MEN banned from the press conference today | Some journalists banned for running articles without approaching United for comment first

The desperation of the Ten Hag cultists in this thread is hilarious.

According to them, it’s the duty of the Manchester Evening News, a respectable local media outlet with a proud tradition of independent reporting that is older than Manchester United football club as we know it, to do United’s PR for them. If you want solely positive media coverage of United, MUTV is right there! It specialises in this sort of them.

Accoring to the Ten Hag cultists, a journalist that keeps their sources anonymous is simply making things up and the only way they can be truthful is if they name their sources and expose them to severe career consequences that will essentially make them unemployable.

According to the Ten Hag cultists, it’s a bad thing that journalists are briefed that squad morale is at all time low but it is totally fine that journalists are briefed character assasinations on players that have been victims of an abuse of power by this egotistical control-freak of a manager. They perfectly happy to accept the briefings they like as factual, but they cast doubt on the credibility of those that go against their agenda.

Is it not the duty of us, as fans, to know both the good and bad that is happening at United internally? Or would you rather have your heads buried in the sand without an explanation as to why we have been so awful.

An honest question to the Ten Hag cultists. Who is your first loyalty to? Is it to Manchester United, the club that has brought you happiness for decades? Or to a manager that is treating OUR club like his personal little dictatorship? Why should we allow him to drag our reputation and standards through the mud with his illogical tactical decisions and shambolic squad management?

Because the players are to blame? We’re all with you on that one. They aren’t good enough. But isn’t it the manager’s job to keep them onboard and coach them to success?

Or should we accept Ten Hag disrespecting this club by treating it like his dictatorship because “there is no alternative” and “we need to end this cycle of hiring and firing”? By this logic, managers from Moyes to Ole should not have been fired.

Please use your logic, rationality and common sense and put the interests of United first. Ten Hag’s persistence with the same disgusting tactics with the same repeated flaws have shown us enough that he cannot be trusted and his position is untenable.

If this mutiny is necessary in order to accelerate his sacking then sobeit. The season is already a write off with this manager and we should start preparing for the next one without him.
Seems like a good number of posters work for MEN.
 
I don’t know why anybody would side against the club here. This is absolutely the right move to assert the interests of the club and team.
Now those journalists taking liberties with their words know the club aren’t a walk over, and won’t allow it any more.
And it’s not a freedom of press issue because the club isn’t stifling the whole media, just those who are hostile to the club and not going about their. The press conference will still be reported, even by those publications banned.
Because they hate someone or the other at the club, manager, players, etc etc., and think backing the club will dilute their agendas.

Or some of them work for MEN.
 
Has any player come out to say they don’t have a problem with Ten Hag’s training methods or is there perhaps now a gag order on the players speaking on the record?
 
You might want to take a look at the state of reporting in the social media age. The MEN, like most traditional press, has become unrecognizable from the likes of buzzfeed etc. Their business model is entirely based on driving clicks and the best and most surefire way to do that is through negative coverage of United because that not only attracts supporters but a global audience of fans of other clubs who love to revel in our misery. The concept of fact checking stories and verifying sources has completely fallen by the wayside and the notion of offering the club the chance to respond to or dispute their articles is ignored for the very reason that they know 99% of what they publish is horseshit and could be irrefutably proven false by the club thereby leaving them with nothing to print unless they want to risk legal action for printing lies after they have been given the proof their story is false.

FYI, I am no ETH cultist and I lean strongly towards the view that he is out of his depth and difficult as it will be we probably will need to take another shot at finding the right guy.

You’re spot on about the generally clickbaity nature of the traditional press due to digital commercialisation. I also agree that (if true), it wasn’t best practice from the journalists to not offer the

However, I seriously doubt that somebody like Luckhurst, with the backing of his editor, would put their professional neck on the line like that if their sources were not credible. Ultimately, reliability is the most important thing for a news journalist to be credibility, and if they are exposed using phoney sources then they can consider themselves to be unemployable as nobody will read their articles and they will be a liability to an outlet like MEN that brands itself as a trusted source of news (whether you personally trust MEN or not is down to you).

It is also in the interests of journalists like Luckhurst to maintain good relations with the club. Such negative stories of player revolts are already a risk for them given that the club can, for example, overlook them for exclusives or in this case, totally revoke access.

