How bad do we really think it is?

Keefy18

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People saying we're fecked if Ronaldo leaves have to realise that keeping an unhappy Ronaldo is an even a worse proposition. Let him on ffs.
But you probably want FDJ to sign who wants to stay at Barca?

Clubs a shambles whatever way its spun.
 

DickDastardly

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I'm gonna go with.....3.

Ronaldo leaves. Feck him, way to reliant on him as we were. Zero link up, useless asset to have on the books.
Wouldn't even count out the fact that ETH doesn't want him.

De Jong comes.
Malacia.
Antony.
Martinez.

That's left back and CB done and dusted.
Also, one of the top 3 midfielders currently in the team.
And a potent attacker.

Preseason incoming - at least 2 to 3 players flourish and blossom.

Bruno, Sancho, Rashford - a lot at stake for them but also a chance to shine and lead.
With the arrival of FDJ a lot will click and finally the team starts to perform like the new manager has in mind.

We go far in the EL, also to far in the cups and we're comfortably 3rd in the league.

Our general play massivley improves and the style and goals are heaping.

ETH second season we aquire a RB and a CF and challenge properly.

Good times await.
 

Keefy18

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Your posts are a shambles. De Jong would be a great signing and he will not sign and not want to do his best under his old mentor. He knows his Barca days are numbered.
Yeah if you say so :rolleyes:

What exactly are you basing the great signing on?

He doesn't want to feckin leave, Xavi has demanded he stays, the board don't want to sell him. They only reason they ever entertained the idea was because of financial constraints, we entered into talks with them thinking we could muscle them and its back fired from all appearances.

If we do end up getting him, were signing a player who didn't want to sign. Messi, Rom and ADM all fall into this bracket of being forced out of clubs and not one of them panned out well.

If you want to bury your head in the sand that's fine.
 

mitchmouse

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Well, I'n not allowed to be negative but it is interesting to see how many feel the same way I do. We were in a mess last season, we were in a mess when the season ended and nothing has changed yet. As things stand, not sure how we can get into the top four so it has to be a 2-3
 

Josep Dowling

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I think we go into next season with 3 signings which aren’t first choice and that simply isn’t good enough. I expect us to finish bottom 10 with the current squad. Our form at the tail end of last season was relegation form. I do not believe that replacing the manager changes that. He needs players to accommodate his style and the club is not delivering once again.
 

tomaldinho1

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3 out of 10. It’s really not that bad. We finished 6th and it honestly can’t be worse than that. Ragnick was a pointless hire and Ole was a tragic manager - even if ETH is a middling to average coach and we sign no one I still think we’d be at least 6th again. I think we’ll have a decent window and also see a few of the maligned characters from the current squad find a new lease of life/form. We aren’t supposed to be anywhere near the title this year, that comes later, we just need to challenge top four.
 

foolsgold

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We've lost three starters...Matic, Pogba, Cavani
This is a total nonsense.

Pogba played in about a third of our games, scored 1 goal. Cavan even less, scored 2 goals, Matic started 18 games, a few off the bench.

We've basically lost close to nothing with these three.
 

Zippycup

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Its bad. Its really bad.

I don’t think we will get relegated but I also wouldn’t be surprised if we finished mid-table next season. I also wouldn’t be surprised if ten Hag walked away from the club a few months into the season due to broken promises and mis-sold agreements in regards to his control in all things football related.
Our biggest issue are the owners and the fact that they allowed Ed Woodward to turn Manchester United Football Club into Manchester United P.L.C.

The fact that they allowed him to waste a £1 billion+ on players for nothing more than commercial gains which resulted in high profits and dividends for the parasites that are the Glazers. It is going to take at least 5 seasons to sort this mess out. And that’s if we get it right. The major worry for me is that we are no longer an attractive option for players. We have a degrading stadium, below average training facilities, a disgruntled fan base, a dysfunctional team and arguably the worst owners in football. It will cost buckets loads of cash to fix the mess we are in. Something we don’t have.

