Is this the most depressing United summer ever? (In your memory)

[Vagene]

De Gea
Valencia Bailly Smalling Young
Matic
Fred Pogba
Lingard Lukaku Sanchez
​

The team above is not bad on paper is it? That team should be cohesive and pacey all we’re missing is younger, hungrier better attacking and better defending full backs and a class right winger.

For the love of god I don’t know why we play so shite, it’s got to be the coaching hasn’t it because there’s no way with the players in the above team can’t play exciting entertaining football. I agree with OP this summer has been fecking depressing, the worst? Nah 2009 was worse getting sparked by Barca in the CL final then losing Ronaldo, then signing average players was pretty bad.

I have no doubt that when Pogba, lingard and Lukaku return we’ll improve but once the first defeat arrives the pitch forks will be out and to be honest I’m not really excited about the new season. Just signing Toby A before Thursday eve won’t change a thing

 

[Smores]

Not even close surely? We've got in Fred who is a decent signing and in Dalot a young exciting propsect.

This would be a typical window under Fergie it's only alarming now because of perceived holes in the squad.

If we sell Martial and/or Pogba without replacement then it may be in contention maybe.

Edit: thought this was just transfer window, overall its closer but Moyes and for me LvGs second summer were worse.

 

[Havak]

It's a tough one, but it's definitely in at least the top three. The main difference is I think that here, we still have a pretty good squad when you break it all down. There's less need to buy players to have a good squad, but we haven't done enough to improve if the ambition is to challenge for the title or win trophies, which is what we should be doing. The Moyes Summer was worse because he was clearly a thought-out, well in advance appointment with all the time possible to make the correct signings. Instead, we end up only signing Fellaini on deadline day after his clause had run out. That was just unacceptable and set the precedent for an abysmal campaign.

Right now, we do have a good squad that is still at worst, comparable to our rivals bar probably Man City. IMO it's still better than Chelsea & Arsenal considerably, while it's as good as if not better than Spurs and probably Liverpool. However, if the board expect to win the title and do well in other competitions, then I have to say they're far too optimistic if they think this Summer window has been acceptable.

 

[AlexUTD]

The mood in the RedCafe has felt rock bottom.

There have been various lows, but something about this feels like its consolidated to the worst I can remember.

In recent years we've had some shockers.

The SAF retirement was always going to be bad and Moyes sacking all the background staff then buying Fellaini for more than his original buy out clause was a pretty horrible way to end the summer. However, we had just won the Premiership so think optimism was reasonably good.

The Moyes year was a disaster, but bringing in LVG with a raft of signings felt like a step in the right direction. Getting Falcao and Di Maria felt like a muppet dream. Little did we know how that would end.

The second LVG summer was off the back of a 4th place finish and whilst the football was bad at times it felt like a believable 'process' and was a case of replacing old guard with new. Depay was the exciting potential signing, along with Martial. There was plenty of other signs for optimism albeit no huge confidence.

An FA Cup win, but 5th in the league set up the Mourinho summer as one where it wasn't a great season, but at least we had won something and were back on track.

The signings were promising and the challenging year ended with a poor league finish, but dominant control of Europa Cup and a league cup win. It felt like we had a platform to build. The transfers were half there, but Perisic was a loss albeit one we may have only come to realise with more time. Sanchez in theory should have more than made up for this.

The problem was having had some years of downs with then a few progressive signs the second half of last season was pretty awful. For all the money spent the football has arguably been worse than under Moyes and versus expectations maybe even versus LVG.

Results in pre season has been as bad as any I can remember, albeit heavily impacted by the world cup. The signings have actually been decent, but just not enough to address glaring holes.

On paper it feels like having come off a 2nd place finish, with a load of our players doing well at the world cup and with a strong signing to support Pogba and a great youth product we should be happier.

So is this the most depressing summer? And if so/ or not, then why?

I know pre SAF there will have been some shockers, no least the Munich air disaster year, albeit even that year had good camaraderie and support from other clubs.

I don't know what I'm trying to achieve with this, maybe just trying to draw some context, but the mood on here has sucked more than anything I can remember.

I still think that was the worst summer. Losing Sir Alex and sitting here on Redcafe watching the Thiago thread all summer while ending up with Fellaini deadline day was horrible.

But window is not over yet so i choose to be carefully optimistic until thursday and then i can have a muppet meltdown if nothing happened or we signed someone else in Fellaini`s family.