But it is also in the interests of the club to maintain good relations with the MEN and the local media. The club will need exposure for positive stories or briefings they want to put out in order to control the narrative. I suspect that, when this all blows over, the club’s comms team will say that they pushed to take action in that manner by Ten Hag and now that he’s gone their relationship can go back to normal.


Supporting the team and the manager = ten hag cultist. This fan base is so weird at times.

Have you considered that supporting the team and the club is dependent on having a capable and competent manager who is not hated by his playing staff? Have you considered that is not feasible to get rid of every single player Ten Hag has fallen out with and instead get a manager who can get the most out of the players already there? Have you considered that, even if we did get rid of every player that is considered problematic, Ten Hag is the last person who should be trusted with a rebuild given his shambolic tactics, treatment of players, training methods and signings are the cause of the crisis we are currently in.

I use terms such as Ten Hag cultists because in the eyes of some posters, he can do no wrong. Ten Hag is portrayed as a victim and every excuse under the sun is made for . This is why I question whether your loyalty is to the club or the manager. Loyalty to the club does not equal loyalty to the manager if the manager is one of the largest controllable factors for these issues.

I am fully aware of the obstacles he faces that are beyond his control: the Glazers, the lack of football structure and the ego of modern professionals.

But there are things within Ten Hag’s control where he is failing miserably: the signings, falling out with players, illogical and inconsistent team selections, arduous training sessions and the persistence with the same disastrous tactics (the 3-1-6 and the man-to-man press) despite the same pattern of problems (we regularly concede the same of type and we let in too many shots every game).

You can keep blaming the players and their ego all you like. No amount of effort and dedication can mitigate for Ten Hag being tactically outmanoeuvred almost every single game. This is why this squad mutiny is in the best interests of the club. Ten Hag’s decisions are truly a liability at this point.

The issue with the Ten Hag cultists is that they have already imagined him taking the club back to its old heights and they don’t want to let go of it. Personally, I don’t care who takes us back to the top. It could be Steven Gerrard or John Terry for all I care, as long as it is Manchester United at the top of the league. I am 100% convinced that Ten Hag will take us further away from this ny manager in our post-SAF era. We didn’t even look this bad under Moyes.

The cultists may argue that this is just a blip. Indeed it may be. But I have seen enough to conclude that, should we recover and reach another blip, this manager is either: a) too stubborn to change a clearly failing tactic or b) he can’t even read the game well enough to diagnose the issues and apply the corrective measures.

Whichever one it is, I have seen enough. As we say in Arabic - you need not drink all of the sea’s water to know that it is salty.
 
However, I seriously doubt that somebody like Luckhurst, with the backing of his editor, would put their professional neck on the line like that if their sources were not credible. Ultimately, reliability is the most important thing for a news journalist to be credibility, and if they are exposed using phoney sources then they can consider themselves to be unemployable as nobody will read their articles and they will be a liability to an outlet like MEN that brands itself as a trusted source of news (whether you personally trust MEN or not is down to you).
How will he get exposed? This is not a legal battle. Luckhurst or MEN are not forced to reveal their sources. Club can deny the news, but its not like everyone is gonna believe.
 
Yes they are. That's why we are trying to make them accountable. You want to write bull shit well you're going to be held accountable. It's about time we got back to that. For to long we have been letting anyone write whatever they want without any truth to it. They make money off of us printing these articles. If they want to make money the dirty way then they are not welcome to our press conferences any more.

How does the club knows that those reports aren't correct?

It doesn't. It can't.

United being annoyed that it wasn't contacted for comment is fine. That is something that the journalists should have done. But assuming that the the reports are false and "bull shit" is based on nothing but wanting to believe that.
 
Some of the fans seem to prefer it over whatever club or the manager does.

That's not the issue at all.

There's nothing wrong with supporting the club or manager, of course. But isn't it better doing so when you have full information about what is happening, or not happening, behind the scenes? You're never going to get that information from United and that's why you need the media. Now, if you think that some media outlets and/or reporters are not credible, fine. But eventually, you do need them and their reporting to get inside information. And then you can decide if the manager and club are actually doing well or not.

But some people tend to be very sensitive to any report that divulges negative information about United.

