Are we the worst run top/elite club in the world?

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Manchester United have always been an extremely poorly run football club...always.

Our periods of success have simply been down to 3 managers that were stronger characters than the faceless nomarks who have run this club.
Pretty much this.

I still can't believe we won the league in 2010/11, the under-investment in that squad was criminal. We need a word greater than genius to describe Fergie, because genius just doesn't cut it. That squad got to the champions league final ffs. With Darren Gibson and Anderson starting in the semi final and Fabio Da Silva starting the final. How? Just how? The man was a God. How did he do it? Rio and Vidic missed a lot of that season too. That season was his greatest achievement in football in my honest opinion. It surpasses the treble, simply because the squad was so bad. Rooney wasn't even that great that year, Berba and Hernandez out-scored him. Boggles the mind how well we did that year.
 

sideshow_bob

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Manchester United have always been an extremely poorly run football club...always.

Our periods of success have simply been down to 3 managers that were stronger characters than the faceless nomarks who have run this club.
Exactly! Always been an extremely poorly run football club.

Very good as a commercial entity though.
 

Ballist1x

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Yes terrible.

Look at Juventus, relegated in 2006.

Yet less than 15 years later they are the dominant force in Italian football.

They are signing players that we wanted but who dont want us. De Ligt for example. They are buying smartly (free transfers) and ended up with a squad where we have tried to buy about 5 of their players lately.
 
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Bestietom

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We are tops as a business, but way down the ladder as a football club. We need to put more into the footballing side of things, for the great supporters we have.
 

steve.crowford

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After an underwhelming transfer window our 3 signings have actually been our best performers so far this season. That just reiterates what we thought at the end of last season. That a squad purge is required because they’re all bang average at best.

Young, Rojo, Jones, Bailly, Matic, Pereira, Mata, Lingard wouldn’t get in to the current Leicester, Everton, Wolves, West Ham first teams let alone CL chasing teams. The purge needs to continue with them.

Shaw, McTominay, Rashford are squad players at best. Shouldn’t be first teamers if we want to challenge for top 4.

Jury is still out on Dalot and Fred. They need to be given a run of games to prove what they can bring to the team. This is the season to really judge them. But not convinced by either of them.

De Gea and Pogba, our only world class players, haven’t turned up this season. On top of that they’ve made glaring mistakes that have cost us points. They clearly don’t want to be here and will most likely leave next summer. We need to cash in.

I’d bring in Romero for a few games. The winner for Palace was a mistake too many for De Gea and should have been dropped.

Lindelof has shown he can be a top defender but has looked very shaky. He needs to put the mistakes behind him and try to form a solid partnership with Maguire.

Martial, IF he can continue the way he has started the season needs to play. I know some hate him but all things good came through him against Palace. Convinced he would have had a goal or two against Southampton if he was the striker.

Maguire, Wan-Bissaka, James so far look reliable but we clearly needed so so so much more than just 3 signings.

Gomes, Greenwood, Chong, Garner should be given game time but we need to be careful not to put too much pressure on them. We can’t kill them before their careers have even started.

So a really slow start to the rebuild. Top 4 is out of the question with this squad. But more worryingly this could be a disastrous season as I can easily envisage finishing outside of the top 6. Can’t see us amassing more than 50/55 points.
 

momo83

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Commercially we are up there with the best global brands, football wise I've seen better in the Sunday leagues.
I was thinking of this the other day. I’ll use the example of our £75m per year Adidas deal. Ground breaking at the time and the highest in football at the time, but now surpassed by Real Madrid and Barca and I don’t think our PL rivals are too far behind us with their new deals. Same applies with other sponsors and future deals.

Now imagine when we start to renegotiate with Adidas. They are going to look at us as a club whose young international fan base will be slowing down, the 5-10 year old kids from around the world between 2015-2022 will more likely support City / Pool etc and will grow up supporting those teams.

Basically. What Ed said about being Shiitee on the pitch not effecting money coming into the till was true in the short-term but very very wrong in the long term.
 

fergiesarmy1

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We are tops as a business, but way down the ladder as a football club. We need to put more into the footballing side of things, for the great supporters we have.
It’s easier to sell sponsorship when we were recently winning leagues with regularity, they won’t find it easy when it comes round to negotiate some of these contracts when we can’t even confidently forecast champions league any more.
 

VorZakone

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Imagine how much richer Utd would have been if it went deep into the CL all these past years. United's commercial revenue, while immense already, would be even bigger.
 

hp88

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Those in power seem to be more interested in the brand, just feels like the football is now a second priority at the club.

This lacking signings on the pitch but it's OK, we have just a signed a deal with Remington to release our own grooming products :rolleyes:
 

Rendezvous with Ronaldo

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I find it hugely amusing that people that can barely run a bath are pretending to be knowledgable about not just how their football club is run, but how every other large football club is run.

Let's cut the crap, the only thing most of you actually know is that you won a lot of trophies in the past, and now you are not.
 

Will Singh

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I was thinking of this the other day. I’ll use the example of our £75m per year Adidas deal. Ground breaking at the time and the highest in football at the time, but now surpassed by Real Madrid and Barca and I don’t think our PL rivals are too far behind us with their new deals. Same applies with other sponsors and future deals.

Now imagine when we start to renegotiate with Adidas. They are going to look at us as a club whose young international fan base will be slowing down, the 5-10 year old kids from around the world between 2015-2022 will more likely support City / Pool etc and will grow up supporting those teams.

Basically. What Ed said about being Shiitee on the pitch not effecting money coming into the till was true in the short-term but very very wrong in the long term.
I really can’t see the Glazers here for the long term, I think they’ll be looking for a exit strategy and right now would be the ideal time for them to get maximum out of it. Like I said commercially we are up there and although we are on a downwards spiral in footballing terms it hasn’t yet hit the pocket hard. Plus we’ve got Brexit (hate that word now) so the markets might be slowing down. I’m saying all this in the hope they sell so might be just blabbering because of my agenda.