Anyone else feeling desensitised to our decline?

[Inigo Montoya]

Why would you feel desensitised?

If you care about your team, you live every win,defeat and draw. You simply can't switch off your emotions unless you are simply a fair weather fan

 

[Scholes.92]

You get older and I suppose it's natural to at least go through a phase where a football club you don't have a tangible connection to no longer has an impact on you.

For the players and staff it's their job. If they're failing in their jobs why should it grind me down? For me it's a game which I love and that's as far as it goes.

does it not annoy you that they aren't held responsible when failing at the jobs in the way that the normal person is? fair play if the team and players finish slightly below expectations but to perform so far below expectations and still have that job, be paid them same money and such is one of them most frustrating parts.

 

[Boycott]

does it not annoy you that they aren't held responsible when failing at the jobs in the way that the normal person is? fair play if the team and players finish slightly below expectations but to perform so far below expectations and still have that job, be paid them same money and such is one of them most frustrating parts.

It does but that's how the game has gone.

If these multi-millionaires who get rewarded for mediocrity don't have half the passion of the fans it makes it hard to identify with them. They flaunt their wealth and status in our faces yet go hiding when the going is tough.

That's where being desensitised comes in. I rarely watch PL games live anymore. I'd rather go down to my local team where the football is more pure (I think that explains it well).

 

[MoskvaRed]

It's not just happening on the pitch but what's going on with the club as a whole that to me atleast makes it feel I've been left a little behind the times.

Earlier the majority of our squad used to be players for whom Utd was always their first big club or the biggest club they would play for in their career. Sure there was an exception here and there but the majority used to have a special affiliation for the club. Even going back just 7-8 years for players like Rooney, Ronaldo, Evra, Vidic, Park, Valencia, Nani etc were all players whose first claim to fame was us. They would forever be associated with us and that obviously applies to the home grown players we used to have as well. Recently we've had a bunch of players for whom we'd be just another big club in a line of other big clubs. Why would players like Di Maria, Schweinsteiger, Zlatan, Falcao etc feel any special affiliation to us? We are not the most special club in their careers. Similarly we have a manager who for so long was the enemy and one who's already managed some of the other big clubs. I'm not saying they don't care or don't want to do well here but they have no special affiliation for us here. It's not a matter of life and death for them. All these things contribute to the vibe at the club which translates to this performances on the pitch.

Then there's the fans here who don't think twice before viciously attacking our players and even those who've server us for so long. The amount of abuse Rooney gets is shameful from so called fans of the club he plays for. Sure he's not what he was but you need to respect your players. Giggs is lambasted so often you'd forget he's a Utd legend.

Then when our former players like Neville or Scholes talk about the Utd way they are ridiculed. People forget these guys were fans of the club or associated with the club in the 70s and 80s when we weren't winning things. The Utd way is not just 4-4-2 , it's about respecting everything associated with the club, it's about entertaining the fans and giving your all for the club, be it you are a player or fan.

So it kinda makes sense how someone who's supported Utd for a long time would feel a bit desensitized by what's going on at the club. And it's not just due to poor performances, it's due to a lot deeper factors.

Most of our signings of the last 4 seasons have fallen into this bracket to be fair. It's just that Darmian is no Evra, Schneiderlin is no Carrick and Depay is no Ronaldo (in fact, he's barely an Obertan). Combined with Fergie seeming to lose his touch in the transfer market over his final few years (e.g. Jones was a poor imitation of his earlier masterstrokes like Pallister and Rio), it's fair to say that poor recruitment of the non-big name players has been the main cause of our downfall rather than Woodward's penchant for the occasional marquee signing or his curious willingness to top up the pension funds of over the hill superstars.

For choice of manager, it all started with the mind-blowingly bad decision to appoint Moyes and his subsequent well-deserved sacking after just 9 months. As a result, we have ended up firefighting rather than having the luxury of lining up managers well in advance.

 

[Scholes.92]

It does but that's how the game has gone.

If these multi-millionaires who get rewarded for mediocrity don't have half the passion of the fans it makes it hard to identify with them. They flaunt their wealth and status in our faces yet go hiding when the going is tough.

That's where being desensitised comes in. I rarely watch PL games live anymore. I'd rather go down to my local team where the football is more pure (I think that explains it well).

I suppose that does make sense yeah but for me I've always grown up with the millionaires, obviously its got worse the last 10 years or so but as its all I've known the millionaire status doesn't really come into my thinking and my annoyance would be the same if they were on £50,000 a year and under performing in such a way.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

No I am not desensitised. I am upset, but not surprised. I hate seeing us not doing well. It will hopefully come good. However I wonder what the signing policy of the club is now? It seems to be they want a galatico or two every season, no matter if they fit into the team.