* I work in the media, and for a newspaper many people in Israel hate because it's "leftist" and therefore they automatically consider any negative report it has towards Israel as false. Maybe that's why I'm a little more sensitive to such assumptions.
 
Club should change name to Red United, and replace devil with golden hammer and sickle. EtH kinda looks like a Lenin.

Imho, club didn't need this, especially before Bayern and Liverpool games. But if they chosed this path, then better for them to win both games or be ready for grilling in newspapers. Players and manager are already mentally weak, they didn't need more pressure.
 
Will it surprise anyone if ETH fights with the tea lady, too? From what we have read so far, he is even more disliked than Mourinho! By everyone. At least, Mourinho was funny sometimes.
 
It's easy to tell that MEN and the like are in the wrong here when they do not offer the club the right to reply and it appears that's pretty much what the club are asking for.

Sources, however, should be kept confidential if that was the condition.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to see this play out. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And it's certainly more entertaining than the dross on the pitch.
 
The journos are clearly onto something here. With so many sources they probably have good Intel on how it is.

That doesnt change the fact that they should've called the club for a response. Even though it would be a no comment answer
 
That's not the issue at all.

There's nothing wrong with supporting the club or manager, of course. But isn't it better doing so when you have full information about what is happening, or not happening, behind the scenes? You're never going to get that information from United and that's why you need the media. Now, if you think that some media outlets and/or reporters are not credible, fine. But eventually, you do need them and their reporting to get inside information. And then you can decide if the manager and club are actually doing well or not.

But some people tend to be very sensitive to any report that divulges negative information about United.

* I work in the media, and for a newspaper many people in Israel hate because it's "leftist" and therefore they automatically consider any negative report it has towards Israel as false. Maybe that's why I'm a little more sensitive to such assumptions.

The issue that United raised is that they were not allowed to comment for the story, right? I actually think that it's completely BS for a journalist to run the stories that were run and deny the club/manager to respond or comment.

They obviously would deny the story and refute the claims, or choose to deny comment. That should be reported within the story, probably at the end, along with everything else they did end up reporting.

If they can't meet that bare minimum standard then the club are well within their rights to ban them as they did. MEN's response was laughable and didn't even address the club's stance which says everything to me.
 
It's easy to tell that MEN and the like are in the wrong here when they do not offer the club the right to reply and it appears that's pretty much what the club are asking for.

It's not just MEN, though, is it? It's also ESPN, Sky and The Mirror.
 
The issue that United raised is that they were not allowed to comment for the story, right? I actually think that it's completely BS for a journalist to run the stories that were run and deny the club/manager to respond or comment.

That I would agree with. And United had every right to air their grievances. It also should have ended with it. Banning it makes looks like a bigger issue than now being allowed to comment.
 
The desperation of the Ten Hag cultists in this thread is hilarious.

According to them, it’s the duty of the Manchester Evening News, a respectable local media outlet with a proud tradition of independent reporting that is older than Manchester United football club as we know it, to do United’s PR for them. If you want solely positive media coverage of United, MUTV is right there! It specialises in this sort of them.

Accoring to the Ten Hag cultists, a journalist that keeps their sources anonymous is simply making things up and the only way they can be truthful is if they name their sources and expose them to severe career consequences that will essentially make them unemployable.

According to the Ten Hag cultists, it’s a bad thing that journalists are briefed that squad morale is at all time low but it is totally fine that journalists are briefed character assasinations on players that have been victims of an abuse of power by this egotistical control-freak of a manager. They perfectly happy to accept the briefings they like as factual, but they cast doubt on the credibility of those that go against their agenda.

Is it not the duty of us, as fans, to know both the good and bad that is happening at United internally? Or would you rather have your heads buried in the sand without an explanation as to why we have been so awful.

An honest question to the Ten Hag cultists. Who is your first loyalty to? Is it to Manchester United, the club that has brought you happiness for decades? Or to a manager that is treating OUR club like his personal little dictatorship? Why should we allow him to drag our reputation and standards through the mud with his illogical tactical decisions and shambolic squad management?

Because the players are to blame? We’re all with you on that one. They aren’t good enough. But isn’t it the manager’s job to keep them onboard and coach them to success?

