Finishing 3rd, 33 points off PL winners, and no Trophy (yet) is utter rubbish and shouldn't be celebrated...

[Viral United]

I celebrate because this team exceed my expectation in league position.
I celebrate because I can see progress in this team.
I celebrate because first time in 7 years it look like we are going in right direction.

If everything go south next season then so be it, but I don't understand why anyone can't be optimistic right now.

Life is too short mate, I would rather celebrate what I have then moan what I don't have.

 

[Leftback99]

I'm not 'celebrating' i'm just happy that we can continue to progress on the most promising side we've had for many years even if we're still far from competing for the top spot. Securing champions league is an important part of that progression, another season of lower incomes and Thursday night football would have stalled us somewhat.

16/17 was the best season before this and you can talk about the points total in 17/18 but neither felt like a team that was going far longer term. We had a 35 year old up front 16/17 and in 17/18 results were far better than performances deserved.

 

[Valuedrug]

I'm reading lots of posters essentially celebrating what has been one of the crappest seasons overall in years, and it's hypocritical imo as well as a little pathetic.

This has been a fecking crap season, dippers winning the PL, no trophies yet and with Utd closer in points to relegation zone than to the top of the PL.

I've seen multiple posters claim this is their favourite season post Fergie (!!??). Since Fergie retired we've...

Finished 2nd - 19 points off winning the PL

Won an FA Cup

Won the Europa League

Won the League Cup

How the feck is finishing 3rd, no trophy, 33 points off the top, 32 points off the relegation zone now something to be fecking celebrated?

Ole should no doubt keep the job after securing CL footy, but please, please don't put this manager's plight above that of Utd itself, because it's an easy slide into mediocrity.

There are plus points about this season - few decent signings, one really special signing, more goals - but there's nothing that any fan of Man Utd should be actively celebrating.

It was a crap season, and the attitude should be, 'must do better next time', not 'that'll do', and certainly not, 'yay, what an achievement!'.

I think I agree with the sentiment here, though I can certainly see why people would feel like this was their favorite season post-Ferguson given the effect of recency bias and all. I mean...look at what you're comparing it too, really. LVG was an interesting character, we won some good games under him, had a few nice moments, but was there ever any real hope for the future with him at the helm? Mourinho's first season certainly had highlights, but it only rarely felt like we we're really going places with his style and personality. What a venomous, narcissistic fool.

At least in spells under Ole we have actually played attacking football and been quite creative. I personally don't rate him that much for managing a top side, not much of a leader in him as far as I can tell, and not a lot of trophies are won without some level of charisma with the main man I think. But at least his desire (apart from desperately wanting to keep this job, at any cost) is to reinvigorate United in the mold of something most United fans are pining for. I don't think it will ever get us beyond top four and maybe one of the smaller trophies, but I do hope I'm wrong.

By the way - and I'm speaking directly to the Ole Cult now - is it possible for at least five of you to personally quote and berate me for not unconditionally supporting the Glorious Leader in all his splendor? I get a bit of kick out of it, you know.

Thanks in advance, boys.

 

[Grande]

Likewise, since before Fergie, we'll agree to disagree...

Though out of interest, how many goals have you scored for Utd?

Take an educated guess.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

People aren’t celebrating “3rd and no trophies”. If you can’t see that then you are being intentionally obtuse.

People are celebrating a ridiculous unbeaten run that saw us 14 points off Leicester all the way to beating them on the final day to achieve something unthinkable during the winter. People are celebrating what’s undoubtedly the most encouraging side we’ve had since SAF left, with an attacking verve and exciting talent flowing through the club again, much of it really young. People are celebrating what has been a practically flawless return from an unprecedented and strange break that saw us as the most in form team in the league after the restart. People are celebrating that for the first time we aren’t looking at massive gaping holes in the first XI that need to be filled, and are instead looking to make improvements with the right players instead of needing yet another massive clear out.

Yeah the season as a whole wasn’t amazing, but I’m not gonna sit and bitch about how dreadful we were 9 months ago, I did plenty of that already way back then. Instead I’ll appreciate what we just pulled off to save our ass, and look forward to next season when we really look to have some exciting times coming.

 

[zenith]

Some folks are such miserable sods, they cannot find happiness in anything.

What's there not to celebrate in an incredible unbeaten run that saw us coming back from way behind to overtake Leicester.

 

[Revan]

By far the best league campaign since Ferguson. If you don’t get it - I guess supporting United ain’t for you.

At best, third best season since SAF left (providing we do not win Europa). If you don’t get it - I guess supporting United ain’t for you.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

OP makes some valid points.

