QED
Ole's Press Conference | 05:30 BST
- Thread starter RedMachine03
- Start date
Oh, I see this. It's bloody obvious. But some fans actually believe that the top brass at the club want/need us to win trophies. All they want is to keep seeing the money coming in. This has been fairly evident for several years (or in fact, since they took over).
Since more trophies brings in more money why wouldn't the top brass want to win trophies? Its clear they aren't in the Real Madrid/Chelsea mode of "if you don't win the title you're fired", but they've been pretty trigger happy once it looks like a manager is suffering on the field for a persistent period of time. If they were happy to just rake in the money without any need to actually win things they'd have never fired Moyes or van Gaal.
I think top brass do want to win trophies as more trophies equals more status equals more money but I think the top brass don’t want to win trophies whatever the cost as club makes lots of money anyway so why take the risk! Hopefully they will sell up soon and hopefully new owners are better although no guarantees they would be
Sorry if it's already been asked but one of the questions was around the RW position and Ole finished by saying that he couldn't say anything for now with a cheeky smile (if I remember correctly)
Sounded like we may have a target in mind. Did anyone pick up on it or have any thoughts what he meant?
Sounded like we may have a target in mind. Did anyone pick up on it or have any thoughts what he meant?
How much do we get by winning trophies?
And is that amount going to be considerably more than the outlay we need for new, quality players, their wages and agent fees?
The answer is probably no I’d imagine.
I think the odd bursts of expenditure is mainly to keep us relevant in the world of football. For example, the cynic in me feels the Pogba transfer was mainly for PR purposes rather than footballing reasons.
I fully expect the Glazers to sell in the next 2/3 years when profit margins start shrinking. Until then, they’ll probably do the bare minimum to appease fans / the manager.
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Winning trophies themselves, almost nothing.
But selling the club as a brand which is what they do do well, is easier and more profitable when it's a winning team.
I hear you, but I am under the impression that Woodward and the Glazers feel that the battle can be won through PR, rather than what happens on the pitch.
Didn’t Woodward come out and publicly say something along those lines?
Of course they would like to see us win plenty of trophies, but I’m sure they’d be perfectly content with us not winning much but instead signing the odd superstar every now and again (whilst neglecting other areas of our squad), and picking up fat cheques from our sponsors.
This is how we are building our brand post SAF.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum
Just watched it, when they asked him what he was thinking about the right wing position he smiled, laughed and said "I can't tell you what I'm thinking.. no, I can't". He'd given very bog standard replies throughout the interview until then, it does seem like a bit of a hint but I've got no idea as to what.
Thats the least charitable interpretation of what he said. He said the club doesn't solely rely on on field success to be profitable. That doesn't mean on field success wouldn't make the club even more profitable.
"(whilst neglecting other areas of our squad)"
What areas of the squad have been neglected? Ed's been spending money like a kid in a candy store its hardly been "signing the odd superstar every now and again". Ok right wing is an obvious issue now, but we've bought many many wingers in that time frame all of whom either turn out to not be able to play there or the manager just doesn't even bother to try them there (Jose with Sanchez).
"This is how we are building our brand post SAF"
So clearly this is NOT how we are building our brand post SAF but the fans are too entitled to see nuance and just blame the owners for everything because its easy.
He said:
“playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial size of the business.”
As a fan of Manchester United Football Club, can you really not see a problem with that?
Doesn’t that tell you that the club isn’t completely focussed on making us the best on the pitch, and not just the best commercially? The fact that he refers to us as a business rather than a football club also tells you everything you need to know.
Therefore I stand by my previous comment where I said good performances on the pitch (which naturally equates to winning trophies) isn’t at the forefront of Woodward and the Glazer’s mind. Unless you think our current squad is capable of winning major trophies, surely you can accept that it is going to take large investments to get us really competing again? It gets to a point where the money men will weigh up if this is commercially viable.
Would love to see you argue otherwise and suggest that Woodward and the Glazers have the best interests of the club at heart.
