that's what it's becoming. Got alot of contradictory comments of people who will laugh at the like of Poch's time with Spurs but then somehow defend Ole when he's basically producing the same yield with even more resources.
One thing I can't understand is that fans are waiting for us to sign more fancy surnames and all of a sudden be ready to judge the manager. Solskjaer has to earn that time, not one manager in world football has been given an automatic 4 years irrespective of their performance within building the team. To Ole's credit he has achieved the bear minimum to keep him in the job. But his time is running out, he is simply another 80 million pound signing away from HAVING to deliver. Neville said it best the failure to win any trophies the longer it goes the more pressure the manager puts onto himself sub consciously.
I don't see it that way. There has been a lot of turmoil around United after SAF and truth be told it's the hardest job in world football because of our standards. There exists this expectation of failure at the club after SAF left, that the manager is bad and sacked and the next is even worse.. that feeling is being perpetuated even by those fans claiming to 'have great standards', and at times what those expectations really does is make people lose sight and only see the negatives. It's like if you are working on learning a new skill like playing the guitar. All you can really do to improve is to face failure after failure that's the only way.. you have to find something, some reason to stay positive to keep going until you get there. If you don't you will just say ah I've sucked at doing this 100 times now, this wont get better and I give up.
You can quit, or "fire" the manager at anytime but that's not really a winners mentality and so I highly disagree with the notion that 'standards have dropped' is a great point, when the opposing side of that argument consist mostly of people who might just have a patient approach in evaluating the progress under Ole.
The point about sub consciously getting more pressure as time go by is a moot point, as it's rooted in our earlier approaches to hiring managers. It completely ignores the aspect of long term thinking. Van Gaal had that in mind but completely ignored it once he realised nobody liked him that much and all he could do to win the over was to win trophies. To me he abandoned a real chance to do something big here. Win big or go home. It's not how Fergie did it, he just won shit he didn't go home if he didn't. So that's not what we wont from our managers, we want longterm thinking and if Ole started worrying about fake pressure to 'keep his job' it removes the positive non-egotistical aspect of having a manger like Ole in the first place. If the board take that away from him, or he loses that perspective there is no difference from him to Van Gaal, imo.
We might no be there yet in terms of trophies but it's clear to see we're on the right path. If we're on the right path but sometimes stops the development then we have to look at it but if things keeps moving forward then sooner or later we'll start to dominate. If we have a great team under Ole, plays finals and lose them year after year then yeah he has to go, but we're not there yet. He keeps his job if we continue to develop, once we start to set back from what he has built questions can be asked. The only midfielder he has bought is VDB and he doesn't even seem to have wanted him. Despite him getting a tune out of Matic, Pogba, McTominay, Fred at times, it's not his team. Last season he relied on Pereira, Lingard and Mata heavily the first half of the season. Phil Jones is still at the club. That's not even that long ago. Some things moves at a faster pace at the club, and some things don't. Some things is down to Ole, other things is just not his fault.
We don't have someone that can guide Ed, no DOF or anything like that and because of it we rely so much on Ole's profile and attributes because he does bring some of that. Thinking longterm, I would hope that even the next manager we pick wont be a rash decision, there is simply no need for it. We're pretty stable now and we have to thank Ole for that, at the least, even if he wont win any trophy. If we sack him mid season and don't hire a DOF and just hire a random manager in place, that's our problem. That Ed, and shouldn't be what we want. But look, he wont stay here forever and times come to and end for all managers, even if that is by leaving the club by mutual agreement, gets sacked or wants a bigger challenge. There is no shame in that and happens everywhere. The fact is, there is no bigger challenge than being manager at United, there is no way to go but down. Ole can do pretty well and if all fans act hysterically polarised in their opinions, like the tide is telling us to do, the pressure will be not only on Ole but the club and their reactions will probably be in line with that rash mindset. Something we don't really want. Why should Ole be painted as a total failure even if he is not that, just not quite good enough.
There is a middle grown to be found here but the standards of the club is unchanged in that regard so even we're not been a top team of the pitch we're still always on everybody's lips for better or worse and in the nature of that, unless you are SAF and manage to stay on for 100 years you'll be 'a failure'. If Ole manages to play Knocking on heavens door I'll be singing, it might not be SAF with his Beethoven's No. 29 in B flat major 20 years without sleeping but it's something. It's not quitting, being positive towards Ole is not what dropping standards is.