Another boring one horse race

[InfiniteBoredom]

Yes. Hence why I said we didn’t win the league one of those years. Arsenal won it in 2002, iirc we came 3rd that season & you lot finished above us with Igor Biscan & that. Shocking season that.

Fergie announced his retirement that season before he did a U-turn. The real shame was season was losing the CL semi against Leverkusen.

 

[Kentonio]

3 years in a 20 year period. Hardly buying the league is it. We didn’t even win the league one of those years.

Back then you didn't need to buy the league in the way we mean it now. You were the Bayern of the league, you won constantly and snapped up players from weaker teams when it suited. You won the league 7 times in 11 years and dominated everything.

92/93: Took Cantona off Leeds
93/94: Roy Keane from Forest
94/95: Andy Cole from Newcastle, and David May from Blackburn
95/96: Coton from City
96/97: Brought in 4 foreigners (Solskjaer, Cruyff, Paborsky and Johnsen)
97/98: Berg from Blackburn, Sheringham from Spurs
98/99: Yorke from Villa and Berg from abroad

Even if those players didn't all work out for you, they were generally hugely important to the teams you took them from. After that you brought in a lot more foreign players, but you still had time to nick Ferdinand and Smith off Leeds, Rooney from Everton and Saha and Van de Sar from Fulham.

My point being that this idea that Man Utd were somehow totally different and won everything much more cleanly than teams today is frankly unmitigated horseshit that keeps getting repeated year after year. For fans of other teams from back in that time it's almost insulting to hear. United were a powerhouse and fair play to you for it, but it wasn't any different really to today, it was just dominance expressed in a different fashion.

 

[Solius]

This! When I hear United fans complain about the financial advantage, "doping", that City has makes the competition unfair, I'm simply struck by the level of hypocrisy. All those years that you won the title in the last 20 years, was it a fair competition to whoever finished 10th or 15th or the teams that were relegated?! Did the have a chance to compete for the title?! You were able to finish above those teams because of your financial might led to better quality players and therefore better results. If you want a completely fair competition, then impose a salary cap like the NFL. Please stop the cheap excuses and start investing better in your squad and your coaching. This line of argument by some United fans really is just pathetic and I really expect a better winner's mentality from United fans. You guys are just woefully inconsistent, whenever I watch you play, you are just as likely to drop points as you are to win it!

To be fair, when we were winning titles we were spending money we earned by being successful. It was never handed to us.

Not denying we spend more than most clubs but at least all the money we spend comes in from the club, in spite of our owners putting us in debt.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

A salary cap would be more damaging to Utd than to any other club because Utd have the highest salary burden the PL.
It’s an awkward fact but let it sink in and you’ll understand that it renders the OP ridiculous.

We over pay a lot of players. I’d happily gut the squad to the bare bones & rebuild. We have about 3 players who I actually rate.

 

[Sky1981]

Leicester (and Wolves to a lesser extent) coming from the lower leagues to the Premier League and establishing themselves as top-half teams or even top 4 contenders has been a nice storyline the last decade imo. What you're describing is definitely true but I don't think that happens in other leagues either. I don't follow them that closely but usually it's the same teams in Italy and Spain as well that go up and down, let alone establish themselves as top quality first division teams. Doesn't happen in Belgium either because the money just isn't there - the logical cycle is coming up with a good team, perform well for one or two seasons but then drop off again just because they're not able to keep their best players. In that respect I think Wolves (due to their Portugese connection) and Leicester are anomalies (due to Vardy/Schmeichel staying there and buying young talents that view Leicester as a step up like Tielemans, Praet, Ndidi) but unfortunately that can't be expected from most teams. I mean do you expect Villa to be a regular top-10 club should Grealish leave this offseason? I'd want it to be true but will be a hard task imo.

If Utd was as good as they thought they were a month ago they'd be in the middle of a title race with City now, but they picked up 6 points out of their last 15 and now there's no title race anymore. That's not down to City but to Utd (and by extension the other contenders) just not being good enough this season. It's unfortuante, everyone loves a good title (and relegation) race but it is what it is - better to focus on the top 4 race which is shaping up to be an incredibly exciting one with so many teams in the mix. It's not playing for a trophy but at least it's a storyline to keep watching the Premier League as a whole (for me).

