Ole is unhappy that we haven't bought a CM

[pocco]

Seems it's all unravelling now.

Club putting some pretty unlikely expectations on the next few weeks/season, players taking shots at Ole, Ole getting his excuses in...

 

[VP89]

Does this make him toxic? Mourinho 'burned everything' and 'was toxic' for roughly the same reasons: bitching about having spent only 300m within 24 months. Ole spent another 100m more, so I guess even more toxic?

Mourinho openly trashed and alienated his own players. That's why he was toxic.

 

[Revan]

He knew how stingy the Glazers are in the transfer market when he agreed to become manager. Can’t turned round and be shocked he hasn’t been backed financially now.

Very very stingy. In his time here, he outspent every other manager in transfer fees, net transfer fees and the club has the highest wage bill in the sports.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

I think complaining about our transfer expenditure after this summer is just deluded. The club spent over 100 million after 18 months without fans in the stadium where the clubs had lost 100s of millions in revenue because of the pandemic and the debt was increasing dramatically.

In retrospect, the signing of Ronaldo has meant the Sancho money would have been far better spent of a defensive midfilder. but hey hindsight is 20/20

 

[Stacks]

I don't believe this at all

 

[FatTails]

We should’ve also bought a small tropical island so the lads can train in nice weather all year round.

Only then can the fans expect us to string more than 5 passes in a row, expect the manager to play his fit £30m+ international defender over an injured Maguire, or expect any part of the team other than DDG to actually function well.

 

[AndySmith1990]

Frankly the time for excuses has passed. He's had enough time and enough money to rectify any glaring weaknesses. No squad is perfect and never will be, but if you know one area is especially weaker than the rest, you prioritise it above all others.

We could've sold several players to fund it, or not signed Sancho, or not wasted money on van beek last year. Ultimately the buck stops with Solskjaer.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Not quite as bad as Mourinho who demanded a CB after having two bought for him but it's not a good look if true.

Pogba plays CM, Matic plays CM, Fred plays CM, Donny plays CM, McT plays CM...this isn't a personnel problem.

The more I think of it the more I believe in bringing new managers in mid-season and NOT giving them signings immediately. See what they can actually do with the squad first, see if they can actually coach a style you like and then back them.

 

[SeeMe]

''Hey board, we have 2nd, buy me 1 great midfielder we will be the top.''

Tomorrow news, Ronaldo signed.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Always amazed how journalists know what people are "privately thinking"

 

[mu4c_20le]

Does this make him toxic? Mourinho 'burned everything' and 'was toxic' for roughly the same reasons: bitching about having spent only 300m within 24 months. Ole spent another 100m more, so I guess even more toxic?

How is this toxic? Just because what he said made you unhappy, doesn't mean its toxic..

 

[FootyGirl88]

He doesn't decide what players are bought and sold for.

Maybe so but why buy 3 players that aren’t going to play in the first team?

 

[Amir]

I think the Ronaldo signing caused this but then again, the Glazers are crooks.

I can't rule out the possibility we would have signed a midfielder had it not been for Ronaldo, but I find it less probable. We would have had plenty of time to do such a deal rather than wait to the last days of the transfer window.

 

[VP89]

Maybe so but why buy 3 players that aren’t going to play in the first team?

Because not every transfer a club makes is to slot into the first team. Obviously clubs make squad signings and youth signings, not sure why we are beating Ole with a stick over the club decision to buy a couple of kids.

 

[largelyworried]

He doesn't decide what players are bought and sold for.

He knows they don't come free and that buying them eats into the overall budget. We bought them all for the going price after all.

 

[sullydnl]

I'm confused by the comments in this thread, are we now saying we didn't need a CM? Because I thought there was an overwhelming agreement that we did need a DM and it was naive not to buy one.

Yes, we did need a CM. But not getting one doesn't explain away or justify the problems we're seeing, because most teams need a player in a given position at a given time. No team is perfect.

City need a CF, for example. But if they were floundering like we are then Pep being unhappy that Kane wasn't signed would be right scoffed at given the money they've spent elsewhere.

Solskjaer has spent massive sums of money already, so it doesn't reflect well on him this many years in if the big solution to our problems is still to spend yet more money.

Also, the idea that he's rebuilt the squad is usually cited as one of the big pluses in his favour but you can't give him credit for the positives in that regard without also giving him his share of responsibility for the negatives. If CM is such a crippling problem, why did he spend big money on the likes Sancho & Diallo and give big wages to Ronaldo (while barely using VDB, the CM he actually purchased) rather than prioritise CM? And if we're saying he had little control in terms of those decisions, why would we think he was the driving force behind the transfer decisions we actually got right?

 

[tomaldinho1]

He doesn't decide what players are bought and sold for.

He knows the budget, has final say on transfers and I'm assuming he can do basic arithmetic.

 

[choccy77]

Wouldn't be a surprise, anyone should have been able to see how crucial a decent CM is to this team. But then why sign off on Sancho and Ronaldo instead who cost more.

I was reading yesterday, a number of the team are not happy with Sancho on the pitch or in training

 

[hasanejaz88]

After we get a world class CM then we will need a world class RB followed by another world class CM when Pogba leaves and then world class striker when Ronaldo gets a year older and then a world class goalkeeper when De Gea has a couple of bad games.

 

[Isotope]

Always amazed how journalists know what people are "privately thinking"

The most used one is "majority of United fans wants ...".

How the feck do they know the thinking of hundreds of millions United fans out there.

 

[JPRouve]

Always amazed how journalists know what people are "privately thinking"

It depends on which journalist, some make things up, but agents talk and say things that are meant to stay "private". This kind of leaks is generally in the context of a manager who knows that he is under pressure or an agent that knows that his client is under pressure and tries to shift focus away.

