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"Finishing 2nd with this team a great achievement"

Betson

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Finishing 2nd was a great achievement considering the lack of quality in the squad , but Mourino has to take his fair share of the blame for bringing in some of that deadwood and not bringing in enough quality players.
 

Sterling Archer

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Saying someone is a cancer is just not offensive. Not in anyway. I say that as someone who is remembering their Mother who died of cancer 10-years ago this very day.
I'm sorry to hear about your mother. I can't imagine you ever really heal, only grow to accept life's tragedies.

My 24 year old cousin passed just last month from an aggressive lymphoma. Stings my heart like a dagger still.

I'm with you in that I am not specifically offended by that language. I actually was just wondering out loud thinking back to a recent debate on the forum about it. And I thought there was consensus that if it is so hurtful to even a few of us, why not just cut it out. Whatever.

Since we've broached the personal here let me add what I do actually find intolerable - the lack of proper education to the public about cancer. Indeed there's a genetic component and environmental one in triggering it. But the most significant step folks can take to prevent or better battle cancer is in their diet and yet this is dismissed over ''advances in research'. So for anyone who didn't know here, or lurkers that likewise had no idea:

dairy and processed meat promote cancer growth. The WHO classifies them as carcinogenic on the same level as radioactive isotopes.

maybe I should just start a general thread to get this off my chest. Meh
 

bosnian_red

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The problem with Mourinhos logic is that he played a big part in building a team that after 2 full seasons with him in charge, was so far off the pace and incapable of playing attractive football.
 

Reddy Rederson

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I never wanted jose here. That said, I grew to appreciate the man and the massive job he had to do. The squad has needed a massive clear out for years, and he wasnt going to be supported by woodward if he made any missteps. He did make missteps, his signings werent the best. He wanted to fix it, woody didnt give him the money to do so and that was that. People often say we are miles behind city. Jose with a blank check book would have gotten us there. The football wouldnt have been pretty. His general attitude would have been grating. But, we would have been challenging ever year he was here if he had been backed like he was at inter. Pep(the obvious comparison) makes mistakes but hes allowed to fix them, jose wasnt. So yeah, getting 2nd with this shower of shit was an amazing achievement. And had he been backed this year by woodward, we might even have kicked on to in that title race. Instead, we are back to square one.
 

12OunceEpilogue

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No. I dont. It was not a great achievement. It was luck. Luck and a great goalkeeper in great form.

Furthermore, after all that spending he did, it should not have been. We should be more than good enough for top 2. But he fecked up. He spent our budget on Bailly, Matic and Lukaku. He wasted our energy on Perisic and Willian.

He did not do anything to prevent us from buying Sanchez or Pogba, but failed to get anything from them.

Meaning I would agree if he said:


"I was so lucky to finish 2nd after fecking up so badly in the transfermarket."
I largely agree. Finishing second out of 20 in a top European league is definitely an achievement, and the inference Jose made with the words "with this team" is also valid considering we clearly don't have the greatest bunch of players just at the moment. But Jose can't divorce himself entirely from the inept squad building that's gone on here, the toxic mess he made of this season and/or assume that the addition of Alderweireld, Perisic or Willian would have made everything tickety boo here.
 

squamish

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Only one question, who brought in Sanchez to jeopardize the team, Mourinho or the board and Ed? It’s inexcusable.
 

Amadaeus

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The team was basically José team. The board backed him with £400m worth of players and he had control to tell some of those players he doesn’t want them at United anymore. If he believes that so much, then he has just admitted how incompetent he was as our manager. After three season, at the club, you can’t blame the players as these are they players that you have chosen to play for you. Even though Ole has stated that he was surprised about how much quality players we have, he has more reasons to be upset at these players because a lot of them, he probably wouldn’t have signed or kept.
 

shamans

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Jose' Signings:

Paul Pogba - 105,00 Mill. €
Henrikh Mkhitaryan - 42,00 Mill. €
Eric Bailly - 38,00 Mill. €
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Free Transfer
Romelu Lukaku - 84,70 Mill. €
Nemanja Matic - 44,70 Mill. €
Victor Lindelöf - 35,00 Mill. €
Alexis Sánchez - Free Transfer
Fred - 59,00 Mill. €
Diogo Dalot - 22,00 Mill. €
Lee Grant - 1,70 Mill. €

At this point in time, you can look through that list and shudder. 430million spent for fecks sake.
Not to mention the high wages for the free transfers. This should be a copy paste for all those defending Mourinho.
 

Champagne Football

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In the past Jose spending £400 million would have won the title. But he still will have the 3rd season meltdown because he hasn't got the first clue how to develop young players. So you have a situation where the 30 year olds he would spend hundreds of millions on such as Perisic, William, Matic, Alexis Sanchez are all over the hill after 1 good season.

In Jose's first stint at Chelsea he would just go to Spurs and say give me Harry Kane or Wolves and say give me Neves and he'd get them and look like a genius, but smaller clubs have much more power to hold onto players now, so you have to be able to develop your own kids to survive these days.

