Fair point, Conte let’s it out pretty quickly which is why he was never an option for us.
ETH: "We need new players and quality players. We will try and convince them to join." | Mirror: ETH believes FDJ will join Utd over Chelsea
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Watched Match of the Day last night. At the very end of the review of the Brentford vs Utd. game Alan Shearer said something really strange: "I'm convinced that someone at Man United leaked the Arnautovitch story, just to gauge the reaction. The reaction was so bad, they had to pull out....". What did he mean?
Apparently ETH wanted the player, but whoever higher up decided to do this (if Shearer is correct) was basically undermining him and together with other broken promises, he must be wondering what he has got himself into.
It was all very odd, because when he spoke I actually thought.... 'whoa is he having a go at the Manchester United fans there for trying to keep their club away from a toxic player?' Neither Gary Lineker or Micah Richards picked him up on the remark or asked him what he meant, but they had spent ages on the game already.
the abuse I got for saying that a a month or so ago...
Pre-season was the antithesis of prepared - it was an absolute disaster. One myself and others were banging on about well before we even played the games. We compounded that by then not giving new players to the league and team any prep time with their teammates and more crucially, partners in vital areas of the pitch.
Martinez has zero chemistry or understanding with his keeper, CB partner or full-back; Malacia has no understanding of his CB, midfield or his flank forward; Eriksen is being bounced around midfield with zero chemistry or consistency to his team-mates.
This is why you buy succinctly and give new signings as much time to familiarise themselves in a new team and environment as humanly possible. Especially so when you're coming off your clubs' worst season in PL history.
Even if we get new signings in of any worth this remaining period of the window, by the time they've bedded in and gone through the exact same process as above, we're talking November or October if we're lucky, before they have any cohesion in a new team, system and environment.
So our summer has been an absolute, avoidable disaster, which we will pay well into the season proper for. In fact, even if we got 3 stellar signings through the doors now (we won't), the amount of points dropped during their bedding period will probably prove to be unsalvageable, as in, by the end of the season, points dropped at the start of the season proving the difference between what is and what could've been.
You had posters going on about it being savvy to save millions on transfers by waiting out the other party - that only works if your need is less than theirs. Those same 'saved' millions being lost 4-fold because you've now missed crucial bonding time and now won't qualify for the CL because you're paying catch-up months into the season, make all involved look even more incompetent and wholly unprepared for the season that is to come.
This could rank as our worst transfer window of the post-Fergie era; right now it's out there as the frontrunner for the reasons outlined.
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What the feck was the point of hiring McLaren?
Last season he was on Sky Sports every week saying the team is not good enough. Surely he must have communicated this to Ten Haag !
I said as much about his pl knowledge ahead of games
Leopards don't change their spots
The "good pre-season fooled him posts" are beyond bizarre, because I as a random person on the internet who's been watching football for years is able to tell you that pre-season doesn't mean much (whether good or bad), but you're telling me an experienced manager was able to be lulled into a false sense of security because of a few pre-season wins? Yeah not buying that.
You can’t still be arguing that the players are fine and just need the right coach?
First of all it’s not likely that Conte would wave a wand with this rabble; he would have tried to change most of the players and would end up chucking his toys across the stadium.
Secondly, if there is only one coach in the world who could get a tune out of the players, it’s really not a coaching problem.
We also spend money stupidly, unnecessarily and have never really strengthened where we needed to.
2013 - Moyes needed a replacement for our most important player (Scholsey), a DM to solidfy us when Kagawa played and wingbacks. A long term replacement for centreback was also vital.
We signed Fellaini and then went and got Mata in January. Moyes was quickly sacked.
2014 - Van Gaal needed a left back, a playmaker, a lively winger and playmaker defenders.
We got all necessary targets - surprisingly efficient window
2015 - needed a striker, right back, winger to replace Di Maria and a DM capable of passing from the back. While every position was arguably filled, we didn't get the necessary quality. Still, not bad.
