Half the squad gone in just over a year

Shane88

Actually Nostradamus
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27 players in that photo.

Sold; Antony, Garnacho, McTominay, Kambwala, Wan Bissaka.

Loaned; Rashford, Collyer, Onana. Only Collyer likely to come back.

Released; Varane, Eriksen, Evans, Lindelof, Amrabat.

Malacia is on the books but he's not in the squad and I don't even know who that guy between Hojlund and Dalot is.
 
I suppose if you finish 15th you need to make drastic decisions, if it were city for example, they would hold no sentiment and do the same
 
All of them have rightly been moved on. I liked AWB though - he grew on me over the years.
 
INEOS have done a great job here, it’s hard to make an argument for any of the players gone. We have a really solid squad at this point, it’s a good foundation and moving in the right direction.
 
INEOS have done a great job here, it’s hard to make an argument for any of the players gone. We have a really solid squad at this point, it’s a good foundation and moving in the right direction.
I don’t think it’s hard to make an argument for McTominay!
 
Berrada's 2 year policy in effect which makes sense. McTominay probably the only real loss to an extent (popular in dressing room, had his clutch moments like Maguire despite being derided by fanbase at times) but PSR encourages teams to sell their youth. Glad he's got the recognition and appreciation at Napoli.
 
Under the 3 at the back system, absolutely.
Absolutely not. A good slide tackle doesn't make you a centre back.

His positioning, concentration and ability in the air are all somewhere between poor and woeful.
 
All of them have rightly been moved on. I liked AWB though - he grew on me over the years.
I went the other way. Loved the tackles, but the endless jogging back & switching off at the back post was so needless and dragged his game down.

Overall though he was far from the biggest issue in that side, and it was a toss up who left between him and Dalot really.
 
Loving how ruthless INEOS are. Wish we had done this years and years ago, but given how bad the Glazers were at signing players probably a good thing we didnt.
 
We'll probably be going back into operating theatre in 18-24 months.
That'd be because "these players have been throwing managers under the bus for ten years, so we need to get rid of all the deadwood first".
 
Biggest challenge for INEOS is to ensure there aren’t another bomb squad / half a dozen players considered deadwood next summer… and the one after that etc.

You can already see next summer Ugarte and potentially Zirkzee (bit harsh but still) in this bracket from their signings so far.

The signings have to still be playing regularly 2/3 years later to be considered successes
 
All these "good" responses. Even one saying INEOS have done a great job.

That squad finished 8th and won the FA Cup, and the year before finished 3rd and won the league cup.

The half a new squad we've replaced it with finished 15th with an average of 1 goal a game. It needs to massively improve just to get to the same level.

This place is so obsessed with hating on our own players people are genuinely blind to anything positive they do or bring.
 
All these "good" responses. Even one saying INEOS have done a great job.

That squad finished 8th and won the FA Cup, and the year before finished 3rd and won the league cup.

The half a new squad we've replaced it with finished 15th with an average of 1 goal a game. It needs to massively improve just to get to the same level.

This place is so obsessed with hating on our own players people are genuinely blind to anything positive they do or bring.

Yeah I don't get it either. Especially since many of the players in the pic were apart of a 3rd place finish.
 
All these "good" responses. Even one saying INEOS have done a great job.

That squad finished 8th and won the FA Cup, and the year before finished 3rd and won the league cup.

The half a new squad we've replaced it with finished 15th with an average of 1 goal a game. It needs to massively improve just to get to the same level.

This place is so obsessed with hating on our own players people are genuinely blind to anything positive they do or bring.

Multiple key players from that team were in decline and we had no succession planning in place, or were flat out duds.

Varane (now retired), Casemiro (last year), Eriksen, Amrabat (loan signing), Onana, Rashford, Hojlund, Antony, AWB (actually like him but prefer Mazraoui), Lindelof, Malacia (expiring), Evans (retired) and Kambwala all are gone or about to be justifiably so.

McTominay I think we were right to move on and had the right idea to use that money to finance buying a CM to phase out Casemiro, but Ugarte looks well short of the quality so INEOS will need to address that.

Of the players we still have Martinez and Mount I rate, but with their injury issues and resulting absences those are players we haven't gotten good ROI on in the last 2 years on. I'd be okay moving both on if possible next summer.

Bruno is great, but we need to get to a place where we're less dependent on him.

Now I'm not arguing INEOS have been flawless. They've certainly made mistakes, but moving on from the majority of that squad was a necessary and correct long-term vision to work towards is all. Replacing them productively is the hard work, made even harder if you look at the 4-5 years of transfers we had prior to 2024.
 
Absolutely not. A good slide tackle doesn't make you a centre back.

His positioning, concentration and ability in the air are all somewhere between poor and woeful.
100% correct. Constantly caught out at the back stick. Plays people onside consistently. Not a good passer. Doesn't read the game all that well. Pretty much the opposite of a player you would want in Amorim's system as a RCB.
 
That'd be because "these players have been throwing managers under the bus for ten years, so we need to get rid of all the deadwood first".

Getting rid of Deadwood since 2014, at some point you have to wonder how many players over the last decade were unnecessarily sacrificed that a good manager could have made use of. No sooner have we completed one rebuild we immediately embark upon another. Pissing another £400-600m down the drain.

Maybe, just maybe every new manager doesn't need a new squad. :confused:
 
All these "good" responses. Even one saying INEOS have done a great job.

That squad finished 8th and won the FA Cup, and the year before finished 3rd and won the league cup.

The half a new squad we've replaced it with finished 15th with an average of 1 goal a game. It needs to massively improve just to get to the same level.

This place is so obsessed with hating on our own players people are genuinely blind to anything positive they do or bring.

It's definitely an odd aspect of the United fanbase. I think it stems from some not wanting to ever criticise the manager or even entertain he might be doing a bad job.
 
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I always want the players and the manager to do well, even when I have reservations about them. That said, I might be even more excited about getting rid of certain players (even if it's for just the season) than the ones we've brought in.
 
After years of holding on to garbage players for years and giving them enormous contracts to protect their 'asset value' this is such a breath of fresh air.

The only way we'll ever get back to the top is by being ruthless.