On a positive note, I do think the appointment of Matt Murtough as the clubs Football Director and appointing ten Hag as manager could be a partnership made in heaven. Both love youth players and player development and both don’t take s**t from anybody. I think that’s the way to get out of this mess. We have some fantastic youth players on our books. Maybe it’s time we trusted our heritage and went back to our roots.
there are bright signs, but its coming from a very dark place.
 

Kill 'em all

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Should Ronaldo stay or leave it won't change much if ETH gets his targets mainly Frenkie.

With Frenkie and the other signings we will compete for 3rd or 4th and we may still fall short.

Without Frenkie and if we start the season with McFred, probably around 7th-12th.
 

Bestietom

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People saying we're fecked if Ronaldo leaves have to realise that keeping an unhappy Ronaldo is an even a worse proposition. Let him on ffs.
I agree 100%. Our players will need to do it themselves without Ronaldo. Might even be better.
 

francobaresi

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The delusion amongst United fans is truly astonishing. People in this thread actually saying we will comfortably finish in the top 4 :houllier:
 

TwoSheds

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Given we're not really linked to a CF I don't see how we can let Ronaldo leave. As such, not sure what's changed really compared to last year. Most of the ones who left were rubbish and I'm assuming we'll get 3 or so signings...4th/5th I suspect is our fate but let's see, could go either way.
 

fps

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I agree 100%. Our players will need to do it themselves without Ronaldo. Might even be better.
I think we saw how other players went into their shells with Ronaldo around last season. Fergie was very good at moving players on and looking to others to step up. I am hoping for big seasons, Rashford especially seems like one who looks around and if no-one else is gonna make it happen puts in that extra effort to be the main man. I just hope he's fully fit. Sancho and Bruno will benefit from there being space for new leaders to step up. Time to be bold.

In terms of the season though, make no mistake, if we make no signings and the rest perform like last year we're looking at 6th or 7th.
 

OpenIntrovert

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It all depends on how ETH motivates the team and applies his tactics. If the squad can get back their mentality from 20/21 season, we can be a strong match for the top 4. The academy has loads of talents to use, so it is a pretty interesting season for us. I would say 2 as I have confidence in ETH to find the suitable tactics for the players, inclusive of the academy talents.
 

Bestietom

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I think we saw how other players went into their shells with Ronaldo around last season. Fergie was very good at moving players on and looking to others to step up. I am hoping for big seasons, Rashford especially seems like one who looks around and if no-one else is gonna make it happen puts in that extra effort to be the main man. I just hope he's fully fit. Sancho and Bruno will benefit from there being space for new leaders to step up. Time to be bold.

In terms of the season though, make no mistake, if we make no signings and the rest perform like last year we're looking at 6th or 7th.
I agree, we need the signings and others to step up. Maybe he can get the best out of Martial and Rashford at CF. If not we can go for someone after WC, surely.
 

Escobar

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I have a huge amount of faith in ETH but ffs he needs new wuality players badly and the club needs to deliver
 

Ludens the Red

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- Sacking the caretaker manager for his preferred role as consultant and aiding the rebuild
- Hiring a temporary consultant weeks into the transfer window to handle the legal side of the transfers
- Chasing a player who has openly admitted he's happy where he is, along with the manager and board stating adamantly he's going nowhere!

Great post and folks should keep adding to this.. penny might drop finally with the rest of then.
Honestly, it’s just being made up as we go along. I’m sure the plan is to have a plan there’s just nobody at the club in higher positions who knows how to execute that from a footballing perspective because the glazers don’t like hiring football people and when they did in Ragnick, he couldn’t believe the shit he was seeing.
 

djembatheking

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I don`t think things are too bad , as a club we should make enough to service the debt and still be able to pay out dividends to our owners so nothing to worry about really.
 

Bestietom

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It surely can't get any worse than last season. Add another 20/23 points to last seasons terrible figure, and we are in top 4.
We will need players to step up and get us the goals, and by not depending on Ronaldo we might even do better.
 

UnitedFire

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This is a total nonsense.