 

[ReddevilTinu]

I don't think the manager or the players celebrated when we beat Lecister City. This shows the standards that are being set by Ole. He knows that the club needs to be competing or be Champions. The players may have been happy with 3rd place finish since we play CL and their contracts would also have better pay with CL and we are competitive in transfer market.

3rd place finish is also better than 4th since we get more money from PL for the finish which can be invested in the squad. Few seasons back when AW was Gunners manager they celebrated 4th place finish like they have won PL. The standards are getting improved at the club rejoice for the same.

 

[Member 113277]

This is heights of entitled behavior. No one club has a monopoly of winning the league or challenging for it every year. So what if we are Man Utd who have been successful in the past?

Spot on, mate. Look at Liverpool, the sense of entitlement is awful. They had a great team, didn't rebuild it properly and spent 30 years wandering in the metaphorical desert before appointing a manager who rebuilt skilfully and made them competitive again.

The funniest quip I heard in this period was a posting on another forum 'Dippers to play in Europe again' when Cardiff got promoted to the PL.

No club is too big to fail, no club has the right to a PL place,constant hard work and rebuilding keeps you in the healthy part of the lifecycle.

The way we were spiralling down was extremely concerning and I am so pleased that Ole has got us back to the important first principles - now the rebuilding must continue to build a team that is genuinely competitive.

 

[Champ]

Who's celebrating?
I think people are just happy because we turned this season around after a shocking first half.
Champions League qualification news a must for us this season, both financially and to improve our status as a club.
The fact we have it and could yet get a trophy and appear to be on a steady incline at last and it's worth being happy about.
I'll celebrate if we win the Europa though.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

I'm reading lots of posters essentially celebrating what has been one of the crappest seasons overall in years, and it's hypocritical imo as well as a little pathetic.

This has been a fecking crap season, dippers winning the PL, no trophies yet and with Utd closer in points to relegation zone than to the top of the PL.

I've seen multiple posters claim this is their favourite season post Fergie (!!??). Since Fergie retired we've...

Finished 2nd - 19 points off winning the PL

Won an FA Cup

Won the Europa League

Won the League Cup

How the feck is finishing 3rd, no trophy, 33 points off the top, 32 points off the relegation zone now something to be fecking celebrated?

Ole should no doubt keep the job after securing CL footy, but please, please don't put this manager's plight above that of Utd itself, because it's an easy slide into mediocrity.

There are plus points about this season - few decent signings, one really special signing, more goals - but there's nothing that any fan of Man Utd should be actively celebrating.

It was a crap season, and the attitude should be, 'must do better next time', not 'that'll do', and certainly not, 'yay, what an achievement!'.

When we won most of those trophies and came 2nd in the league we were absolute dross and the football was terrible.
We now have something that resembles a team and best of all its young and hungry, this team has more promise and is more exciting than any team we’ve had since Fergie left.

Now as for celebrating finishing 3rd, it’s a great achievement considering where we came from to get it and we broke records to get ourselves in to position to do it. Why shouldn’t that achievement be acknowledged. Sure it’s not where we want to be but it’s a darn sight better and promising for the future than those previous seasons if you ask me.

We were terrible that season we finished 2nd.

 

[trafford1980]

OP makes some valid points.

OP really needed to temper his expectations before the season kicked-off.

He must have been the most optimistic United supporter on the planet to have predicted anything near a title chase back in August.

Most pundits marked us finishing 4th or lower and that was before Pogba was ruled out for over 1/2 the season.

Yes we finished 33 points behind Liverpool, but so did Chelsea. Last year's Champions League finalists (Spurs) finished 40 points behind them.

How many points clear of 4th placed Chelsea should have United finished to have deemed this season respectable?

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

More relief for me.

I don't know why people keep rejecting the points argument though.

There's no point comparing point totals from 10 or 20 years ago, but you can certainly use it from last season to gauge progression.

We did well to finish 3rd considering our position in December, but 66 points was the tally for 3rd. I am pretty sure that's the lowest points tally for 3rd in a long time.

We did make tangible progress with our goals conceded stat and goal difference.

I do hope we don't rest on our laurels though. I know COVID-19 will make it difficult, but we need to use this window to strengthen and hit on every signing.

We can't afford another poor start next season.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

OP really needed to temper his expectations before the season kicked-off.

He must have been the most optimistic United supporter on the planet to have predicted anything near a title chase back in August.

Most pundits marked us finishing 4th or lower and that was before Pogba was ruled out for over 1/2 the season.

Yes we finished 33 points behind Liverpool, but so did Chelsea. Last year's Champions League finalists (Spurs) finished 40 points behind them.