Or should we accept Ten Hag disrespecting this club by treating it like his dictatorship because “there is no alternative” and “we need to end this cycle of hiring and firing”? By this logic, managers from Moyes to Ole should not have been fired.

Please use your logic, rationality and common sense and put the interests of United first. Ten Hag’s persistence with the same disgusting tactics with the same repeated flaws have shown us enough that he cannot be trusted and his position is untenable.

If this mutiny is necessary in order to accelerate his sacking then sobeit. The season is already a write off with this manager and we should start preparing for the next one without him.
Read the first line and left it there.
 
The desperation of the Ten Hag cultists in this thread is hilarious.

According to them, it’s the duty of the Manchester Evening News, a respectable local media outlet with a proud tradition of independent reporting that is older than Manchester United football club as we know it, to do United’s PR for them. If you want solely positive media coverage of United, MUTV is right there! It specialises in this sort of them.

Had to laugh at that.
 
The desperation of the Ten Hag cultists in this thread is hilarious.

According to them, it’s the duty of the Manchester Evening News, a respectable local media outlet with a proud tradition of independent reporting that is older than Manchester United football club as we know it, to do United’s PR for them. If you want solely positive media coverage of United, MUTV is right there! It specialises in this sort of them.

Accoring to the Ten Hag cultists, a journalist that keeps their sources anonymous is simply making things up and the only way they can be truthful is if they name their sources and expose them to severe career consequences that will essentially make them unemployable.

According to the Ten Hag cultists, it’s a bad thing that journalists are briefed that squad morale is at all time low but it is totally fine that journalists are briefed character assasinations on players that have been victims of an abuse of power by this egotistical control-freak of a manager. They perfectly happy to accept the briefings they like as factual, but they cast doubt on the credibility of those that go against their agenda.

Is it not the duty of us, as fans, to know both the good and bad that is happening at United internally? Or would you rather have your heads buried in the sand without an explanation as to why we have been so awful.

An honest question to the Ten Hag cultists. Who is your first loyalty to? Is it to Manchester United, the club that has brought you happiness for decades? Or to a manager that is treating OUR club like his personal little dictatorship? Why should we allow him to drag our reputation and standards through the mud with his illogical tactical decisions and shambolic squad management?

Because the players are to blame? We’re all with you on that one. They aren’t good enough. But isn’t it the manager’s job to keep them onboard and coach them to success?

Or should we accept Ten Hag disrespecting this club by treating it like his dictatorship because “there is no alternative” and “we need to end this cycle of hiring and firing”? By this logic, managers from Moyes to Ole should not have been fired.

Please use your logic, rationality and common sense and put the interests of United first. Ten Hag’s persistence with the same disgusting tactics with the same repeated flaws have shown us enough that he cannot be trusted and his position is untenable.

If this mutiny is necessary in order to accelerate his sacking then sobeit. The season is already a write off with this manager and we should start preparing for the next one without him.

I can’t fathom how this is a real post and not a parody.
 
It's the same journalists reporting the same stories over and over through the years. As a club, we have to take strong measures to avoid these leaks and if it means banning leeches like Luckhurst or Kaveh then that is the correct approach. A better approach would also be to find the leak within the squad and publicly name and shame them. A journalist's job isn't just to report what some person inside the club said, it's also to verify and get the opinion of the club or Ten Hag in this particular situation. Any player or individual can say any thing. You can understand why an aggrieved Sancho would say that 'Sancho is training like a beast' but does that become the truth without any sort of differing opinion.

We have to take such measures because not a single of our PL peers face the level of scrutiny that we do and there has to be an end to this. Back the club and Ten Hag completely.
 
The desperation of the Ten Hag cultists in this thread is hilarious.

According to them, it’s the duty of the Manchester Evening News, a respectable local media outlet with a proud tradition of independent reporting that is older than Manchester United football club as we know it, to do United’s PR for them. If you want solely positive media coverage of United, MUTV is right there! It specialises in this sort of them.

Accoring to the Ten Hag cultists, a journalist that keeps their sources anonymous is simply making things up and the only way they can be truthful is if they name their sources and expose them to severe career consequences that will essentially make them unemployable.

