Just what the hell has happened this season?

[charlenefan]

Before the start of the season everyone thought we'd be challenging for the title this season, maybe not winning it but certainly challenging and he were are in February having seen

Out of the league cup in the 3rd round at home to West Ham

Beaten 0-5 at home to Liverpool

Out of the FA Cup in the 4th round at home to Championship Middlesbrough

19 points off the top of the PL table

Bar at opening day win against Leeds it's probably not a stretch to say the best week to be a United support this season was the 3 games where we had an interim interim manager in Carrick

So WTF has happened?

 

[Cee90]

Bad decisions made over the last few years are catching up with us.

This includes managerial appointments, player recruitment, loaning out players, squad management, coaching etc.

 

[McGrathsipan]

Ronaldo

 

[JuriM]

Before the start of the season everyone thought we'd be challenging for the title this season, maybe not winning it but certainly challenging and he were are in February having seen

Out of the league cup in the 3rd round at home to West Ham

Beaten 0-5 at home to Liverpool

Out of the FA Cup in the 4th round at home to Championship Middlesbrough

19 points off the top of the PL table

Bar at opening day win against Leeds it's probably not a stretch to say the best week to be a United support this season was the 3 games where we had an interim interim manager in Carrick

So WTF has happened?

We fell back before the managerial change and then decided to bring on a interim manager with the very special setup needs which we don't have the squad for atm. And focusing on the long run to build the team on the emphasis of the nature Rangnick and the manager following him will need.

 

[Jippy]

Who the hell thought we'd be challenging for the title? No-one expected it to be this bad, but we we were always going to be behind City and Liverpool, particularly after neglecting the midfield again.

 

[Borys]

Ronaldo plus we over achieved last season considering the squad and manager we had. Bruno was in world class form for a couple of months last season, so was Shaw. We somehow got away with having mid table midfield. What we see now is more of our normal level, plus the confidence level is rock bottom.

 

[ManchesterManchester]

Without trying to make myself out to be an oracle, I didn’t have any high hopes going into the season like many others.

Ole should have been sacked after the Europa final defeat to a much worst team. When we bought Ronaldo that was the nail in the coffin. It was a clear marketing strategy by the Glazers and nothing to do with football. Nobody wanted him until he was linked with us, this is 2022 not 2012.

January transfer window has just gone by with no signings despite us being in dire straights.

The writing is on the wall for the foreseeable future, owners have completely given up and know they will never compete with Man City/Chelsea.

 

[Hansi Fick]

Without trying to make myself out to be an oracle, I didn’t have any high hopes going into the season like many others.

Ole should have been sacked after the Europa final defeat to a much worst team. When we bought Ronaldo that was the nail in the coffin. It was a clear marketing strategy by the Glazers and nothing to do with football. Nobody wanted him until he was linked with us, this is 2022 not 2012.

January transfer window has just gone by with no signings despite us being in dire straights.

The writing is on the wall for the foreseeable future, owners have completely given up and know they will never compete with Man City/Chelsea.

Funnily much of what I have read points to SAF having a big hand in bringing Ronaldo back. Am I wrong there? So your interpretation is surely infused very much by the hindsight of it not having worked out well, and then scape-goating the usual suspects.
It's a team sport though, no need to blame it on Ronaldo individually.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

We made a bunch of terrible decisions, one after the other. We have been doing this for a while but the problems have all reared their heads this season, and it’s compounded into this big mess. But we have finally lost Woodward, have a new structure above the manager and a new manager incoming so hopefully we are on the path to recovery. The squad is unbalanced but with lots of players coming to the end of their united careers change is inevitable. I think our first 11 in 18 months time will look drastically different to the one from today. We just need to get a few decisions right, which makes it sound easier than it is but the right manager and a few better players and we’re not far off.

