Ole’s former team-mates who are now pundits refusing to call a spade a spade

devilish

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Yup. Owen, Scholes and Hargreaves ripped into the management and tactics. Owen especially.
There seem to be a clear distinction in mentality between the failed managers (Keane, Gaz, Souness) and those who had never dabbled into management (Carragher, Richards, Owen and Hargreaves)
 

Fortitude

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Yep. I found one link on Twitter, but yeah, they were relentless for about 10 mins.
Point of order here is that Owen never played with Ole and has no connection to him as far as I'm aware, which is why there's no filter and he can be objective.

That, and he's Michael Owen.
 

dal

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Keane defended Ole as much as Neville there, for those who worship him for being blunt towards United.

Micah held his ground on the obvious, Gary overall though is just embarrassing himself. If your not going to call the manager out then don’t be as vocal about how far behind our competition we are. I don’t get it with him.
To be fair Neville was similar to Mourinho.

Nevilles point is bang on because who the fek are we going to replace him with.

The only one I would like right now is ten hag and Poch but they will come and I feel they wouldn’t be able to control the players.
 
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elmo

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I hate Liverpool FC as the next guy but if someone asked me what was wrong about their club during their dark days then I would have given an honest answer. Why would I lie about that?

What many fail to understand is that these people are PAID, quite handsomely I must add, to give an honest opinion about football. Gaz is said to earn 1.2m a year from punditry. Thus if he's lying about Ole to protect their mate they are not only disrespecting their former employee, the club they say they love, but they are also giving a huge disservice to their present employee as well. Sky should sack Keane and Gaz as its evident that their loyalty towards Ole is bigger then their loyalty towards their job.
No, their job is to attract attention to the show and they're doing a great job at it. Sky wouldn't give a shit about what they said as long as it attracts more viewers and doesn't get them into any trouble.
 

amolbhatia50k

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They're his mates, do you honestly expect them to sit there and openly demand that he should be sacked? Anything less than absolute support is damning enough.

And there's only Neville who is going so far as to suggest that changing the manager won't necessarily help.

I dunno why people let it get them so agitated. Souness and co. are there to provide balance and that's what they're doing by making sure it gets discussed in the first place. If the club is relying on Sky Sports punditry to make decisions then it's no wonder we're in the shit.
I think the paying public deserves honesty if not quality. And if Neville and co cannot provide that they have no business commenting on our games.
 

roonster09

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Point of order here is that Owen never played with Ole and has no connection to him as far as I'm aware, which is why there's no filter and he can be objective.

That, and he's Michael Owen.
I'm sure Ole was very critical too, same with Hargreaves. Neville on the other hand is embarrassing, comes up with nonsense like 'proven managers with good CVs have already failed".
 

Adisa

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Yep. I found one link on Twitter, but yeah, they were relentless for about 10 mins.
Owen is right. But the mistake Owen is making is that this has been happening for three years. The way we play has never been consistent.
We haven't been building towards anything for three years. This is why I have wanted him gone for the past two. To be fair, I never wanted him to be given the role permanently.
 

mav_9me

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Point of order here is that Owen never played with Ole and has no connection to him as far as I'm aware, which is why there's no filter and he can be objective.

That, and he's Michael Owen.
Exactly what I was going to say. Although Hargreaves doesn't have any link with Ole either does he?
 

Norris

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Point of order here is that Owen never played with Ole and has no connection to him as far as I'm aware, which is why there's no filter and he can be objective.

That, and he's Michael Owen.
Scholes also made similar comments. And to be fair to Owen, he's not the same drab pundit he was when he started.
 

tenpoless

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Feck me what a situation we're in. When Owen spoke more sense than all the ex players combined.
 