According to the Ten Hag cultists, it’s a bad thing that journalists are briefed that squad morale is at all time low but it is totally fine that journalists are briefed character assasinations on players that have been victims of an abuse of power by this egotistical control-freak of a manager. They perfectly happy to accept the briefings they like as factual, but they cast doubt on the credibility of those that go against their agenda.

Is it not the duty of us, as fans, to know both the good and bad that is happening at United internally? Or would you rather have your heads buried in the sand without an explanation as to why we have been so awful.

An honest question to the Ten Hag cultists. Who is your first loyalty to? Is it to Manchester United, the club that has brought you happiness for decades? Or to a manager that is treating OUR club like his personal little dictatorship? Why should we allow him to drag our reputation and standards through the mud with his illogical tactical decisions and shambolic squad management?

Because the players are to blame? We’re all with you on that one. They aren’t good enough. But isn’t it the manager’s job to keep them onboard and coach them to success?

Or should we accept Ten Hag disrespecting this club by treating it like his dictatorship because “there is no alternative” and “we need to end this cycle of hiring and firing”? By this logic, managers from Moyes to Ole should not have been fired.

Please use your logic, rationality and common sense and put the interests of United first. Ten Hag’s persistence with the same disgusting tactics with the same repeated flaws have shown us enough that he cannot be trusted and his position is untenable.

If this mutiny is necessary in order to accelerate his sacking then sobeit. The season is already a write off with this manager and we should start preparing for the next one without him.

You can always tell someone has no real argument when they start talking about cults.
MEN has never been a respected media outlet. Luckhurst has a long storied history of writing absolute nonsense about United. That is nothing new and began long before Ten Hag.
Your next two points are literally made up. Noone has said anything like that. What people have said is that journalists have to verify their sources and respectable journalists ask for a reply from the club. The latter has not happened and thus United are well within their right to ban them.
Ferguson did the same. And it made sense back then too. Or are you going to call os Ferguson cultists too?

Our duty? Please explain how we can perform this socalled duty given that none of us have access to the inside of the club.

An honest question to you. How long have you followed United and watched United play? You sound like someone who gets your views from Youtube fanchannels like the Football Terrace or Rants.

How has he disrespected the club? Putting players straight who are not putting in the effort is not disrespecting the club. If anything it shows he understands United. Ferguson did the same.

But anyway well done on writing that wall of rubbish.
 
That I would agree with. And United had every right to air their grievances. It also should have ended with it. Banning it makes looks like a bigger issue than now being allowed to comment.

Disagree. They banned those journalists for not adhering to appropriate standards that ensure fair reporting. The fact they failed or refused to do so is worthy of a ban for those involved.

Simply airing the grievances is toothless. It sets the standard that the club will not actually act to defend itself against unfair practices.

In this case the club rightfully aired their grievances and set the standard for all other journalists in the future to adhere to if they want to keep their access.
 
Crazy that some people again think it's all ETH fault when the exact same thing happened with: LVG, Mourinho, Ole, Ragnick and now again.

The exact same thing will happen again in 18 month with a new manager as half our team are soft, entitled cnuts. Good the club is taking action against the press that stirs shit. Hopefully the players are next. Throw them all out
 
The desperation of the Ten Hag cultists in this thread is hilarious.

According to them, it’s the duty of the Manchester Evening News, a respectable local media outlet with a proud tradition of independent reporting that is older than Manchester United football club as we know it, to do United’s PR for them. If you want solely positive media coverage of United, MUTV is right there! It specialises in this sort of them.

Accoring to the Ten Hag cultists, a journalist that keeps their sources anonymous is simply making things up and the only way they can be truthful is if they name their sources and expose them to severe career consequences that will essentially make them unemployable.

According to the Ten Hag cultists, it’s a bad thing that journalists are briefed that squad morale is at all time low but it is totally fine that journalists are briefed character assasinations on players that have been victims of an abuse of power by this egotistical control-freak of a manager. They perfectly happy to accept the briefings they like as factual, but they cast doubt on the credibility of those that go against their agenda.

Is it not the duty of us, as fans, to know both the good and bad that is happening at United internally? Or would you rather have your heads buried in the sand without an explanation as to why we have been so awful.

