Matic: "I arrived at United with the anger to win trophies like I had at Chelsea, but step by step I started to feel that trophies were not the focus"

Licha-Vidic

Last Man Standing 2 finalist 2023/24
Joined
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How bad was/is this problem.

Mourinho, LVG have all said about this culture.




You played more games for United than for any other club in your career – 189. How do you look back at your five years at Old Trafford?
  • We did our best every single year, the players, the coaches. In my first year, we finished second. We were leading in January but Man City won. We finished second, sixth, third, second and sixth. We played in the Europa League, Super Cup and FA Cup finals. We played Champions League in four of my five seasons. But we didn’t win.
  • If I compare how we did with United now, then we did great, but of course United cannot be happy finishing second. United need to be winning leagues. We gave it our best and sometimes we’d get criticised, but I didn’t see any major problems in the club. The organisation was very good, the conditions perfect.
  • The difference I felt after Chelsea was that, at Chelsea, everything was about the result and winning trophies. That was the spirit in the whole club, even from the man who cuts the grass. Roman Abramovich would only ask us about results. At United, it was more commercial-minded. I started to think that after a couple of months in the club. I understand that our salary needs to be paid, but I felt that the results were not the focus like it was at Chelsea. I maybe did two commercial jobs at Chelsea, at United it was far more.
  • I arrived at United with the anger to win trophies like I had at Chelsea, but step by step I started to feel that trophies were not the focus. Maybe I’m not right, but that was my feeling inside.
 
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Hopefully that culture is beginning to shift now, with many of the overpaid divas being moved on and actual football people into senior management positions.
 
This is what happens when you get loads of little sponsors rather than a few top notch ones. The players time gets shared out with more companies wanting them to plug their wares. Woodward was always praised for the job he did, but he didn't get us world famous sponsors, it always seemed targeted at a certain market and lots of them. As I said I would rather have fewer sponsors but on bigger deals and bigger names.
 
We’re a commercial machine first, football club second. But it does feel like we’re at least trying to pivot back in the other direction now.
 
El Zoido said:
We’re a commercial machine first, football club second. But it does feel like we’re at least trying to pivot back in the other direction now.
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This was Woodward wasn't it though; he actually said the quiet part out loud "our on field performance isn't really relevant to our commercial success".
 
He also arrived as a declining footballer. Signings like him haven't helped
 
You played more games for United than for any other club in your career – 189

Who could have guessed that? :wenger:
 
Licha-Vidic said:
How bad was/is this problem.

Mourinho, LVG have all said about this culture.




You played more games for United than for any other club in your career – 189. How do you look back at your five years at Old Trafford?
  • We did our best every single year, the players, the coaches. In my first year, we finished second. We were leading in January but Man City won. We finished second, sixth, third, second and sixth. We played in the Europa League, Super Cup and FA Cup finals. We played Champions League in four of my five seasons. But we didn’t win.
  • If I compare how we did with United now, then we did great, but of course United cannot be happy finishing second. United need to be winning leagues. We gave it our best and sometimes we’d get criticised, but I didn’t see any major problems in the club. The organisation was very good, the conditions perfect.
  • The difference I felt after Chelsea was that, at Chelsea, everything was about the result and winning trophies. That was the spirit in the whole club, even from the man who cuts the grass. Roman Abramovich would only ask us about results. At United, it was more commercial-minded. I started to think that after a couple of months in the club. I understand that our salary needs to be paid, but I felt that the results were not the focus like it was at Chelsea. I maybe did two commercial jobs at Chelsea, at United it was far more.
  • I arrived at United with the anger to win trophies like I had at Chelsea, but step by step I started to feel that trophies were not the focus. Maybe I’m not right, but that was my feeling inside.
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Hopefully we are now trying to rectify this under INEOS. Glazers never cared about trophies just as long as we qualified for champions league every season.
 
DarkLord1984 said:
Hopefully that culture is beginning to shift now, with many of the overpaid divas being moved on and actual football people into senior management positions.
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If anything it has gotten worse. Post season tours and the whole discourse with the club this season has been money.
 
It's really a chicken and egg thing. If United were truly interested in trophies then they wouldn't have signed Chelsea's cast offs
 
He’s not wrong, and it’s nothing the fans haven’t been saying as well. Hopefully that’s changing.
 
Licha-Vidic said:
How bad was/is this problem.

Mourinho, LVG have all said about this culture.




You played more games for United than for any other club in your career – 189. How do you look back at your five years at Old Trafford?
  • We did our best every single year, the players, the coaches. In my first year, we finished second. We were leading in January but Man City won. We finished second, sixth, third, second and sixth. We played in the Europa League, Super Cup and FA Cup finals. We played Champions League in four of my five seasons. But we didn’t win.
  • If I compare how we did with United now, then we did great, but of course United cannot be happy finishing second. United need to be winning leagues. We gave it our best and sometimes we’d get criticised, but I didn’t see any major problems in the club. The organisation was very good, the conditions perfect.
  • The difference I felt after Chelsea was that, at Chelsea, everything was about the result and winning trophies. That was the spirit in the whole club, even from the man who cuts the grass. Roman Abramovich would only ask us about results. At United, it was more commercial-minded. I started to think that after a couple of months in the club. I understand that our salary needs to be paid, but I felt that the results were not the focus like it was at Chelsea. I maybe did two commercial jobs at Chelsea, at United it was far more.
  • I arrived at United with the anger to win trophies like I had at Chelsea, but step by step I started to feel that trophies were not the focus. Maybe I’m not right, but that was my feeling inside.
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So it was doing 5 commercial engagements worth a hour of his time tops, the reason for him putting in sub par performance after sub par performance then? It was Van Gaal that started using the commercial united excuse to explain away his awful god damn tactics and now other failures are holding on to that excuse. Nothing excuses players not even bothering to run and close down their opponents. Matic was finished by the time we signed him and some of his performances were unacceptably poor, no advert for noodles is to blame for that.
 