None of Rashford, Martial, Fred, Lukaku, Pogba developed under Jose so by the 3rd season you have a mix of young players who have stagnated and older players already over the hill and that is why we are in the Jose 3rd season mess.
 

Green_Red

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One thing that Ole said when he arrived was Man Utd dont take too many touches. 1 or 2 touches is all we should be seeing. Fast attacking football. Which is exactly what wrong seen in those first 10/11 games. That's not what we are seeing now. We've reverted back to taking too many touches and being too ponderous on the ball. That's fine against a bad team but teams like City will punish you because when they win the ball they are on the front foot and we're still in the slow ponderous mode. That's where I think we're majorly failing. Even last night how many times would Rashford have been in behind with a run if only Pogba or Lingard would have released the ball earlier. Our first couple of chances came when Shaw released the ball into the forwards quickly. Too much dilly dallying going on now again. We can only guess at whatd behind it. Fred was the best player on the pitch for me last night.
 

JG3001

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As others have stated, right or wrong, he was part of the problem, had a lot of investment and shunned his own signings. Near the end, a lot of posters on here knew the players were an issue along with Jose. It was a shame when he was sacked that half the players weren't sacked with him.
 

Schneckerl

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Not really. 81 pts - the difference to this season is De Gea played way better.
 

Inigo Montoya

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Jose' Signings:

Paul Pogba - 105,00 Mill. €
Henrikh Mkhitaryan - 42,00 Mill. €
Eric Bailly - 38,00 Mill. €
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Free Transfer
Romelu Lukaku - 84,70 Mill. €
Nemanja Matic - 44,70 Mill. €
Victor Lindelöf - 35,00 Mill. €
Alexis Sánchez - Free Transfer
Fred - 59,00 Mill. €
Diogo Dalot - 22,00 Mill. €
Lee Grant - 1,70 Mill. €

At this point in time, you can look through that list and shudder. 430million spent for fecks sake.
Was Fred really that much?

feck, and we baulk at spending money on Sancho

As for Lukaku???? Everton would have been laughing but they pissed that money away
 

ash_86

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Yes he was right.

But he assembled this squad so whats the point?
 

lsd

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The Jose revisionism is stupid and pointless, he finished 6th, 2nd and if we being extremely kind to him would have finished 6th this season but probably lower. He was taking the team in completely the wrong direction and his behaviour was an embarrassment.

Call it an achievement if you like but for me it was a fluke, his true level was 6th and given how easy that is I didn’t see anything to praise him for. You can be a pretty poor side and still finish 4th-6th, we still even have a chance of top 4 this season.

Have people forgotten where we were when he left?. If Jose was in charge we’d be battling Wolves, Watford, Leicester and Everton to finish in top half.

There is no way we were finishing in the top six with Jose this season . Pogba has won us most of the points under Ole and he wouldn't be playing under Jose for starters.

We would be in the bottom half same as Chelsea in his last year there before he got sacked
 

Adam-Utd

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Not really no, we aren't even better than we were in that season.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal all had bad seasons for different reasons. They've all improved this year and we have fallen into the squads natural position.

While he technically "did" finish 2nd, if I remember correctly we had plenty of occasions we nearly threw it away.
 

beedoubleyou

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I'm sorry to hear about your mother. I can't imagine you ever really heal, only grow to accept life's tragedies.

My 24 year old cousin passed just last month from an aggressive lymphoma. Stings my heart like a dagger still.

I'm with you in that I am not specifically offended by that language. I actually was just wondering out loud thinking back to a recent debate on the forum about it. And I thought there was consensus that if it is so hurtful to even a few of us, why not just cut it out. Whatever.

Since we've broached the personal here let me add what I do actually find intolerable - the lack of proper education to the public about cancer. Indeed there's a genetic component and environmental one in triggering it. But the most significant step folks can take to prevent or better battle cancer is in their diet and yet this is dismissed over ''advances in research'. So for anyone who didn't know here, or lurkers that likewise had no idea:

dairy and processed meat promote cancer growth. The WHO classifies them as carcinogenic on the same level as radioactive isotopes.

maybe I should just start a general thread to get this off my chest. Meh
Ah fair enough, I missed the debate. Though I'd say that to call a performance a train wreck or a car crash would be equally offensive to those who have lost their loved ones in those accidents. But yeah, whatever!

Sorry for your loss too. It's a shitter, but it happens and you concentrate on the good - though that appears an alien concept to many United fans!
 

Smores

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Of course it is, anyone saying otherwise is just being a salty little bitch. Which is evident from some of the tantrums at the suggestion.
 

Patrick08

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He built this himself and bought poor players like Matic, Mkh Lukaku while keeping deadwood like Mata, Jones, and then complain about how overrated we were and how well he did.
 

Suedesi

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Do you guys now agree with what Jose said earlier this season? The theory back then was that Jose was holding the players back by stifling their creativity and flair. Well, we have now lost 7 out of the last 9 and our performances are beginning to mirror those that we saw earlier in the season.