Fortitude

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I'm sure Ole was very critical too, same with Hargreaves. Neville on the other hand is embarrassing, comes up with nonsense like 'proven managers with good CVs have already failed".
Do you mean Scholes with the bolded? Neville has become a parody of himself when it comes to his selectivity regarding United.
Exactly what I was going to say. Although Hargreaves doesn't have any link with Ole either does he?
I think they had brief crossover as OIe was leaving as Hargreaves came in.
Scholes also made similar comments. And to be fair to Owen, he's not the same drab pundit he was when he started.
I haven't seen the Scholes bit yet, to be honest. What I meant about Owen is that he quite renowned for being loyal to no-one so he'd have no qualms saying what he's going to say regardless. But kudos to him for meting out comment on every aspect of us and not honing in on soft targets because he's pals with the manager/staff.
 

Adisa

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I don't expect them to call for his sack but you can read between the lines.
Gaz on the other hand is asking for more time.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Not going to make difference anyway. The board won’t change their perspective based on Neville, Keane and Scholes. They had set their standard and expectation and theirs are the same with arsenal board. The big root problem is actually bigger than the manager, it’s the board. They are the ones making decision. They are the ones who allow this keep happening and refusing to set their standard on the same as the fans.
 

owlo

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Micah Richards comes across as an intelligent and likeable bloke. Ex City player and all.

I think Keane pretty much says it without doing so. Neville and Scholes full of shit.
 

NinjaZombie

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Keane has always done this. Does anybody remember him defending Mourinho and blaming the players after the loss at Anfield that got Mourinho sacked?
Keane's mindset is that players are ultimately responsible for what's going on out there on the field. He's been consistent about this. He used to say in his books how the United dressing room practically ran themselves.

I bet he'd say different if he's the one who had to go out there with zero coaching and tactical setup, running around trying desperately to out fight a well organized Pep Guardiola team.

Sure, we'd look a smidge better but the result would be the same.
 

Varun

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Neville is thick as pig shit. Don't appoint a better manager because we did that once and it didn't work out :lol:
 

Revan

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If Neville would have called Ole out today, Carragher would have Tweeted something along the lines of "Now he's calling his mate to get sacked when last week it was the players fault!". Don't let these clowns fool you either way, their loving every minute of this. It's not about lying or telling the truth.

Sky won't care about Neville's reluctance to speak the words "Ole should be sacked". Despite him saying everything but those words, hammering the team and the setup over recent weeks, his stock couldn't be higher in regards to entertainment value, social media views, mentions etc. We've even got a thread about him not saying those words.
It is not that he isn’t saying that. It is more that he is saying explicitly that Ole should get to the end of the season, and if he wins FA Cup or Europa League (implying that it is ok to not pass the group stage of UcL again), he should get the next one.
 

Daengophile

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In my humble opinion, the best way out of this is for OGS' former team mates in the media to let him know that his legacy is best preserved by admitting that he is unable to take United further and to tender his resignation in the best interests of the club.

OGS probably feels that he needs to protect his fellow coaches but, at the end of the day, the goose is cooked and if his staff are viewed by other teams as worth hiring then so be it. If not that's the nature of the beast
 

CeKay

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because all of them want to be in Ole position, they want to get this job without having any experience, they want the open budget and v long time with the excuse of building, all of them are similar to Ole so they put themselves in his place, they live it.
and don't forget that they were pushing in the media to give Ole a long contract during his interim period, so they are part of the problem and they can't admit it, so they have to blame the players or anyone else but not the manager that they helped to be in his position.
 

MoskvaRed

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Keane's mindset is that players are ultimately responsible for what's going on out there on the field. He's been consistent about this. He used to say in his books how the United dressing room practically ran themselves.

I bet he'd say different if he's the one who had to go out there with zero coaching and tactical setup, running around trying desperately to out fight a well organized Pep Guardiola team.

Sure, we'd look a smidge better but the result would be the same.
Given Keane had one of the most high-profile bust ups of all time, I’m surprised he can’t appreciate the disruptive effect of having a manager you don’t respect. Ditto Neville wasting the last years of his international career under Steve McClaren.
 

mav_9me

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If Neville would have called Ole out today, Carragher would have Tweeted something along the lines of "Now he's calling his mate to get sacked when last week it was the players fault!". Don't let these clowns fool you either way, their loving every minute of this. It's not about lying or telling the truth.