Pogba played in about a third of our games, scored 1 goal. Cavan even less, scored 2 goals, Matic started 18 games, a few off the bench.

We've basically lost close to nothing with these three.
I mean its complete factual.

Pogba was in theory our best midfielder. Matic our best DM and Cavani our 2nd best striker or arguably best if you wanted a more mobile system.

We had a shite season, so hard to say oh we haven't lost anything versus that shute season. The previous year we came 2nd and these players were more relevant.
 

Møllemanden

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Accept the situation, as ETH said. There are so many problems at the club right now. Our former rivals are buying the players we should be interested in, there is unrest in the squad, our CEO is new and our players are just not good enough. When I say former rivals, it's because we're no longer competing for the same things. In this current state, we have no right to compare ourselves to the top four teams.

I for one have turned the expectations down farther than ever. If we're ever going to compete again, it most certainly won't be fixed in a single transfer market. I'd like to se progress in the way we play, and i'd like to see ETH kick the effin lazy SoMe players down to the u13 team.

If the money is there as Richard Arnold says, then just pay the clubs. There is no need to do a repeat of Ed Woodwards first summer in charge.

Erik ten Hag is the right man for the job right now, but as things stand at this moment, I can't go any higher than a 5 out of 10. Hopefully that'll change when we approach matchday 1.
 

tomaldinho1

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I mean its complete factual.

Pogba was in theory our best midfielder. Matic our best DM and Cavani our 2nd best striker or arguably best if you wanted a more mobile system.

We had a shite season, so hard to say oh we haven't lost anything versus that shute season. The previous year we came 2nd and these players were more relevant.
‘In theory’ :lol:
United fans learned long ago to live in reality. We had the best/one of the best squads in the league ‘in theory’ not long ago.

Pogba was injured, sulking or having a bad game far more commonly than playing well. He had two good seasons amongst the dross.

Cavani was a mercenary who was literally always injured. Complete waste of space second season.

Matic was our best DM but purely by virtue of being our sole DM in the squad.

We need signings but we haven’t lost anyone of note.
 

Pogue Mahone

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‘In theory’ :lol:
United fans learned long ago to live in reality. We had the best/one of the best squads in the league ‘in theory’ not long ago.

Pogba was injured, sulking or having a bad game far more commonly than playing well. He had two good seasons amongst the dross.

Cavani was a mercenary who was literally always injured. Complete waste of space second season.

Matic was our best DM but purely by virtue of being our sole DM in the squad.

We need signings but we haven’t lost anyone of note.
Greenwood?

We basically “replaced” both him and Cavani with Ronaldo, which we already know didn’t work out and steps should have already been made to fix that problem. With or without Ronaldo.
 

Buster15

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So many open questions:

How good a manager and coach is ETH.
How will the squad respond to his methods.
Will we be able to sign even a few good quality players.
And will they settle in quickly and improve the team.
Will Ronaldo go and if so, can we replace his goals tally.

We won't really know until at least half way through the season at a minimum.

I am an optimistic person and so I am naturally optimistic that we will achieve a step change in the way we play and results.
But we have been here before....
 

lee82gx

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the main problem is that the Glazers have over the years made us feel accustomed to accepting shite and ending up a top 4 as "best case" scenario.
This alone, lets them do whatever the crap they want to do (which is to pocket as much coin) as possible from being entitled owners of a club they have never supported out of love, out of devotion and least of all out of money in their pockets.
with that out of the way, whatever we feel is irrelevant. It could as well be 0 or -4 and won't change the fact that whatever is dished out come August we will cheer our hearts out, sing loudly, wake up in the middle of the night to see 11 players in red shirts running around. the point is, whatever we feel, we have already accepted the fact that we won't win anything, and will be celebrating 4th, and begrudgingly accept 14th. it is the master stroke of stages of GRIEF being dealt to us.
it does however make a lot of difference to the owners how much the harvest from this golden goose, because it makes a difference to their bank accounts at the end of the day. and this, is key. this, is what the owners really care about. This is how much will be saved in wages (we have saved a lot) and how much receipt will be generated (this is going to down a little from our sponsorship and lack of top competition prize money).

so, we have hired a manager. lets face it in Europe there are far more "top managers" than there are clubs. what is lacking is top players who are available for signing at prices that won't hurt the bank account. and since we have been attuned to accept mediocrity why bother......
 

