It occurred to me, whilst watching City toy with us in a manner akin to a cat with a half dead mouse, that I was numb to what was happening on the pitch - at some point in the first half of watching us bumble and stumble with all the bluster of an academy game, it dawned on me that I hadn't felt like this about a United game since Mourinho's last few months in charge.
See, defeats, even hammerings aren't what triggers that feeling of resignation, rather, when your team is completely bereft of creativity, competence and certainty (see what I did there?) only for the camera to then pan to the men coaching them who look like rabbits in headlights, that it dawns on you... that the hope, optimism and mild dosage of naivete you have despite it all is not kicking in. 'Funny' because as United fans yourselves, you'll have recollections of feeling this way possibly three other times since SAF retired, and from those past experiences, it seems a certainty that once the nadir is touched down upon, the position of the current manager, for you, is now untenable.
It feels, by our lack of transfer activity to this point in the month, that the squad woes will be compounded with no bolstering during this window - perhaps I'm wide of the mark here, and we will go out and make a few signings, but, as I see it, a squad in our predicament, with its season hanging by a thread, needs to have players wrapped up and being integrated into the squad as soon as humanly possible - eight days into the winter window, and not a single concrete link to any player does not suggest those in charge are in agreement. You'd like to think there's some serious foraging for agreements on deals being worked away furiously in the background, away from prying eyes, but even that notion seems hopelessly optimistic, doesn't it?
I think most of us are grown up enough and manager-weary enough after so many failures to have an objective, non-hysterical discussion about this - perhaps, for you, there are still reasons to be positive and you've reasoned with yourself that injuries, bad luck, a patchy period or what have you are the source of our woes, which you [truly] believe are temporary? Perhaps, you still believe in us picking things up and attaining either 4th or the Europa to qualify for next season's Champions League, or, the old, very United traditional faith and focus on the kids developing consoles you?
For myself, the worry, as I've posted up threads about in the past, is overspill - where the lack of planning and contingency from the disastrous season immediately carries over into the new one is becoming one of the biggest concerns. Now is the time to bed [some] new players and/or staff, during the period of little to no expectation, so that they can get themselves up to speed with the league (if they've come from elsewhere), their surroundings under less scrutiny and pressure with the hope they're some way down the line to being bedded in and ready to go by the times August, and the new season, rolls round. Any new manager gets a period to look at the squad this way, too, and make calls with certainty on who does and does not fit his vision for the supplemental players in the team he wants to start his season with whilst having a clear idea of what's needed for the summer window, too.
This thread might be seen as premature given we've Liverpool and a return leg vs City plus the replay vs. Wolves on the horizon, and not least, the Europa campaign still to go, but how many proverbial cuts from the thousand are needed for you to feel as though things need to be put to bed now? How was it for you with Moyes, LVG or Mourinho? Did it only kick in once we were out of the cups, or when 4th was a mathematical impossibility, or is it for you like it is for me, where if the games feel like Groundhog Day, you've felt like that's enough now? I don't care for the Ole in/out hokey cokey fractious civil war on here, nor do drubbings particularly influence me, but I find it galling when the opposition have no regard for us, almost to the point where the threat is seen as so miniscule that they've switched off, mid-game, assured it's over - at that point when you look at your own team and can see where they're coming from, I know I've reached the end of my tether.
tl:dr: When is enough for you - what are your personal triggers that say a manager's time is up?
See, defeats, even hammerings aren't what triggers that feeling of resignation, rather, when your team is completely bereft of creativity, competence and certainty (see what I did there?) only for the camera to then pan to the men coaching them who look like rabbits in headlights, that it dawns on you... that the hope, optimism and mild dosage of naivete you have despite it all is not kicking in. 'Funny' because as United fans yourselves, you'll have recollections of feeling this way possibly three other times since SAF retired, and from those past experiences, it seems a certainty that once the nadir is touched down upon, the position of the current manager, for you, is now untenable.
It feels, by our lack of transfer activity to this point in the month, that the squad woes will be compounded with no bolstering during this window - perhaps I'm wide of the mark here, and we will go out and make a few signings, but, as I see it, a squad in our predicament, with its season hanging by a thread, needs to have players wrapped up and being integrated into the squad as soon as humanly possible - eight days into the winter window, and not a single concrete link to any player does not suggest those in charge are in agreement. You'd like to think there's some serious foraging for agreements on deals being worked away furiously in the background, away from prying eyes, but even that notion seems hopelessly optimistic, doesn't it?
I think most of us are grown up enough and manager-weary enough after so many failures to have an objective, non-hysterical discussion about this - perhaps, for you, there are still reasons to be positive and you've reasoned with yourself that injuries, bad luck, a patchy period or what have you are the source of our woes, which you [truly] believe are temporary? Perhaps, you still believe in us picking things up and attaining either 4th or the Europa to qualify for next season's Champions League, or, the old, very United traditional faith and focus on the kids developing consoles you?
For myself, the worry, as I've posted up threads about in the past, is overspill - where the lack of planning and contingency from the disastrous season immediately carries over into the new one is becoming one of the biggest concerns. Now is the time to bed [some] new players and/or staff, during the period of little to no expectation, so that they can get themselves up to speed with the league (if they've come from elsewhere), their surroundings under less scrutiny and pressure with the hope they're some way down the line to being bedded in and ready to go by the times August, and the new season, rolls round. Any new manager gets a period to look at the squad this way, too, and make calls with certainty on who does and does not fit his vision for the supplemental players in the team he wants to start his season with whilst having a clear idea of what's needed for the summer window, too.
This thread might be seen as premature given we've Liverpool and a return leg vs City plus the replay vs. Wolves on the horizon, and not least, the Europa campaign still to go, but how many proverbial cuts from the thousand are needed for you to feel as though things need to be put to bed now? How was it for you with Moyes, LVG or Mourinho? Did it only kick in once we were out of the cups, or when 4th was a mathematical impossibility, or is it for you like it is for me, where if the games feel like Groundhog Day, you've felt like that's enough now? I don't care for the Ole in/out hokey cokey fractious civil war on here, nor do drubbings particularly influence me, but I find it galling when the opposition have no regard for us, almost to the point where the threat is seen as so miniscule that they've switched off, mid-game, assured it's over - at that point when you look at your own team and can see where they're coming from, I know I've reached the end of my tether.
tl:dr: When is enough for you - what are your personal triggers that say a manager's time is up?