Who is that? Smalling is clearly head and shoulders by far our best defender. Bailly is struggling for form and Lindelof is clearly still settling and not ready..?
£150 million pounds worth of defenders...
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Our transfer policy has been terrible, in defence and other parts of the team. If Woodward isn't at least thinking about DoF, it is worrying.
Many players we signed throughout the van Gaal years were just stop gaps which at the time served their purpose.
Lindelof in particular was such a waste of money. If you're going to sign a CB at least make sure he's better than our current crop, which isn't exactly an impossible threshold.
We've backed 2 successive managers in the market and they couldn't be further apart in their philosophy if they tried.
Why would Woodward's job be under threat for getting the managers the players they want? Their inability to make it work is on them, not woodward.
How odd to see some people starting to completely dismiss Bailey as a top CB.
2 months ago he was being lauded after his performance against Liverpool, despite the unlucky OG; and now he's not good enough?
Fans are so fickle.
2 months ago he was being lauded after his performance against Liverpool, despite the unlucky OG; and now he's not good enough?
Fans are so fickle.
Happy for Jose to sort this shit out and get players in. Not seen many if any better at it.
Many 90 minute opinions on here just now. More emotion than anything else I guess.
Apart from Bailly there are no leaders and no quality in any of our current defence,its an archaic slow ponderous thing from 2011 and needs a complete revamp.
Rojo,Lindelof,Shaw also and to be completely should be deemed surplus to requirements,they are clearly not of the standard required!
Rojo,Lindelof,Shaw also and to be completely should be deemed surplus to requirements,they are clearly not of the standard required!
I will try to justify the acqusitions
Rojo - has been regular starter for Argentina NT, decent transfer worth a punt, he's shown how good he can be when he's not injured and get regular starts at CB, I wouldn't still throw him to the bin, he had a major injury, give him another season to judge, he gives his all, we need players like that.
Shaw - was a good buy for that time, the very promising english lad, who also had already plenty of experience, we invested similarly in Rio Ferdinand in the past. Unfortunately for Shaw, he broke his leg twice and never since picked up any confidence to justify his place, it is a failure but we did well to buy him at the time and still has some reselling value.
Blind - became a decent squad player, which wasn't rated by some managers
Darmian - is a massive failure and one of our worst buys, can't believe we replaced Rafa with this fraud, he's terrible at almost everything, and even if tackling could be seen as his strength he struggles a lot against pacy tricky players
Bailly - I thought the price was 28? he's been unlucky with injuries but still have a lot of potential to be our best CB once he starts regularly
Lindelof - is a big failure too, we should have given chanc to Tuanzebe who is not worse in anything Lindelof is, just a waste of money even if he picks up form next season. We have had a player in our ranks to do the same job with similar potential, younger and free. For that money you buy an established defender
I think apart Darmian and Lindelof who still has a chance to show something, we did some reasonable hiring, we should have been a bit more ruthless maybe and pay a bit extra for the most obvious talents like Laporte/Semedo but I think spending 50m plus for a defender is just a trend set form last year. We will probably see us do that too sooner or later
Because he’s hired the managers and signed off all their reckless spending. His job obviously isn’t under threat but the footballing side of the club has been an absolute shambles on his watch, for which he should carry the can.
Yup, pretty much.
We should have a management in place that ensures we work towards a clear philosophy sporting wise, not only commercial wise - and a structure that minimizes the damage a wrong managerial appointment (which can always happen) will have.
Basically: We're not getting a SAF like figure, and so should gear the club towards less reliance on a single person controlling everything. The Mourinho experiement will cost us when the next guy takes over.
I agree, it would be wise for us to hire a football director to oversee the footballing side of things. While Woodward can just focus on the commercial activities.
Blind was a regular starter at CD in LvG’s last season, and was fine there. Hardly marginalised.
Rojo was shit when LvG insisted on playing him at LB, but has otherwise been decent for the fee.
Fair enough re. Shaw, but the leg break was unfortunate and Jose’s handling of him has been rather odd.
I’m really just nitpicking though. The main point of the OP still holds.
His job is to get the manager the players they want. He isn't the DOF, he's the CEO. If anything, he should be criticised if he starts meddling on who to buy or not given his expertise in footballing matters is non existent. Doubt the managerial selections are all his call either for the same reason. If they are, the club needs a hard look at themselves.
The thing about getting a DoF and setting a clear, long-term strategy is, that you can paint that strategy whatever you like. So, for example, part of the strategy could be along with playing a certain style, promoting youth and having a coherent transfer policy, also finding the right long-term manager who would (after a one or two successful years) get more influence and power. Not give them everything from the get-go.
Having DoF or sporting director and finding a long-term manager isn't mutually exclusive if you set your strategy to find one through the process of proving themselves. Not by giving them all the power from day 1 and blindly hope they will get everything right.
For all these players there are the attacking ones who worry me more.... But fair point on the defenders, it says alot the starting lineup yesterday.
The CEO has ultimate responsibility for how the club is run. Hiring the right manager is about as important an element of running a football club as it gets. Similarly, making sure that whichever manager he hires spends the club’s money wisely is also part of his remit. Woodward might not be a DoF but the fact we don’t have one is also on him.
Possibly the best performing person in the whole club.Shouldn't it be? We must be the only club after its CEO's head
But let's blame him for the manager's bad signings. Laughable.
Correct. Last thing we need is some accountant deciding he has better football judgement than the manager
Agree with this.
The problems we've had with transfers is the inevitable byproduct of changing managers, and one managers signings not being suited to his successor.
didn't he already say he was picking based on who would be going to the world cup.
What a strange post.