Castia

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I can honestly see something crazy happening like ETH resigning if promises aren’t met. He does not seem like the type of person who’s here to get fecked around, he’ll give it 12 months.

Things are at an 8 for me. No signings, Ronaldo wants to leave, no budget to get the players to desperately need, the new staff in place behind the scenes seem to be struggling to get things done.
 

UnitedFire

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‘In theory’ :lol:
United fans learned long ago to live in reality. We had the best/one of the best squads in the league ‘in theory’ not long ago.

Pogba was injured, sulking or having a bad game far more commonly than playing well. He had two good seasons amongst the dross.

Cavani was a mercenary who was literally always injured. Complete waste of space second season.

Matic was our best DM but purely by virtue of being our sole DM in the squad.

We need signings but we haven’t lost anyone of note.
For clarity im not saying we shouldn't easily be able to improve on these, but Cavani is one of the greatest strikers ever and very useful in his first season and even if not contributing lots in goals he has brought energy to the team that was otherwise lacking in the last year.

Pogba created goals and opportunities on occasion. He provided match winning moments. I've always said consistency would be better then this, but those moments still need to be addressed by balancing the squad. FDJ would have us better overall if we get him.

Agreed Matic wasn't a stand out, but do you think Garner will be as good?

So yes completely agree we should easily be able to upgrade...but we aren't linked to any DMs or Strikers.
 

Adisa

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Let's see where we are in a month.
I am normally a pessimist but even I am shocked with the sense of alarm.
What I know is we hired a very good coach with a clear sense of how he wants his team to function.
 

Hackman2210

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Anywhere between 4-8 position next year. With signs of improvement and playing style. I can’t believe Rashford, martial have gone to shite overnight. Good coaching and a positive team ethos might turn them round. Maybe we underestimate how toxic it was at Utd last season . Before we blew up we were challenging for 4th. I expect Maguire to seriously turn it around next year provided we play a midfield - last season we were to attack minding - the defence was getting rinsed due to midfield not helping out. A midfield 3 of Fred McT and Bruno is not a midfield. If you add to that Sancho, Elanga and Ronaldo - then the defence got no chance.
442 next year please Eric. Let’s get solid before we go gung ho!
 

Tango80

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We're nowhere near as bad as that.

- Transfers look to be going well and FDJ is still highly likely to come
- Malacia is an upgrade on Telles
- new manager to implement his style on the team (something we've been crying out for)

It's hard to tell though a month into a 3 month window.

Re Ronaldo, we either sell him and bring in a more mobile/hard working replacement, or we don't sell him. All this talk about keeping an unhappy player is nonsense, he'll accept it and move on. And I think he will.
 

foolsgold

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I mean its complete factual.

Pogba was in theory our best midfielder. Matic our best DM and Cavani our 2nd best striker or arguably best if you wanted a more mobile system.

We had a shite season, so hard to say oh we haven't lost anything versus that shute season. The previous year we came 2nd and these players were more relevant.
It's not factual, you called them starters but empirically none of them were.

They were all peripheral figures at best, you might think that Pogba was theoretically our best midfielder but he was rarely fit and when he played was largely poor. Cavani was aa tourist and Matic wasn't a regular starter.
 

UnitedFire

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The delusion amongst United fans is truly astonishing. People in this thread actually saying we will comfortably finish in the top 4 :houllier:
I don't think I've seen a thread that so clearly demonstrates the delusion.

ETH must be Jesus with the miracle work being expected by him.
 

redcorner

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Might be a bit unpopular here but i think that we wasted 3 precious years with sticking with Ole. I have no doubt in my mind that if we had axed Ole about one and a half years into his tenure and replaced him e.g Conte...We would be in a much better state in terms of structure. We just became stagnant everywhere from players, staff, coaches, boardroom. The whole club