 

[Butty19]

I think it feels worse because of the expectation many people had for this summers transfer window. I certainly expected us to sign 4/5 maybe even 6 and solve all the problems that have been so glaringly obvious for a few years now.

One thing this summer is our desire to get decent fees for outgoing players. In the past I think we’ve sold relatively cheaply but now we seem almost stubborn. Maybe that’s hampered us in freeing up places in the squad for new additions.

 

[pauldyson1uk]

Yes !!
But who's fault is it.
Pogba and Anthony want to leave according to press reports ( more bullshit ) , we seem to be linked with everybody and buying nobody.
Fred I think will be very good, Dalot not seen enough of him to have an opinion.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

I think the vibe coming in to the summer was already a bit crap as we'd been playing terrible football and lost the Cup Final - which would have somewhat papered over things.

The manager constantly lowering expectations hasnt helped, and I get he's probably been in a bit of a tug of war with the transfer market but his public handling of numerous stuff has been atrocious and has contributed a lot to the negative energy around the club.

 

[Mr Smith]

People have short memories. In the summer of 09 people were freaking out a bit when we sold Ronaldo and Tevez and brought in Valencia and Owen.

 

[Bestietom]

It's not looking good for sure, but I think the Moyes season was worse.

 

[Whatsername]

95 was a bad one. It was hard to get over losing the league to Blackburn on the last day of the season but then we had the turmoil of experienced and effective players leaving - Hughes, Kanchelskis and Ince - and we were still dealing with Eric's ban. There was the time when Eric played in a training ground game in preseason (I think) and the FA came down on him for that so he handed in a transfer request and went to France, closely followed by Fergie.
Then came the loss against Villa and Alan Hansen and his you can't win anything with kids comment (I actually still have a t shirt bought from the megastore or whatever it was called back then with the quote on when we won the league that season).
It all looked very bleak to start off with though.

Then the Moyes Summer.

 

[Red_Ramirez]

A lot of short memories with you lot.

Either that or loads of young uns

 

[Red_Ramirez]

95 was a bad one. It was hard to get over losing the league to Blackburn on the last day of the season but then we had the turmoil of experienced and effective players leaving - Hughes, Kanchelskis and Ince - and we were still dealing with Eric's ban. There was the time when Eric played in a training ground game in preseason (I think) and the FA came down on him for that so he handed in a transfer request and went to France, closely followed by Fergie.
Then came the loss against Villa and Alan Hansen and his you can't win anything with kids comment (I actually still have a t shirt bought from the megastore or whatever it was called back then with the quote on when we won the league that season).
It all looked very bleak to start off with though.

Then the Moyes Summer.

Yep this for for. Well put

 

[buckooo1978]

it's the most depressing because it is the most frustrating

we've the players in the squad to challenge on all fronts but we haven't made the 3 or 4 key additions that would have made us genuine contenders

we've a negative manager who isn't able to have many of our players play to their potential or a team. His comments and moaning over the summer have grated me immensely swiping at players and the board

we finished last season awfully and we were pathetic in the cup final

this against the backdrop of the positivity of our top 6 rivals

a signing or two by Thursday and a strong performance on Friday are much needed

 

[groovyalbert]

I’m not sure if the mood is totally a response to the window. I think for a lot of fans it’s the accumulation of several very productive windows, an improved squad on paper, only leading to our manager appearing more and more defeatist. It’s this which makes fans wonder, what is it trully going to take?

This window always had the potential to be tricky given it’s context. Only Liverpool have had an indisputably good window of the top 6. So although I’d like to have seen us address more positions in the squad, I’m not sure if this summer should come as a huge surprise.

What would have been nice would be us going into the season knowing that many first teamers have accumulated more EPL experience (Pogba, Bailly, Lindelof), with young players looking to carry on developing (Rashers, Martial), alongside bringing in a few new players (Fred, Dalot). These, in addition to having top EPL talent like DDG, Sanchez, Matic and Lukaku, should equate to a relatively confident outfit.

Yet the public persona of the club is the lowest I can ever recall, and the confidence opposition teams will take from this is massive.

Our main rivals (Pool and City) appear to be in far better shape, united by exciting football ethoses which are attracting top talent. We don’t fit this mold. In fact, we look like we set up to be the antithesis of this. Even the most optimistic Utd fan would have to concede that. This is having a big impact on our fans and image.