We have regularly had gaping holes in our teams in recent years which have taken years to be filled. One example: Rather than signing a specialist right back, we converted two former wingers in Valencia and Young and persisted with them for much longer than we should have. We still have a gaping hole on the right wing, which doesn’t look like it is going to be filled this window, but I guess that’s fine too?
When you look at our squad are you happy with it? Why should we as fans reduce the expectations of what a Manchester United team should look and perform like? We are one of the richest clubs in the world who are being mismanaged by non-footballing people. Again, argue otherwise.
Also, where did I state that I blame the owners for ‘everything’? The problem and the rot certainly starts from the top though.
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"As a fan of Manchester United Football Club, can you really not see a problem with that?"
Of course I don't see a problem with that. The commercial side is what allows us to somewhat compete in this era of state owned clubs when most regular big clubs have failed to keep up.
"Therefore I stand by my previous comment where I said performance on the pitch (which naturally equates to winning trophies) isn’t at the forefront of Woodward and the Glazer’s mind."
Of course its not, and it shouldn't be. The forefront of their mind should be the long term commercial health of the club. The football side is for the football people at the club to sort out. And this is where the Glazer's basically botched things. They had a guy in SAF that basically did everything and they keep trying to replace him with another guy.
Dealing with your example: We bought Darmian, Shaw, and Dalot in the same period. Who's fault is it that the managers kept persisting with the converted wingers over the incoming players? Do you have any evidence that the managers were asking for fullbacks but not getting them? This is what I mean by just leaping onto the owner's back. The owners have plenty of blame on them. Specifically not planning a structure for SAF's retirement.
But beyond that all your sentiments of "I’m sure they’d be perfectly content with us not winning much but instead signing the odd superstar every now and again" are just made up in your mind because it makes you feel better to have someone specific to rant at rather than just seeing that this was always gonna happen. This is Man united in a nutshell if you look at our history. We have brief periods of success but usually go into a slumber after that.
Brief periods of success? We were the dominant club in England for 2 decades, the best domestic dominance that any club has ever had in English Football history. 13 leagues titles in 20 years. Weird definition of brief.
This would be a lot easier to follow if you used the quote function for every individual quote you're responding to. Just highlight the text and use the quote tool in the top bar.
That’s Sancho confirmed then.
Or Bale.
I really hope we are in for a RW. But seems unlikely to me. We already need a CB and probably 2 CMs. Sorting all issues in one window doesn't sound like the United we all know!
Oh God no.
He was probably thinking of yet another season with Lingard on the RW.
9.32 mins
It was a nervous smile. He was probably thinking of yet another season with Lingard on the RW.
If Sancho wants to come to OT then we should do our best to bring him here. However if wants CL's football then we have to move on. I'd say lets bring Brooks. If the latter does well then we had sorted the issue once and for all. If not then we sell Lingard and Mata and bring Sancho to replace them. We can't possibly start this season with a non existent RW.
I wanted to include him too but I thought that was off the table.
Was only a half serious suggestion
Tbh I’m not familiar with Brooks.
Sancho isnt coming here on loan, what are people on to make that connection? Bizarre.
Worryingly, it screams Bale to me.
Worryingly, it screams Bale to me.
Ole did very well in that interview. If that was Mourinho, he would have named the players he wanted out but Ole didn’t do that. He’s not exactly going to say he was happy with the performance he just said there are players that won’t be here next season. Handled it very well and didn’t throw any of his players under the bus. People can talk about ruthlessness all you want but I’d much rather be in Oles shoes than say Zidane’s who has openly pushed Bale out the door and still is yet to get rid of him. Imagine he doesn’t and Bale is stuck there? There are repercussions and our manager is wise to it. Each day that passes really does make me think Ole is the right man for the job. I want our manager to have class. I said yesterday when Poch come out and apologised to United for the way his players behave. That’s a classy manager. Few and far between these days. I am extremely happy we have Ole and not Mourinho. The guy has set us back regardless of that 2nd place finish.