An honest question to the Ten Hag cultists. Who is your first loyalty to? Is it to Manchester United, the club that has brought you happiness for decades? Or to a manager that is treating OUR club like his personal little dictatorship? Why should we allow him to drag our reputation and standards through the mud with his illogical tactical decisions and shambolic squad management?

Because the players are to blame? We’re all with you on that one. They aren’t good enough. But isn’t it the manager’s job to keep them onboard and coach them to success?

Or should we accept Ten Hag disrespecting this club by treating it like his dictatorship because “there is no alternative” and “we need to end this cycle of hiring and firing”? By this logic, managers from Moyes to Ole should not have been fired.

Please use your logic, rationality and common sense and put the interests of United first. Ten Hag’s persistence with the same disgusting tactics with the same repeated flaws have shown us enough that he cannot be trusted and his position is untenable.

If this mutiny is necessary in order to accelerate his sacking then sobeit. The season is already a write off with this manager and we should start preparing for the next one without him.

What a load of waffle. Another load of crap just so you can say you want ETH sacked in another thread. I can't be arsed to look but I'd say you think Sancho is in the right and will defend players like Martial, Rashford etc for being lazy and out of form.

MEN has long since ceased to be a resprespectable outlet. As for it's sport coverage Luckhurst has been covering Utd for nearly 10 years. He's made a career out of shit stirring, because shit stirring is what gains him the most traction and responses. Any decent journalist will look to other side of a story to gain their point of view or comments.

None of this is about ETH, it's about the club telling these shysters we've had enough of your bullshit, now either you go about things the right way or you don't have direct access to ask questions. There's nothing wrong with that and it's been a long time coming.

And I would 100% continue to deny them all access until they reveal their sources. They need Utd more than Utd need them.
 
Behind the club all the way on this. I just wish they'd have done it sooner.

Too many amateurish fools out there now who spout absolute nonsense about this club on a daily basis.
Some of their writing is on a primary school level. All this "One person said", "Another Said". Quoting Twitter comments the buffoons.
 
I don’t know why anybody would side against the club here. This is absolutely the right move to assert the interests of the club and team.
Now those journalists taking liberties with their words know the club aren’t a walk over, and won’t allow it any more.
And it’s not a freedom of press issue because the club isn’t stifling the whole media, just those who are hostile to the club and not going about their. The press conference will still be reported, even by those publications banned.


Agreed 100%.
Club have done the right thing here.Fergie did this too. The leaks and the BS simply tarnish the club day in day out, it gnaws away at me seeing negative sensationlist headlines every day about our club...when was the last time Luckhurst wrote anything pro united? its time to fight back in some way, and by banning certain outlets we are publicly denouncing those responsible. Believe me this hurts them more than you think
 
Agreed 100%.
Club have done the right thing here.Fergie did this too. The leaks and the BS simply tarnish the club day in day out, it gnaws away at me seeing negative sensationlist headlines every day about our club...when was the last time Luckhurst wrote anything pro united? its time to fight back in some way, and by banning certain outlets we are publicly denouncing those responsible. Believe me this hurts them more than you think

How doea this stop the leaks?

This annoys the media on principle. It doesn't hurt them. It's just a press conference.
 
I don't often agree with Howsen but I just watched his video posted by Stretford Paddock, and I have to say he's 100% spot on.

These journalists have to remember that they have no God given right to be in or around the club, and that they're there by invitation only.
Man United are a private company and can invite or uninvite anyone they want to the managers press conference or to Carrington or to Old Trafford itself.

Don't shit where you eat, idiots. It's that simple.
 
How doea this stop the leaks?

This annoys the media on principle. It doesn't hurt them. It's just a press conference.

If the media want access to press conferences they have to at least check with the club before running a story, now the club can employ delaying tactics and have a right of reply. Let's say you are going into a big game against a rival and the media want to drop a story which would create added drama for the players before a big game, do you think it would be quite useful to have some way of delaying that story or being aware that it is about to drop so you can prepare the players and staff?

Or do you think we should just let cretinous self interested journalists have free reign on what they write?

feck me it's like some of you want the club to fail for added drama.
 
This is the kind of move that looks fine when the club as a whole is in a good condition, but having a bad run of form e.g. under Fergie. But when the club is struggling, it just looks like pathetic flailing.
It says more about those who judge it based on that.
 