How many points clear of 4th placed Chelsea should have United finished to have deemed this season respectable?

Can you quote me the part in the OP where he mentions his expectations please cause I don’t know what they were so I’m wondering how you do.

He actually mentions there being plus points, he’s tempering his response if anything. Where does he mention a title challenge, didn’t read that either.

I read it as, we’re still far off where we want to be but things have improved. He makes fair points.

 

[Jezpeza]

Spot on, mate. Look at Liverpool, the sense of entitlement is awful. They had a great team, didn't rebuild it properly and spent 30 years wandering in the metaphorical desert before appointing a manager who rebuilt skilfully and made them competitive again.

The funniest quip I heard in this period was a posting on another forum 'Dippers to play in Europe again' when Cardiff got promoted to the PL.

No club is too big to fail, no club has the right to a PL place,constant hard work and rebuilding keeps you in the healthy part of the lifecycle.

The way we were spiralling down was extremely concerning and I am so pleased that Ole has got us back to the important first principles - now the rebuilding must continue to build a team that is genuinely competitive.

A good post. Whats funny, is I seem to remember a 606 phone in a few years back, Where liverpool fans rang in one after another screaming for Klopp to be sacked. I think theyd just lost or drawn to west brom. They all reckoned he was a terrible manager, worst football they have seen in years, club going backwards, all the same tunes i’ve heard here. Funny what time does!

 

[troylocker]

Liverpool
Arsenal
City
Spurs
Utd
Chelsea

Couldn't resist. OPs' expectations for this season and us finishing 3rd gives him good reason for moaning.....

 

[Tom Cato]

There are 92 full time profesional football clubs in the Engish league system.

Not sure how embarrassing it is to finish third

 

[troylocker]

I mean footballfans have such bad short term memory. If you go through the "predict top 6 for the 19/20 season"-thread, you'll see that a few have us top 4, but most have us lower than that, and a lot have us outside top 6. Not one of the regular Ole out guys had us top 3, yet.....

Out of these 24 BBC football experts, 1 had us 3rd, 5 had us 4th and rest had us outside top 4.

It looked impossible to get 3rd in January. Who not celebrate it? Celebration of third this season does not mean that should be our standard.

 

[Foxbatt]

The reason why United was so successful under SAF was that we didn't accept anything than winning the PL. Players of that time always say how gutted they were every year they don't win.
The fans were the same. It's not an entitlement. It's the belief.
Now if we celebrate coming in third we have lost that belief. We should never accept anything else than winning.
I didn't celebrate. It was a relief for me to get into CL. I didn't celebrate getting 2nd spot under Jose either.

 

[RashyForPM]

I think we have to look at where people predicted us to finish at the start of the season before jumping to these conclusions. It’s not been a good season, but a progressive, largely successful one considering where we were. This isn’t the end.

 

[always_hoping]

What type of thread would the OP have if his prediction before the season became true?

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

The reason why United was so successful under SAF was that we didn't accept anything than winning the PL. Players of that time always say how gutted they were every year they don't win.
The fans were the same. It's not an entitlement. It's the belief.
Now if we celebrate coming in third we have lost that belief. We should never accept anything else than winning.
I didn't celebrate. It was a relief for me to get into CL. I didn't celebrate getting 2nd spot under Jose either.

This./

 

[mu4c_20le]

Is heactually an Arsenal fan??

 

[shaky]

The reason why United was so successful under SAF was that we didn't accept anything than winning the PL. Players of that time always say how gutted they were every year they don't win.
The fans were the same. It's not an entitlement. It's the belief.
Now if we celebrate coming in third we have lost that belief. We should never accept anything else than winning.
I didn't celebrate. It was a relief for me to get into CL. I didn't celebrate getting 2nd spot under Jose either.

I'm sure we didn't expect to win it every season until we were at the stage where we were winning it regularly under Fergie anyway. We are not winning it at all at the moment, so there's no harm in at least being pleased about the fact that we're finally making progress back towards that goal. People aren't happy with 3rd place this season because they lack belief, it's because they lack delusion.

 

[roonster09]

81>79 so 2017-18 team would have won league title in 1999, fecking hell

 

[Scholsey2004]

It's easily my favourite season post fergie. The club has pulled together with a far less divisive manager and the football, particularly since Fernandes arrived, has been, in the main, very good to watch. You'd need to be particularly deluded to be disappointed that we didn't finish ahead of city and Liverpool this season, that's just not a realistic expectation, but imo we're getting closer to that level than at any time post Ferguson.

 

[arthurka]

This place..... It's something to enjoy but not something we settle with. First time since Fergie I am feeling a bit positive about the future that's what I am celebrating. We could still bag a Euro Disney trophy as a bonus.