I agree.

We bottled a 3 pts lead by losing stupid games

If we lost to a proper top 4 (or City themselves) then toughluck, but losing to SU and drawing WBA was our own doing, we have no one to blame.

 

[SAFMUTD]

People complaining about City spending don't see that we spend just as much? We have similar wages, similar spending but we are far away quality wise.

The fact them as a structure work way better than us is the reason why they've been so successful recently and we've been poor. This is not a case about money.

 

[Luke1995]

The PL was supposed to be very competitive by now...

In the 2000's we had ''the big four'' with United, Chelsea Arsenal and Liverpool always battling it out, but when Tottenham and City joined that group in the next decade, things didn't exactly became better...

Just imagine if Liverpool hadn't declined post Benitez or if Wenger had managed to keep Arsenal in the races... or if United had chosen a better SAF replacement.

There seems to be a connection between teams improvements and teams declines.

 

[HerbT]

We over pay a lot of players. I’d happily gut the squad to the bare bones & rebuild. We have about 3 players who I actually rate.

You’ve got some fantastic players. I rate most of your squad and most especially some of the fantastic younger players coming through (Greenwood has me green with envy!).
I know that there’s a sense of disappointment that you’re sat 2nd in the most competitive league in the world, having dropped some points that were yours for the taking, but IMO that’s more down to hit & miss tactics leading to hit & miss confidence. Not so much down to the players per se.
In fact your players, when set up correctly, and with the confidence that comes of that, have produced some truly outstanding results.
I think all you need do is bring in a manager with experience at the highest level or have the patience to allow your current manager to further his education in the school of hard knocks.
Ole’s actually surprised me. I thought that he’d be gone by now but he’s got you contending for the title already and he’ll only get better as he refines his approach going forwards.
Anyhow, enough of my general opinion, my point wasn’t about the standard of your players, it was the fact that the OP set out that introducing a salary cap would set the world right whereas Utd is the club that would be most damaged by a salary cap because Utd have the highest salary burden.

 

[Gentleman Jim]

To be fair, when we were winning titles we were spending money we earned by being successful. It was never handed to us.

Not denying we spend more than most clubs but at least all the money we spend comes in from the club, in spite of our owners putting us in debt.

That’s one area you still do impressively well. Your Marketing and PR is streets ahead of anyone I can think of.

 

[babablue]

I think this thread is really just sour grapes, if we hadn't dropped the stupid points we did, and City not improved, we would be the ones threatening to run away with it, and I doubt this thread gets created.

In any event, even if one team keeps running away with it, at least it's not the same team. We've had four different winners in about 7 years. To me that's not boring.

 

[WeePat]

I think this thread is really just sour grapes, if we hadn't dropped the stupid points we did, and City not improved, we would be the ones threatening to run away with it, and I doubt this thread gets created.

In any event, even if one team keeps running away with it, at least it's not the same team. We've had four different winners in about 7 years. To me that's not boring.

Effectively no title race beyond February is kind of boring, but as others have said, the rest of us should be pointing the finger at ourselves.

 

[charlenefan]

Only ourselves to blame. 5 points dropped against relegated teams and another 2 dropped against a shite Everton side who dominated.

We should be level, two games away from playing City.

Hardly our fault that none of the other 18 teams in the league are challenging is it

 

[kaiser1]

City show a ruthlessness that we don’t. We give DDG a massive contract despite being on the decline and City got rid of Hart right away. Do City have any crocks like Phil Jones still on their books? A player who has done very little in a decade.

They’re ahead of us on and off the pitch by a country mile. They can cope without KDB and Aguero whilst we can’t muster anything without an on form Bruno

Mendy says Hi

 

[kaiser1]

3 years in a 20 year period. Hardly buying the league is it. We didn’t even win the league one of those years.

