"Up to 11 players now want to leave United after becoming disillusioned with life at the club."

[Danish Wizard]

People criticize the manager for playing the same players as Ole. But on the same hand they throw abuse at more or less all the players. Well then, who do you want him to play?The squad is big, but not good enough in the starting 11 and not good enough in the depth to challenge for titles. Face the facts.
I would have loved to see more of van de Beek, as I rate him highly as a player. But if Solskjær and now Rangnick doesn't seeanything in training, then how can we judge him..
The players most steppe and be professionals.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

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[The Purley King]

Shaw has had one good season in 4/5? And Donny has one good game in 4/5. If he was our best midfielder in training he'd be getting game time.

Shaw I think has shown recently he can be an excellent LB and is probably suffering from a post Euros hangover.
DVB its more out of curiosity really. Wouldn't mind overly if he left either. I just cannot believe for the life of me he can be that awful in training.

 

[P0GBA]

Jesse Lingard, Donny van de Beek, Eric Bailly and Dean Henderson

Ironically those 4 players show a better attitude and body language than many who are regularly in the starting.

 

[RonaldoVII]

Shaw I think has shown recently he can be an excellent LB and is probably suffering from a post Euros hangover.
DVB its more out of curiosity really. Wouldn't mind overly if he left either. I just cannot believe for the life of me he can be that awful in training.

I guess with Donny we need to have a look as we'd never hear the last of it if he went on to improve when he left, a la Forlan etc.

 

[salfordlad]

How anybody could expect the situation to turn around quickly from the disastrous last few years is bizarre. We all know where the issues have been. The owners, management and players have all been suspect for years. Woodward for me is the main individual for blame. He is a good business man but a lousy football man. His transfer and contract policies have had the greatest effect on our current situation. Look at the situation with Lingard, Mata, Jones, McGuire, Pogba etc. We have had our options now limited by having players we can't unload or will lose on a free or as in Ronaldo's case we didn't need. When was the last time we ended up on the best side of a transfer? Woodward needs to finally get out and let a DOF run the club.

 

[Smores]

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Is this all just a cunning plan from Mike?

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

feck the lot of them, don't like it here? piss off then.

 

[Rightnr]

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What's he going to do? Buy some balloons and blow them up?

We're run like a boomer corporation being put out of business by the new wave of companies which actually live in the here and now.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

Ironically those 4 players show a better attitude and body language than many who are regularly in the starting.

Regularly posting pics suggesting he was so much happier at a club we are in a top 4 scrap with? Top attitude.

 

[UnsungHero]

Phelan is probably part of the problem. What the hell is going on.

 

[clarkydaz]

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Whats he been doing past few years then?

 

[Oranges038]

Shaw has had one good season in 4/5? And Donny has one good game in 4/5. If he was our best midfielder in training he'd be getting game time.

This is his 8th season here, he's had 1 good one.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

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Assuming there's truth to this (and that may very well be assuming too much - there's a lot of shite being reported at the moment, I doubt all of it is accurate), wasn't it pretty much part and parcel of Phelan's job to prevent this sort of thing from happening?

Unless these "cliques" have formed very recently, it would seem more logical to bring in someone from the outside to clean up the mess - rather than someone who has worked closely with this group of players for several years.

 

[Infra-red]

Many said the same at the time regarding Mourinho. He was utterly deranged by the end and well-deserving of the sack, but prior to that period, he definitely had a point regarding the attitude of some of the squad. He should have been supported by the club in moving on players like Martial and Pogba. The club's failure to do that sent the wrong message to the rest of the dressingroom.

As Fergie always said, the most important person at the club is (and has to be) the manager.

I hope Rangnick identifies all the bad apples and starts the process of turfing them out so that the new manager doesn't inherit a bunch of entitled babies.

 

[RuudTom83]

One of the roles a captain should do is be the manager on the pitch and keep the team in check in the dressing room.

There are problems everywhere at the moment but Ralf needs a few players on his side if he is going to survive.