 

[Kag]

People aren’t celebrating “3rd and no trophies”. If you can’t see that then you are being intentionally obtuse.

People are celebrating a ridiculous unbeaten run that saw us 14 points off Leicester all the way to beating them on the final day to achieve something unthinkable during the winter. People are celebrating what’s undoubtedly the most encouraging side we’ve had since SAF left, with an attacking verve and exciting talent flowing through the club again, much of it really young. People are celebrating what has been a practically flawless return from an unprecedented and strange break that saw us as the most in form team in the league after the restart. People are celebrating that for the first time we aren’t looking at massive gaping holes in the first XI that need to be filled, and are instead looking to make improvements with the right players instead of needing yet another massive clear out.

Yeah the season as a whole wasn’t amazing, but I’m not gonna sit and bitch about how dreadful we were 9 months ago, I did plenty of that already way back then. Instead I’ll appreciate what we just pulled off to save our ass, and look forward to next season when we really look to have some exciting times coming.

This is very well written. Spot on.

 

[sammsky1]

Why didn’t this thread even make 11 pages?! I’m not sure why cynics don’t realise that it’s virtually impossible to go from 6th to 1st, and that SAF, Chelsea, City and Klopp all had to take incremental steps over 4 or more seasons to get to the very top.

I’m still feeling great about finishing 3rd and really enjoying the experience as a supporter. We’ve completely dominated Liverpool in the news since Sunday, and the entire conversation around the club is very positive, especially compared to end of last season.

Most critically there is stability around the team management. And gossip on how to capitalise on this forward step including big and exciting transfers and removing dead wood.

 

[Kag]

At best, third best season since SAF left (providing we do not win Europa). If you don’t get it - I guess supporting United ain’t for you.

How does winning the Europa make a blind bit of difference? You don’t need to answer that. Of course, you think in black and white; that is clear. So answer me this: do you feel more positive surrounding the position of our squad, playing style, atmosphere and other less-tangible-than-points metrics? Particularly in comparison to the other two apparently better seasons.

I recall the season we finished second. The football was incomprehensibly dour, we’d struggled to get a shot on goal against Sevilla in what was an embarrassing episode of European football, the atmosphere surrounding the club was toxic and we lost an FA Cup final in one of the most negative United performances I can recall. I wanted Mourinho out and I wasn’t the only one. What happened thereafter only confirmed what I knew would be. Tell me, how is ending the season under that set of circumstances better than it is now?

The short answer is that it isn’t.

 

[Jibbs]

We all agreee that Ole is s limited manager with limited ability. He only got the job because he is a man united legend, and brought that feel good factor with him. Any other guy and the same class of 92 and their cronies in english media would have their knives out. Yes, we had injury crisis, but that is what management is about. He got to spend close to 150 m on three players. That is not an small amount by any means.
I am in no way saying that Ole has not brought positive changes and improvement signs are not there. My point is we have amassed exactly the same points we did last year after spending 150m. There should have been an improvement in points tally. We should have finished with at least 10 more points.

 

[morbidsaint]

Nobody, and i mean nobody inside the club or fans is satisfied with the clubs current position. However, after SAF retired this club has been close to run into the ground by complete failure to do ANYTHING right. I can't think of one thing that was done correctly after SAF retired. Wrong appointments of managers. Horrible signings. Horrible contracts given to players that shouldn't be anywhere near this club. The last part kind of still goes on.. Matic did not need that long of a contract.

If you put all of this into consideration, you have to simply appreciate what Ole and the team has done this season. We are back into the CL, we can still win EL, we can see actual signs of where the staff and admins wants to take us. They have an actual plan now. We are scoring more goals, we are letting in A LOT less goals, solid signings with one premium one & our squads players seems to enjoy playing for the club. They get along well with one another, and they seem really happy with where we are about to go.

I am extremely glad Ole came in as manager. He makes everyone around him better. Whatever happens under Ole, i am 100% sure he will leave the club A LOT better then how he "found" it. Way more then we can say about ever other manager after SAF.

 

[Revan]

How does winning the Europa make a blind bit of difference? You don’t need to answer that. Of course, you think in black and white; that is clear. So answer me this: do you feel more positive surrounding the position of our squad, playing style, atmosphere and other less-tangible-than-points metrics? Particularly in comparison to the other two apparently better seasons.

