As a fanbase - what are we all unhappy about?

[mark_a]

Ownership & running of the club. The lack of a succession plan for SAF was the first warning sign for me (after the Glazers takeover). Then, sure enough, he retires and we are where we are. The reason we are where we are is that I don't think the club knew how to run without a figure like Sir Alex. So if viewed from an owners point of view, in business terms, you'd have wanted to understand how the business worked. However, I suspect they did understand how the business side of the club worked, but not the business of the football side! That was running itself, right?

The standard model for someone buying a club would be to buy a club not doing that well, with room for improvement. That way you can invest in an asset to improve it, thus getting a return on your investment. In that model, an unavoidable part of it is to improve the football, without that you're not going to attract the sponsors etc. United was different, here was a cash cow, flying high. An investment they didn't have to improve, in football terms anyway. Ferguson saying they "didn't interfere". That's good. Maybe until you need the club to "interfere"? To "interfere" to sort out a plan of how to follow the legacy of one of the greatest managers in English football?

Anyway, that's my answer: I'm unhappy with how the club is run. We lack a direction (evidenced by the poor managerial appointments) stemming from a lack of a clear understanding on how a successful club actually works

 

[DamoK]

Our owners complete lack of ambition and the fact they don't care about how we do on the pitch. They just care about the Brand Manchester United not the Football team. When they took over we were in the top 5 teams in Europe, now we aren't even in the top 5 teams in England. We seem to be getting progressively worse and it doesn't look like there is a way back under their ownership.

Let's be honest, what other big club if they were in our situation now would have such a pathetic January transfer window ?

The mentality of the club has changed, finishing second used to be considered a failure. Now if we qualify for the champions league it's an achievement but the worst thing is I don't see a way back. Our owners are happy to make money while they destroy our great club.

When the money dries up they'll hit the road leaving us miles behind all the big club and we will spend another decade in the doldrums. They don't understand our love what Manchester United is they just use us as their Cash cow. They did the exact same to Tampa Bay. They are business people not football people. That's what irks me the most.

 

[VanGaalyTime]

There's 3 key things that must change:

1. We need new scouts. Why are we so slow in identifying the right players? We're constantly trying to buy 16-year-olds but have no interest in first-team players. Apparently January is the worst time to buy, well, when you fail to buy in the summer, you have no choice. Meanwhile, many of our rivals have spent well this month. Were we scouting players for the last three months? What is it our scouts are actually looking at? We employ 140 scouts across the globe & we're signing Slimani for the first team? A golden retriever with a brain injury could see this issue.

2. We must stop giving our players new contracts after poor performances. Let Mata, Jones, Jesse, & Matic leave on a free. Then bring in squad players from lower tier leagues to easily replace them. We're only replacing 3 goals last season & 12 appearances between Matic & Jones.

3. Fans must get angrier. The chants are a great start. But we must start to protest outside the stadium. We should also start to actively hit back against the Glazers' other business interests. It's time to make it clear that what the owners have inflicted on this club is unacceptable.

 

[AmanNits04]

What infuriates me the most is that we have become a reactive club, we fall into a ditch and then we try to overcome it, instead of devising a strategy to not fall in that ditch.
1) We knew Lukaku, Herrera will leave in the summer. Why didn't we immediately replace them, why didn't we buy a midfielder is beyond me. Also, having faith in Martial's ability as a striker is another thing but gambling by having just one striker is sheer stupidity.
2) Our squad is paper thin and we should have addressed this in the beginning itself, as the injury record of our squad is horrendous.
We have spent a lot of money, it's given, but we have't made any quality signing,Some have been good but our standards have fallen now and good for us is basically average.
Why haven't we we hired a DOF, who can look at the footballing side of the things, work with the manager, discuss the shortcomings, look for shrewd signings, work behind the scenes and acquire players for us.
Our problems aren't going to be solved in a week or in one window but my worry is that we aren't moving in the right direction, we move one step ahead and take two steps back.
Also, since i am on this, Why the feck do we still have Jesse Lingard or players like him, I won't believe for a second that there aren't any players, younger than him, cheaper than him, who can do better than him.
Another problem of ours is that we have been persisting with wrong players for far too long now, we have become complacent, we don't keep our foot down when it comes to players who aren't good enough for United. Clubs which are successful can afford to have such players, not a club which is in our position.

 

[Desert Eagle]

Ownership & running of the club. The lack of a succession plan for SAF was the first warning sign for me (after the Glazers takeover). Then, sure enough, he retires and we are where we are. The reason we are where we are is that I don't think the club knew how to run without a figure like Sir Alex. So if viewed from an owners point of view, in business terms, you'd have wanted to understand how the business worked. However, I suspect they did understand how the business side of the club worked, but not the business of the football side! That was running itself, right?

The standard model for someone buying a club would be to buy a club not doing that well, with room for improvement. That way you can invest in an asset to improve it, thus getting a return on your investment. In that model, an unavoidable part of it is to improve the football, without that you're not going to attract the sponsors etc. United was different, here was a cash cow, flying high. An investment they didn't have to improve, in football terms anyway. Ferguson saying they "didn't interfere". That's good. Maybe until you need the club to "interfere"? To "interfere" to sort out a plan of how to follow the legacy of one of the greatest managers in English football?

