The John Murtough Era

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sugar_kane

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CM10 said:
This is worrying. Also the fact that when Rangnick drew attention to how bad our players and recruitment process really were, he was quietly ushered out the door. I remember hearing Murtough didn't like how outspoken he had become.

I honestly believe this is as bad as it's ever been. There's obviously a reason why ten Hag feels he can only go for players he knows, the system we have in place at the moment clearly isn't fit for purpose.
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The real feck up with Rangnick was making him coach, because he absolutely would have added a load of value being involved in the running of our club.

With him having done an absolutely awful job as coach, and being put in front of the cameras every week to slag off the players he basically made it nearly impossible to keep him on as advisor as the players clearly hated him, and Ten Hag would have been damaged by the association, and like it or not we’d need at least 75% of those players onside to get through the coming season.
 

Andycoleno9

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Huge problem with this dude now is that we are in the same situation as we were with Solskjaer. On very important position we have someone who is completely out of depth. So future doesn't look bright with him in charge
 

Rightnr

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I'll say this also - fair play to the fans that recorded Arnold. It may have been a bit underhanded but these snakes have been lying to fans for years while creaming away money from this once great football club.

Now their lies are exposed and if we don't get the players to at least compete for top 4, then we know who's at fault. Arnold and his lackey Murtough. And if he's not Arnold's lackey, then sack him off after this window.
 

ChorltonReds

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As has been said elsewhere - nowt has changed behind the scenes. It's a shambles. Arnold and Murtough are as liable as Woodward for the past several years of failure. We've all seen the images of them greeting Mourinho on his first day - so it baffles me why people thought things would be different.

To back the manager isn't blindly giving him what he wants - if it really is ETH pushing for two players that the whole world can foresee being a disaster; to back the manager would mean having structures in place where this humiliating panic supermarket sweep style recruitment wasn't necessary.

You can guarantee though that Murtough won't be sacked - it'll just be more head in the sand time.

Eric should save his reputation and quit now. Tell the world that the board had made his job possible.
 

Yakuza_devils

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Woodward, Arnold and Murtough worked closely together for many years. They are all cut from the same cloth. Why are we expecting different results? In fact, this season is worse. Arnold and Murtough lost their mentor/smarter head in Woodward. They are lost without Woodward who had led them for years.
 

saivet

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Flying high said:
Where does Murtough go from here that doesn't make it look like he's fked up?

We need some quality in the first team right now. We need 2 CFs, a RW, 2 CMs and a RB.

Ronaldo, AWB and any 2 of our CBs need to go, no matter how much we lose on them.

There's going to be a riot if we haven't sorted something really significant by the time the scousers roll into town.
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I think he needs to get De Jong and possibly Sesko which they may perceive as securing two high priority targets that just took a lot longer than expected. I'm not sure there's any other way it can look good for him as buying targets that were attainable all summer, well before pre-season, just looks like we're scrambling. Argument with RB is waiting for AWB to be sold or loaned out before bringing another one in but that's about it.
 

Kearnkoff69

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Would rather play youngsters than sign old stopgaps (Arnautovic). I don't hate the idea behind the Rabiot links, but if Iqbal, Savage, and Hannibal aren't out on loan this season and we buy him to fill the role instead, it will feel like a missed opportunity. Weird summer, but won't pass full judgment till the window closes. If we end up bringing in De Jong and Sesko the mood will be different around the club.
 

Vapor trail

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He's not good enough 100% needs to go. The confirmed targets this summer, giving another manager total control over transfers. He's inept there's no need to cast a judgement at the end of the window. The club should be looking to hire a competent DOF right now.
 

yumtum

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Dante said:
United can only do reasonable business if the other club is willing to do the same. For too long, everyone has had us over a barrel and we've happily accepted it.