We won’t trully know where we are until the season starts and who knows, maybe Jose knows what he’s doing and we’ll start the season with dogged determination. I’m not personally convinced we will, and can see the preseason cracks only being further exposed by EPL opposition.

 

[POF]

The Moyes one was definitely the worst summer. I am not sure if it was that depressing though because United were champions and it was so unbelievably incompetent it was almost funny.

When they went from Fabregas to Herrera to Khedira to Fellaini, it just showed the incredible lack of a plan. It was like they searched for "central midfielder" on football manager. Then there was the Coentrao fiasco where they didn't realise how long it took to complete a transfer! Absolute amateur hour.

Compared to that, this summer has been professional and slick. The reason this summer has been so worrying is the mood around the squad. Since the Sanchez signing the wheels have been coming off. Getting some positive momentum is key. The team has never needed a good start as much as this season.

 

[jderbyshire]

The thing about the Moyes Summer is we didn't really realise it was a bad summer until right at the end.

After Fergie left, I remember being quite excited/hopeful about the future, hoping that the club would give the manager huge financial backing, and that we would finally sign the midfielder we'd been crying out for.

We had a great old summer, being linked to Kroos, Thiago, Fabregas, Bale, Ronaldo - it was all very exciting.

Then on deadline day at 11:01pm... our jaws dropped as we realised all we'd got was Fellaini.

We all knew that although we'd won the league - we weren't a great side, and needed reinforcements.

The summer of '09, however... now THAT was depressing.

As for this summer... we've hardly been linked with anyone, in all honesty. I think that's what's made it more depressing for us muppets.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Does that mean we'll end up with Alan Sugar as our manager??

No, Boris Johnson. A little fake tan and Boris could be his brother.

 

[Green_Red]

The caf is becoming more and more divided.
Similar to USA...

Who is going to make the caf great again though?

 

[El Zoido]

It’s not the worst but it’s beeb really bad. It’s concerning the way the club is being managed at the moment.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Who is going to make the caf great again though?

Trump will be out of office soon. Reckon he will work great with our board, and he is the best man for the job.

Two most important elements that can be done with some realism would be:
1. DoF for continuity, and to keep Woody away from footballrelated areas. He can say how much we can spend, but nothing more(Don't think he will relinquish his authority on this though).
2. Get a manager/coach that is able to improve our players. That way we don't have to solely rely on transfers as the only means to improve our team.

Tactics and how to play: Benchmark how the best teams in europe play and combine this with the prefered style of play of the new manager.

 

[simplyared]

This preseason has been nothing more than an embarassment for our great club. Can't remember any other as bad as this.

 

[Green_Red]

Trump will be out of office soon. Reckon he will work great with our board, and he is the best man for the job.

Two most important elements that can be done with some realism would be:
1. DoF for continuity, and to keep Woody away from footballrelated areas. He can say how much we can spend, but nothing more(Don't think he will relinquish his authority on this though).
2. Get a manager/coach that is able to improve our players. That way we don't have to solely rely on transfers as the only means to improve our team.

Tactics and how to play: Benchmark how the best teams in europe play and combine this with the prefered style of play of the new manager.

Every black player would be instantly sold and South Americans would have to scale a newly built wall around Old Trafford to play for us!

 

[Offside]

People actually forget how laughable 2013 was. Thiago going to Bayern. Then Remember Moyes just bidding for fecking anyone in the last few days? We had a bid denied for De Rossi I remember just out of nowhere. Complete panic attempts. £28m bid denied for Baines and Fellaini, then we end up paying £27m for just Fellaini alone. The whole Herrera debacle. Woodward really is a moron thinking about it

 

[Ikon]

For me personally, this is definitely one of the most depressing summer windows since the mid 1970's.
Even when that idiot Moyes was appointed, I still believed that he'd be sacked pretty quickly, and we'd soon return to the top of the tree.
But now, I just don't have the belief or optimism that we are getting anywhere near the top of the tree again anytime soon.

If Jose Mourinho can't break the apathy that hangs over OT, then I just don't know how this situation is ever going to be sorted.

I just get the feeling that the board are content with top 4, so long as the commercial revenue streams continue to flow, that a number of players either don't want to be here or don't care enough that they are, and I am not even convinced that Mourinho still wants to be here anymore either.