 

[VP89]

Before the start of the season everyone thought we'd be challenging for the title this season, maybe not winning it but certainly challenging and he were are in February having seen

Out of the league cup in the 3rd round at home to West Ham

Beaten 0-5 at home to Liverpool

Out of the FA Cup in the 4th round at home to Championship Middlesbrough

19 points off the top of the PL table

Bar at opening day win against Leeds it's probably not a stretch to say the best week to be a United support this season was the 3 games where we had an interim interim manager in Carrick

So WTF has happened?

I think Ole was eventually found out as a bad manager by the board but the extent of his damage is still being realized. Thin mentality, player power, no coaching, many players wanting out after being given false promises they would play etc.

Rangnick has walked into a huge mess and implementing a reset in the style of play whilst avoiding freak results is always going to be dicey.

 

[ManchesterManchester]

Funnily much of what I have read points to SAF having a big hand in bringing Ronaldo back. Am I wrong there? So your interpretation is surely infused very much by the hindsight of it not having worked out well, and then scape-goating the usual suspects.
It's a team sport though, no need to blame it on Ronaldo individually.

The owners chose to buy Ronaldo not SAF, I know it would be completely unfair to blame him. After they decided to buy him then of course he helped them make it happen because he loves Utd and Ronaldo.

Regarding blaming Ronaldo, where did I blame him? I love him, he’s a legend. He didn’t choose for us to make the mistake of buying him, he just obliged to come back because he loves Utd too. Think you Misunderstood my point, we needed a midfielder desperately or a world class striker in his prime, so when we got Ronaldo then I knew the owners didn’t care. I feel so sorry for Ronaldo that his career and legacy will be tainted with this.

 

[Wilt]

Who the hell thought we’d be challenging for the title? No-one expected it to be this bad, but we we were always going to be behind City and Liverpool, particularly after neglecting the midfield again.

Me

In fact I blew £20 on Utd @ 6/1

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

You also forgot our potential star forward for the next 10 years maybe never playing professional football again...

 

[clarkydaz]

I think Ole was eventually found out as a bad manager by the board but the extent of his damage is still being realized. Thin mentality, player power, no coaching, many players wanting out after being given false promises they would play etc.

Rangnick has walked into a huge mess and implementing a reset in the style of play whilst avoiding freak results is always going to be dicey.

Yet the board kept ignoring this until the fans started abusing ole. They were fine with no coaching, player power and thin mentality as long as the manager is a yes man

 

[DWelbz19]

Team got ligma

 

[golden_blunder]

I think we tried to fit Ronaldo in, changing what worked for us last season when we came second and got to the final of the EL.

aided by players coming out of contract soon not buying into ole anymore or his interim replacement

a serious lack of forward planning. Sell Lingard at his peak last summer. Take the money Everton offered for Romero. If Pogba turns down a new contract 3 times move on, don’t keep offering more and more money. Don’t buy players you have no interest in playing.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

Me

In fact I blew £20 on Utd @ 6/1

I blew fifty and that was before we signed Ronaldo. Was walking round all summer telling people that we have the best defence in the league. Proper muppets.

 

[Sandikan]

Just a weird situation where literally everything has gone wrong.
That handball was farcical last night but then still losing deep into apen shoot out literally the maddest way to lose to a team with next to zero threat.

Greenwood was a huge upset but we showed how inept we are at squad management by still letting VDB and Martial go. And even if you might say it was too late, we've still messed up with letting Lingard and Cavani still be resting or wherever they are.
Meaning once Rashy and Sancho came off we had to use a totally not ready kid and a years past expiry date Mata as our only attacking choices.

 

[Hansi Fick]

The owners chose to buy Ronaldo not SAF, I know it would be completely unfair to blame him. After they decided to buy him then of course he helped them make it happen because he loves Utd and Ronaldo.