So is Ole stifling the creativity and flair out of this team? Is Ole asking them to be negative?Has Ole created a poisonous atmosphere around the training ground? If the answer is no, then why are we looking so hopeless right now? After all, Jose was the cancer that was plaguing the team. Now that the Cancers been removed, we should have been flying....
Don't agree in the slightest, we were miles from City and Liverpool clearly focused on the CL going all the way to the final.

Moreover, Mourinho was not a bystander, a free agent in the matter. He had principal responsibility to buy players and mold them into a cohesive team. To that effect, he brought Pogba, Zlatan, Mkhi, Bailly, Matic, Lukaku, Fred, Lindeloff, Dalot, Sanchez. 10 players. He failed. He was responsible for the shortcomings of the team, so he can't absolve himself of the blame.
 

Infra-red

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Unfortunately, you just know he will be looking on with a smug grin on his face, in full knowledge of the fact that there's no way we will surpass his 2nd place or Europa League win at any point in the next 3 or 4 years.
 

Smores

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He built this himself and bought poor players like Matic, Mkh Lukaku while keeping deadwood like Mata, Jones, and then complain about how overrated we were and how well he did.
Doesn't that just strengthen the point? We finished 2nd with this squad, the fact it's full of deadwood we need rid of to improve means 2nd place was an achievement.

No one is saying he deserves any credit for the squad he built. It's shit evidently, not that half of you would admit as such just a few month ago.
 

Charles Miller

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The Mourinho revisionism larely has been pitiful

Finishing 2nd,20 points back of the champions.
I think this is the point. Its not really the 'second". Its more like the first of the losers. If it was at least a battle like City x Liverpool this season would be a different history.
 

JPRouve

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"We are much better organised in the areas that support the first-team squad. We are much better organised at every level. So we will go for it this season. We are going to try to win the title."
This is what the man said in August 2017, by finishing at 19 points of first we clearly failed to achieve our goals, the goals that he set. Now maybe he is somehow only responsible for the positives while all the negatives are the fruits of others.
 

Man of Leisure

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Sad to say, but I think it's a given that we're not winning the league again until Pep and Klopp are gone. Regardless of what transfers we bring in. Could be much longer, mind you.
 

tomaldinho1

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This is what the man said in August 2017, by finishing at 19 points of first we clearly failed to achieve our goals, the goals that he set. Now maybe he is somehow only responsible for the positives while all the negatives are the fruits of others.
Exactly selective memories.

Jose was second highest spender in the league, falling out with everyone, not playing the players he bought and damaging the 'brand' of the club with his approach to games. He makes out 2nd was a good achievement which would have been true if it was a title race but we were just the least crap out of the others. We gave him all the shiny new toys he wanted, he failed, we gave him a load more, he failed again, we stopped giving him shiny toys, he capitulated.
 

el3mel

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I doubt we'll ever be able to finish 2nd again in the upcoming 5 years or so.

Any thread with Mourinho in its name has some very childish comments in it. Very RAWKish in terms of hatred.
 

haram

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Mourinho was right. Woodward was wrong. Woodward is wrong. Woodward will always be wrong.
 

Vernon Philander

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Unfortunately, you just know he will be looking on with a smug grin on his face, in full knowledge of the fact that there's no way we will surpass his 2nd place or Europa League win at any point in the next 3 or 4 years.
Which will mean he was right all along....
 

TsuWave

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Using Solskjaer’s failures and incompetence to prop up Mourinho’s is creative because it manages to absolve both of responsibility
 

Kill 'em all

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This is no manager's mess. It's the club's mess at the end of the day because there's no direction in what we're doing. We sign players for the sake of signing players with no idea where we want this team to go and that's the real problem. We've been stuck in the same sequence since the retirement of Sir Alex and it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon unless we make some drastic changes in the way the club is managed.
 

Jonno

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He spent big on the wrong signings. He had plenty of money to spend and he bought the wrong players.

However last season WAS a great achievement, whatever anyone says. Trying to win the PL with Young, Valencia, Jones, Smalling Rojo Bailey etc in the backline, with a backline that changes every game for about 5 years, is embarrassing.
 

Keeps It tidy

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Unfortunately, you just know he will be looking on with a smug grin on his face, in full knowledge of the fact that there's no way we will surpass his 2nd place or Europa League win at any point in the next 3 or 4 years.
We would be one of the favorites for the Europa League if we were in it again next season.
 

GM K

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Finishing 2nd was a great achievement considering the lack of quality in the squad , but Mourino has to take his fair share of the blame for bringing in some of that deadwood and not bringing in enough quality players.
Yes, it was a great achievement. And remember the same team got to the FA Cup Final.

Mourinho's downfall was promarily due to his frankness with the players, Woodward/the board and the fans. He was pissed off with the back tracking on building on last season's achievements and this spilled over. He had his faults and contributed to the problems we have now but I have no doubt that if he had the backing he wanted, we would be in the title race right now.