Club ownership | Senior management team talk

tjb said:
INEOS' fundemental mistake so far is buying into fan sentiment rather than creating and sticking to their own path on football matters.

Fans and pundits regarding club executives, so getting their initial approval should never be important. United, as a club, took away the wrong message from Ferguson's tenure, and as a result, we've been left behind in certain aspects.

Fergie, like Wenger, earned the respect he received. He became more valuable than the players after showing what he could do through success. He could kick Beckham/Stam out of the club, because the club respected his authority. The club did this, because he had proven over years that he could make good decisions, and in addition, he'd built rapport through the amount of success and trophies he had won. The same goes for Wenger and now Pep. Their careers gave them the power, not the position.

Madrid sacked Alonso because Mbappe and Vinicius are more valuable to the club than him at this time and he hasn't given them a reason to think otherwise with performances. The English media would call this player-power, but in reality, its living in the real world. Mbappe and Vinicius have shown their quality for Madrid over and over again, in similar ways to how Drogba, Lampard and Terry had done for Chelsea during the late 2000s/early 2010's.

The problem at a club like United is that we give managers Fergie levels of support and power without them ever having to do anything. We automatically value them over every member of the squad including legends without them even having to win games. We also relieve them of almost all initial blame and place it squarely on players without proof of concept. In reality, an Amorim in 2024 should have been more valuable than Dalot, but less valuable than a Rashford or Bruno was to us, yet at United. This is actually why we've been so haphazard. We've let managers run roughshod over squads and allowed them to talk about them in poor ways without them ever having to acheive anything. LVG was allowed to come in, treat Di Maria and co terribly and tear apart our squad. Yet he only produced one month of good football in the space of 2 seasons. Rio and the senior squad alerted us of Moyes' poor trainings, yet despite their rapport and record of winning, we backed Moyes instead of the players and chose to select our next manager with an eye of punishing them for their malcontent. Moyes managed to last almost the entire season despite our senior squad clearly being unhappy with what they had to do. Mourinho was allowed to tear players apart in press conferences and somehow he was in the right because he was the manager. Despite his success elsewhere, he hardly managed to put together large sequences of good football. ETH was allowed to embarass with Ronaldo and DDG without every doing anything groundbreaking. Poor performances were automatically Maguire's fault or due to DDG's kicking. We allowed Amorim almost have us in a relegation fight, casting off players that we need midseason, for what?

Yet every single time these things happen. Despite different players, fans still talk about managers not being backed or players letting the manager down. We're the only club that does this. No player is bigger than the club, but the manager is not the club. The manager is an employee of the club that when proven, can be trusted on behalf of the club to act fairly on its behalf. We hire dictators, who we call saviours, who quickly look for anyone to blame to avoid doing their job effectively. That's why Madrid can sack Alonso in January, 4 points off the top in La Liga with a whole season to play for, and yet our fans can make excuses for Amorim finishing 15th , showing minimal progress and complaining about what he doesn't have whilst Mainoo warms the bench. Do people think Emery has every single player he needs in every position he wants them in, or does he, like any decent manager, use what he has available to him to get good performances?
Click to expand...

Some very good points here. Everyone's going for the jugular with Wilcox, Berrada and Vivell and I've seen so many folks now seemingly decry Amorim's sacking when the majority were panning him for months. The reality is that Amorim set himself up as Manchester United's saviour and made everything seem terrible at United. It was incredibly narcissistic to set himself up as a messianic figure, panning the players, the academy and setting himself at odds with the hierarchy. The best coaches maximise what they have and then build from there. I refuse to believe our squad's completely shit and we just need to keep replacing all the players. It needs work and has big holes, sure, but there's some great raw ingredients to work with.
 
SuperiorXI said:
How is it going to be paid for?
Click to expand...
How anything with that degree of capital expenditure is paid for, Debt. But debt isn't always a bad thing, if you owe someone 1 quid a day but it allows you to make 2 thats a good deal it depends on the structure. The reason the Glazer debt is bad is because they used the debt itself to buy the club with the clubs own money, there was no financial benefit to manchester united for that debt, its why you cant do that anymore in the UK. Taking on debt for a new stadium can be a good thing.
 