At the moment, we're still suffering the hangover from the Woodward era where every club in Europe thought they could ride roughshod over Manchester United at the negotiating table. At the very least, Murtough isn't allowing that to happen. It may well mean a couple of summers where we struggle to get anything done. But it may also be the only way rehabilitate our image as wasteful spenders.

Hopefully it'll work out in the long run. Short term pain for long term gain. I'm taking any departure from the Woodward way of doing things as a positive sign.
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Martinez is now the 3rd most expensive player from the Dutch league after world class players De Jong and De Ligt.

We've had an €8m bid rejected for Arnautovic who Bologna purchased a year ago for €3m.

God knows how much we've agreed to pay Juve for a player they don't mind leaving who has a year left on his contract.

We're getting our pants pulled down left right and centre, it's just we haven't got a clue who to sign so we're not getting far enough to know about it.
 

spiriticon

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If Rabiot and Arnautovic arrive on high fees, wages and long contracts, this is going to be the worst transfer window of the post-Fergie era by a mile.

How does the club keep sinking to new lows?
 

Castia

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#07 said:
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I said and got slaughtered by some that heads should roll after this transfer window. We're literally getting laughed at by journalists, nobody can believe what the feck is going on.

Took the daft cnut nearly 2 months to sign a free player from Brentford ffs.

Will be attending the next protest that will no doubt be happening before the month is out.
 

Nico87

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Dante said:
United can only do reasonable business if the other club is willing to do the same. For too long, everyone has had us over a barrel and we've happily accepted it.

At the moment, we're still suffering the hangover from the Woodward era where every club in Europe thought they could ride roughshod over Manchester United at the negotiating table. At the very least, Murtough isn't allowing that to happen. It may well mean a couple of summers where we struggle to get anything done. But it may also be the only way rehabilitate our image as wasteful spenders.

Hopefully it'll work out in the long run. Short term pain for long term gain. I'm taking any departure from the Woodward way of doing things as a positive sign.
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That is not going to improve until we actually begin negotiating from a position of strength, when you have Fred and Mctominay as your starting midfield clubs know you’re in a position of desperation and will charge you accordingly. So we are going to actually have to grit our teeth and pay premium or accept middling end of Sean’s positions and doing so means we become less attractive to actually quality players very quickly. Which will soon lead to the same with our sponsors.
 

gorky_utd

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After SAF retired, utd have spent big after missing out on top 4. The owners probably felt it was right thing to do for their investment. But it now feels like they are prepared to accept no UCL football and so doesn't want to spend money anymore.
 

Roboc7

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Dante said:
United can only do reasonable business if the other club is willing to do the same. For too long, everyone has had us over a barrel and we've happily accepted it.

At the moment, we're still suffering the hangover from the Woodward era where every club in Europe thought they could ride roughshod over Manchester United at the negotiating table. At the very least, Murtough isn't allowing that to happen. It may well mean a couple of summers where we struggle to get anything done. But it may also be the only way rehabilitate our image as wasteful spenders.

Hopefully it'll work out in the long run. Short term pain for long term gain. I'm taking any departure from the Woodward way of doing things as a positive sign.
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And yet we’re coughing up 15-20m for someone who Juve are desperate to get rid of who only has a year on his contract (and his wages will be huge). Probably about 15m to bring in Arnautovic and spend a premium on Martinez.

If we don’t want to be seen as wasteful spenders then it’s a pretty stupid way to go about it, we’re at least if not more of a desperate laughing stock than we were under Woodward.
 

m1tch

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gorky_utd said:
After SAF retired, utd have spent big after missing out on top 4. The owners probably felt it was right thing to do for their investment. But it now feels like they are prepared to accept no UCL football and so doesn't want to spend money anymore.
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I think this too. I think their ambition to return to the top 4 is to do so in 3-5 years time if possible but their business plan going forward won't have it as an expectation. Sure revenues will go down but not by the amount it'd take to fix the squad (~£1bn?).
 

