand whilst the other doesn't. After Kenyon he came in from finance so not much football experience there, both Gill and the Glazers rode on Sir Alex's back for too long and had Gill stayed after SAF its only his experience and established connections that could have saved us from the fate of having a novice like Woodward but if Gill had come in around 2013 with SAF retiring we would have suffered the same pitfalls. Not defending Woodward but the fan base generally agreed with a lot of decisions that he made.

I think, with Wooward's proximity to the Glazers and how they listen to him, if he had worked with Sir Alex they would have succeeded as a pair. Bad as he has been he is still the same guy that has been able to extract massive amounts of cash for investment into the team, regardless of how badly the money has been spent.
 

Big Ben Foster

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I can concur that the points he makes in the Full Time Devils interview he has stood by for years on his Transfer Window podcast. He explained in more detail about the Sir Alex Ferguson power struggle on that and even made a claim that when Jose Mounrinho became more and more frustrated with Ed Woodward he suggested that Fergie should be given a role within the football side of the club to act as a "middle man" between the two on things like Transfers and such. As for Jose turning us down in 2013, it does line up with what is being said if you think about it. Fergie talked about a "long process" of trying to find the next Manchester United manager and yet David Moyes was pretty much appointed over the course of a day or so. He claimed on the Podcast that Jose deciding to go back to Chelsea was ego driven due to them firing him and his family wanting to remain in London instead of potentially having to relocate or Jose traveling back and forth between the cities.
This is very interesting but the reason I'm skeptical is because it hasn't been picked up by anyone else in the media. I mean, the idea that SAF was forced or encouraged to retire by the Glazers would be front page news and would be discussed by every pundit on tv.
 

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Castles is intellectually dishonest in how he assesses football through a Mourinho prism.

He offers scathing criticisms for Pep’s dark arts and Klopp’s excuse making yet never raises these very same characteristics of Mourinho’s.

He slaughters OGS for his record as United manager yet spent the start of last season blaming United’s issues on the board and ownership.

He has stated that Pep is a three-year manager yet refuses to be drawn into José’s three year issue.

Lads on Twitter think he’s some United fan because of how he supported José while in charge. He’s definitely not a United fan. His primary aim is to denigrate other top managers while propagating the virtues of his paymaster.

He’s a strange breed of journalist, but he’s very deliberate in his cynical approach.
 

0le

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The whole premise of "Utd fans turn on" is ludicrous. When have you heard a player or manager properly barracked booed abused etc at OT? Doesn't happen. Just a few ironic cheers when we crossed the halfway line under LvG. OT is self defeatingly tolerant. Online is a different matter.
Fellaini was booed.
 

roonster09

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Castles is intellectually dishonest in how he assesses football through a Mourinho prism.

He offers scathing criticisms for Pep’s dark arts and Klopp’s excuse making yet never raises these very same characteristics of Mourinho’s.

He slaughters OGS for his record as United manager yet spent the start of last season blaming United’s issues on the board and ownership.

He has stated that Pep is a three-year manager yet refuses to be drawn into José’s three year issue.

Lads on Twitter think he’s some United fan because of how he supported José while in charge. He’s definitely not a United fan. His primary aim is to denigrate other top managers while propagating the virtues of his paymaster.

He’s a strange breed of journalist, but he’s very deliberate in his cynical approach.
Maybe clueless guys who supported ManUtd since Jose was appointed. Duncan Castles always took cheap shots at ManUtd and only started to post pro ManUtd articles/tweet when Jose was the manager. He is Jose/Jorge Mendes mouthpiece.
 

PickledRed

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The interview starts with huge praise for José then declares he’s returning to management soon. It’s the equivalent of a puff piece in the paper.
 

Cloud7

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Gill and Woodward are two sides of the same coin and the only difference between the two's fates is that one had Sir Alex to hold his hand whilst the other doesn't. After Kenyon he came in from finance so not much football experience there, both Gill and the Glazers rode on Sir Alex's back for too long and had Gill stayed after SAF its only his experience and established connections that could have saved us from the fate of having a novice like Woodward but if Gill had come in around 2013 with SAF retiring we would have suffered the same pitfalls. Not defending Woodward but the fan base generally agreed with a lot of decisions that he made.

I think, with Wooward's proximity to the Glazers and how they listen to him, if he had worked with Sir Alex they would have succeeded as a pair. Bad as he has been he is still the same guy that has been able to extract massive amounts of cash for investment into the team, regardless of how badly the money has been spent.
This is actually fun to think about. By all accounts Gill was quite frugal, whereas Woody is much more loose with money. I think him and Sir Alex would have created something great together. For example, I doubt Woody would have balked at paying Hazard's agent fee and we would have gotten him. Similar transfers that we were seemingly 'priced out of' like Benzema, I think with Sir Alex and Woody we would have gotten a few more of those over the line.
 

billybee99

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Christ mate, do you believe everything you read. Fergie also said there was no value in the market. You think he actually believed that, too?

Not sure the Glazers literally forced anything. They just made it difficult to suit themselves. Contrary to popular belief, they’re pretty smart people. Bet your life they’ll sell and make a fortune. Eventually.
Christ mate, do you believe everything you hear? I'll take SAF's word over that of Duncan fecking Castles every day of the week. As for the Glazer's being "smart people", they're pretty fecking stupid if what Castles says is true and they squeezed SAF out. How's that lookin' now that we're sitting 2 points out of relegation and going to miss top 4 for the 5th time in 7 years.
 

clarkydaz

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So these two are interesting points and probably carry the most likelihood of being true if Castles is still in with Mourinho.

Re: Maguire, if United wanted him but Mourinho didn't then it kind of puts paid to the suggestion that Mou wasn't in control of signings. We're back to a scenario of the hoard being reluctant to sign older players and a 30 year old injury prone Boateng would have been extremely short term recruiting.
Re: Herrera, he had already made his mind up before Ole joined so the likelihood is that prior to this Mourinho didn't fight for a better contract for him and most likely endorsed the pay cut (Herrera was a bit part player at best under Mou). The talk of an increased contract, if true, was likely at Ole's behest who used him more frequently but Herrera's decision was already made.
Very true when you consider how public jose was about keeping fellaini. If he goes i go, herrera had none of that
 

Champagne Football

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Duncan Castles is simply Jose's mouthpiece to attack people. Problem for Castles is that Jose is not relevant anymore in the world of managment. So Dunc will have to flutter his eyelashes soon at some other guys that are still relevant, in order to stay relevant himself.
 

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Re: The commercialization of United.

I think it would be a quite interesting read, if some journalist dug into the scope of the commercial deals the club has made since Fergie retired, and especcially what those deals demand from and how they affect the players.

I mean, trying to win a game and at the same time being reminded that everything you do on the pitch will be scrutinized live with a hashtag bearing your name, must do something with your ablitlity to focus on the game.
 

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Read this around the time SAF left that the Glazers wanted the duo of SAF and Gill out because of the power they held and their belief that Gill wasn't squeezing enough out of the club commercially hence the appointment of Woodward.

I know it sounds crazy considering how good SAF was but you have to remember these are businessmen not footballing men so what makes sense to them may not to us and vice versa.
I read that too back at the time of his retirement. Those posters dismissing this theory need to think again.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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The most interesting one is obviously when he said that Mourinho was given list of players in every position that he wants to make an improvement by our scouts. And then Mourinho used his men to find out more about the players & he will tell Ed that he wants that player. If that’s true then Sanchez, Fred, Bailly, Lindelof, Matic, & Lukaku were his chosen ones on our scout’s list. In other word, they are his signings.