SparkedIntoLife said:
Some very good points here. Everyone's going for the jugular with Wilcox, Berrada and Vivell and I've seen so many folks now seemingly decry Amorim's sacking when the majority were panning him for months. The reality is that Amorim set himself up as Manchester United's saviour and made everything seem terrible at United. It was incredibly narcissistic to set himself up as a messianic figure, panning the players, the academy and setting himself at odds with the hierarchy. The best coaches maximise what they have and then build from there. I refuse to believe our squad's completely shit and we just need to keep replacing all the players. It needs work and has big holes, sure, but there's some great raw ingredients to work with.
Click to expand...

On paper, there is no world in which our squad is anything but good. It has holes, but its good.

Lammens, Yoro, De Ligt, Martinez, Shaw, Dalot, Mazraoui, Casemiro, Mainoo, Bruno, Mount, Amad, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko. That's a lot of talent. Players, even though not perfect, are currently internationals, that have put up great performances elsewhere and who don't look bad ( aside Sesko at times) when they play. Here's the thing, if we were simply just inconsistent due to our squad being stretched thin, then that would make sense. We're obviously missing midfielders and having another striker to take pressure off Sesko would be great, but its nowhere near dire. I've seen Arsenal, City and Liverpool go through periods without a strong no.9 or have a string of injuries that make their midfield shorthanded over the last five years. Yet they've still been able to play how they play. They might lose games, but they still dominate against who they expect to dominate against.

The lie that's been told about our squad over time has been their level of quality. It's one thing to compare us to City, its another when Brighton, Villa, and Bournemouth are an issue. I watch players week in, week out for the non-big 6, able to string passes together, defend compactly and create chances. Lindelof is being lauded as a decent defender for Villa as we speak. Yet some would have you think that our managers just have these terrible squads that are actually mid-table quality when all evidence says this is nonesense. Rashford is the same guy we were all annoyed at. Mctominay and Hojlund were laughed out of the club. I'm not saying we haven't had bad players like Antony, but as a squad, we are miles better than the Villa's and Brighton's even when we're just looking at depth. We've spent way more to get the players that we have, pay them way more, and despite having some busts, for the most part, they were signed because they played the game at a certain standard at some point. We also still see our main players shine for their national teams consistently, so its not the squad. It might not be good enough to challenge for the league due to gaps, but its more than good enough to consistently win easy home games.
 
Oo0AahCantona said:
How anything with that degree of capital expenditure is paid for, Debt. But debt isn't always a bad thing, if you owe someone 1 quid a day but it allows you to make 2 thats a good deal it depends on the structure. The reason the Glazer debt is bad is because they used the debt itself to buy the club with the clubs own money, there was no financial benefit to manchester united for that debt, its why you cant do that anymore in the UK. Taking on debt for a new stadium can be a good thing.
Click to expand...
That's the problem, you've highlighted exactly why it won't work for us. We're already saddled with crippling debt. More debt will make it worse.
 
“We’ve completed our review and in summary: we are worse at running this thing than the Glazers. Therefor effective immediately they are back in charge, so stop blaming us”
 
tjb said:
INEOS' fundemental mistake so far is buying into fan sentiment rather than creating and sticking to their own path on football matters.

Fans and pundits regarding club executives, so getting their initial approval should never be important. United, as a club, took away the wrong message from Ferguson's tenure, and as a result, we've been left behind in certain aspects.

Fergie, like Wenger, earned the respect he received. He became more valuable than the players after showing what he could do through success. He could kick Beckham/Stam out of the club, because the club respected his authority. The club did this, because he had proven over years that he could make good decisions, and in addition, he'd built rapport through the amount of success and trophies he had won. The same goes for Wenger and now Pep. Their careers gave them the power, not the position.

Madrid sacked Alonso because Mbappe and Vinicius are more valuable to the club than him at this time and he hasn't given them a reason to think otherwise with performances. The English media would call this player-power, but in reality, its living in the real world. Mbappe and Vinicius have shown their quality for Madrid over and over again, in similar ways to how Drogba, Lampard and Terry had done for Chelsea during the late 2000s/early 2010's.