Anyway, that's my answer: I'm unhappy with how the club is run. We lack a direction (evidenced by the poor managerial appointments) stemming from a lack of a clear understanding on how a successful club actually works

Agreed

 

[lsd]

Entitled fans

 

[VanGaalyTime]

Entitled fans

Which fans are entitled?

 

[Bestietom]

The mess that we are in, and the dumb heads running the club.

 

[Bestietom]

Ownership & running of the club. The lack of a succession plan for SAF was the first warning sign for me (after the Glazers takeover). Then, sure enough, he retires and we are where we are. The reason we are where we are is that I don't think the club knew how to run without a figure like Sir Alex. So if viewed from an owners point of view, in business terms, you'd have wanted to understand how the business worked. However, I suspect they did understand how the business side of the club worked, but not the business of the football side! That was running itself, right?

The standard model for someone buying a club would be to buy a club not doing that well, with room for improvement. That way you can invest in an asset to improve it, thus getting a return on your investment. In that model, an unavoidable part of it is to improve the football, without that you're not going to attract the sponsors etc. United was different, here was a cash cow, flying high. An investment they didn't have to improve, in football terms anyway. Ferguson saying they "didn't interfere". That's good. Maybe until you need the club to "interfere"? To "interfere" to sort out a plan of how to follow the legacy of one of the greatest managers in English football?

Anyway, that's my answer: I'm unhappy with how the club is run. We lack a direction (evidenced by the poor managerial appointments) stemming from a lack of a clear understanding on how a successful club actually works

We brought in Moyes and he fired all SAF staff and brought in his own. That was the start of the downfall.

 

[sp_107]

The way club is being run in last 7 years reminds me the way I buy my clothes.
Appointing some one like Campos/Rangnick would be a good first step to fix things.

 

[lsd]

Which fans are entitled?

The ones that complain constantly

 

[VanGaalyTime]

The ones that complain constantly

Shouldn't fans expect the club to care about success. The deal clubs have with fans is that the club tries to win as many matches as possible and fans support the club through thick and thin. When the club doesn't uphold their end problems begin.

 

[Bestietom]

The ones that complain constantly

Name me a fan who doesn't complain, no matter what team he follows. Even when we were winning the Premiership loads of times, there was fans complaining. Liverpool fans are still complaining even though they are running away with the League.

 

[Josep Dowling]

The lack of any transfer strategy and planning is my major issue. We have gone from spending a fortune on big name players who were at their prime age to now spending a fortune on British players. That isn't a strategy. Anyone looking at that squad would have realised we needed to strengthen midfield and upfront once Lukaku, Sanchez, Herrera and Fellaini left because that was 4 big players for us. We needed to strengthen the defence as well but when key 4 players leave, that becomes the priority before you try to replace better players in defence. We already had 5 CBs on the books. AWB did make sense but Maguire for £80m was insane.

Not using the free agent market without having to offer a player £400k a week like Sanchez. Not using the loan market just like Bayern do. We sold and loaned 4 players to Inter whilst they loan out Icardi and we don't even enquire about the player even though we have a lack of strikers in the squad.

It's like we have snobbery in the transfer market that we can only sign certain players.

The club haven't bought enough players over the last two seasons either. To improve our first 11 we have signed Maguire, AWB and Fred whilst James, Dalot and Grant were bought to bridge gaps in the squad. How can you rebuild signing only 3 first 11 players whilst so many leave? Signings should be one in one out unless you have a decent youth player. Only McTominay and Greenwood fit that category and Greenwood is only 18 years old.

Allowing player contracts to wind down into their final season before a player signs a new one. Granted this might be done by their agents to get a better deal but this suggests we aren't offering increased year-on-year contract extension based on performance. Every time we have a new contract negotiation it goes on for months, we panic and offer 3 times more than our players are really worth. That is exactly how De Gea got £400k a week and Shaw gets £200k.

Giving contract extensions to the likes of Jones when he should have been sold years ago. Then we try to get rid of a CB 4 months later and have to loan our best reserve CB because no one will pay Jones' ridiculous salary. Similarly extending Young's contract for one year only to sell him for £1.5m half way through the next year. That is clearly lack of planning.

The same issues seem to arise with scouting and injuries yet the club does nothing to change this.

Allowing journalist to make up complete rubbish to make the club look bad yet never try to squash rumours like Bayern do.

This club with the amount of resources and money should not be struggling this much.

Seeing Woodward's gormless look at every big game, can't they ban him from attending matches?

 

[lsd]

Shouldn't fans expect the club to care about success. The deal clubs have with fans is that the club tries to win as many matches as possible and fans support the club through thick and thin. When the club doesn't uphold their end problems begin.

There are legit complaints and then there are the pathetic ones and there are plenty of one's like that on here .

Complaints that Ole doesn't say death to the Glazers in his press conference or talk about transfers he has little to do with .