City can also argue they have not been the top spender every season in the last 5
Chelsea outspent them this year and some clubs have outspent them in other seasons as well

 

[HerrLeinad]

I mean La Liga and Bundesliga fans have always told you so. This is simply what happens if you have truely elite teams in your league, the result is a points haul like City's or Liverpool's last season and "normal" teams just won't be able to keep up with that.

 

[kaiser1]

Back then you didn't need to buy the league in the way we mean it now. You were the Bayern of the league, you won constantly and snapped up players from weaker teams when it suited. You won the league 7 times in 11 years and dominated everything.

92/93: Took Cantona off Leeds
93/94: Roy Keane from Forest
94/95: Andy Cole from Newcastle, and David May from Blackburn
95/96: Coton from City
96/97: Brought in 4 foreigners (Solskjaer, Cruyff, Paborsky and Johnsen)
97/98: Berg from Blackburn, Sheringham from Spurs
98/99: Yorke from Villa and Berg from abroad

Even if those players didn't all work out for you, they were generally hugely important to the teams you took them from. After that you brought in a lot more foreign players, but you still had time to nick Ferdinand and Smith off Leeds, Rooney from Everton and Saha and Van de Sar from Fulham.

My point being that this idea that Man Utd were somehow totally different and won everything much more cleanly than teams today is frankly unmitigated horseshit that keeps getting repeated year after year. For fans of other teams from back in that time it's almost insulting to hear. United were a powerhouse and fair play to you for it, but it wasn't any different really to today, it was just dominance expressed in a different fashion.

Basically without sugar daddies like Roman and Sheikh Mansoor, EPL would have been another Bundesliga and Man Utd the Bayern

 

[crossy1686]

We have zero quality depth outside our front 4 players

Even if they hit a minislump are any of the rest food enough to take advantage?

No one else has anywhere near the depth to push them to the wire but saying it's a one-horse race as if they're 30 points in front is just bizarre. Did anyone really expect anything other than this at the start of the season? Moaning about it now just seems like classic reactionary commentary.

 

[Lay]

Mendy says Hi

Not for a decade though!

 

[RashyForPM]

This will be 6 times in 7 years one team has run away with the league. What a painfully boring league the PL has become.

Should introduce a salary cap of some sort to stop the dominance we’ve seen from the 2 oil clubs over the last 10 years or so.

We have the highest salary bill in the league. It’s just that our recruitment has been really bad.

Also, if the PL has become boring, then it’d be the same team running away with it every year. Over the past 8 years, Leicester, Chelsea, City and Pool have all run away with it, because they did things right in the seasons they did. There’s no excuses for us not to have won the league since Fergie retired.

 

[NoPace]

Why is this the case?

18 squad limit is a downer, players got injured, suspended, fatique, etc. And our squad is bloated because there's no taker for our deadwoods (we're talking about Mata, Rojo, James, Lingard, Jones), how's having an 18 players quota help? they'll still at the club, they'd still got paid, worse we have them on the book but can't play them because of a stupid rule.

You'd argue this would make teams buy more prudently, well hindsight is 20/20 we always buy and think it's the best choice but sometimes we don't always get what we buy for.

No, I'm saying we wouldn't be allowed to register more than 18 non-academy players. We would sell them off, the league could grandfather/phase it in over a few years so guys don't get stuck off a list.

The idea is that talented but less consistently healthy players would end up on teams like West Ham or Everton instead of United or City, since we wouldn't risk it in the 18. And other teams would have the same restrictions.

 

[Chabon]

There have been maybe three proper title races in the last nine seasons. Prior to that there had been six in a row. Five different winners means it’s not exactly the same problem as in Germany, but it is definitely odd.

 

[Sky1981]

No, I'm saying we wouldn't be allowed to register more than 18 non-academy players. We would sell them off, the league could grandfather/phase it in over a few years so guys don't get stuck off a list.

The idea is that talented but less consistently healthy players would end up on teams like West Ham or Everton instead of United or City, since we wouldn't risk it in the 18. And other teams would have the same restrictions.