The problem at a club like United is that we give managers Fergie levels of support and power without them ever having to do anything. We automatically value them over every member of the squad including legends without them even having to win games. We also relieve them of almost all initial blame and place it squarely on players without proof of concept. In reality, an Amorim in 2024 should have been more valuable than Dalot, but less valuable than a Rashford or Bruno was to us, yet at United. This is actually why we've been so haphazard. We've let managers run roughshod over squads and allowed them to talk about them in poor ways without them ever having to acheive anything. LVG was allowed to come in, treat Di Maria and co terribly and tear apart our squad. Yet he only produced one month of good football in the space of 2 seasons. Rio and the senior squad alerted us of Moyes' poor trainings, yet despite their rapport and record of winning, we backed Moyes instead of the players and chose to select our next manager with an eye of punishing them for their malcontent. Moyes managed to last almost the entire season despite our senior squad clearly being unhappy with what they had to do. Mourinho was allowed to tear players apart in press conferences and somehow he was in the right because he was the manager. Despite his success elsewhere, he hardly managed to put together large sequences of good football. ETH was allowed to embarass with Ronaldo and DDG without every doing anything groundbreaking. Poor performances were automatically Maguire's fault or due to DDG's kicking. We allowed Amorim almost have us in a relegation fight, casting off players that we need midseason, for what?

Yet every single time these things happen. Despite different players, fans still talk about managers not being backed or players letting the manager down. We're the only club that does this. No player is bigger than the club, but the manager is not the club. The manager is an employee of the club that when proven, can be trusted on behalf of the club to act fairly on its behalf. We hire dictators, who we call saviours, who quickly look for anyone to blame to avoid doing their job effectively. That's why Madrid can sack Alonso in January, 4 points off the top in La Liga with a whole season to play for, and yet our fans can make excuses for Amorim finishing 15th , showing minimal progress and complaining about what he doesn't have whilst Mainoo warms the bench. Do people think Emery has every single player he needs in every position he wants them in, or does he, like any decent manager, use what he has available to him to get good performances?
Click to expand...
This is a great post. It underlines an issue that fans have been sounding the alarms about for a decade. The glazers knowing nothing and caring very little about the club appointed their guy who also knew nothing about football, so they would hire a manager expecting it to be like when Fergie was in charge and they could sit by and collect the profits while the machine chugged along. That's why fans were clamoring for a DOF for over a decade. To have someone at least involved who knows the game. Its annoying and demoralizing that the finally appointed DOF gets sacked because he disagreed over who the next manager should be.
tjb said:
On paper, there is no world in which our squad is anything but good. It has holes, but its good.

Lammens, Yoro, De Ligt, Martinez, Shaw, Dalot, Mazraoui, Casemiro, Mainoo, Bruno, Mount, Amad, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko. That's a lot of talent. Players, even though not perfect, are currently internationals, that have put up great performances elsewhere and who don't look bad ( aside Sesko at times) when they play. Here's the thing, if we were simply just inconsistent due to our squad being stretched thin, then that would make sense. We're obviously missing midfielders and having another striker to take pressure off Sesko would be great, but its nowhere near dire. I've seen Arsenal, City and Liverpool go through periods without a strong no.9 or have a string of injuries that make their midfield shorthanded over the last five years. Yet they've still been able to play how they play. They might lose games, but they still dominate against who they expect to dominate against.

The lie that's been told about our squad over time has been their level of quality. It's one thing to compare us to City, its another when Brighton, Villa, and Bournemouth are an issue. I watch players week in, week out for the non-big 6, able to string passes together, defend compactly and create chances. Lindelof is being lauded as a decent defender for Villa as we speak. Yet some would have you think that our managers just have these terrible squads that are actually mid-table quality when all evidence says this is nonesense. Rashford is the same guy we were all annoyed at. Mctominay and Hojlund were laughed out of the club. I'm not saying we haven't had bad players like Antony, but as a squad, we are miles better than the Villa's and Brighton's even when we're just looking at depth. We've spent way more to get the players that we have, pay them way more, and despite having some busts, for the most part, they were signed because they played the game at a certain standard at some point. We also still see our main players shine for their national teams consistently, so its not the squad. It might not be good enough to challenge for the league due to gaps, but its more than good enough to consistently win easy home games.
Click to expand...
I wholly agree with this. The squad that Amorim inherited was most definitely flawed, however, it was good enough to achieve some semblance of results. I don't believe we are any worse than Villa, Brentford, or Newcastle yet those teams are above us in the table. You single out Antony as a bad player, but even he as I've mentioned in another post, was perfectly serviceable for a club looking to play a high-pressing possession based game as he was positionally aware, knew when to press, and how to hold onto the ball. He may not have been a high-flying winger but if your looking to play in a certain way he fits. That's why I think your exactly right that fan sentiment has buckled the club. Our fans denigrate Casemiro as someone who can't play possession football, yet he was great for Madrid who were great at holding onto the ball. With Mainoo and Bruno/Mount, that would be a midfield three that most clubs in the league would be envious of. Perfect match, no, but more than serviceable.
 
tjb said:
INEOS' fundemental mistake so far is buying into fan sentiment rather than creating and sticking to their own path on football matters.