Sky won't care about Neville's reluctance to speak the words "Ole should be sacked". Despite him saying everything but those words, hammering the team and the setup over recent weeks, his stock couldn't be higher in regards to entertainment value, social media views, mentions etc. We've even got a thread about him not saying those words.
Maybe any publicity is good but I think this situation is making Neville look ridiculous and at risk of losing credibility not just among United fans. Any normal football fan can see these answers are full of shit.
 

saivet

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Neville has criticised the tactics and indirectly criticised Ole by saying we never play well. Whenever he gets asked about Ole he then waffles and talks about Jose and LVG all the time.

It's annoying to listen to but there has been criticism there, albeit watered down.
 

NinjaZombie

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Neville has criticised the tactics and indirectly criticised Ole by saying we never play well. Whenever he gets asked about Ole he then waffles and talks about Jose and LVG all the time.

It's annoying to listen to but there has been criticism there, albeit watered down.
He's basically bullshitting his way now. Talking about how the tactics and coaching are not good enough but then when you ask him does Ole needs to go, he says no, citing LVG and Jose.

It's like someone complaining about how hot the weather is in the summer but when you ask him whether he needs to take off his winter jacket, he says no because "when I wore a bomber jacket last summer it was the same, I was sweating my balls off."

Sometimes you just need to take off that jacket and put on that trendy new t-shirt people have been raving about.
 

RedRob

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Devil's advocate:
- They've been mates with a likeable person for over 25 years, and this likeable person is now at his lowest professional ebb.
- Half of them didn't grow up supporting United (Keane was a Spurs fan, Scholes was an Oldham fan, etc).
Put yourself in their position. Would you go on national TV and demand one of your mates be sacked from an incredible opportunity, even if he wasn't showing he was up to it? If your mates are worth less to you than Man United winning trophies, your priorities are all over the place.

With all that said, they do need to start finding ways to provide fair and critical analysis. Keane struck the right balance towards the end yesterday when he said he'd ask Ole why he keeps playing Fred without saying "Ole's got to go." Pretending Ole's decision-making isn't a problem is unprofessional, but there's ways to go about it without publicly flogging a mate.
 

Lentwood

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Keane keeps banging on about desire and character...its no wonder he cant get a job in management.

The answer can't just be "desire and character" every time. I don't believe for a second this group of players doesn't care or don't try. It's just that when there's a total lack of organisation and players lack belief in the plan, the energy and the concentration drains out of you.
 

SeanyC

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I just don’t get why Gary bangs on about LVG/Jose failing and they’re are afraid to sack Ole. Lampard, a household name at Chelsea was sacked and brought in a world class manager and now look at them. The mind boggles
 

Mainoldo

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Devil's advocate:
- They've been mates with a likeable person for over 25 years, and this likeable person is now at his lowest professional ebb.
- Half of them didn't grow up supporting United (Keane was a Spurs fan, Scholes was an Oldham fan, etc).
Put yourself in their position. Would you go on national TV and demand one of your mates be sacked from an incredible opportunity, even if he wasn't showing he was up to it? If your mates are worth less to you than Man United winning trophies, your priorities are all over the place.

With all that said, they do need to start finding ways to provide fair and critical analysis. Keane struck the right balance towards the end yesterday when he said he'd ask Ole why he keeps playing Fred without saying "Ole's got to go." Pretending Ole's decision-making isn't a problem is unprofessional, but there's ways to go about it without publicly flogging a mate.
I get that but I assume you work or have worked with people. Is it really likely in a squad of 25 you are all best mates? These pundits act like they got invited to Ole’s bar mitzvah. If it was Jordi Cyruff Or Ronny Johnson I could understand.
 