Complaints about players like Gomes not playing as much as people think he should . 95 pages on this site on a player who has shown nothing in a handful of games other than he is clearly not ready yet .

Complaints about Lingard that are dangerously close to just pure hatred .

Moaning we don't spend 20 to 30 million more than a players worth as well as giving up our rights to an agent only out to line his own pocket

I can be just as bad as others I know that but there comes a point when you have to look at other things that are more important than constantly moaning about Utd

 

[Josep Dowling]

There are legit complaints and then there are the pathetic ones and there are plenty of one's like that on here .

1) Complaints that Ole doesn't say death to the Glazers in his press conference or talk about transfers he has little to do with .

2) Complaints about players like Gomes not playing as much as people think he should . 95 pages on this site on a player who has shown nothing in a handful of games other than he is clearly not ready yet .

3) Complaints about Lingard that are dangerously close to just pure hatred .

4) Moaning we don't spend 20 to 30 million more than a players worth as well as giving up our rights to an agent only out to line his own pocket

I can be just as bad as others I know that but there comes a point when you have to look at other things that are more important than constantly moaning about Utd

1) Never heard anyone say that

2) Agreed

3) His stats backup what a rubbish player he is, he also doesn't help himself with his social media, clothing brand and general branding of himself.

4) Again most actual fans don't want us to over pay. This argument has mainly come up due to the Fernandes deal. If they are squabbling over £5-10m its ridiculous given the net spend over the last two years and the state of our squad.

 

[He'sRaldo]

What unites us in our frustrations?

I remember Ole's interim period where everyone at the club could do no wrong, only once we started losing the issues were highlighted again.

Ultimately, I think it's that we're not winning while playing attractive football. The reasons why that may the case have been debated, but if we should start doing that, I think all such talk of "issues" will slowly die down, whether the problems have actually been fixed or not.

 

[lsd]

1) Never heard anyone say that

2) Agreed

3) His stats backup what a rubbish player he is, he also doesn't help himself with his social media, clothing brand and general branding of himself.

4) Again most actual fans don't want us to over pay. This argument has mainly come up due to the Fernandes deal. If they are squabbling over £5-10m its ridiculous given the net spend over the last two years and the state of our squad.

As regards Lingard the criticism he gets for what he does off field is shocking . Judge him for what he does on the pitch .

For all people know he provides jobs for his family with his clothing line etc .

Most footballers pay for their families so there's nothing wrong with getting as much money as they can so they can do so

 

[RedIan]

Its all about results on the pitch and being entertained watching the team play - if those two things are consistently good, then all the other woes would melt away.

Since SAF retired we have not had either. Results have been inconsistent with far to many losses and draws against teams we should beat. without the results and fun factor everything gets scrutinised and analysed to death to find the cause and seek a solution.

Hatred of the owners and ceo is back at a peak and understandably so, we need a new saviour to turn the club around. SAF was a miracle worker, we were just as shit before he came, it took him 4 years though and he endured many chants of Fergie out (pre social media) at Old Trafford matches - he would have been hung out to dry on here if it was now.

Who ever it may be with the skills to turn the club around, they willl need time, it will take a few year, the same as it took Fergie - but will the fan base give it... probably not.

 

[Smores]

It's okay it's all about the fitness see, these are brilliant players still under Jose's spell any day now Ole will fix that and we'll be riding high again.

 

[Volumiza]

The club has seemingly had all the soul sucked out of it by one of those Harry Potter dementor things. Money that has been earned on the back of all the years of success is being thrown around like bird seed on bad signings and wrong managers. Further more, the more money that is being spent, the worse we become.

It's just really sad. It isn't necessarily the trophies for me, it's how little fun it is watching us play now. I'll always watch whatever matches I can, it's in my blood, but PSG aside, when was the last time you leapt off your seat screaming in excitement while watching one of our matches?

 

[#07]

The most irritating thing about Man Utd is that we are a football club that is not run for the purpose of being good at football. Its that simple.

If Man Utd wanted to be good at football then it would have football experts running the football side. People who can see that with a couple of good additions in January we could have pushed for top four, which would pay back the outlay in terms of TV revenue and associated sponsorship opportunities. People who can see that giving big long, fat contracts to players like Pereira and Rojo was a massive waste of money. Money that should have been spent on top quality talent to fill the obvious gaps in our squad. People who can see that fatally undermining a manager's authority over and over creates a dressing room culture of blaming others and ducking responsibility.

Man Utd does not want to be good at football though. It wants to be good at providing a steady stream of cash to its owners. As long as that's at a decent enough level for their liking football comes second, the fans are just expected to accept it.

 

[OleBoiii]

a) They are not spending enough money
b) They have spent money badly

It can be both, though.

For me it's been a combination of the two. If you look at the all the money we've spent post Fergie then it doesn't look so bad at first sight. But if you consider the huge rebuild we've needed + the so-called United tax, then the amount is not that crazy. We could(and should) easily have spent more.

On top of this half the signings(if not more) haven't worked out. So we've essentially not been able to move much forward. For every good signing at least one player has gone past his prime in the meantime.

 

[fergiesarmy1]

I think the easier question should be what are we happy about?