We needed a striker, yes, so get one who is mid 20's for the long term. We signed Zlatan so it did not impair Rashford's progress, yet playing him out wide to accommodate Zlatan is doing precisely that.

We signed Pogba, but it is Carrick who makes the team tick, but at his age he has to be used wisely, so really it was wiser to make sure we have a replacement who can play every game. We are not getting the best out of Pogba.

We probably needed two CB's to be honest. Bailly I am really impressed with, but think he needs a decent partner.

We have made a lot of signings over the last two seasons especially, but it has not really fixed any of our deficiencies.

 

[AXVnee7]

Why would you feel desensitised?

If you care about your team, you live every win,defeat and draw. You simply can't switch off your emotions unless you are simply a fair weather fan

Not caring and being densensitised are two very different things.

I still watch every game and schedule my other arrangements around each game. I still retain the passion for the club and my support is ever strong. But the difference is I've lowered my expectations drastically to the point where poor results that used provoke strong reactions are now becoming more acceptable as a result.

It's like a rich kid who's been brought up in a lavish lifestyle, and been spoilt with expensive gifts for many years, but suddenly his parents go broke, and he has to now accept he may not have the things he's been so used to getting. When youve become so used to something, it takes time to adjust to change.

For me it's now going the other way. This will most likely be our 4th season spent fighting for top 4 at best and not the title, and gradually the bar has fallen. So when we do end up winning the title again, the Euphoria from being champions will be far more excessive than in comparison to many of our previous seasons. For me at least winning title after title was just expected, it wasn't like Leicester who milked every single aspect of it. That is now something I will do next time.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Not caring and being densensitised are two very different things.

I still watch every game and schedule my other arrangements around each game. I still retain the passion for the club and my support is ever strong. But the difference is I've lowered my expectations drastically to the point where poor results that used provoke strong reactions are now becoming more acceptable as a result.

It's like a rich kid who's been brought up in a lavish lifestyle, and been spoilt with expensive gifts for many years, but suddenly his parents go broke, and he has to now accept he may not have the things he's been so used to getting. When youve become so used to something, it takes time to adjust to change.

For me it's now going the other way. This will most likely be our 4th season spent fighting for top 4 at best and not the title, and gradually the bar has fallen. So when we do end up winning the title again, the Euphoria from being champions will be far more excessive than in comparison to many of our previous seasons. For me at least winning title after title was just expected, it wasn't like Leicester who milked every single aspect of it. That is now something I will do next time.

The cycle might just be moving onto someone else. That is what happens. All clubs go through it, but I think we have fast-tracked ourselves.

 

[GiddyUp]

When Rooney's shot flew in I barely raised an eyebrow, brilliant strike but very much undeserved.

That chance in the first half did it for me and epitomizes the decline in our squad.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

That chance in the first half did it for me and epitomizes the decline in our squad.

It was too little too late. We needed him to do that a lot earlier to put them under serious pressure. That sort of contribution is few and far between from Wayne.

 

[Scarecrow]

I hate when we lose a game but it doesn't lead me to contemplate the future of the club or the point of supporting it. I get frustrated for a few hours and then I just look forward to the next game. I can't say my attitude has changed significantly in the last years.

 

[Yagami]

I guess because my grandma couldn't walk and her mental problems left her when she used to tell me to go on and get them.
And even though she was from Liverpool she sit down with me and a couple of my best friends with a chippy dinner and watch the untied game and tell them how much she loved watching them play and that ooh my lad is just like Ryan Giggs.

Aw, that's lovely. Your grandmother sounds like a real sweetheart.

Having read this, I now picture you looking like my uncle who, in his earlier years, looked the spits of Giggsy! When I was a baby/toddler, I swore blind that he was Giggs, ha. I remember a story my Mum told me about him that one day, whilst he was in the office doing his job, a random windowcleaner just started banging on the window shouting "Ryan Giggs! Ryan Giggs!" What was, I guess, ironic was that my uncle was a big City fan and Giggs, being the star he was here at United, probably wasn't too chuffed at being associated with a United legend!

Though, the only reason he became a City fan was because he grew up with a certain Paul Lake who went on to play for City. My grandparents who came over from Ireland, his parents, were big United fans but he became a City fan regardless. I grew up with Paul's nephew and, though he supported United, he had a soft spot for City due to Paul. At the time, being a kid and all, I thought that was strange but I'd probably feel the same, too. Especially as, back then, City weren't challenging for major trophies like they are now.

