The board versus the fans 2018/2019

[NinjaFletch]

Shouldn’t this go in the “penny-pinching Glazers” thread?

Of course, if I’m on the board I’d be counting up the money already spent by Mourinho (plus the salaries paid to his squad) and wondering how the feck any fan could have the brass neck to blame a lack of investment on our current situation.

I do think there is a somewhat worrying trend emerging of the club splurging huge amounts of money when we drop out of the top four only to cut the purse strings when we get there.

The evidence isn't clear cut, but the three seasons where we haven't spent a lot of money are: Moyes's first season (probably his fault more than anyone else), Van Gaal's second season (£140m of incoming vs £90m of outgoing and the selling of big earners in Di Maria and Van Persie only the signing of Martial near enough on deadline day pushed us in to a positive spend on the squad), and now Mourinho 3rd season.

The only season we've spent big money in net terms after qualifying for Europe to improve the squad was last season when we also failed to qualify through the league (and even then we refused to get the manager one of the four targets he identified).

Obviously that's a simplistic take and ignores the sanctioning of an expensive signing in Sanchez, and anyone that tries to tell you that the Glazers haven't spent money post-Ferguson is obviously off their rocker, but I do worry that the trend here might indicate that as long as we're there or thereabouts in the League and fulfilling the minimum expectation of a top four finish then there's no appetite to spend the money to turn the club into much more than that.

 

[Minimalist]

This thread can feck off. Sick of this nonsense.

Mourinho has to deliver. End of story.

 

[caid]

We've underinvested since selling Ronaldo basically imo. Last 3 or so years were long overdue and we still need more investment before were competing for the top prizes so this window hasn't been good enough basically. We always seem to find money for the silly galactico singings so being stingy and cheap with defenders we badly need is getting pretty old.

 

[spiriticon]

Well what I want can’t happen, because the last five years have been disastrous on there part. They backed us well sure, but here we are now saying oh good on the board not wanting to overpay after overseeing 3 years of appalling signings. They’re achieving hugely in a commercial sense, I see mostly chaos from a footballing point of view. A whole lot of guess work.

Agreed that its not been great. But I don't blame them entirely since we were always gonna struggle. The only issue is whether they should have appointed a DoF to relieve some of the pressure off the CEO. I'be thought about this a lot and that idea has its pro's and cons. What if the DoF's vision does not match the head coach? Can you imagine what Mourinho would be like if our DoF chucked his transfer list in the bin? Are we back to square one with blaming the Glazers again?

 

[Pscholes18]

Oh good, I can already see the narrative for this season is going to be the board are at fault for all our failings because they didn't give Mourinho another £200m to spend. Give it a rest already, they have spent a fecking fortune and a lot of it has been wasted on shit by three managers. We're nothing like Arsenal.

I like that

 

[Affirmation]

We pretty much all laughed at Arsenal's rumoured budget when it was reported on early in the Summer but we have actually went and spent around that amount as well.

This is a team that clearly is in need of serious investment and change yet we once again do not follow up on this. The owners are a disgrace, they are honestly fortunate we had the greatest manager ever and that the club generates so much income to minimally mask a lot of their decisions.

Arguably they have excelled somewhat in the commercial side of things but when it comes to what matters, the club they really have not shown much interest or ambition. Disapointed is an understatement to be honest

 

[Minimalist]

We pretty much all laughed at Arsenal's rumoured budget when it was reported on early in the Summer but we have actually went and spent around that amount as well.

This is a team that clearly is in need of serious investment and change yet we once again do not follow up on this. The owners are a disgrace, they are honestly fortunate we had the greatest manager ever and that the club generates so much income to minimally mask a lot of their decisions.

Arguably they have excelled somewhat in the commercial side of things but when it comes to what matters, the club they really have not shown much interest or ambition. Disapointed is an understatement to be honest

It’s not. We need better full backs and better depth but beyond that we just play shite football due to our tactics. Transfers was never the main problem heading into this season.

 

[Bastian]

This thread can feck off. Sick of this nonsense.

Mourinho has to deliver. End of story.

You're going to have to accept that there are loads of fans disillusioned with the ambition of the board.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Lot of bottlers on this forum.

It was a great window, lets see Mourinho coach us to success.

 

[Minimalist]

You're going to have to accept that there are loads of fans disillusioned with the ambition of the board.

It’s tough because it’s literally only happened in the past week which is the definition of knee jerk.

If United had signed a couple of players nobody would be saying this. But windows like this can happen even when you have plenty of money, it’s so stupid to throw toys out of the pram over this.

 

[goin4glory]

Shouldn’t this go in the “penny-pinching Glazers” thread?

Of course, if I’m on the board I’d be counting up the money already spent by Mourinho (plus the salaries paid to his squad) and wondering how the feck any fan could have the brass neck to blame a lack of investment on our current situation.

Because the years of austerity during the Fergie years left us with a squad that needed a complete overhaul? It's painfully obvious to everyone that we need further investment to catch City and this window has been a disgrace. If the Glazers aren't prepared to try and compete with City despite having our resources then it's time they left.

 

[Bastian]

It’s tough because it’s literally only happened in the past week which is the definition of knee jerk.

If United had signed a couple of players nobody would be saying this. But windows like this can happen even when you have plenty of money, it’s so stupid to throw toys out of the pram over this.

Maybe. I don't think this was unfortunate. I think it happened because the money wasn't there. I can't really make sense of not strengthening the positions we needed to because we simply ran out of luck. But we can at least look forward to many months of further analysis

 

[liamp]

Main board is Ed, Arnold and a bunch of Glazers. Bar having the number of how much we can spend (or some emergency issue like Messi is available for 100m we don't have, can we have some extra money please), I don't think that they care much for the transfers. Then there is some other board with the likes of Fergie, Bobby etc but it doesn't look that they have any power and they are more like ambassadors rather than directors.

So almost certainly, it is just Ed and his team (maybe some advice from SAF etc).

Right. Ed and probably some consulting team possibly from PWC . I don't deny the board can be blamed for not forcing a change in the org structure but I'm not sure they should be our target for ire when it comes to this stuff

 

[RD76]

We have one of the best "coaches" in the world, who hasn't improved any of our players in 2 years.

 

[Trophy Room]

So many x VERSUS y threads on this forum? Why the fights guys?

 

[Toddler]

It’s tough because it’s literally only happened in the past week which is the definition of knee jerk.

If United had signed a couple of players nobody would be saying this. But windows like this can happen even when you have plenty of money, it’s so stupid to throw toys out of the pram over this.

Might be true, but that does not make the failings go away. I agree with the OG post to some degree. There has been a lot of bad decisions post Ferguson and we should have done better. Money is not the problem, its the people who handle it.

 

[R'hllor]

We have one of the best "coaches" in the world, who hasn't improved any of our players in 2 years.

Not true. Lingard improved.

 

[bleedred]

Might be true, but that does not make the failings go away. I agree with the OG post to some degree. There has been a lot of bad decisions post Ferguson and we should have done better. Money is not the problem, its the people who handle it.

In hindsight,yes. Even with Moyes, many fans were against him right from the start but others were hoping it would turn out well. Same with LVG, the best option we had at that time, coming off of a good world cup and previous credentials.