I'm going to quote from the best source I can find, a long exposé in the Athletic called "Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United: How the deal was done":

When news filtered through on Thursday evening that, to Manchester United’s horror, Cristiano Ronaldo really had agreed to join Manchester City, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spoke with his inner circle and knew United had to act.
Solskjaer recognised that beyond the playing aspects for Pep Guardiola’s side across town, seeing Ronaldo pull on the blue shirt of City would have wider consequences for United. To allow a legendary United figure to turn out for their local rivals without a fight would damage the club in the eyes of current players, potential recruits, and supporters. Conversely, Solskjaer pictured the benefits re-signing Ronaldo could bring to his squad, one of the youngest in the Premier League, with his ultra-professionalism and elite pedigree.
Solskjaer placed a call to chief executive Ed Woodward with one aim — he wanted to know if United could do the deal instead. It was a quick conversation. Woodward agreed instantly and set about negotiating with Ronaldo’s Italian club, Juventus.
Meanwhile, the network of past United players and even their iconic former manager Sir Alex Ferguson went to work on Ronaldo himself. Ferguson is described by multiple sources as playing a “major role” over the 24 hours, phoning Ronaldo and using his good relationship with Jorge Mendes, the superagent, to aid United’s cause.
Rio Ferdinand is another who stepped in heavily, almost acting as a broker on behalf of United. Ferdinand had a passionate conversation with long-time United team-mate Ronaldo, who was genuinely inquisitive about the impact moving to City might have on his United legacy. Ferdinand was firm in counselling Ronaldo over the hurt seeing him joining City might cause, set against the joy that returning to Old Trafford would bring him and United fans.
Ferdinand is also close to Woodward and made sure United were informed over the financial details. He was still up at 1.30am, sending messages to get the deal moving.
[..]
United, meanwhile, clicked into gear, or as one source close to negotiations put it, “woke up”. Late on Thursday evening, the pressure began.
Ferguson was at the heart of the strategy. His relationship with Ronaldo is genuinely as good as misty-eyed testimonies make out. Ferguson is described as being one of the few people in the world Ronaldo “still defers to”.
[..]
United’s first call to Ronaldo came late Thursday night and Ferguson was a “decisive factor”. He has advocated United re-signing Ronaldo since he retired, with the most recent push coming two years ago. Ferguson pressed Solskjaer to make a move for Ronaldo, who was having difficulties at Juventus under Maurizio Sarri.
Ferguson has seen wishes for United to sign other players go unfulfilled but was not about to let this opportunity go by. On Thursday he called members of United’s board and Mendes, with whom he shared a healthy respect, to ensure United were doing everything possible. Sources say “all hell would have broken loose” if United had missed out again.

https://theathletic.com/2794203/202...n-to-manchester-united-how-the-deal-was-done/

This clearly portrays the driving forces behind the transfer as Solskjaer and Ferguson, helped by other players of the era.
It's not a Glazers signing, it's a signing by what people on here called "Nostalgia FC". Don't think there's a better fit for this name than the Ronaldo transfer.

Of course, you can provide sources backing up your version.

 

[::sonny::]

Players always on holiday during the season, low level of energy and fitness

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[Wheato]

Mate, I was at the game.

Being a cup game on a Friday night, there were loads of fans that brought their kids. Me included. And a lot had come from overseas and made a weekend away out of it. We were in the ground for 4 hours and due to an issue with the tills, and the clubs decision not to accept cash, nobody could get a drink or a bite to eat for the entire time.

There were people drinking water from the taps in the toilets! They were actually queuing up with paper cups that they had begged for from the club staff.

You can go to a Sunday league game and get a bacon butty and a cup of tea from and old lady at a serving hatch, but MANCHESTER UNITED in 2022, cannot achieve the very basics of hospitality.

Can you imagine those people who got on a plane from another country, booked hotels, paid over the odds for tickets. Do you think that they will be coming back here in a hurry?

Middleborough fans were laughing at us!

I am fuming. Doubt that I will re-new my season ticket. The place is an absolute shambles.

 

[Jezpeza]

Several facets to it imo.

In my opinion we had been decent under Solskjaer. Those who were against him from the start felt it was a told you so moment but his downfall started really was when circumstance/signings meant he needed to move away from his counterattacking brand to possession based stuff which he clearly had no strength in coaching. Was rightly sacked. that started the bad results.

