The Athletic: Man Utd - what the rest of football thinks about a club in crisis

[RedCoffee]

The media clearly despise us. Most of this mornings news is critical of our Casamiro signing rather than the improvement he will bring to the current shambles.

 

[tomaldinho1]

That's part of his job, he's the CEO, every part of the company is his job and he failed in other places.

I'm sure as the article says that he was a great example for some financial parts of running a club, but the football side he was crap. We have been out of date for a long time.

This doesn’t really make sense if you think of his tenure and how other clubs operated during that time, I’d argue we were relatively ahead of the pack.

Carrington was phenomenal for when it was built and even with the later additions in the 10’s it was still probably the best training centre in the country. We also used to have a decent scouting dept by all accounts - whether that was simply because there was leas competition from other clubs we don’t know but it wasn’t as derided as it is today. You also didn’t really have DoF’s during that time and clubs were run differently, I don’t remember anything negative about Gill until he went back on his principles about clubs not taking on debt.

Our issue is Ferguson/Gill left a decade ago and we haven’t evolved at all until a year or two ago (and we still don’t really know how different it is). In that time almost every other PL club has completely overhauled it’s management structure, you can point to numerous instances of clubs like Leicester, Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham, Spurs etc. who look almost like completely new clubs (not even counting the oil money clubs) than if you saw them 10 years ago. We are almost exactly the same.

 

[rpg]

Bewilders me that most people in here still believe nothing is wrong with the club and this year is our year everytime a new season start. And every medias out there are spewing white lies on us whenever they wrote something negative.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Bewilders me that most people in here still believe nothing is wrong with the club and this year is our year everytime a new season start. And every medias out there are spewing white lies on us whenever they wrote something negative.

Memories of goldfish

 

[Ish]

Bewilders me that most people in here still believe nothing is wrong with the club and this year is our year everytime a new season start. And every medias out there are spewing white lies on us whenever they wrote something negative.

I think most have realised there were huge structural issues at the club (Glazers, ownership, stadium aside). It’s why there was massive relief when Woodward resigned and “hope” that things would change with his departure, Arnold taking over and the appointment/promotion of Murtough etc.

I’m not sure if it’s still too early to say though, but we’ve seemingly been as disorganised and scattergun (and relying on managers for transfer targets!) as ever.

 

[phelans shorts]

I think most have realised there were huge structural issues at the club (Glazers, ownership, stadium aside). It’s why there was massive relief when Woodward resigned and “hope” that things would change with his departure, Arnold taking over and the appointment/promotion of Murtough etc.

I’m not sure if it’s still too early to say though, but we’ve seemingly been as disorganised and scattergun (and relying on managers for transfer targets!) as ever.

The latter is obviously the worry. There’s some mitigating factors (primarily the scouting system restructuring which is still ongoing) but it’s definitely not been a good window, even if we manage to get Frenkie over the line. Next summer we’ll know a lot more on whether their decisions were up to scratch, but patience isn’t something football fans are regularly accused of having.

 

[justsomebloke]

Bewilders me that most people in here still believe nothing is wrong with the club and this year is our year everytime a new season start. And every medias out there are spewing white lies on us whenever they wrote something negative.

Especially in this case, with a piece that is not so much a piece of writing as basically just a collection of views expressed by executives of other clubs. You'd think there'd be a more interesting issue there than whether or not this is good journalism.

 

[Ish]

The latter is obviously the worry. There’s some mitigating factors (primarily the scouting system restructuring which is still ongoing) but it’s definitely not been a good window, even if we manage to get Frenkie over the line. Next summer we’ll know a lot more on whether their decisions were up to scratch, but patience isn’t something football fans are regularly accused of having.

Yeah i think there's validity in having those concerns. They bought a lot of goodwill (for me anyway!) with the EtH appointment. Seem(s) like we're headed in the right direction in trying to play "good football" and they didn't just go for safe(er) appointments. This window hasn't been great by any means, but if by some miracle we could pull off the FdJ signing, with say, Antony and a RB, it'd be hard to argue that it hasn't been anything but a great window, albeit leaving it late - though it was for some factors beyond our control (and now we're also getting fleeced price wise).

I guess the best thing to do is wait to the end of the window to rate the transfer activity and as you mentioned, hoping future windows are more organised (as new scouting operations are implemented and mature).

 

[lefty_jakobz]

Things will change soon, new owners will run us as a proper club.

 

[TsuWave]

Feels like an article that exists simply to pile on

 

[Lentwood]

It's not surprising really is it....United have been ran so mind-boggingly badly that if this were any 'normal' business (i.e. a business that couldn't rely on the unwavering support of 'fans') it would have likely gone under by now or had to significantly reduce operations

We can talk about 'bad football decisions' but some of the things we have done over the years are just outright 'bad' by any small businesses' standards, for example....

* Bringing in new members of staff on significantly higher salaries than long-serving employees
* Appointing people to senior management positions who have little to no experience or qualifications
* Entering negotiations with clients/customers/employees whilst bragging about how wealthy we are and how much money we have to spend
* Allowing 'line managers' to bring in their 'own people' each time without a thought to continuity
* No clear organisational structure i.e. who does what and who reports to who?
* Fundamentally misunderstanding how to value your 'assets' and how to maximise the value of those assets

I am sure many of us on here are in, or have held, senior management positions within 'normal' businesses and all of the above goes against the very basic 'business 101' standards you'd expect a junior manager to be able to grasp!

 

[redcucumber]

It's Man Utd. Obviously they are going to write stuff to generate hits, clicks and discussion.

Regardless, we have been a mess since Fergie retired. Ten years ago we dominated English football and were reaching Champions League finals regularly. We've been left behind massively and lack direction, which has us finishing 6th place. Woodward leaving and ten Hag coming was supposed to be a genuine fresh start, with no baggage and a new hierarchy and management structure. Everyone knew we needed extensive work done to the team yet we meandered through the window. Two games into the season and it's gone worse than anyone could have imagined. We're now scrambling around, seemingly throwing as much shit at the wall as possible to see what sticks. It's not exactly the incisive and precise rebuild any of us had in mind, and as a result it's difficult to get behind the club in full confidence. They have no credit in the bank and have let ten Hag and the fans down.