Fans and pundits regarding club executives, so getting their initial approval should never be important. United, as a club, took away the wrong message from Ferguson's tenure, and as a result, we've been left behind in certain aspects.

Fergie, like Wenger, earned the respect he received. He became more valuable than the players after showing what he could do through success. He could kick Beckham/Stam out of the club, because the club respected his authority. The club did this, because he had proven over years that he could make good decisions, and in addition, he'd built rapport through the amount of success and trophies he had won. The same goes for Wenger and now Pep. Their careers gave them the power, not the position.

Madrid sacked Alonso because Mbappe and Vinicius are more valuable to the club than him at this time and he hasn't given them a reason to think otherwise with performances. The English media would call this player-power, but in reality, its living in the real world. Mbappe and Vinicius have shown their quality for Madrid over and over again, in similar ways to how Drogba, Lampard and Terry had done for Chelsea during the late 2000s/early 2010's.

The problem at a club like United is that we give managers Fergie levels of support and power without them ever having to do anything. We automatically value them over every member of the squad including legends without them even having to win games. We also relieve them of almost all initial blame and place it squarely on players without proof of concept. In reality, an Amorim in 2024 should have been more valuable than Dalot, but less valuable than a Rashford or Bruno was to us, yet at United. This is actually why we've been so haphazard. We've let managers run roughshod over squads and allowed them to talk about them in poor ways without them ever having to acheive anything. LVG was allowed to come in, treat Di Maria and co terribly and tear apart our squad. Yet he only produced one month of good football in the space of 2 seasons. Rio and the senior squad alerted us of Moyes' poor trainings, yet despite their rapport and record of winning, we backed Moyes instead of the players and chose to select our next manager with an eye of punishing them for their malcontent. Moyes managed to last almost the entire season despite our senior squad clearly being unhappy with what they had to do. Mourinho was allowed to tear players apart in press conferences and somehow he was in the right because he was the manager. Despite his success elsewhere, he hardly managed to put together large sequences of good football. ETH was allowed to embarass with Ronaldo and DDG without every doing anything groundbreaking. Poor performances were automatically Maguire's fault or due to DDG's kicking. We allowed Amorim almost have us in a relegation fight, casting off players that we need midseason, for what?

Yet every single time these things happen. Despite different players, fans still talk about managers not being backed or players letting the manager down. We're the only club that does this. No player is bigger than the club, but the manager is not the club. The manager is an employee of the club that when proven, can be trusted on behalf of the club to act fairly on its behalf. We hire dictators, who we call saviours, who quickly look for anyone to blame to avoid doing their job effectively. That's why Madrid can sack Alonso in January, 4 points off the top in La Liga with a whole season to play for, and yet our fans can make excuses for Amorim finishing 15th , showing minimal progress and complaining about what he doesn't have whilst Mainoo warms the bench. Do people think Emery has every single player he needs in every position he wants them in, or does he, like any decent manager, use what he has available to him to get good performances?
Click to expand...
Good post. I've been saying the same for years. United fans need to get over their superiority complex and stop treating all new managers as if they are the next Ferguson.
 
It's funny isn't it, we've got the Glazers hiding behind Ineos, and now we have Ineos using a United legend to try and deflect the attention from their total incompetence.

A tactic straight out of the Glazer playbook.
 
At this point, should INEOS just give in and sell? They have a lot to do to regain trust. Their transfers have been good, but their unending reviews are just tiresome. That Ten Haag decision was just so bad. He'd thrown the season away by February, they assessed him and he sucked for the time they were here. The idea they needed everyone in place to see with their eyes just how bad he was, and then still kept him on due to some of our "back the manager even if we get relegated" fans.

In hindsight, even allowing Amorim to stay past the Europa League final was idiotic. When they came in, we thought we were getting ruthless people, but its been so lily livered and slow.
 