LawCharltonBest

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Signing Rabiot for £15m plus when Juventus probably would have just released him is going to be Murtough's thing that people remember him by in years to come isn't it

Like how people sum up Woodward by signing Fellaini after his release clause expired.
 

Highfather_24

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LawCharltonBest said:
Signing Rabiot for £15m plus when Juventus probably would have just released him is going to be Murtough's thing that people remember him by in years to come isn't it

Like how people sum up Woodward by signing Fellaini after his release clause expired.
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Yep. What's even more interesting is that we are supposed to be doing a rebuilt with young, hungry players who will in our long terms plans. Yet our targets are Arnautovic and Rabiot?

Surely its much better to get young players in who will improve and learn Ten Hag's style, and not just be deadwood we will look to shift 2 years later and be back at the same place we are now?
 

gorky_utd

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m1tch said:
I think this too. I think their ambition to return to the top 4 is to do so in 3-5 years time if possible but their business plan going forward won't have it as an expectation. Sure revenues will go down but not by the amount it'd take to fix the squad (~£1bn?).
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Glazers were probably told that signing fdj can bring back UCL football. So they allowed 75m bid. That is why I believe it was fdj or nobody because these owners just don't want to spend anymore.
 

Greck

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yumtum said:
Remember a few days ago when the blinkered positivity lot said we'd basically brush aside Brighton and Brentford and have all our signings done for the Liverpool game - the continued arrogance of some is genuinely amusing, many saw this coming, we'll struggle against Brentford next week too, but there will still be excuses for the incompetence.
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Didn't mind the positivity but some people always want to be the topmost red. Telling fans of a club in clear decline they are spoilt for even asking questions of key figures.
 
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Mr Pigeon

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Instead of Sesko we’re getting Arnautovic. Instead of FDJ we’re getting Rabiot. I’m not sure if Murtough still thinks that he’s at Everton but this whole thing feels like one big nightmare. We’re one game into the season and already it seems like we’re preparing ourselves to target the EL if we’re very lucky.
 

yumtum

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Greck said:
Didn't mind the positivity but some people always want to be the topmost red. Telling fans of a club in clear decline they are spoilt for even asking questions of key figures.
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I agree in a sense, but I did mean the ones you mention, questioning why fans had any sort of negativity towards the club and telling them to be patient or go support another club as they weren't real fans (even after the past ten years...).

I don't think this season will end that bad, probably finish 6th (if you can say that ain't that bad) - but we're just going around in circles, and Ten Hag is good enough to want to compete for titles, he'll leave if the "rebuild" takes too long.
 

Thisistheone

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The Rabiot and Arnautovic signings are far worse than the Brighton defeat yesterday. We are bound to have many low points on the pitch in ten Hag’s first season but these signings just indicated nothing has changed off the pitch. And until that is sorted, it almost doesn’t matter who we hire as manager.

Look at the excitement levels when ETH was hired in the new post Woodward era, compared to now when we all realise nothing has changed.
 

Yakuza_devils

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I came into the season with high hope with new manager known for playing modern attacking football. 45 mins in all the hope was gone. We played like under Ole. Nothing has changed.

Then I wake up to the news of Rabiot and Arnautovic. I thought I was dreaming. I can't believe this.

Our season is gone in 1st week of Aug. This is a new low.
 

Tom Cato

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gorky_utd said:
After SAF retired, utd have spent big after missing out on top 4. The owners probably felt it was right thing to do for their investment. But it now feels like they are prepared to accept no UCL football and so doesn't want to spend money anymore.
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The owners have never invested anything into the club. They have only taken money from the club, the only owners in the Premier League to do so.

No one should ever forget that we have just paid out dividends to our owners after the worst PL era season ever, and now struggle to sign players due to both incompetence appointed by the Glazers, and lack of funds because of the Glazers.

Our owners are a toxic disaster that must be removed from ownership the sooner the better.
 

El Presidente

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Remember when ten Hag wanted assurances in order for him to take over? Well, that went well.
 
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