devilish
Juventus fan who used to support United
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2002
- Messages
- 61,805
Time and time again, we hear about pundits speaking about United's lack of leadership. They are of course right. However I can't help thinking we're tackling this in the wrong way.
Most players aren't born as leaders. We are talking about relatively young men, they usually had poor/substandard level of education, they were probably raised in poor areas and their lives had suffered (or enjoyed?) a radical change since they signed that first professional contract. Most of our leaders had a flawed character. Gaz was described by Sir Alex as an argumentative man, Keane and Robson had their own demons to fight, Cantona was a nightmare to manage up until he joined United. What turned these players into leaders and captains was good management. Sir Alex took rough diamonds and turned them into priceless pieces of art.
Not to forget that you simply can't plug and play captains. The reason being that leadership is built with experience and trust between the leader and the rest of the team. That requires time to develop which means most proven leaders are at the wrong side of their career. There's no point bringing in a Chiellini just as there was no point bringing in Bastian.
So in my opinion we need to stop trying to bring in leaders and we should instead aim to bring in players with the right attitude to become leaders. That means bringing players that have integrity, that work hard for the team and that own their mistakes. Meanwhile we need to reintroduce accountability into the team. Players who simply aren't reaching the standards expected by them on a week in week out basis need to be sent on the bench and then kicked out. No more excuses or room for sentimentalism.
Honestly out of the lot, the player I think has the most potential to become a captain is James. The runner from the championship might not have the dribbling skills of Cristiano Ronaldo but he works so hard for the team and his can do attitude is simply infective. Maguire can be a decent captain at short term, same as AWB (he's a quiet lad but his consistency is to be applauded). If we can persuade the likes of Rice, Fraser and Neves to the club (all in the top 20 in respect of distance covered in the EPL last season) then we would have the basis to build a great side.
Most players aren't born as leaders. We are talking about relatively young men, they usually had poor/substandard level of education, they were probably raised in poor areas and their lives had suffered (or enjoyed?) a radical change since they signed that first professional contract. Most of our leaders had a flawed character. Gaz was described by Sir Alex as an argumentative man, Keane and Robson had their own demons to fight, Cantona was a nightmare to manage up until he joined United. What turned these players into leaders and captains was good management. Sir Alex took rough diamonds and turned them into priceless pieces of art.
Not to forget that you simply can't plug and play captains. The reason being that leadership is built with experience and trust between the leader and the rest of the team. That requires time to develop which means most proven leaders are at the wrong side of their career. There's no point bringing in a Chiellini just as there was no point bringing in Bastian.
So in my opinion we need to stop trying to bring in leaders and we should instead aim to bring in players with the right attitude to become leaders. That means bringing players that have integrity, that work hard for the team and that own their mistakes. Meanwhile we need to reintroduce accountability into the team. Players who simply aren't reaching the standards expected by them on a week in week out basis need to be sent on the bench and then kicked out. No more excuses or room for sentimentalism.
Honestly out of the lot, the player I think has the most potential to become a captain is James. The runner from the championship might not have the dribbling skills of Cristiano Ronaldo but he works so hard for the team and his can do attitude is simply infective. Maguire can be a decent captain at short term, same as AWB (he's a quiet lad but his consistency is to be applauded). If we can persuade the likes of Rice, Fraser and Neves to the club (all in the top 20 in respect of distance covered in the EPL last season) then we would have the basis to build a great side.