Woodward and his cronies have done untold damage to this club's culture. Not just set us on the path to the financial hole we are in now, but completely shifted the focus away from success on the pitch so success in sponsorship deals.
 
Not sure what Matic is waffling about? He was part of the failure furniture brought into the club. Dreadful signing and contributed further to the decline of the club.

Your anger to win trophies declined? Maybe you and your agent should evaluate the real motivations for wanting to join the club.
 
Devil_forever said:
You think we paid £40m on a 31 year old for shits and kicks? We could have spent a lot less if the aim wasn’t to try win trophies.
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We all know that the Glazers are in it for the money. Which really made me wonder the rationale behind signings washed up players on silly money. I am referring to the likes of Matic, Casemiro and Sanchez who never really made any sense to me. Thus I asked around to people who I know are very close to the club and they answered me this way.

a- experienced players had more of a chance of us hitting the sweet spot (ie top 4 and CL qualification). The Glazers were obsessed with that as it boosted sponsorship money. Winning trophies wasn't as important for them
b- big names attract big sponsors. Hence why, at the time, we'd rather get Ronaldo, Ibra, Matic, Casemiro and co then splash the cash on younger talent who might have a longer shelf life but needed time to develop both talent wise and commercially.

Needless to say that this was a rather short sighted strategy, a cash grab that made no sense long term wise. But that's Glazer's strategy in a nutshell. If it wasn't the case then they wouldn't have taken dividends and would have opted to use that money to keep United competitive and the stadium in good shape. Then when the time came to cash in then they would have easily sold the club for 7b which is way more then the pennies (relatively speaking) they got from dividends every year.
 
Reading this just makes the comments criticising Amorim all the more hilarious. Imagine expecting one manager to change such a poor sporting culture in under six months!
 
I'd still put him in the top 5 of Serbians who have played for us.
 
Tiber said:
He also arrived as a declining footballer. Signings like him haven't helped
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You’d think after all the players we’ve had that just seem to break down as soon as they hit 30, we’d have stopped signing them years ago. Mata, Matic, Schweinsteiger, and yet we still bought Casemiro and hoped it’d be fine.
 
Regardless of Matic play during his time at the club and his motivations for leaving, I think these comments are biting and reflect the culture under Woodward and the Glazers. Commercial first, trophies maybe.

I think coming from Chelsea and as an elder statesman of the squad, Matic would've been trying to instil standards in the playing group. It has been said that he was one of the players that Pogba listened to and respected. However its hard to do that if it is not coming from the top.

I hope under this new football leadership and people like Berrada, who are used to winning culture at City, this is rectified and that winning is paramount to anything else for the club.
 
Matic was actually pretty good for us, one of the better midfielders we've had post-Ferguson who I think got too much stick at times. If he was 10 years older and had been bought in the mid-2000s he would probably be known as a legend and won lots of trophies. Not like the midfield was that good then either, it's just the defence and attack were far better.
 
Kingslayer18 said:
Regardless of Matic play during his time at the club and his motivations for leaving, I think these comments are biting and reflect the culture under Woodward and the Glazers. Commercial first, trophies maybe.

I think coming from Chelsea and as an elder statesman of the squad, Matic would've been trying to instil standards in the playing group. It has been said that he was one of the players that Pogba listened to and respected. However its hard to do that if it is not coming from the top.

I hope under this new football leadership and people like Berrada, who are used to winning culture at City, this is rectified and that winning is paramount to anything else for the club.
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Think this also gives an insight into what Sir Jim said about ETH having to do so much stuff they did not think he should be doing - obviously it then did not work out once they changed things, but it gives an idea of how much non training ground work our previous managers likely had to do and some, like Mou, probably loved it but others maybe not so much.
 
Insanity said:
You played more games for United than for any other club in your career – 189

Who could have guessed that? :wenger:
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I would; Matic was great in his first season for us, moved around the pitch like a colossus.

Sadly towards the end of his second season his back injury returned (sustained at Chelsea and the only reason they let him go) and he struggled on to the end of that season and had his op during the close season. Had he had the op earlier, who knows; however he never got back to the standards of his first season, but steadied the ship in midfield in many a game.
Only wished he could have got a season or two alongside (a then) young Garner. Even today you can see elements of Matic's play-making in Garner (now at Everton).
 
People moaning about Matic is music to the owner's ears. He speaks the truth with no agenda. Why not pay attention to what he is saying rather than attempting to trash his credibility?
 
dubplate warrior said:
Investment in training facilities, sports science and actual footballing structure.

Man United will never not be a commercial behemoth but it doesn't feel like football is a mere footnote anymore.
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And the idea of building a new stadium at the cost of on field success. Nothing about our current ownership makes me think the aim is anything but making money. That seems more apparent to me now than it ever has.
 
briansy said:
People moaning about Matic is music to the owner's ears. He speaks the truth with no agenda. Why not pay attention to what he is saying rather than attempting to trash his credibility?
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Because people are sensitive about their club. He isn't the first to say this either so this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone
 
acnumber9 said:
And the idea of building a new stadium at the cost of on field success. Nothing about our current ownership makes me think the aim is anything but making money. That seems more apparent to me now than it ever has.
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The club desperately needs a new stadium and hasn't had any investment in terms of its infrastructure for 20 years. New stakeholders come in and do exactly that and get criticised for it. You can't win.
 
Insanity said:
You played more games for United than for any other club in your career – 189

Who could have guessed that? :wenger:
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That surprised me as well; even having seen him in all those games for us I still would've guessed it would've been Chelsea.
 
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