Look we were in 5th and we weren't happy with that which is good. Why are we now writing this season off? Whoever is managing us should be hitting top 6 at worst once we get everyone back.

It's constant trial and error with players and managers and staff and yes we haven't found the balance this season but we have to keep fighting and improving. At least we are probably going to go back to 4 at the back.

We still need midfielders and to find really top wing backs from somewhere but it was always clearly a work in progress. I think we have a decent foundation
 
Last edited:
Ali Dia said:
Look we were in 5th and we weren't happy with that which is good. Why are we now writing this season off? Whoever is managing us should be hitting top 6 at worst
Click to expand...
Hope has just ebbed away on here after Amorim went, then when you see no sign of any new owners it doesn't give you much reason for optimism
 
tjb said:
INEOS' fundemental mistake so far is buying into fan sentiment rather than creating and sticking to their own path on football matters.

Fans and pundits regarding club executives, so getting their initial approval should never be important. United, as a club, took away the wrong message from Ferguson's tenure, and as a result, we've been left behind in certain aspects.

Fergie, like Wenger, earned the respect he received. He became more valuable than the players after showing what he could do through success. He could kick Beckham/Stam out of the club, because the club respected his authority. The club did this, because he had proven over years that he could make good decisions, and in addition, he'd built rapport through the amount of success and trophies he had won. The same goes for Wenger and now Pep. Their careers gave them the power, not the position.

Madrid sacked Alonso because Mbappe and Vinicius are more valuable to the club than him at this time and he hasn't given them a reason to think otherwise with performances. The English media would call this player-power, but in reality, its living in the real world. Mbappe and Vinicius have shown their quality for Madrid over and over again, in similar ways to how Drogba, Lampard and Terry had done for Chelsea during the late 2000s/early 2010's.

The problem at a club like United is that we give managers Fergie levels of support and power without them ever having to do anything. We automatically value them over every member of the squad including legends without them even having to win games. We also relieve them of almost all initial blame and place it squarely on players without proof of concept. In reality, an Amorim in 2024 should have been more valuable than Dalot, but less valuable than a Rashford or Bruno was to us, yet at United. This is actually why we've been so haphazard. We've let managers run roughshod over squads and allowed them to talk about them in poor ways without them ever having to acheive anything. LVG was allowed to come in, treat Di Maria and co terribly and tear apart our squad. Yet he only produced one month of good football in the space of 2 seasons. Rio and the senior squad alerted us of Moyes' poor trainings, yet despite their rapport and record of winning, we backed Moyes instead of the players and chose to select our next manager with an eye of punishing them for their malcontent. Moyes managed to last almost the entire season despite our senior squad clearly being unhappy with what they had to do. Mourinho was allowed to tear players apart in press conferences and somehow he was in the right because he was the manager. Despite his success elsewhere, he hardly managed to put together large sequences of good football. ETH was allowed to embarass with Ronaldo and DDG without every doing anything groundbreaking. Poor performances were automatically Maguire's fault or due to DDG's kicking. We allowed Amorim almost have us in a relegation fight, casting off players that we need midseason, for what?

Yet every single time these things happen. Despite different players, fans still talk about managers not being backed or players letting the manager down. We're the only club that does this. No player is bigger than the club, but the manager is not the club. The manager is an employee of the club that when proven, can be trusted on behalf of the club to act fairly on its behalf. We hire dictators, who we call saviours, who quickly look for anyone to blame to avoid doing their job effectively. That's why Madrid can sack Alonso in January, 4 points off the top in La Liga with a whole season to play for, and yet our fans can make excuses for Amorim finishing 15th , showing minimal progress and complaining about what he doesn't have whilst Mainoo warms the bench. Do people think Emery has every single player he needs in every position he wants them in, or does he, like any decent manager, use what he has available to him to get good performances?
Click to expand...

Fully agreed, I have been banging this drum for years. The obsession and deifying of managers needs to stop, they need to earn their trust and time in the same way any other employee does. You have people saying they want the manager to get time for stability reasons but have been wanting the DOF and CEO sacked in the same breath. So much of the "logic" used by those that obsess over the manager is just inconsistent with itself and with the logic used towards managers at other clubs.
 
tjb said:
At this point, should INEOS just give in and sell? They have a lot to do to regain trust. Their transfers have been good, but their unending reviews are just tiresome. That Ten Haag decision was just so bad. He'd thrown the season away by February, they assessed him and he sucked for the time they were here. The idea they needed everyone in place to see with their eyes just how bad he was, and then still kept him on due to some of our "back the manager even if we get relegated" fans.