I recall the season we finished second. The football was incomprehensibly dour, we’d struggled to get a shot on goal against Sevilla in what was an embarrassing episode of European football, the atmosphere surrounding the club was toxic and we lost an FA Cup final in one of the most negative United performances I can recall. I wanted Mourinho out and I wasn’t the only one. What happened thereafter only confirmed what I knew would be. Tell me, how is ending the season under that set of circumstances better than it is now?

The short answer is that it isn’t.

Don't take me seriously, I am just replying to WUM's wum post that 'if you don't think like me, then feck up', which is a rehash of 'if you don't believe in Moyes, feck off and support City/PSG' and other posts that have been circulating here for years now.

For what is worth, I actually think that your post is biased too. Sure, we played dour for large parts under Mourinho. We also played dour for large part under Ole, in fact, the majority of time we played unwatchable football. The great spell was after Spurs game and lasted until Soton game when we were not only winning easily, but we were playing so nicely, and I was waking up real early (8 hour difference) in weekends to watch us play. So yep, that part was great. A large part of the season, was actually worse than anything under Mourinho. We actually scored less goals in this 'positive' season than in the 'negative' season we finished 2nd under Mourinho. We also conceded more despite that we 'fixed' our defense. And surprise surprise, when Mourinho got sacked, he had more points than Ole at that part of this season.

Don't get me wrong, I wanted Mourinho out more than most. Early on the summer of 2018 it looked like it is game over, and I am glad that he was fired. Ole is a better manager for us IMO, and by removing Mourinho we kept Martial and Pogba, two excellent players. But please, let's stop rewriting the history, and making this season better than it was, or making Mourinho's seasons worse than they were.

 

[sammsky1]

We all agreee that Ole is s limited manager with limited ability. He only got the job because he is a man united legend, and brought that feel good factor with him. Any other guy and the same class of 92 and their cronies in english media would have their knives out. Yes, we had injury crisis, but that is what management is about. He got to spend close to 150 m on three players. That is not an small amount by any means.
I am in no way saying that Ole has not brought positive changes and improvement signs are not there. My point is we have amassed exactly the same points we did last year after spending 150m. There should have been an improvement in points tally. We should have finished with at least 10 more points.

Lets be very clear: "we" don't all agree on that.

 

[Igor Drefljak]

I'm happy we finished with Champions League football, but the season wasn't great to be honest, and I think Bruno being the catalyst saved Ole his job.
That being said, considering we got what we wanted, Ole deserves to lead us out next season, but we really need to push on.

We've got to be targeting 75-80 points
I think 90 or so will end up winning the league, but at least we'd have made a good account of ourselves and much needed progress.
We spent 150m or so in the summer and we didn't see any progress. When Bruno came in that changed, so hopefully with a few additions, one being Sancho we can continue that progress.

 

[boxykronikle]

OP is such an attention seeker.

 

[The Real Treble 99]

I think JM 1st season was probably the best since SAF but after that everything started going downhill. This season has been a huge progress. To think at one point we were 14 points behind Leicester & that our realistic aim was 6,5 or 4th, finishing 3rd is a huge achievement. There’s been some great football on show (the United way) & some great performances from certain players. We also have a unbeaten run in the league plus a big chance of winning the EL not to mention we could’ve & should’ve been in the FA Cup final too, if not for a poor line up that day. Biggest thing is, it’s the first time I feel that there is some sort of direction the club is heading towards & we have players & with a few more additions hopefully the mindset of achieving something feels real. Next season is the defining season for Ole. Top 4 is a must with a minimum of 1 trophy. But I think for now the main thing as most Utd fans will be saying is let’s just stick with the rebuild & who knows what the future holds for us. But at this moment in time it feels great.

 

[Sad Chris]

The reason why United was so successful under SAF was that we didn't accept anything than winning the PL. Players of that time always say how gutted they were every year they don't win.
The fans were the same. It's not an entitlement. It's the belief.
Now if we celebrate coming in third we have lost that belief. We should never accept anything else than winning.
I didn't celebrate. It was a relief for me to get into CL. I didn't celebrate getting 2nd spot under Jose either.

Nope, the belief-belief is rubbish. Our PL winning sides had the belief in themselves because they had already done it. They knew they had the skills, the capability and they could win it. Our squad doesn‘t have that (yet). Dreaming, wishfull thinking and believing doesn‘t get you anything if you don‘t have the skills (yet).
However, you are right that, all other things being equal, the team that believes in themselves will have an edge over the non-believing team.

And generally, of course I‘m happy about the way we turned a crap start around and don‘t mind celebrating a good season. If you don‘t, you are one sad person. But that‘s everyone’s choice to make.

 

[ChaddyP]

What type of thread would the OP have if his prediction before the season became true?

Is this in order? Did RA genuinely think Gunners would have finished second?