- It is at this point it all falls apart, because every single player we have bought needs to be replaced to fit the new Manager -
2016 - Mourinho, new style, new players. Physically strong players on the agenda- needed a new backline, aerially dominant DM, physcially dominant striker and stronger midfielders. Signed players who fit more with Van Gaal's style + Bailly and Ibra.
2017 - Half the team was too physically slight and lacked the physicality for the style of football Mourinho wanted - New striker, DM, two centrebacks, defensive fullbacks, hard working wingers and stronger midfielders all needed.
We signed 3 that he needed (Lukaku, Lindelof and Matic) + Sanchez for crazy money.
2018 - needed a hard working midfielder, stronger fullbacks, physically dominant centrnebacks and still needed hard working wingers.
Got Fred, so technically 1 out of 5/6 players.
-Mourinho experiment ends while he is still 5-6 players away from having a team that fits his style -
2019 - Ole. Pogba clearly needs to be replaced, a striker is desperately needed, hardworking winger still needed. Ole enthuses about a more posession based style of football.
We sign the players Mourinho needed the previous season in Maguire (physically dominant CB), Wan Bissaka (defensive fullback), and Dan James (hard working and quick winger).
Players who did not fit what the manager said publicly. Bruno was probably the only one close to it.
2020 - Don't know what the hell happened here. Needed midfielders, striker and wingers, as Ile went in for a more direct style - wound up with prospects and Donny. Seem to be part of the new and badly executed "data driven approach".
2021 - a window that initially made a lot of sense with the exception of Cristiano. Pogba's meltdown was complete and the man management was so bad that everything collapsed.
- As Ole's experiment ends, we sit there with players mostly incapable of playing a posession style, and a team close to being decent at more direct style that Mourinho worked towards -
Today - New style, again, means that we need new players in virtually every position aside from a handful of players who can play the requisite style of football.
We, so far, get three signings in the door at a point where we need 6 to solidify the spine of the team and have something to build on.
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Completely rebuilding a team in the opposite direction every 3 years is expensive, especially when the willingness to do so properly just isn't there.
I’m sure he saw that we were actually a bit shit in pre-season despite a couple of wins.
What's even worse is we've lost absolutely all leverage we would've entered the market with in June; now, any agent worth their salt is demanding far more for their client to come here than would've two months ago. Penalties for us being a dysfunctional mess who are absolutely desperate for players.
It's incompetence on a level I cannot get my head around, and could not care less if it's not 'football people' running the show: anyone with financial wits about them should have a basic grasp of how any market works without having to understand anything like the minutiae of it.
It's incompetence on a level I cannot get my head around, and could not care less if it's not 'football people' running the show: anyone with financial wits about them should have a basic grasp of how any market works without having to understand anything like the minutiae of it.
Yeah all good points. Worth mentioning that LVG claimed not to get any of the actual players he really wanted even if some of the right positions were filled. Pinch of salt but probably true.
I'm asking for a third time, where is the quote in the OP from?
I hate how I'm already worrying about this. I expected more of these players to be axed, and now we've still got the same toxic squad for the most part.
It will be utter carnage if this ends up going that way again, the toxicity in the fanbase towards the club will be like no other ever. I just hope as fans the anger is put at the right targets.
Sky sports post match interview
On to the 3rd game of the season with liverpool of all teams. Criminal that we’re basically no different to last seasons shite show. Only two new signings starting yesterday is just insane to me.
I’m team ETH all the way.. but he needs to realise real quick that he isn’t a miracle worker.
I’m team ETH all the way.. but he needs to realise real quick that he isn’t a miracle worker.
Thanks
We can still offer a lot but we need to be humble and stop chasing high profile names like were madrid, man City etc.. we are living in the past
This is part of the problem. Teams half built for one style of play then switching yo a different manager/playing style will always be exposed. I think Maguire would have been ok under Jose.