In hindsight, even allowing Amorim to stay past the Europa League final was idiotic. When they came in, we thought we were getting ruthless people, but its been so lily livered and slow.
Click to expand...
Who can actually afford to buy their shares then?
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
I have no idea, but all I know is having them running the club, and the Glazers still as majority owners, is a crazy situation for the club to be in.

If Ineos want to make any difference they need to do it as majority owners, not with the scum that caused all the mess still lurking in the background.

I just can't get my head around what is going on, people say the Glazers are waiting until the stadium is built, but waiting for what? Are they expecting Ineos to fund and oversee it all and then take the majority of the profit from it?

It makes no sense to me, either the Glazers use the drag along clause, or Ineos buy them out, and soon, there is no other way.
Click to expand...
Wasn't that the deal that was signed?
 
steffyr2 said:
Wasn't that the deal that was signed?
Click to expand...
What? You think ineos is going to fund everything for the stadium? And the Glazers don't put a penny in? Who the feck would sign up for that?

Anyway, There's absolutely no way we can afford to build it until we get rid of the other 1.2b we already owe which is going to have to be renegotiated soon and it will not be cheaper than what we're having to pay now. So they will be waiting an awful long time for that to appear my magic.

We can't afford to buy any kind of midfielder than we're extremely desperate for but people think somehow we can afford to build a stadium for 3B plus? :lol:
 
spwd said:
What? You think ineos is going to fund everything for the stadium? And the Glazers don't put a penny in? Who the feck would sign up for that?
Click to expand...
To be fair, i think that was the deal. Any Ineos investment gets compensated with shares.
 
Zedd said:
This is a great post. It underlines an issue that fans have been sounding the alarms about for a decade. The glazers knowing nothing and caring very little about the club appointed their guy who also knew nothing about football, so they would hire a manager expecting it to be like when Fergie was in charge and they could sit by and collect the profits while the machine chugged along. That's why fans were clamoring for a DOF for over a decade. To have someone at least involved who knows the game. Its annoying and demoralizing that the finally appointed DOF gets sacked because he disagreed over who the next manager should be.

I wholly agree with this. The squad that Amorim inherited was most definitely flawed, however, it was good enough to achieve some semblance of results. I don't believe we are any worse than Villa, Brentford, or Newcastle yet those teams are above us in the table. You single out Antony as a bad player, but even he as I've mentioned in another post, was perfectly serviceable for a club looking to play a high-pressing possession based game as he was positionally aware, knew when to press, and how to hold onto the ball. He may not have been a high-flying winger but if your looking to play in a certain way he fits. That's why I think your exactly right that fan sentiment has buckled the club. Our fans denigrate Casemiro as someone who can't play possession football, yet he was great for Madrid who were great at holding onto the ball. With Mainoo and Bruno/Mount, that would be a midfield three that most clubs in the league would be envious of. Perfect match, no, but more than serviceable.
Click to expand...

Amorim, as a self proclaimed ‘manager’ along with Wilcox screwed up by not selling Bruno. Yes he’s our best player but at 30 you take the $120 and buy two CM’s especially when you’ve already signed Cunha and Mbuemu and have Amad and Mount for the attacking 10s positions. You don’t decide to transition Bruno into a cm and play him with Casemiro as your two cm. Amorim is gone, most likely for none football reasons. But Wilcox needs answering for that.
 
Brilliant article this, by Adam Bate on Sky Sports about Man United obsessed with looking backward and not forward. I'm quite surprised he went in two-footed on some of his Sky Sports colleagues (Neville and Keane):

https://www.skysports.com/football/...layers-as-club-keeps-looking-back-not-forward

Some of the stats are silly (Chelsea has won the league with nore individual managers than us) but I agree with the underlying message of the article
 
Glorio said:
Brilliant article this, by Adam Bate on Sky Sports about Man United obsessed with looking backward and not forward. I'm quite surprised he went in two-footed on some of his Sky Sports colleagues (Neville and Keane):

https://www.skysports.com/football/...layers-as-club-keeps-looking-back-not-forward
Click to expand...

The article is silly.