You’re spot on about the generally clickbaity nature of the traditional press due to digital commercialisation. I also agree that (if true), it wasn’t best practice from the journalists to not offer the

However, I seriously doubt that somebody like Luckhurst, with the backing of his editor, would put their professional neck on the line like that if their sources were not credible. Ultimately, reliability is the most important thing for a news journalist to be credibility, and if they are exposed using phoney sources then they can consider themselves to be unemployable as nobody will read their articles and they will be a liability to an outlet like MEN that brands itself as a trusted source of news (whether you personally trust MEN or not is down to you).

It is also in the interests of journalists like Luckhurst to maintain good relations with the club. Such negative stories of player revolts are already a risk for them given that the club can, for example, overlook them for exclusives or in this case, totally revoke access.

But it is also in the interests of the club to maintain good relations with the MEN and the local media. The club will need exposure for positive stories or briefings they want to put out in order to control the narrative. I suspect that, when this all blows over, the club’s comms team will say that they pushed to take action in that manner by Ten Hag and now that he’s gone their relationship can go back to normal.




Have you considered that supporting the team and the club is dependent on having a capable and competent manager who is not hated by his playing staff? Have you considered that is not feasible to get rid of every single player Ten Hag has fallen out with and instead get a manager who can get the most out of the players already there? Have you considered that, even if we did get rid of every player that is considered problematic, Ten Hag is the last person who should be trusted with a rebuild given his shambolic tactics, treatment of players, training methods and signings are the cause of the crisis we are currently in.

I use terms such as Ten Hag cultists because in the eyes of some posters, he can do no wrong. Ten Hag is portrayed as a victim and every excuse under the sun is made for . This is why I question whether your loyalty is to the club or the manager. Loyalty to the club does not equal loyalty to the manager if the manager is one of the largest controllable factors for these issues.

I am fully aware of the obstacles he faces that are beyond his control: the Glazers, the lack of football structure and the ego of modern professionals.

But there are things within Ten Hag’s control where he is failing miserably: the signings, falling out with players, illogical and inconsistent team selections, arduous training sessions and the persistence with the same disastrous tactics (the 3-1-6 and the man-to-man press) despite the same pattern of problems (we regularly concede the same of type and we let in too many shots every game).

You can keep blaming the players and their ego all you like. No amount of effort and dedication can mitigate for Ten Hag being tactically outmanoeuvred almost every single game. This is why this squad mutiny is in the best interests of the club. Ten Hag’s decisions are truly a liability at this point.

The issue with the Ten Hag cultists is that they have already imagined him taking the club back to its old heights and they don’t want to let go of it. Personally, I don’t care who takes us back to the top. It could be Steven Gerrard or John Terry for all I care, as long as it is Manchester United at the top of the league. I am 100% convinced that Ten Hag will take us further away from this ny manager in our post-SAF era. We didn’t even look this bad under Moyes.

The cultists may argue that this is just a blip. Indeed it may be. But I have seen enough to conclude that, should we recover and reach another blip, this manager is either: a) too stubborn to change a clearly failing tactic or b) he can’t even read the game well enough to diagnose the issues and apply the corrective measures.

Whichever one it is, I have seen enough. As we say in Arabic - you need not drink all of the sea’s water to know that it is salty.
Bizarre
 
If the media want access to press conferences they have to at least check with the club before running a story, now the club can employ delaying tactics and have a right of reply. Let's say you are going into a big game against a rival and the media want to drop a story which would create added drama for the players before a big game, do you think it would be quite useful to have some way of delaying that story or being aware that it is about to drop so you can prepare the players and staff?

That would change little as you won't be given all the time in the world to comment. The paper or website will have already decided when to publish. If you try to delay, they will be within their right to pubish without a comment.
 
Sure the british media always has to be provocative but this just seems vain and petty from ETH and the way he conducted himself with some players it really doesnt suprise me.

Sack
 
I want journalists to do their work and give me the sort of inside information that United won"t want published. I want to know what is going on at the club.

Good luck with that, you'll always read someones narrative.

A rather large problem is that everyone wants to be someone these days, ever since the likes of certain transfer gurus and shit like that, youtube wankers gaining credibility to the point where they get invited to studios, you have journalists that also wants to be seen as important. Luckhurst is self obsessed, always has been.