Poor mentality is also key. Tolerating and keeping the likes of Martial/Shaw/Pogba etc etc - You need to ostracise and remove players without the required committed driven mentality - otherwise it infects the rest of the dressing room The likes of Rashford had a brilliant mentality but watching influential people like Pogba half-arse it is bound to rub off. Its a broken team mentally.
The boards recruitment has been a total shambles this summer - it was all about a big refresh / restart and ETH is left with a threadbare squad of proven failures.
They fooled everybody not for the first time either, like they fool everybody into thinking everything is the managers fault time and time again.
After two games any of us knows this. ETH is a supposed genius manager. He should have known this before getting trashed. It's a weak PR statement
Much more likely to tell us to feck off entirely. Who would want to play in that team?!?
Frenkie Update: ETH believes he wants to join, club aware of £17m deferred wages | Gakpo other target but signing dependent on sales
Ten Hag is on crack
My thoughts exactly. This guy has gone full on FM.
That is a very low budget for the highest revenue club in the world who skipped a January window to have significant funds to strengthen the squad...
It’s not too bad if we behaved like every other club and actually made some money from selling players. Look at how much money City made from outgoings this window. Add that to a 150m budget and we’d have serious wedge to invest in our squad. It’s our inability to sell players, going back several years, that is screwing us.
The budget is fine on its own. The question is whether we are capable or willing to rip the squad up. We can barely sell players let alone ones that are performing as badly as our lot are.
Expect what Shearer said was nonsense. We actually did make a 3m pounds offer for the player, and it was first reported by Italian Journalists. I doubt that was united leaking.
I wonder why Shearer will have an idea about the inner workings at United. It is actually one of my grouse with sports journalism/punditry, so called pundits putting baseless ideas out there for fans to feed off of and more often than not get negative emotions running.
First big test is coming up with Rashford it seems, if they give him a new contract then we know nothing has changed. Any serious club would sell him if that offer was legitimate.
Just pay it at this stage. Sell McFred for 50m total and buy your winger.
We are desperate now
We are desperate now
United needs to adjust their transfer strategy and adapt it to the current situation where the best players are out of reach.
I think it’s a bad idea to buy old and often second, third or fourth alternatives in order to keep head above water.
United will never become a consistent title challenger with this strategy, example
I think it’s a bad idea to buy old and often second, third or fourth alternatives in order to keep head above water.
United will never become a consistent title challenger with this strategy, example
- Arnautovic
- Eriksen
- Rabiot
- Cavani
- Varane
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Fair point. We can't even sell Cristiano Ronaldo
Ego driven flaky players downed the tools towards the end of Oles term someone they were meant to respect, never picked the tools up for Rangnick who called things as they were and thus far Ten Haag is getting the same treatment.
He'll need to be ruthless on his selections now and needs some help in transfer market but latter will be hard when clueless bankers remain in control of transfers.
He'll need to be ruthless on his selections now and needs some help in transfer market but latter will be hard when clueless bankers remain in control of transfers.
It’s not that low when you consider how much deadwood we need to get rid of.
Why is Bailly still here? Why is Jones still here? Wan Bissaka? All these players should have gone out for, even if only for fees of 5-6 mill to add another 15 - 20 mil to the budget and free up more wage space.
But the ridiculous contracts we hand out means no one wants to take our deadwood and we have to wait until their contracts expire.
We can't sell anyone because we think that the prices we're being quoted for players is fair market. What they don't realise is that our players are dog shit and not worth £80m
Conte demands high standards which is why he was never the first choice for us despite clearly being the best candidate
Or the business man tries to shoestring with the classic "we try".
What I meant is that for example, Dortmund asking price for Sancho in 2020 may mean we couldn't have sign Amad and Pellistric. However, by saving that bit on Sancho, at this moment, we still paid the same with Amad, and Pellistic no where near good enough for first team. In business sense, we now have 3 assets on the book, and from some angle maybe deemed as shrewd. And by doing so, we look like we're active in both transfer window, when in reality, squad building wise, we progressed slowly with Sancho by taking 2 transfer window.
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