Easier said than done. This is not fm

If you buy the wrong player it could take a while to sell them. Rojo jones etc.

And what makes you think west ham are simply going to accept our rejects?

We're practically giving lingard for free to westham. They will have their own sets or deadwood and 18 players quota.

 

[Starschnulpe]

Easier said than done. This is not fm

If you buy the wrong player it could take a while to sell them. Rojo jones etc.

That is exactly the problem. If we could buy and sell players like in a computer game things would be much easier.
Well I guess we have to watch this boring horse race for a while.

 

[Paxi]

Hats off to City. An excellent side that knows how to win all types of games. If this was the other way round we’d be wanking ourselves silly.

Nevertheless, let’s give a good account of ourselves for the rest of the season. Concentrate on top 4, FA Cup and Europa League. With the way the season has started and what has transpired over the course of the season — I’d be delighted with 2 trophies.

Maybe delighted is a strong word but I’d be happy enough going into next season with Ole at the helm. In any case, we’re not catching City but let’s prove our progress and be the best of the rest.

 

[Leftback99]

It will be the same next season. If they get Haaland and/or Messi it will be even less of a competition.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Think Liverpool will sneak it.

 

[El Zoido]

It will be the same next season. If they get Haaland and/or Messi it will be even less of a competition.

They will win 4 out of the next 5 seasons minimum if they sign either of these players.

 

[SER19]

League is dead. League Cup is dead. English football unrecognisable

 

[el3mel]

They will win the domestic treble again.

 

[AgentSmith]

They will win 4 out of the next 5 seasons minimum if they sign either of these players.

There isn’t an injury that would derail their season either. Ridiculous depth.

If we lose Bruno, Liverpool lose VVD, Spurs lose Kane, Leicester lose Vardy etc. to a long-term injury that’s the whole season in jeopardy.

 

[Water Melon]

They will win the domestic treble again.

My only hope is that they slip in CL.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

And it always will be unless we get a manager that can compete them.

 

[cyberman]

I dunno, they look as if theyre starting to get tired, starting to play slower.
Its an unholy run with Gundogan scoring a goal a game, Stones and Dias getting them out of holes. Nobody can live with this 20 game run and it isnt really sustainable long term, as per Liverpool last season.

 

[SER19]

Under Ferguson United got 90 points or more twice (in 38 game seasons). City look like doing it for the 3rd time in 4 years. If you're pretending that spending 1.8 billion, somehow, magically, poaching top directors and the arguably the world's number 1 manager, having 350m+ sitting on the bench during the 'busy' part of the season has somehow been good for the league you've a very different idea of how sport works. United were dominant under Ferguson largely due to a sporting freak, like Messi at Barcelona. Success leads to more money of course but they were still susceptible to the drop off of those freaks leaving or declining. That's how sport works. What city are doing is very very different.

 

[SER19]

And it always will be unless we get a manager that can compete them.

What manager could reliably hit 95+ pts every season with any club other than City? Because that's what competing takes now

 

[Giggsy13]

Along as they have Pep and free reign for financial doping, city will be winning almost every year. The CAS decision effectively killed off English football.

 

[SER19]

I dunno, they look as if theyre starting to get tired, starting to play slower.
Its an unholy run with Gundogan scoring a goal a game, Stones and Dias getting them out of holes. Nobody can live with this 20 game run and it isnt really sustainable long term, as per Liverpool last season.

Really? They had 350m on the bench today who will start midweek. Loads of rest to go around.

 

[Dr. StrangeHate]

Along as they have Pep and free reign for financial doping, city will be winning almost every year. The CAS decision effectively killed off English football.

That brown envelope for the CAF decision is probably the best piece of business Abu Dhabi have ever done. Even if that brown envelope contained 100s of millions it was worth it.

 

[Leftback99]

And it always will be unless we get a manager that can compete them.

Ignoring the more important issue that our squad is far inferior, which manager do you think is better than Guardiola?

 

[Raw]

Depressing really. Pep needs to feck off.