We then appoint some mad german professor everyone wants to pretend they have heard of and is an amazing manager. He’s done average at best from a favourable run of fixtures and is serving up the same shit that got LVG fired. Passing the ball round the back and sideways all game is not going to win matches but everyone wants to swoon over possession stats as if we ‘control’ matches. He will obviously have to stay til end of season but I will be surprised if we make top 4. Then the new manager or players cant even be offered cl football.

and then theres the players. Most of our key players are in dogshit form or playing down their contract or on the way to jail. Theres also no work ethic- Phil Jones wasa revelation against Wolves just for coming in and showing some effort and desire and getting stuck in. You expect that from any league 2 player.

still a mountain to climb here

 

[harms]

Who the hell thought we'd be challenging for the title? No-one expected it to be this bad, but we we were always going to be behind City and Liverpool, particularly after neglecting the midfield again.

To be fair the feeling over the summer was overwhelmingly positive but yeah, we were clearly one midfield signing away from perfectly upgrading our team given that all of our best performances were to continue their great run of form.

 

[VP89]

Yet the board kept ignoring this until the fans started abusing ole. They were fine with no coaching, player power and thin mentality as long as the manager is a yes man

Agreed the real problem is the board

 

[Wilt]

I blew fifty and that was before we signed Ronaldo. Was walking round all summer telling people that we have the best defence in the league. Proper muppets.

Fecking Paddy Power are offering me 0.15p cash out

 

[BorisManUtd]

People saying Ronaldo but I think, of course only in hindsight, this season was always going to happen after we didn't buy a midfielder. Wolves should beat us 3-0 back in August, somehow didn't.

At least 18 games to go this season. 16 in PL and 2 games at least in CL. After everything that's happened this season, 4th place and reaching quarterfinals or of Champions League or even just 4th place in Prem would actually be some kind of satisfaction. Can we do it though, not sure, but just hope our performances keep improving, we've been good in last few games.

 

[Chairman Steve]

If we played shit football and created feck all chances last night, like we have under Solskjaer and Mourinho and the same result happened then it’s a huge concern.

But we didn’t.

30 shots at goal, nice passing moves, a clear system on show but somehow the quality attackers we have could not score to save their lives. We barely gave Boro a sniff throughout the game so we didn’t make them look like an amazing team.

This game can happen to any good team. Liverpool could easily have that game with Mane and Salah constantly missing for fun. It was a freak game. Replay that game today and United win by 3 goals.

 

[spiriticon]

Who the hell thought we'd be challenging for the title? No-one expected it to be this bad, but we we were always going to be behind City and Liverpool, particularly after neglecting the midfield again.

Me! I mean come on, we finished second last year and with the signings made in the summer you would have thought we'd get closer to the top, not further behind.

It's been a trainwreck of a season.

 

[Andre Kagawa]

Ronaldo happened.

 

[Samid]

Club is a circus and it boils down to the owners. Every once in a while we might have a manager who steadies the ship for a bit and has a decent season but eventually the general incompetence and mismanagement at board level will catch up with us. Then there will be a significant period of turbulence. Rinse and repeat.

Meanwhile the deluded fanbase will continue thinking whoever the previous manager is was the reason for all our problems. They'll think the next guy will fix everything, failing to realise that the reason every manager fails is the shocking culture at the club. Players, wages, structure, recruitment, everything is a mess and it's a rotten climate for any manager to be in. And who hires those managers in the first place anyway? Exactly, the same people responsible for the mess. But hey those people will hire another manager, have some PR stunts via their mouthpieces, use some fancy buzzwords and the gullible fanbase will eat it up. At the same time the leeches will be laughing all the way to the bank and continue picking up their easy-earned dividends.

We will be having these exact same discussions 3-5 years from now if the cretins still are in charge. History has been repeating itself and will continue to do so until we as fans wake up.

 

[Cloud7]

Mate, I was at the game.