Bailey and Linderlof are definitely his men. He signed these players. So why is he not starting them?
Yes, Arsenals problem has always been spending 150M on defenders....
You're a terrible WUM.
Your tagline makes sense...Yes, Arsenals problem has always been spending 150M on defenders....
You're a terrible WUM.
Indeed.
I do think we are reigning in our spending though.
If Talisca is our forward signing for 30 odd million, Fred and Sandro could take it to 100m.
Who else are we linked to? Toby for 40m?
With our outgoings, our net spend could be surprisingly low.
We could see City vastly outspend us again with Klopp significantly closing that spend gap behind us.
If Talisca is our forward signing for 30 odd million, Fred and Sandro could take it to 100m.
Who else are we linked to? Toby for 40m?
With our outgoings, our net spend could be surprisingly low.
We could see City vastly outspend us again with Klopp significantly closing that spend gap behind us.
Yes, he didn't start two defenders he bought. That's not strange though is it? Bailey has featured a fair bit pre injury and might not have been ready to step in place of Jones or Smalling.
Lindelof isn't as good as Jones or Smalling and is one of two signings I point to and think "we shouldn't have bought him".
It turns into a much softer point when you go from "£150m spent on defenders and Jose didn't pick any" to "2 defenders Jose bought didn't start yesterday"
I’ve no idea how much we’ll spend this summer. What worries me is that I’ve got no confidence we’ll be spending any more wisely than we have before. Our rivals seem to be getting more joy in the transfer market than us. Why will this summer be any different?
What does this mean? It’s his second season at the club and he’s been fit and available for selection for ages. His main problem this season has been poor individual performances. The World Cup excuse never made a jot of sense.
You think Sanchez, Matic, Lukaku weren't wise transfers from last summer+Jan? Going by our 4 signings from the last winter and summer I only think one has fared poorly. But it's a debut season so you never know.
Didn't he have a long term injury that kept him out from November to Feb? This feels like such a long season so I can't remember but if I'm correct, perhaps Mourinho didn't want to tinker at the back by rushing him in so soon. Few times he did as you say, individual errors were made.
I don't think it's necesarilly the signings themselves that are wrong. But a large part of it is how we utilize them.
A couple of examples:
Di Maria could definitely have thrived in the right conditions. Ander Herrera we've only really been gotten one good season out of. There could have been many more but for mismanagement IMO.
Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw are another two that should be classed as brilliant signings IMO if our managers had managed to get the best out of them.
Paul Pogba is another one. A brilliant player, but we're not getting the best out of him.
I also think someone like Henrikh Mkhitaryan could've been a very good player under the right conditions. We saw enough glimpses of his talents.
You see what Memphis Depay is doing in Lyon now. The same player, but thriving under a different management than he got here.
And then there's also a fair share of poor signings, as well. Difficult to defend Darmian, Lindelöf et all on the basis of what we've seen.
Why are you doubting this? Everything points that he made the calls apart from Moyes hiring. He certainly, as the CEO, has a massive influence on the decision and even if it isn't entirely his call, it is not like people above him are those of more football knowledge.
Woodward shouldn't influence in the managerial and transfer decisions once the manager is appointed but whether the particular structure in the club, which is his responsibility, is a right one can certainly be questioned based on what we saw in the last few years.
I just think we need a foundation behind our front players to see what we truly have.
Pep admitted he bought 2/3 summers worth of talent in 6 months to play how he wants.
We can't really follow Liverpools model since Klopps strategy seems to be spend millions on the first 11 and to heck with the squad.
Utd seem to be caught inbetween. We need a quality squad to compete with City yet can't afford the same rate of progress yet we can't follow Klopps model since that has a high quality v water carrier ratio and the overall squad quality suffers.
I think its why we go for Matic / Sanchez / Toby / Talisca seemingly over SMS. We are settling inbetween two stools in a unique league position.
I think that we are so far off the pace that we CAN afford a season or 2 to bed in some top younger players. At least that’s a coherent plan going forward. Our transfer strategy has been nothing short of disasterous post Fergie. None of the managers signings have been excellent. Who’s the best player we’ve signed? Pogba? He’s hardly the catalyst we’d hoped is he? Good player but he’s our best signing in 5 years despite spending 100s of millions on other players around him and paying the highest wages in the league. We don’t even know if he’s actually enjoying being here anymore. It’s all so half cocked, firing money around with no actual plan. It makes me sad/annoyed and I hate to say it but I feel very little connection with this squad. Any of the players could leave and I wouldn’t particularly care.
Mourinho has handled Shaw horrendously. He could be getting more out of Blind - who has performed admirably for the club under both Van Gaal and Mourinho. Lindelof and Bailly, albeit the latter due to injury, are nowhere near cementing their place in the team and Rojo and Darmian, well, ay you've probably got a point.
Personally, I think it says more about how Smalling and Jones are grossly underappreciated and receive far too much stick. Half the blokes bandied around to replace them would find themselves down the pecking order, too. But I'm like a broken record on this one, and somewhat alone in my thoughts. Hey ho. Our defensive numbers have been in line with title winning sides all over Europe for three seasons now. I'll take that.
Personally, I think it says more about how Smalling and Jones are grossly underappreciated and receive far too much stick. Half the blokes bandied around to replace them would find themselves down the pecking order, too. But I'm like a broken record on this one, and somewhat alone in my thoughts. Hey ho. Our defensive numbers have been in line with title winning sides all over Europe for three seasons now. I'll take that.
So if a manager asks Woodward to sign a player - he signs the players and they flop - it's Woodward who should go ?
No doubt many people continue to blame Van Gaal.