Recent content by Mmxxii

If you average our league positions over the preceding 5 seasons - 2nd, 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 6th - it comes to about 3rd (3.4 to be precise). So finishing 3rd this season isn't some astonishing achievement. There's an element of recency bias that led to people putting too much weight on how Utd...

A really talented person is unlikely to be available on loan mid-season

Wout cost 3m euros according to ESPN https://www.espn.co.uk/football/soccer-transfers/story/4847695/manchester-united-sign-striker-wout-weghorst-on-loan-from-burnley

Weghorst is so bad that other alternatives, though suboptimal, are justifiable. For instance, moving Rashford central and bringing in Elanga, Sancho or Pellistri seem better (though less than ideal) than starting Weghorst. You could even play Bruno as a false 9 and pack the midfield. With...

How many word-class players have Arsenal signed to make them compete for the title? What you saw from Liverpool today and in recent seasons, as well as Arsenal this season, is the result of excellent coaching from Klopp and Arteta. It's a knee-jerk response to suggest going on a spending spree...

With the eventual return of Diaz, there might be no place for him in the starting line up as a left winger. CF position will be taken by Nunez. I think he will eventually be sold.

With state investors where the state is a dictatorship, we are effectively left in a position where a democratic/political revolution can jeopardise the club's position.

25 year high-quality corporate bond spot rate is circa 5%. Man Utd is not a triple-A rated business to my knowledge so you should expect higher than 5% at a time cost of capital is increasing. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HQMCB25YR What do you base your superbly informed views on?

How much interest do you think Utd will incur on a 25-year loan? I would think at least 7%

Our winning goal against City came from Rashford being moved centrally and Garnacho brought on to play on the left. Had Weghorst been available, we probably wouldn't have made that move as Ten Hag would have stuck him on and the attack loses its dynamism. He should only feature in games where...

Apart from "non-commercial" buyers like investors from the Middle-East, the new owners of the club might resort to additional belt-tightening to make a return on their purchase. I feel this is an underestimated risk that anger toward the Glazers hasn't allowed many to explore. The Glazers'...

It shouldn't be but it was so we assess his contribution based on the terms upon which he agreed to join not some hypothetical ideal/counterfactual that never materialized and may not have been acceptable to Ten Hag anyway. He was a failure here, even if he could have been a success in some...

The DOF role was contingent on his interim manager role and it was inconceivable he will get it once he failed in the interim manager role and alienated a lot of the players. I think some people like Rangnick because, like a politician, he said things they wanted to hear even though he acted...

The appeal of Rangnick is that he "highlighted" issues but he's not some talk show host/newspaper columnist to be assessed by the quality of his opinions. He was hired to, in the short term, get Utd back into the top 4 and he failed woefully whilst presenting a toxic presence.

I think the "reasoning" is the form from the end of last season coupled with the 2 defeats at the start of this season suggested the club could be mired in a relegation fight. For me, last season was an aberration and not indicative of where the club is: we finished 2nd, 6th, 3rd and 2nd in the...