ESPN: Man Utd told Ten Hag to lower hopes for the season

TheReligion

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Tbh with you, I post a ton of smiley emoji's on the Caf these days out of the sheer meltdowns/negativity on the boards which just cannot be countered or reasoned with. Don't get me wrong, I don't bury my head in the sand and pretend everything is perfect at the club, but there isn't a current active thread which hasn't been infested with extreme negativity.
No I know.

Sad thing is some decent posters will start to avoid the Caf or stop posting because of it.
 

villain

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It’s not a surprise journalists bait our fans so much.

the state of our fan base ffs
 

alexanderplatz

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Love the club
look Eric you need to get comfortable with being outplayed by Brighton if you’re going to make it around here
 

Rams

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He can’t be fired then, whatever it happens, but it’s probably that we can see a frank de boer like start of the season

Looking for the game against Brentford
I can assure you that ETH is nothing like Frank de Boer. Ajax fans will be pissing in their pants reading this post.
 

BD

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I can only assume none of you read the article?

The headline is sensationalist, as they always are, but try actually looking beyond it.
I didn't, no. Just found the headline/thread title funny. Is that not ok?
 

Acole9

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Don't waste your time reading it. Just a load of guff, that fella who tweeted the article is a proper doom merchant generally anyway.
 

Will Singh

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If that’s true then it just goes to show that they don’t give a flying feck for the club and it’s all business for them. Google reviews here I come….!
 

redcucumber

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It’s not a surprise journalists bait our fans so much.

the state of our fan base ffs
I'd say it's about inline with the state of our club, to be fair.

I mean, the headline might be sensationalist, but look at how we're reacting to finishing 6th, scoring as many as we conceded and getting taken apart by our biggest rivals, both home and away. We tried to sign a 33 year old Arnautovic, a player banned for racism. What do people actually think of our clubs general direction under the Glazer's stewardship? People in here deride other reds that are reacting to negative headlines about Utd, but look at the fecking state of the club. We're in disarray and have been since Fergie left. Negative direction from the top breeds negative squad building and performances which naturally breeds a negative fan base.

Loads of people were apprehensive going into the Brighton game following a shoddy summer, lo and behold those fears were realised within 45 minutes. It's mental that Joe Bloggs on the web can see we aren't fit for purpose yet the club are always a day late and a dollar short. It's tedious.
 

TheReligion

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I'd say it's about inline with the state of our club, to be fair.

I mean, the headline might be sensationalist, but look at how we're reacting to finishing 6th, scoring as many as we conceded and getting taken apart by our biggest rivals, both home and away. We tried to sign a 33 year old Arnautovic, a player banned for racism. What do people actually think of our clubs general direction under the Glazer's stewardship? People in here deride other reds that are reacting to negative headlines about Utd, but look at the fecking state of the club. We're in disarray and have been since Fergie left. Negative direction from the top breeds negative squad building and performances which naturally breeds a negative fan base.

Loads of people were apprehensive going into the Brighton game following a shoddy summer, lo and behold those fears were realised within 45 minutes. It's mental that Joe Bloggs on the web can see we aren't fit for purpose yet the club are always a day late and a dollar short. It's tedious.
People are getting flamed as they didn’t bother to read the article and fell for the clickbait headline hook, line and sinker. Rightly so.

It doesn’t mean the people flaming them are happy with how things are at the club you know?
 

afrocentricity

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Yeah because glory hunters would definitely follow United with all our recent success
I hope you're right and eventually most of them feck off... Thanks for reminding me of the silver lining.
 
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Blood Mage

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Speculative reporting yes but it's likely that the Glazers have indeed written this season off already, the pathetic transfer window would seem to point towards that.
 

Oranges038

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Sums it up doesn’t it? A set back when the club withdrew from the deal itself.
I find the headlines and the wording funny, sensationalist headline = 2 paragraphs of nothing. These people are supposed to be sports journalists....

Aside from that they include Balotelli in the headline. When it was a throw away comment from Ogden I think, where he said about Arnautovic that they may as well go and sign Balotelli.

I normally don't read that shite but I got a good giggle out of it.
 

justsomebloke

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Boehly has no clue what he’s doing & is spunking money left right and center, it’ll all come crashing down soon enough.
Disagree. I think their signings so far seem well considered, both in terms of player quality and relative to team needs.
 

justsomebloke

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I really don't see why this should be considered obvious bollocks or made up. It may be, of course. But there's nothing inherently or obviously implausible about it, as far as I can see.
 

afrocentricity

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Definitely! Hope all is well your side brother.
Mate, things have been getting better and better ever since... You know ;) - Life is good right now I cannot complain!

What about you? All good I hope?
 

justsomebloke

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Some of the players were “affected” by Ralf’s comments. Rather than proving him wrong, they threw the towel in and are now using the comments as an excuse this season. If a player is not confident then that’s probably down to knowing they can’t cut it IMO. Yes, a couple of weeks of shakey confidence is fine, but season after season? Maguire is always referring to confidence in interviews as well.
I don't think that effect should be easily dismissed as something the players should just be able to shrug off. Ralf Rangnick pretty much made it clear he thought the current squad simply lacked the quality to succeed, and cogently explained why, in public. There was little to disprove that view on the pitch, and by now pretty much everyone believes this is simply the reality. So why shouldn't the players believe it too?

This is the thing. You can't have a manager say stuff like that, and then not act on it. If you're prepared to blow up the squad and start over, it's helpful to have your manager say things like that in public, but if you aren't then it really just adds to the problems. And this is where we are - made the whole world believe we're rubbish, and then try to act as if everything's on track.
 

Leftback99

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It would be concerning if he did have high hopes with this squad.
 

Chesterlestreet

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The story is a) most likely pulled from the writer's own arse and b) poorly written.

So - yeah. Not much to see here.

ESPN really is shite these days.

(Perhaps they've always been shite - but I seem to remember that they weren't this shite/clickbaity back in the day.)
 

The_Order

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In reality though what are our realistic expectations...

Absolute horror show last year. You cannot fix that in one summer under a new manager. This is going to take time. Top four is beyond us at the moment. Even if we were fortunate to get Frankie to sign on the dotted line it would be still beyond us in my opinion. All those around us look to have strengthened considerably. It will take 2-3 windows for ETH to get the players he needs to implement his system into the club. We were awful last season with a toxic dressing room. You cant polish that up no matter how good a manager you are. Some elements of the toxicity have been moved on. I am sure there are still some remaining.

My only concern is the lack of patience from the fanbase. If we are sitting in 7th or 8th by the time the world cup comes around there will be huge portions of the fanbase calling for his head. And then the merry go round will start again. I believe as a fanbase we need to lower our expectations whilst the manager cleans house. Its not been an ideal transfer window but that said there is still time .
This tbh.