Being a cup game on a Friday night, there were loads of fans that brought their kids. Me included. And a lot had come from overseas and made a weekend away out of it. We were in the ground for 4 hours and due to an issue with the tills, and the clubs decision not to accept cash, nobody could get a drink or a bite to eat for the entire time.

There were people drinking water from the taps in the toilets! They were actually queuing up with paper cups that they had begged for from the club staff.

You can go to a Sunday league game and get a bacon butty and a cup of tea from and old lady at a serving hatch, but MANCHESTER UNITED in 2022, cannot achieve the very basics of hospitality.

Can you imagine those people who got on a plane from another country, booked hotels, paid over the odds for tickets. Do you think that they will be coming back here in a hurry?

Middleborough fans were laughing at us!

I am fuming. Doubt that I will re-new my season ticket. The place is an absolute shambles.

This is insane. Has this happened before or was it a one off? Even if it is just a one off that sounds like a nightmare of a one off that might surely put some people off.

 

[KennyBurner]

Ronaldo

Bingo. Juventus will pay for this.

 

[KennyBurner]

Who the hell thought we'd be challenging for the title? No-one expected it to be this bad, but we we were always going to be behind City and Liverpool, particularly after neglecting the midfield again.

Brought in Varane and Sancho. Why would you not thinking we should compete? We need to stop downplaying ourselves. Our squad is good enough to be up there. Not win it but maybe we could have fluked it.

 

[youmeletsfly]

Nothing, we're where we need to be; stop crying like babies.

 

[ROFLUTION]

We stopped playing Bruno to his skills and best.

+ Tired minds/legs of Euro players

 

[FireballXL5]

We're run like a fecking Butlins instead of an elite football club.

 

[Pretzels81]

I see some blame Ronaldo, but he's the reason why we are in the Round of 16 of the UCL.

If we are looking for names and suspects, I'd say our GKs, plus Maguire, Lindelof, Bissaka, Fred (players good enough for the likes of Everton, Leeds or Leicester, not good enough for us); Greenwood and (an injury-prone) Rashford suddenly stopping being good youngsters. Sancho and Varane, two disappointing signings. Oh, and Pogba, I forgot he exists. Our bench is irrelevant, the likes of Dalot, Lingard, Martial or McT offer next to nothing. So, what do we have, then? Basically, veteran (aging) stars like Ronaldo, Matic, or Cavani, and Bruno, who can't do it alone.

Plus Ole underachieved and the interim is a disaster; Carrick (trained by SAF) should have finished the season as interim.

I don't care how many points we are being City; Pep is a coaching genius and if he moved to Inter or Juve he would dominate the Calcio just as he's utterly dominating the PL.

 

[2 man midfield]

I think sometimes there’s a post peak lull that happens when the players have climbed their mountain and are coming down the other side. I think losing the Europa league final took a lot out of them, then the English players went and lost the euros in the same way. I don’t think they’ve ever really recovered. Shaw, Maguire, Rashford, Sancho have all been underwhelming to awful.

If we’d won the Europa league I think that momentum would have carried us a lot further.

 

[AndySmith1990]

We're run like a fecking Butlins instead of an elite football club.

I was literally about to post something similar.

All our issues are a result of the appalling way this club has been run over the last decade.

 

[shabz]

I think the current squad got a culture shock when Ronaldo signed. There was no more hiding for these players and the expectation that our summer transfer window bought was of seriously challenging on all fronts.

The players have crumbled under this weight, Solskjaer crumbled under the weight and now the players are showing this in their performances. Signing the best players available doesn't automatically mean your team levels up, there has to be foundations in place otherwise everyone will start sinking.

To be the best team, you have to be ruthless and all this talk of team spirit and good lads is not enough anymore. There has to be some actual graft, some sacrifice and most importantly some direction. We've not had any of that, and a player like a Ronaldo who doesn't have anything but that will start to put some noses out of place for the weaker individuals. Too many have a free ride for far too long and would rather have the status of playing for United rather than the glory.