 

[Shane88]

How toxic must it be?

They see the season circling the drain and they all have these supposed cliques like a fecking schoolyard. Children. Spoilt, coddled, overgrown children.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

One of the roles a captain should do is be the manager on the pitch and keep the team in check in the dressing room.

There are problems everywhere at the moment but Ralf needs a few players on his side if he is going to survive.

We need a proper captain. Maguire is out of his depth, we would be doing him a favour by taking the armband away.

 

[Infra-red]

One of the roles a captain should do is be the manager on the pitch and keep the team in check in the dressing room.

There are problems everywhere at the moment but Ralf needs a few players on his side if he is going to survive.

That is the right idea in principle, but it is more difficult in practice if the captain (and vice captain) are among those causing the problems. We don't have a clear idea about Maguire and Ronaldo's role in all of this mess and I therefore don't want to cast aspersions, but their on-pitch body language isn't always the best.

 

[James35]

Half the players can piss off and take Mike with them.

 

[Blood Mage]

I've reached the point where I wouldn't be sad to see anyone from this group of players leave the club, except for Greenwood maybe. They can all feck off, I'll even drive them to their new clubs.

 

[sullydnl]

Captaincy is massively overrated. If there are leaders in the dressing room they will lead regardless. Putting a captain armband on one of them doesn't suddenly give them a magical aura of respect that didn't exist without the armband.

Typically it's a leadership group who keep control in the dressing room, formally or otherwise. Not one person.

 

[elmo]

Yes, I consider it bizarre to revert to tactics that didn’t work to the extent the previous manager got sacked.

This isn't fm, you can't get players to magically play a total change of game without working on it enough on the training grounds.

Something which he can't do much because we literally had nearly 2 weeks wasted with covid.

It's dumb as hell to judge him based on pretty much one month. Take some time off, you clearly need it.

 

[AndySmith1990]

Our players need to be taken down a peg or two and put firmly in their place. They are employees, paid handsomely to do a job. Their social media following and their brand are irrelevant to their role as an employee of United.

The higher ups at United should get involved; pull the lot of them into a room and give them a dressing down. Player power is a virus that has manifested itself throughout this club to the point where the performances drastically differ from one week to the next (or at least used to, now its 99% shit) depending on whether they can be bothered. It's not acceptable.

The story about Rashford makes me rage. The lad has achieved next to nothing and thinks he's the next big thing. Absolute moron who should do what Solskjaer advised and focus on football.

Whatever the case something needs to happen at this club to stop the rot. It's going from bad to worse.

 

[Polar]

Having the kind of players we do is on the management.

I’m in the wild when it comes to who is the most influential persons, department or driving force behind recruiting and contracts.

Neither Pellistri, Ahmad, DVB, Ronaldo had the managers footprint. These transfers seemed more driven by business.

 

[KingCavani]

Many said the same at the time regarding Mourinho. He was utterly deranged by the end and well-deserving of the sack, but prior to that period, he definitely had a point regarding the attitude of some of the squad. He should have been supported by the club in moving on players like Martial and Pogba. The club's failure to do that sent the wrong message to the rest of the dressingroom.

As Fergie always said, the most important person at the club is (and has to be) the manager.

I hope Rangnick identifies all the bad apples and starts the process of turfing them out so that the new manager doesn't inherit a bunch of entitled babies.

We made the worst possible decision with Mourinho. There were two choices to be made - Back him or sack him on the spot. We let that situation fester and I have no doubt in my mind that a lot of the existing tensions in the dressing room were made much worse from those days.

It's no secret Mourinho lost players and it's obvious who they were but he also had guys who were loyal to the end. I think a fair bit of that contingent - Herrera, Smalling, Lukaku, Alexis, Fellaini - left in the summer with that loyalty to Mourinho being a factor in why. That resentment will never fully go away.

The only priority for this season should be exactly as you said - Filtering out the guys who don't want to do the work. This carry on has gone on for too long and the squad has been due a purge for years. No one has earned indispensable status.