Fletcher showing videos of our great players to children is cited as evidence we're living in the past :lol:

Believe it or not most clubs contingency plans will involve those closely associated with the club because who else will be most likely to muck in urgently and be flexible while also committed when you're figuring things out?

Rangnick had no associations with the club and was brought in in an emergency and look how that went ffs
 
Just seen that apparently we are looking to arrange a mid season friendly to recoup some of the losses from exiting the cups early.

Surely that can't be true? It's like a non-league team having a family fun day at the stadium to raise a bit of cash.

Brian Potter will be there with that bouncy castle...
 
Drainy said:
The article is silly.

Fletcher showing videos of our great players to children is cited as evidence we're living in the past :lol:

Believe it or not most clubs contingency plans will involve those closely associated with the club because who else will be most likely to muck in urgently and be flexible while also committed when you're figuring things out?

Rangnick had no associations with the club and was brought in in an emergency and look how that went ffs
Click to expand...
As mentioned, there are instances cited that are a bit silly, however, the article on a whole is on the money with the point it's making. Nothing wrong with an internal interim head coach because this is an emergency. But any long term plan of looking to old players who haven't shown an aptitude for managing is exceedingly idiotic.

Scholes and Butt saying Keane's returning would be welcome?? And ironically comparing it to Ronaldo's return, which was another nostalgic misstep. Steve Bruce also being mentioned as a viable option? And then you have the whole 'United Way' - he's completely right the way Fergie's brilliant 2008 team played is not the same as the 99 team, and 2013 was not the same either. Fergie was masterful at adapting - there are certain principles like bravery & risk in attack that are continuous themes, but beyond that, there's no formation that represents 'The United Way'.

And he's right - being brave in attack and promoting bright young talents is something I cherish myself, but it's hardly unique
 
AdamColeBebe said:
Just seen that apparently we are looking to arrange a mid season friendly to recoup some of the losses from exiting the cups early.

Surely that can't be true? It's like a non-league team having a family fun day at the stadium to raise a bit of cash.

Brian Potter will be there with that bouncy castle...
Click to expand...
It was widely reported as being likely to happen well before the Brighton loss. Now there's a 13-day gap in the calendar it's almost certain they'll be heading to Saudi Arabia during that period.

Don't like the idea myself but the reality is that if they're offering £10m or so then the club aren't really in a position to turn that down.
 
Questions for everyone.

Everyone wants Glazers Out and seemingly the vast majority want INEOS out but what comes next. What's your "red line" for the next owner?

No to another leveraged buyout?
No to a nation state backed takeover?
 
- Delayed sacking of Ten Hag, when it was obvious he wasnt good enough
- Gave him 200M in the summer knowing he has no future
- Signed dross like Ugarte and Zirkzee that summer
- Hired a DOF after waiting months and paying millions, then sacked him because owner didnt like his advice
- Sacked Ten Hag when it was convenient, appointed a manager with a completely different system
- Squad lacked players in new system, didnt buy those players in subsequent windows. Squad needed a left wingback, we bought a technically deficient leftback
- Splunked another 200M after another disastrous season giving Amorim more time, when it was obviously not gonna work
- Spent 120M on players upgrading our best positions(Amad and Bruno), and 70M on another unproven striker
- Sacked Amorim because he played 3-4-3, when he was bought for his style of play, and then subsequently not given players to play that system
- Now we are 400-500M down, 2 managers down, squad is a mess suiting neither a 4-3-3 or a 3-4-3
- Sacrifice this season and bring in a nostalgia merchant coach, refusing to support him in January, but expecting top 4

Just get these clowns outta here man. These guys aint it.
 
Last edited:
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
Questions for everyone.

Everyone wants Glazers Out and seemingly the vast majority want INEOS out but what comes next. What's your "red line" for the next owner?

No to another leveraged buyout?
No to a nation state backed takeover?
Click to expand...
Remove the debt, ambition to be at the top, not just qualifying for CL but want to actually compete with City, Madrid, bayern and barca again. Beyond that i don't really care
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
Questions for everyone.

Everyone wants Glazers Out and seemingly the vast majority want INEOS out but what comes next. What's your "red line" for the next owner?

No to another leveraged buyout?
No to a nation state backed takeover?
Click to expand...

Given the price the Glazers would want for the club and the amount that would need to be invested on top of that State Ownership is probably the only viable option available to us, I dont think there is anyone else out there who could afford the club and would want to buy it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.