 

[Paxi]

Self-preservation mode activated.

 

[gajender]

This is the sort of thing that starts coming out when you lose the dressing room. Like Ole could have easily sold Matic/Donny/Lingard/Tuanzebe etc and bought a DM but we’ve hoarded players to such an extent that we have the biggest wage bill in the league again and look directionless. I think player power is a huge factor here this season. The players have stopped playing for every manager post Fergie and I want those players who stopped playing for Jose and Ole out now. I think his hands are tied though to an extent. Reckon Ronaldo was forced on him. We certainly look like we’ve no idea what to do with him anyway.

This is something I simply cannot agree with infact I would actually say it's quite the opposite our players have mostly been quite passive relative to other top clubs when it comes to getting the managers fired it's mostly been their own incompetence which has brought their downfall .

And what's this nonsense that Ronaldo has somehow halted some highly functioning winning machine our Football was dour and tumescent most of the time under Ole with slightly above results even before Ronaldo's arrival , it's just continuation of that stop making excuses for Solskjaer he had enough time and resources given to succeed it's just unfortunate he simply isn't upto the task.

 

[Bebestation]

Posted this in the Ole thread, but if I knew he wanted Sancho to play on the left mostly, I would have said: 'No, we should go for a CM instead, we have too many players on the left already"

£70 million would have got a pretty good CM.

I don't think he would be playing as much on the left until Ronaldo came.

That move made Greenwood more of a RW again.

Sancho was probably only going to be a LW until Rashford was back but now Greenwood can't get in as a striker before Ronaldo.

 

[Kurton]

He doesn't decide what players are bought and sold for.

This is a contradiction. Why is it then highlighted so many times that Ole has built a great squad if he doesn't decide who we buy? Change the narrative when it suits.

 

[laughtersassassin]

He should have done without one of his other signings if it all depended on a DM.

Either no Sancho VDB Amad or someone.

We have a million attackers so it was poor planning on Oles part.

That said while we do need a DM I don't think we'd be playing that much better with one. Ole is just leading a failing system.

 

[Berbaclass]

Always amazed how journalists know what people are "privately thinking"

It's obvious who the leak is

Spoiler

 

[Tony247]

Could have sold the players he doesn't want and raise fund for DM.

As someone pointed out earlier, we did not buy Sancho as LW. We have plenty options there. If he wants to play him on left then why spent 70m? Could have bought DM instead.

Bad planning all over, ever since buying AWB when we needed a full back.

 

[Varun]

I am pretty sure that the owners would have wanted a manager who can actually win a trophy but you don't always get what you want.

 

[Ixion]

A central midfielder was more important than Sancho or Ronaldo, and it isn't new to anyone, fans have been calling for a CM for years.

 

[Enigma_87]

I'm confused by the comments in this thread, are we now saying we didn't need a CM? Because I thought there was an overwhelming agreement that we did need a DM and it was naive not to buy one.

We currently have probably 6 CM's in the team. He bought a CM last year for 40m pounds that he doesn't use.

It's either he didn't think it was necessary for this season (we hardly have been linked with anyone), or the above leak is him wanting to boost his bench for that DM to sit next to DvB

 

[Turnip]

In the summer everyone was moaning that we hadn't signed a midfielder, now Ole says it we're all bashing him for it? Some double standards here for sure. But anyway, we should be doing better with what we have, even if midfield is an obvious issue.

 

[devilish]

I'm confused by the comments in this thread, are we now saying we didn't need a CM? Because I thought there was an overwhelming agreement that we did need a DM and it was naive not to buy one.

United always operated on a transfer/salary budget. That is why I was against us buying Maguire for 80m. It was evident that such a slow and quite frankly poor leader would need a pacey and top quality CB alongside him. That meant that we would have needed another CB ie more money spent ie less money to strengthen other positions. However Ole could have

a- never brought VDB in. Those 40m could have been spent in a DM
b- he could have raised funds by selling the likes of Lingard and Paul Pogba.
c- he could let the likes of Matic, Mata and Grant leave while restraining from signing Heaton. That would have kept the salary bill low enough to maybe squeeze another player in
d- he could have restrained himself from buying Sancho and then spend those 70m on a CM (or two) instead. Greenwood, Elanga, Diallo, Pellistri and Jesse were good enough

 

[Zlatattack]

Hopefully whoever replaces Ole has a clear out of the extra players. We have far too many who don't offer enough.

 

[Tony247]

They’re starting to throw each other under the bus, it’s only a matter of time now. I must say Ole has a cheek, how much did he spend on Amad, DVB and Pellistri??

Seriously. That money on Amad and Pellistri could have gone into a DM. You should ideally spend good bucks on something for future after your present is sorted out.

 

[RedSky]

Not sure why people are bringing up Donny. He's an attacking midfielder who has at times played as a CM, he's got the same weakness' as Pogba in his game just not as good offensively but perhaps a little less lazy at tracking back, he's a backup for both Pogba/Bruno. It's somewhat bizarre given our limited options we haven't given him more of a go mind just to see if he could play CM alongside Fred/McTominay.

 

[Cloud7]

And after we get a CM it’ll be that we need a new RB, and after that we’ll need a striker to replace Ronaldo, and after that we’ll need a new RW because Ole doesn’t seem to know what to do with Sancho, and by that point Maguire and Varane will be past their best and we’ll need two new CB.

Ole can’t make the team play football unless the entire squad is perfect.

 

[dove]

As if it would have changed anything...

 

[matt23]

Why the feck should we sign him another midfielder if he can't work out how to use the one we bought him the year before?

 

[red4ever 79]

Maybe so but why buy 3 players that aren’t going to play in the first team?

Why buy 4 RW's and dont play any of them there