The fact that we are going into a new season with both FB positions filled by converted wingers, now in their mid 30's, and that were both signed by SAF, when we have spent hundreds of Millions since his retirement, is just an unforgivable situation.
This new season will be faced by almost the exact same squad that have failed to deliver previously, I have no expectation that will change.

This is why I find the current situation so depressing.....
We are still not getting rid of 'deadwood',
We are still not addressing our weakest areas,
We are still failing to identify or land top targets,
We still don't look like a team or club with a plan,
We are still playing shite football,
And I still don't see how any of this is being tackled.

 

[Lennon7]

feck all this shite. It’s ridiculous. We haven’t competitively kicked a ball yet, one of our players just won the World Cup and a handful of others just had great world cups. What’s so depressing about losing in pre season?

The only annoying thing is that we haven’t bought well enough, but I’m hopeful some of the players in positions we thought we needed will step up, such as Shaw, Lindelöf and Rashford (for the RW?). To be fair we could’ve done with a right mid.

 

[Zen]

I remember a summer after Fergie left.

 

[Lash]

Depressing is a little bit over the top. Disappointing, but we haven't sold our best player and bought in fecking Obertan.

 

[B20]

The thing about the Moyes Summer is we didn't really realise it was a bad summer until right at the end.

After Fergie left, I remember being quite excited/hopeful about the future, hoping that the club would give the manager huge financial backing, and that we would finally sign the midfielder we'd been crying out for.

We had a great old summer, being linked to Kroos, Thiago, Fabregas, Bale, Ronaldo - it was all very exciting.

Then on deadline day at 11:01pm... our jaws dropped as we realised all we'd got was Fellaini.

I called it early.

As a rival fan, 2013 was clearly your worst/most glorious. Everyone outside of Old Trafford could see what was coming, no one at the club had a clue about anything and the fans were nowhere near prepared for the shock to their system everyone else was awaiting. Not to mention Woodward selling Moyes down the river a few days after deadline day when he briefed everyone that

• Thiago didn't snub you. Moyes hadn't seen him play much, only the scouts had. For three years.
• Herrara wasn't a mess. Moyes Just only valued him at 20m. Based on two years of scouting. And hadn't really seen him play much.
• Kagawa isn't being frozen out. Moyes just hasn't seen him play.
• Despite not really having seen Kagawa play, Moyes decided against Ozil because he already had Kagawa to consider.

• The lawyers were imposters for sure.
• Not wanting to overrule Moyes, United promised to keep the squad together except for Bebe. And Bebe is still here.
• Fellaini only came so late because it took a long time to figure out Fabregas wasn't interested.
• Keeping Rooney took up 50% of the staff resources that would have gone into signing new players (LOLWUT).

Has to be one of the most clueless shoot-self-in-foot briefings given by a suit in a fair while and sums up well how united was basically being run like a clown car without wheels that summer. Hilarious at the time though.

This summer is nice to see you having a conservative summer, but overall it's merely mildly disappointing as you will probably keep your level for the most part. It lacks the buffoonery and comedy value of '13.

Perhaps a swap of Martial for Willian and signing Boateng for big money could swing it in the end, as it plays perfectly into the worst case scenario of what Mourinho would do to the squad when he took over.

 

[CA1]

Modern age of social media and every man on their dog wanting to stick their boot in to the club makes it probably the most depressing yes.

 

[cyberman]

09 for me.
You could just feel the moment we slipped from the elite table, as if Madrid said ok, that's enough. We'll take it from here.

 

[Infestissumam]

09 was terrible. Selling Ronaldo, losing Tevez and only bringing in Owen, Valencia and Obertan ... at least we still had SAF.

13 didn't feel that bad during the summer, just the final stages where it dawned that we wouldn't get a lot of players in. And of course then when the deadline had passed and the Herrera and Coentrao moves fell through, leaving us only with Fellaini.

this year it's less the transfer stuff to me, but more watching the team play. Not a lot of optimism going into the season.

 

[Ramshock]

The mood in the RedCafe has felt rock bottom.

There have been various lows, but something about this feels like its consolidated to the worst I can remember.

In recent years we've had some shockers.

The SAF retirement was always going to be bad and Moyes sacking all the background staff then buying Fellaini for more than his original buy out clause was a pretty horrible way to end the summer. However, we had just won the Premiership so think optimism was reasonably good.