RedRob

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I get that but I assume you work or have worked with people. Is it really likely in a squad of 25 you are all best mates? These pundits act like they got invited to Ole’s bar mitzvah. If it was Jordi Cyruff Or Ronny Johnson I could understand.
I absolutely do, and in every job any of us will have worked there will have been people who are genuinely nice people that you publicly shame like that. I get it, it's frustrating for us fans and keeping Ole at the club is detrimental to United as a whole, but we've all had a colleague about whom we couldn't say a bad thing. It seems Ole was that player, and it's impairing the pundits' ability to give an accurate reflection on his performance.
 

wattsy7

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Who cares if Neville doesn't want to say his mate should be sacked? His opinion on matters is generally very good, if he wants to be a hypocrite on this particular matter then let him. Not sure why there's this need to hear Neville utter the words like it will release the kraken when he does, he hammered everything today, he didn't defend anyone, he called everyone out and both him and Keane said something had to change. There was stuff said today between the lines that was so clear Stevie Wonder could read it.
Agreed

I think because Gary is the best pundit people want him to have the same opinion as them so that they feel validated in some type of way, and when he doesn’t they lash out at him.
 

Tincanalley

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Point of order here is that Owen never played with Ole and has no connection to him as far as I'm aware, which is why there's no filter and he can be objective.

That, and he's Michael Owen.
He’s making excellent points though
 

VP89

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Who cares if Neville doesn't want to say his mate should be sacked? His opinion on matters is generally very good
Agreed

I think because Gary is the best pundit people want him to have the same opinion as them so that they feel validated in some type of way, and when he doesn’t they lash out at him.
Hes an atrocious pundit and it goes back before Ole. Hypocrite on several matters from ESL to general managerial sacking views, talking about rebuilds with us, seeing Pogba petulance and judging differently to Kane petulance etc etc.

Hes actually dogshite and has been called out for a while. The Ole views just make him a parody at this point. No one takes his views on the matter seriously anymore, hes like a younger Souness on the matter who just digs his heels in and comes across borderline insane.

The same opinion thing is hilarious. Generally in the past year or so if you have the opposite view or logic to Neville you're probably on the right track.
 
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Idxomer

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Hes an atrocious pundit and it goes back before Ole. Hypocrite on several matters from ESL to general managerial sacking views, talking about rebuilds with us, seeing Pogba petulance and judging differently to Kane petulance etc etc.

Hes actually dogshite and has been called out for a while. The Ole views just make him a parody at this point. No one takes his views on the matter seriously anymore, hes like a younger Souness on the matter who just digs his heels in and comes across borderline insane.
Also, defending Rooney and talking crap about silent domination when it was obvious he's finished.
 

Judge Red

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Bloody hell, I’d take Michael Owen as our manager over what we’ve got.
 

Sky1981

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Nobody asked Neville or Scholes to lambast Ole, they could have been subtle and polite about it, but a spade's a spade

"yeah, i love him, he's my mate and all that, but he's having a mare to be honest"

If Ole can't accept being told the truth than he's an arse of a friend, it's not like Gary and the rest aren't sticking their career on the line to defend the indefensible.
 

Waynne

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Neville is thick as pig shit. Don't appoint a better manager because we did that once and it didn't work out :lol:
Yep and the lady interviewer asked Gary the most simplest of questions: "We're the other managers that United hired like Van Gaal and Mourinho on top of their game at the time of the appointments?"
Neville fails to answer even that question. Instead he doubles down.

How he is in a job as a pundit is beyond me.
 

fallengt

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Roy Keane, Scholes are minutes away from calling Ole's out. Deep down they know Ole isn't good enough.
Neville on other hand...Well, feck him.
 

Hansi Fick

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Brain dead logic. You wouldn't stop signing top class players just because one didn't work out... embarrassing from Neville.
I wouldn't but I've read enough "Isn't Sancho just another Kagawa or Mkhitaryan" type posts to know that some would :lol: