Solskjaer's legacy and his future

Sky1981

Fending off the urge
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
30,002
Location
Under the bright neon lights of sincity
Hmm. So, Fred and Lindelof were flops and now are mainstays of the team. Shaw, Pogba and Martial were on the way out and each of them is now either an important member or had their best season under Ole. Rashford's best season under Ole.

I mean, sure AWB and HM are expensive purchases, but surely they havent been flops. There is scope of improvement, but if these were flops, I'm not sure what Depay, Schmidfield, Alexis, etc. were. Hell, HM was among the better defenders in PL last season.

And yes, we are in a better condition to win trophies. Feck we sacked him because we expected a title challenge and he was underachieving. Others were sacked because we didnt get top 4/ were behind 4th by 11 points.

Maybe look at things slightly more objectively?
Go make a thread on it and see how many disagrees with you.

And objectively LVG waste alot on dross, but the problem is that everyone sees it as it is, dross. They see Ole dross as some kind of epic purchases for the future. So yeah, double standard and all that.

Here's an idea for a thread


How many of ole purchases is a success?

How do you rate ole's team building for the last 3 years?
 

wolvored

Full Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2016
Messages
9,871
Isnt it about time this thread was closed?
Ole romantics wont have a bad word said against him and Ole realists know what a pile of shit it was. No ones going to change their mind or agree. Its just a waste of time. Hes gone so nothing is going to change for the better or worse on his time as manager.
 

anant

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Feb 28, 2015
Messages
8,258
Go make a thread on it and see how many disagrees with you.

And objectively LVG waste alot on dross, but the problem is that everyone sees it as it is, dross. They see Ole dross as some kind of epic purchases for the future. So yeah, double standard and all that.

Here's an idea for a thread


How many of ole purchases is a success?

How do you rate ole's team building for the last 3 years?
HM was arguably our best defender the last 2 years, AWB has given 6-7/10 performances consistently, James was 15m punt who did well and we earned a profit, Bruno has been class, Ighalo was meh but was a loan; Cavani has exceeded expectations, VDB - I can agree with you, Telles has been meh as well, but was a backup, Varane has been class so far, Ronaldo has been good (although we've lacked balance with him under Ole) and Sancho looks good.

If anything, our transfer success rate has been better than most teams in recent past
 

United in sin

New Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
2,781
He is easily the weakest manager of the post Fergie era thus far. The man was so loyal to his inexperienced coaching staff that he allowed them (Carrick and McKenna chiefly) to take turns leading pre match briefings and taking training sessions while he and Phelan observed from the sidelines.

McKenna and Carrick's training sessions were said to be more suited for academy players and lacked variety and creativity. All in all he placed blind trust in the coaching staff and couldn't see past their shortcomings.

He also wasn't this great man manager many claimed he was just because he had cute pet names for his favorite players or always had good things to say about his squad. He alienated his bench/fringe players and most were unhappy. He meritlessly made Maguire captain and dithered too much on subs for long stretches during his time here due to his aforementioned distrust of his bench.

Appointing him held us back
 

Sky1981

Fending off the urge
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
30,002
Location
Under the bright neon lights of sincity
HM was arguably our best defender the last 2 years, AWB has given 6-7/10 performances consistently, James was 15m punt who did well and we earned a profit, Bruno has been class, Ighalo was meh but was a loan; Cavani has exceeded expectations, VDB - I can agree with you, Telles has been meh as well, but was a backup, Varane has been class so far, Ronaldo has been good (although we've lacked balance with him under Ole) and Sancho looks good.

If anything, our transfer success rate has been better than most teams in recent past
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/harry-maguire-2021-22-performances.464092/

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/aaron-wan-bissaka-2021-22-performances.464095/page-35#post-28177293

sure, keep on bending realities
 

MasterCode

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 13, 2021
Messages
130
I honestly can no longer tell who has the worse online fans anymore.

Arsenal or United.

The mans gone, bottomline is he came in during a desperate time for United and improved expectations. It would've been very easy to slip into instability in league position, up until this season he done well.

His legacy is he done well, not great as a manager. Let it go the man's gone.

Reading through some of these I actually think our online fans our worse than Arsenal.
 

stw2022

New Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,687
I honestly can no longer tell who has the worse online fans anymore.

Arsenal or United.

The mans gone, bottomline is he came in during a desperate time for United and improved expectations. It would've been very easy to slip into instability in league position, up until this season he done well.

His legacy is he done well, not great as a manager. Let it go the man's gone.

Reading through some of these I actually think our online fans our worse than Arsenal.
Just to clarify, he's gone?
 

::sonny::

Full Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
17,868
Location
Milan
Hugs and smiles

For the rest he has been the worst epl manager of all times, after de boer
 

stw2022

New Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,687
Palace would have turned us over, no doubt about that. And after the game we'd have been told that we needed to 'find a bit of magic' or some utter shite.
 

Foxbatt

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
14,297
Isnt it about time this thread was closed?
Ole romantics wont have a bad word said against him and Ole realists know what a pile of shit it was. No ones going to change their mind or agree. Its just a waste of time. Hes gone so nothing is going to change for the better or worse on his time as manager.
I agree with you. It is time these kinds of threads be closed.
 

Foxbatt

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
14,297
I'm out of this thread, you guys keep it up with his "legacy" thing
His legacy as a player is great. His legacy as a manager it is best we forget that he ever was the Manager. That is the best way for his legacy as a player to be intact.
 

stw2022

New Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,687
It's another example of how you can't really blag at management these days. I'm not really sure you ever could but today you certainly cannot just bring to the table soundbites and platitudes. For example it's perfectly fine to talk about wanting your side to respond like a 'wounded animal' in the next game following defeat, but it's all meaningless unless you know how to achieve it. You could give me 11 players and I could tell you I want them to play like the love children of the Brazil 1970 and Barcelona 2011 who each discover they have two dicks the morning of the game, but I wouldn't have a fecking clue how to achieve it either.

I don't think it's about experience necessarily either. There are players who go into management and immediately become a success. But you can't have what Ole appeared to which is an apparent complete ambivalence to how the team play. You need to know what you want to do (and hopefully why and how). That doesn't mean you won't be a complete failure but at least you'll fail based on trying to do something. For the life of me I never saw what he was ever trying to do at any point. It genuinely was as if in the 7 days before the match the lads ran around cones and got told 'let's produce magic, boys' 30 minutes before kick off.
 
Last edited:

DRJosh

Full Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Messages
2,845
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Supports
United minus the Glazers
I honestly can no longer tell who has the worse online fans anymore.

Arsenal or United.

The mans gone, bottomline is he came in during a desperate time for United and improved expectations. It would've been very easy to slip into instability in league position, up until this season he done well.

His legacy is he done well, not great as a manager. Let it go the man's gone.

Reading through some of these I actually think our online fans our worse than Arsenal.
Bitterness clouds judgement and reinstates bias. I think you are right. We've become disillusioned and highly reactive as a fan base. Some of it is justifiable but often it goes way over the top.
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2020
Messages
1,424
He should be treated like a dog? Where have I treated him like a dog?
if you ask me dogs get treated very well… so maybe that was the problem with ole, we treated him like a dog and not a person who was given the job of manager of Man Utd with all the expectations and money involved
 

berbasloth4

Full Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
ireland
solskjaer will always be a hero. his managerial time at us isnt has bad as you thing. he got us playing football after jose! he gave kids a chance! majority of his signings were ok. he got the feel good factor back for a while. we improved oved every season. unfortunately he couldnt take us any further. I and along with many red will always love and thank him.
 

lex talionis

Full Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
13,615
It’s time to let it go, but Ole’s legacy will not improve as time goes on. We have an incredible squad, but it severely underperformed and got humiliated more than once.

It’s best to forget this legacy.
 

berbasloth4

Full Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
ireland
It’s time to let it go, but Ole’s legacy will not improve as time goes on. We have an incredible squad, but it severely underperformed and got humiliated more than once.

It’s best to forget this legacy.
never ever forget oles legacy!!!!!
 

Greck

Full Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2016
Messages
7,099
solskjaer will always be a hero. his managerial time at us isnt has bad as you thing. he got us playing football after jose! he gave kids a chance! majority of his signings were ok. he got the feel good factor back for a while. we improved oved every season. unfortunately he couldnt take us any further. I and along with many red will always love and thank him.
Nope. We got twonked 5-0 by Liverpool and are on an embarrassing trophyless spell. The subjective feel good factor people speak of is just their inner loyalty to the man, I'm sure even Jose fans felt the same. The period wasn't objectively productive nor subjectively fun for those who didn't care or were indifferent to who the manager was. Give that tenure to anyone else and it would be almost universally considered a disastrous waste of time. 3 years of "rome wasn't built in a day" just to end up sacked with no rome. What was it all for? We even ended up worse on the table than Jose's final season so where's the progress?

Ole will remain one of my favourite United players ever but Ole the manager is one to not only forget but also regret.
 
Last edited:

Sky1981

Fending off the urge
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
30,002
Location
Under the bright neon lights of sincity
solskjaer will always be a hero. his managerial time at us isnt has bad as you thing. he got us playing football after jose! he gave kids a chance! majority of his signings were ok. he got the feel good factor back for a while. we improved oved every season. unfortunately he couldnt take us any further. I and along with many red will always love and thank him.
Here's the problem. Some of us thinks differently. Legend aside we're wasteful, embarassing on the field, and spent 3 years in limbo stunting players development, with the team more unbalanced than ever and filled with even more deadwoods in maguire, awb, mct, amad etc with shaw getting worse this year, rashford getting worse as years go by, martial being martial we're actually back to square one.

He doesnt take us as far as he can, he took us 400m and 3 years backward.

We will need another 200-300m to fix the holes in this squad.
 

criticalanalysis

Full Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
6,034
Here's the problem. Some of us thinks differently. Legend aside we're wasteful, embarassing on the field, and spent 3 years in limbo stunting players development, with the team more unbalanced than ever and filled with even more deadwoods in maguire, awb, mct, amad etc with shaw getting worse this year, rashford getting worse as years go by, martial being martial we're actually back to square one.

He doesnt take us as far as he can, he took us 400m and 3 years backward.

We will need another 200-300m to fix the holes in this squad.
I agree with most of your criticism on Ole and I applaud your stamina to continually balance out, the generous benefit of the doubt he is getting from people who believe he did an 'acceptable' job. However, I think you're probably a bit too eager to write off the players we have. There are more than a few on really poor form but let's see how they'll do under a manager that actually knows how to coach. I'll put it down as your passion for now!
 

Sky1981

Fending off the urge
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
30,002
Location
Under the bright neon lights of sincity
I agree with most of your criticism on Ole and I applaud your stamina to continually balance out, the generous benefit of the doubt he is getting from people who believe he did an 'acceptable' job. However, I think you're probably a bit too eager to write off the players we have. There are more than a few on really poor form but let's see how they'll do under a manager that actually knows how to coach. I'll put it down as your passion for now!
I think the jury is well decided on awb and Maguire

They might do the job adequately under the new management. But no way they're worth their price tag. And here's the bigger issue. If we want to compete we need better than just functioning player. We need players that are statistically better than 90% of the rest to the very least. That still make them the worst out of top 3-4 teams.

AWB and Maguire works if top 4 is our aim but to really push the league or god forbid win it we need better player.

So yes.. in the grand scheme of things they're just deadwoods that needs to be replaced.

Ditto rashford and shaw and the rest. At their best form they're just par to push for liverpool, city. They really need to be at their best for 38 games, which is a big ask.
 

Kopral Jono

Full Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
3,388
Here's the problem. Some of us thinks differently. Legend aside we're wasteful, embarassing on the field, and spent 3 years in limbo stunting players development, with the team more unbalanced than ever and filled with even more deadwoods in maguire, awb, mct, amad etc with shaw getting worse this year, rashford getting worse as years go by, martial being martial we're actually back to square one.

He doesnt take us as far as he can, he took us 400m and 3 years backward.

We will need another 200-300m to fix the holes in this squad.
You're being a bit harsh on the deadwood argument but the fact remains: Ole is a monumentally shit manager and I personally think he was worse than Moyes all things considered. Objectively speaking, he did close to feck all aside from signing Bruno and making Shaw one of the best fullbacks in the world for a year. Even the whole 'brought in stability' narrative is overrated, in my opinion -- the much-lauded run of wins when he first became interim was partly down to the sheer sense of respite the players felt from Mourinho leaving the club.

And I'm also not ashamed to say that despite everything he did as a player for us, because of his abject shortcomings as a manager his overall legacy is tainted a bit for me, though I understand the majority probably doesn't share this sentiment.
 

Bebestation

Im a doctor btw, my IQ destroys yours
Joined
Oct 9, 2019
Messages
11,862
I think the jury is well decided on awb and Maguire

They might do the job adequately under the new management. But no way they're worth their price tag. And here's the bigger issue. If we want to compete we need better than just functioning player. We need players that are statistically better than 90% of the rest to the very least. That still make them the worst out of top 3-4 teams.

AWB and Maguire works if top 4 is our aim but to really push the league or god forbid win it we need better player.

So yes.. in the grand scheme of things they're just deadwoods that needs to be replaced.

Ditto rashford and shaw and the rest. At their best form they're just par to push for liverpool, city. They really need to be at their best for 38 games, which is a big ask.
So? Is Lukaku worth his price tag? Saul even on Loan? Hell even if it isn't Tuchel's, Havertz has good games covered with average, werner is horrible for Chelsea.

What about Grealish?
Ake?
Benjamin Mendy?
Sane?

Naby keita? 50 something million
Chamberlain for 35 mil
Jota for me isn't worth 45mil.
Thiago hasn't been worth 28 mil.

People acting like Maguire and wan bissaka is some sort of signing that other clubs don't do- never mind that atleast some of those players have had more just good game where they can improve on when coming off or form.


Ole did well trying to help us move forward to players like Sancho, Ronaldo, Varane, Maguire, Telles, AWB, VDB and sorting out shit like Fellaini, Herrera, Ashley Young, Sanchez, Lukaku etc.

How can people hate someone so much that they don't see the difference between the first group of players and the second.
 

devips

Full Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2011
Messages
1,233
So? Is Lukaku worth his price tag? Saul even on Loan? Hell even if it isn't Tuchel's, Havertz has good games covered with average, werner is horrible for Chelsea.

What about Grealish?
Ake?
Benjamin Mendy?
Sane?

Naby keita? 50 something million
Chamberlain for 35 mil
Jota for me isn't worth 45mil.
Thiago hasn't been worth 28 mil.

People acting like Maguire and wan bissaka is some sort of signing that other clubs don't do- never mind that atleast some of those players have had more just good game where they can improve on when coming off or form.


Ole did well trying to help us move forward to players like Sancho, Ronaldo, Varane, Maguire, Telles, AWB, VDB and sorting out shit like Fellaini, Herrera, Ashley Young, Sanchez, Lukaku etc.

How can people hate someone so much that they don't see the difference between the first group of players and the second.
Spot on. some of our so-called fans are so cringeworthy in their bias.
 

Dante

Average bang
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
25,280
Location
My wit's end
His footballing performances in the first 3 years was good but not great. Obviously, it all went to pot in the last few weeks. But up until then, things were looking up.

Put it this way: since Fergie retired, this was the first time that anybody ever seriously considered us contenders for the PL or CL. If you can't at least give Solksjaer credit for that, it says more about you than it does about him.

So his legacy is going to be mostly positive. The work he did in resetting the dressing room culture, the youth players he nurtured, the quality of signings he made, and the sense of togetherness he fostered were all really good. Ole's successors are going to massively benefit from the foundations he left behind, in a way that none of our other managers can say they left things at Old Trafford.
 

Karlos PFC

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
374
sorting out shit like Fellaini, Herrera, Ashley Young, Sanchez, Lukaku etc.
Some might argue that this team is desperate for a player like Herrera, and before we got CR everyone and their cat could see that we needed a striker (Lukaku).
 

Son

Full Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2019
Messages
1,688
It’s time to let it go, but Ole’s legacy will not improve as time goes on. We have an incredible squad, but it severely underperformed and got humiliated more than once.

It’s best to forget this legacy.
I agree with this. Some say his legacy would live on as he left the club in a better place. I’m not sure he left much.

We spent like £400 million so anyone would have realistically got some form of a team in place after top tier investment.
 

Dante

Average bang
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
25,280
Location
My wit's end
LvG's transfers:
PlayerTransfer fee paid (£m)Age at purchaseTransfer fee received (£m)Age at sale
Ángel Di María
67.5​
26​
Luke Shaw
33.75​
19​
Ander Herrera
32.4​
25​
Marcos Rojo
18​
24​
Daley Blind
15.75​
24​
Vanja Milinković-Savić
1.58​
17​
Radamel Falcao
0​
28​
Danny Welbeck
18​
23​
Shinji Kagawa
7.2​
25​
Alexander Büttner
4.95​
25​
Wilfried Zaha
3.42​
21​
Bebé
2.7​
24​
Patrice Evra
1.71​
33​
Anthony Martial
54.00​
19​
Morgan Schneiderlin
31.50​
25​
Memphis Depay
30.60​
21​
Matteo Darmian
16.20​
25​
Bastian Schweinsteiger
8.10​
31​
Ángel Di María
56.7​
27​
Chicharito
10.8​
27​
Jonny Evans
7.47​
27​
Robin van Persie
5.85​
32​
Nani
5.4​
30​
Rafael
2.88​
25​
Ángelo Henríquez
1.5​
21​

Jose's signings:
PlayerTransfer fee paid (£m)Age at purchaseTransfer fee received (£m)Age at sale
Paul Pogba
94.50​
23​
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
37.80​
27​
Eric Bailly
34.20​
22​
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
0.00​
34​
Morgan Schneiderlin
20.7​
26​
Memphis Depay
14.4​
22​
Paddy McNair
4.73​
21​
Tyler Blackett
1.62​
22​
Will Keane
1.08​
23​
Romelu Lukaku
76.23​
24​
Nemanja Matic
40.23​
29​
Victor Lindelöf
31.50​
23​
Alexis Sánchez
30.60​
30​
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
30.6​
28​
Adnan Januzaj
7.65​
22​
Fred
53.10​
25​
Diogo Dalot
19.80​
19​
Lee Grant
1.53​
35​
Daley Blind
14.4​
28​
Sam Johnstone
6.62​
22​
Marouane Fellaini
6.48​
30​

Ole's signings:
PlayerTransfer fee paid (£m)Age at purchaseTransfer fee received (£m)Age at sale
Harry Maguire
78.30​
26​
Bruno Fernandes
56.70​
24​
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
49.50​
21​
Daniel James
16.02​
21​
Romelu Lukaku
66.6​
26​
Matteo Darmian
2.23​
29​
Ashley Young
1.53​
34​
Donny van de Beek
35.10​
23​
Amad Diallo
19.17​
18​
Alex Telles
13.50​
27​
Facundo Pellistri
7.65​
18​
Edinson Cavani
0.00​
33​
Chris Smalling
13.5​
30​
Timothy Fosu-Mensah
1.53​
22​
Jadon Sancho
76.50​
21​
Raphaël Varane
36.00​
28​
Cristiano Ronaldo
13.50​
36​
Daniel James
26.19​
23​

Averages:
ManagerNet spend per season (£m)Average age of outgoingsAverage age of incomingsPlayers 21 or underAmount spent on players 21 or under (£m)
LvG90.426.223.74119.9
Mourniho103.7426.524.4119.8
Ole96.7927.324.75168.8

Ole's average net spend was higher than LvG's (as you'd expect after a few years of market prices increasing), but lower than Jose's. Overall, there wasn't much between the three of them in terms of net spend, so it's worth digging a bit deeper at the age/mentality profile of exactly who was bought.

Solksjaer's average age of incomings was obviously pushed up by the purchases of Ronaldo and Cavani. But I guess you could say the same for Jose bringing in Zlatan. The difference, however, is if you look at each of their transfers of players under 21. That's clearly what the focus was with Solksjaer. But whereas Ole only bought Ronaldo and Cavani as stop gaps for his youth players, Jose was all about putting all his eggs into a single win-right-now basket. Let's not forget, if Mourinho had had his way, we'd have also got a 30 year old Peresic for £50m.

Players like Sancho, Pellestri and Amad are top class prospects who Solksjaer was never going to have the opportunity to get the best out of. That's precisely what it means to leave a legacy. Ole put the club's interests before his own.

Then try comparing Ole to LvG. LvG bought the biggest lot of weak-willed mercaneries you've ever seen. That culture change from SAF set us back years. One of the hallmarks of a good transfer strategy is assessing your targets' mentalities. Louis obviously never got the message. United turned into Disneyland under his management.

That's not to say Ole's cultural reset hasn't been perfect since. Transfers are always going to be gambles. But at least he did buy players like Bruno, Varane, Ronaldo and Sancho who aren't shy about letting their teammates know when they've fecked something up. None of them are quite Roy Keane, but that's the ideal we were aiming for. If it's about leaving a legacy, building a squad like that is exactly what will teach our youngsters what it means to be a top player at a top club.
 

Dante

Average bang
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
25,280
Location
My wit's end
I agree with this. Some say his legacy would live on as he left the club in a better place. I’m not sure he left much.

We spent like £400 million so anyone would have realistically got some form of a team in place after top tier investment.
Much of that was spent on players like Sancho and Amad who were bought for the future rather than the here-and-now.

It's unfair to use that spend as a stick to beat Ole with. If anything, it should be an argument in favour of Solksjaer's legacy.
 

AjaxCunian

vexingwijsneus
Joined
Mar 10, 2021
Messages
4,230
Supports
Ajax & United
Sancho was bought for the future and not for the now? That is just rubbish.

He has been one of the best wingers (not just young wingers) for a good 3 seasons. Sure his age means he has a great future here, but that was a signing for the now and future and Solksjaer had no clue how to use him.
 

Son

Full Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2019
Messages
1,688
Much of that was spent on players like Sancho and Amad who were bought for the future rather than the here-and-now.

It's unfair to use that spend as a stick to beat Ole with. If anything, it should be an argument in favour of Solksjaer's legacy.
Bruno too but his signings have flopped mostly. I agree Amad and Sancho might turn out to be all time greats for us. I hope they do.

I think these were at times quite obvious signings we would have made under Mourinho also. Amad is definitely a player he would have gone after and we were linked to Sancho for a few years.

Same with Jude Bellingham in the future I’m not gonna be surprised if he rocks up here as we are obviously in for him as a club.
 

Giggzy P

Full Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2010
Messages
646
Location
Number 19
So? Is Lukaku worth his price tag? Saul even on Loan? Hell even if it isn't Tuchel's, Havertz has good games covered with average, werner is horrible for Chelsea.

What about Grealish?
Ake?
Benjamin Mendy?
Sane?

Naby keita? 50 something million
Chamberlain for 35 mil
Jota for me isn't worth 45mil.
Thiago hasn't been worth 28 mil.

People acting like Maguire and wan bissaka is some sort of signing that other clubs don't do- never mind that atleast some of those players have had more just good game where they can improve on when coming off or form.


Ole did well trying to help us move forward to players like Sancho, Ronaldo, Varane, Maguire, Telles, AWB, VDB and sorting out shit like Fellaini, Herrera, Ashley Young, Sanchez, Lukaku etc.

How can people hate someone so much that they don't see the difference between the first group of players and the second.
Every club or manager get's some signings wrong, however, Klopp will have a Keita or Pep an Ake overlocked because, they have been successful with the money they have spent.

Ole didn't win, and his football was terrible. You said "he wasn't that bad" , but I think we can all agree and say he was bad, that is why he was sacked.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cheimoon

Dante

Average bang
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
25,280
Location
My wit's end
Bruno too but his signings have flopped mostly. I agree Amad and Sancho might turn out to be all time greats for us. I hope they do.

I think these were at times quite obvious signings we would have made under Mourinho also. Amad is definitely a player he would have gone after and we were linked to Sancho for a few years.

Same with Jude Bellingham in the future I’m not gonna be surprised if he rocks up here as we are obviously in for him as a club.
No, they haven't.
 

VP89

Pogba's biggest fan
Joined
Dec 6, 2015
Messages
31,121
No, they haven't.
Maguire hasnt been adequate for too large chunks in his time here. Wan Bissaka is extremely limited as a right back, Pellistri was never seen, VDB has been a ghost.

I dont think its that inaccurate to be fair.
 

Karlos PFC

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
374
Ole's average net spend was higher than LvG's (as you'd expect after a few years of market prices increasing), but lower than Jose's. Overall, there wasn't much between the three of them in terms of net spend, so it's worth digging a bit deeper at the age/mentality profile of exactly who was bought.

Solksjaer's average age of incomings was obviously pushed up by the purchases of Ronaldo and Cavani. But I guess you could say the same for Jose bringing in Zlatan. The difference, however, is if you look at each of their transfers of players under 21. That's clearly what the focus was with Solksjaer. But whereas Ole only bought Ronaldo and Cavani as stop gaps for his youth players, Jose was all about putting all his eggs into a single win-right-now basket. Let's not forget, if Mourinho had had his way, we'd have also got a 30 year old Peresic for £50m.

Players like Sancho, Pellestri and Amad are top class prospects who Solksjaer was never going to have the opportunity to get the best out of. That's precisely what it means to leave a legacy. Ole put the club's interests before his own.


Then try comparing Ole to LvG. LvG bought the biggest lot of weak-willed mercaneries you've ever seen. That culture change from SAF set us back years. One of the hallmarks of a good transfer strategy is assessing your targets' mentalities. Louis obviously never got the message. United turned into Disneyland under his management.

That's not to say Ole's cultural reset hasn't been perfect since. Transfers are always going to be gambles. But at least he did buy players like Bruno, Varane, Ronaldo and Sancho who aren't shy about letting their teammates know when they've fecked something up. None of them are quite Roy Keane, but that's the ideal we were aiming for. If it's about leaving a legacy, building a squad like that is exactly what will teach our youngsters what it means to be a top player at a top club.
What a load of nonsense.

On the bolded parts

1) if Mourinho got Perisic who was 27/28 at the time we wouldn't go for the most dreadful piece of business that Alexis Sanchez was. Also Perisic had at least 3 good years still in him and had a terrific World Cup and a good EURO in comparison to Alexis where he hasn't performed for the last 4 years. Even in Italy he is considered somewhat of a failure signing.

2) So by buying teens is what legacy means? Hell if he bought 11 under 21s, even if he failed from his first season and got sacked you would still be labeling him a success for putting the club's interest before his own. Just because he bought top class prospects?

3) If anyone can claim that changed the culture of this club post-SAF, surely has to be Moyes.
If anything Van Gaal upgraded the academy structure and actually played a lot of young players. Sure most of these were flops but you can't argue he tried giving youngsters a bigger role in the squad. And this is an important part of the so-called "United DNA" or "United way"

4) United turned into Disneyland the moment Ed arrived as CEO. Disneyland for the agents