The Moyes year was a disaster, but bringing in LVG with a raft of signings felt like a step in the right direction. Getting Falcao and Di Maria felt like a muppet dream. Little did we know how that would end.

The second LVG summer was off the back of a 4th place finish and whilst the football was bad at times it felt like a believable 'process' and was a case of replacing old guard with new. Depay was the exciting potential signing, along with Martial. There was plenty of other signs for optimism albeit no huge confidence.

An FA Cup win, but 5th in the league set up the Mourinho summer as one where it wasn't a great season, but at least we had won something and were back on track.

The signings were promising and the challenging year ended with a poor league finish, but dominant control of Europa Cup and a league cup win. It felt like we had a platform to build. The transfers were half there, but Perisic was a loss albeit one we may have only come to realise with more time. Sanchez in theory should have more than made up for this.

The problem was having had some years of downs with then a few progressive signs the second half of last season was pretty awful. For all the money spent the football has arguably been worse than under Moyes and versus expectations maybe even versus LVG.

Results in pre season has been as bad as any I can remember, albeit heavily impacted by the world cup. The signings have actually been decent, but just not enough to address glaring holes.

On paper it feels like having come off a 2nd place finish, with a load of our players doing well at the world cup and with a strong signing to support Pogba and a great youth product we should be happier.

So is this the most depressing summer? And if so/ or not, then why?

I know pre SAF there will have been some shockers, no least the Munich air disaster year, albeit even that year had good camaraderie and support from other clubs.

I don't know what I'm trying to achieve with this, maybe just trying to draw some context, but the mood on here has sucked more than anything I can remember.

No! /thread

 

[Ducklegs]

No, losing Ronaldo and ending up with Owen, Obertan and Valencia was worse.

 

[paulscholes18]

In terms of transfers 2009 lost two huge players in Ronaldo and Tevez and signed Valencia, Owen, Obertan and Bebe.
With the style of play and performances in pre season, my expectations are lower for this season then any other

 

[Bogga]

If you look at the history there's been some summers that wasn't exactly exciting. But back then we had quite the team and not so in need of strengthening...

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/manchester-united/alletransfers/verein/985

The summer when Moyes took over was surely depressing... so much rumours about exciting players. We end up paying over the moon for microphone-head

 

[acnumber9]

Yeah but we were champions heading into that season.

This season just has the feeling that things can go pretty wrong fast.

And yet I’d fully expect this season to be much better than that season which would make considering this the worst summer ever a bit silly.

 

[DSG]

Optimism is a virtue....

Fred looks to be very good. The Dalot kid comes with pedigree and promise. I do think that Lindelof will come good. Sanchez looks to be more settled.

The DNA of this team is counter attacking and Lingard, Rashford, Pogba, Sanchez and Lukaku are at times breathtaking in this area. Lingard has become a player that is a real difference maker, completely outperforming my highest expectations.

Yes, we need a CB, but remember, we had the 2nd best defense in the league last season.

I’m in agreement with Jose, 2 more quality signings would be great.

 

[Handré1990]

Never followed pre-season closely, probably couldn’t tell you any teams we played on last year’s tour. Generally have other things to do during summer. It’s really good for me to take a step back from it all, and it keeps me fresh when the season proper starts. Signings are nice and all, but it’s out of my hands. Also, reading up on the caf now and then makes me think I’ve made the right decision

Pre-season doesn’t really say much about how the season will go. Check out some former seasons and you’ll see for yourselves.

Friday can’t come quick enough!

 

[manutddjw]

Moyes was the worst. We bought no one and many were wondering if our worse fears about the club being skint were true. Then we bought Fellaini who no one wanted. Made worse by the fact that it was Moyes who nobody really thought was good enough to begin with.

09 was infuriating but at least we had Sir Alex and had confidence in him to win us things despite our opinions on the players we had and not signing a midfielder.

 

[Prodigy24]

Moyes was the worst. We bought no one and many were wondering if our worse fears about the club being skint were true. Then we bought Fellaini who no one wanted. Made worse by the fact that it was Moyes who nobody really thought was good enough to begin with.

Definitely this.

Also the failed deal for Ander Herrera where we sent some impostors to Bilbao was incredibly bizarre. Deadline day was awful. Remember watching it and hoping that we could sign anybody but only Fellaini was bought, and presented 5 in the morning for some reason. Also remember a failed late loan bid for Fabio Coentrao. Man that summer was depressing.