Thinking about it, there's only two City fans (off the top of my head) in my family and the rest are, thankfully, reds. My uncle and one of my older brothers. What's worse is that they started as United fans but both changed to supporting City due to their best friends at the time being mad City fans themselves. I've gone on a tangent here so I apologise but it's 3am and I'm high on Cherry Coke.

I used to get the piss ripped out of me for that one because I had black curly hair and looked a bit like him.

Ha, I've got curly hair, too. I used to resent my curls back in primary school because I was the only boy who had curls but I've since grown to love them. I didn't know it at the time, and looking back I don't know how, but I was one of two boys who were invited to one of the girls birthday parties and it was because she fancied me due to my curls. I spent the entire party running away from the girls trying to look for the other boy.

 

[Billy Blaggs]

She was an absolute star. My favorite person in the world. I'm giving you a part of me by telling you lot this. Every Christmas and birthday id sit by her fire and id say I was bored knowing my best Christmas present was in the closet. She'd tell me to go look and get it and open it but never to tell my mum or dad.
Them she'd smoke a cigarette and tell me not to tell that either and make me toast on the fire. It was our little bit of rebellion.

 

[Yagami]

She was an absolute star. My favorite person in the world. I'm giving you a part of me by telling you lot this. Every Christmas and birthday id sit by her fire and id say I was bored knowing my best Christmas present was in the closet. She'd tell me to go look and get it and open it but never to tell my mum or dad.
Them she'd smoke a cigarette and tell me not to tell that either and make me toast on the fire. It was our little bit of rebellion.

Ha, that's brilliant. She truly does sound wonderful. Cherished memories like those are what make life worthwhile.

Honestly, I got a bit emotional reading that. I just want to go and give my grandma and grandad a giant hug right now.

 

[Billy Blaggs]

She really was brilliant. All my friends called her grandma. She used to by us fish and chips after every football match. When I left to go to America my friends still came to see her. When she was too old they resipricatated and went to see her with their own fish and chips.

Give them both a hug man and hug them hard. I thought I had one time left and then I got a call at 4am and I knew. I told my wife as the phone was ringing omg she's dead I just know it.

 

[unimaginative_name]

Its an increasingly regular part of the game. It's a decline by definition, our final league positions haven't recovered since Fergie left and were in our fourth post ferguson season now. That's a consistent trend. I'm not throwing a tantrum or anything but you need to be realistic, the wheels fell off a few years back and as of yet nobody, even with the vast resources we've thrown at the problem, has managed to get us going again.

Getting the wheel back on takes time, but when you change the direction of approach, it takes even longer time. We should not have done such radical change as we did from LVG to Jose. We should have either kept LVG or appoint some one who has similar footballing style to his and would build on the work he has laid down.

The club is seriously lacking in footballing identity, that's where the core problem is.

 

[ZAGREB RED]

Yes, i think the way things have gone over the last few seasons has led to this, the expectation levels are nowhere near as high so losing big games/not winning trophies regularly doesn't feel as bad as it did during Fergie's reign. A lot of the time now, going into big games with no real expectation of winning is the norm.

 

[iKeano]

Is anyone looking forward to today's game?
For the first time this season, I have that LVG pre-game dread.
I'm worried about team selection with Herrera missing & Pogba injured - Rojo, Fellaini & Lingard likely to start.
Mata will either be on the bench or brought off too early.
TFM will be nowhere to be seen amid a defence that's flakier than Donald Trump's foreign policy.
Rashford will be isolated out wide and rendered as threatening as an attempted assassin with no weapon.
Rooney may well start given he's finally scored a goal.... at last, but it will likely be in midfield! I look forward to his mis-control and ill-placed passes. Still, at least he'll berate the referee at every given opportunity.
Martial - if at all - will be in his perma-strop, seemingly still in a huff over his jersey number or his reality TV missus.
Darmian will either show up, or not at all. The Italian with zero middle ground.
Shaw looking like every bit of a 20yr old that lives in a mansion with his mates. Surely that's not healthy!
Schneiderlin will be no more after Thursday. Banished to train with the u14s I assume.
BFS watching from the stands/home. Collecting £180k a week to watch Fellaini play in his place. Staggering.
Ibra - despite his lack of goals - still gives me a glimmer of hope, but has been disappointing of late.
Mkhitaryan probably in exhile again for another baffling few months.
Meanwhile the ineffective Memphis, Jones, Young et al, look on each one limp and futile offering nothing off the bench.
At least the manager is on the touch line to drive the players on..... oh, wait.

I know... negative rant, but I'm struggling to see any positives of late! Feel like we're going to go to Swansea to carry out a damage limitation exercise.