 

[TheLord]

Seriously, I don't mind if all 36 of our squad members are sold as long as get solid 36 replacements and begin afresh.

Sounds crazy, but it couldn't be worse than now.

 

[midou]

I don't care for anyone other than DDG, Varane, Bruno, Sancho and Greenwood leaving.

 

[RonaldoVII]

I don't care for anyone other than DDG, Varane, Bruno, Sancho and Greenwood leaving.

I'd add Fred to that and think Lindelof is still a good squad player.

 

[Leftback99]

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These stories are so predictable. I mean he's probably right and the one that the players will trust the most (I said it myself yesterday) but I highly doubt someone has gone to a journalist today and said "yeah, Mike's been tasked with sorting it out".

 

[the_cliff]

Surprise more people aren't worried. This is really bad. We can't just get rid of 11 players and buy new ones. It's not that easy. Squad building takes time.
The fact that so many of these wantaways are probably on big deals they wouldn't get elsewhere will make them even harder to shift. Martial for example wants to leave but unless he accepts a pay cut he'll be on the bench next season as well.

Sounds like the players are mentally at rock bottom and the dressing room is divided. So who do we bring to try and solve it ? Mike Phelan ? might as well get ready for the fireworks from now.

 

[horsechoker]

Phelan the Unifier

 

[glazed]

I highly doubt Ronaldo is one of them. He's probably disillusioned but not with the coaches. There were reports that he was unhappy with the squad in November. If anything I think he'd be firmly in Ralf's camp against the dissenting players and the fact that he's playing every minute and just captained the side would indicate as much.

Ronaldo will be in a massive disruption because there is no playing style that works with him in team. Can't high press, can't counter attack. He may have a six pack but that doesn't make him fit enough to sprint around the place like a 21 year old.

 

[Focusmate]

We must clear the decks and get rid of them all - can you imagine if we keep most of them snd in 12 months - 6 months into Ten Hag, we start getting the same bleating, whimpering and press leaks from our overpaid underperforming premadonnas?

 

[Ixion]

One of the roles a captain should do is be the manager on the pitch and keep the team in check in the dressing room.

There are problems everywhere at the moment but Ralf needs a few players on his side if he is going to survive.

People can blame Ole or Jose or Ralf if you like but the current debacle is happening under Maguire's watch, all the leaks, the poor body language, the shitty post game comments. If he cared about the role he didn't earn he should be trying to settle them down.

 

[yamo123x]

I feel for RR.

He has come into this toxic group, full of unhappy demotivated overpaid self important players....it stinks.
They can turn it on for 30mins vs Palace then put in drab performances thereafter, that is on the players and we the fans need to know this is on the players. People turning on RR already what chance does he have?

We would all be happy to see a unified team, giving their all in a game,, giving the crowd something to get behind.... but some of the egos are more important than the team and now other players are being pulled into the negativity.

get rid of this bad element

 

[Orange Tree]

They can all feck off based on what they've been serving this season. We are not going to the CL with this bunch of players anyway.

 

[KingCavani]

Surprise more people aren't worried. This is really bad.

It was already bad. I don't even care if it gets worse. The positive is this issue is finally being highlighted and we're in a good place to deal with it.

Rangnick specialises in long term projects and will see first hand who is worth persisting with. He's only been brought in and since the problems long predate him he's not going to shoulder the blame. His appointment was an indication that the club is thinking long term - There were far better options available if the priority was CL qualification.

I don't give a shit if we finish 4th or 14th. The long term ramifications are far more important and our players have been hiding behind the manager for four years. Yeah it's not east to ship out eleven players but if that's what it takes then it needs to be done sooner rather than later.

 

[Sheamus]

This whole thing stinks. I have no idea where the club is at. Realistically, it’s a rot that Ralf won’t be able to solve.

 

[crossy1686]

I hope the players are self aware enough to understand how this all looks from the outside