We've got a lot of jobs for the boys at United, something even some more reasonable top reds acknowledge in terms of the financial side. I mean we had Woodward, Arnold and Judge all coming from the same University and all seem clueless about football. What many don't acknowledge is that we also have the same problem on the football side as well and the two branches interlink with one another. Murtough kept being promoted despite United proven shit time and time again which suggest that he's a Woodward's man. O'Boyle was once the Head of elite performance at the Premier League, a job Murtough used to cover before coming to United, he was also a former United youth coach as well. SAF is said to be back, his 'illegitimate son' saw himself promoted from U16 coach to first team coach right to technical director in less then a year, McShane was given a youth coach role, Phelan is still here despite rumours stating that ETH had made it clear that he doesn't want him anywhere near to him etc. Then we wonder why the same mistakes keeps repeating again and again.
The John Murtough Era
- Thread starter Trex
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
- Status
Paid very handsomely to not be good enough?
Going swimmingly so far isn’t it?
Season starts tomorrow and:
- Haven’t reinforced any of our priority positions (CM, RW, RB)
- Spent all summer chasing FdJ
- Unclear and messy situation with Ronaldo
- Deadwood still hasn’t been cleared
Murtough has basically condemned ETH to start the season with one arm tied behind his back.
Season starts tomorrow and:
- Haven’t reinforced any of our priority positions (CM, RW, RB)
- Spent all summer chasing FdJ
- Unclear and messy situation with Ronaldo
- Deadwood still hasn’t been cleared
Murtough has basically condemned ETH to start the season with one arm tied behind his back.
its ridiculous isn't it. A goalkeeper does half decently while on loan with Sheffield United and suddenly the fans and himself think that he's the next Peter Shilton. Henderson was going toe to toe for a first team place with the highest paid goalkeeper in the world and a 4 Sir Matt Busby award winner. It was always going to be an uphill battle for him. United's mistake was to allow this hype to grow by offering a long term contract on a ridiculous salary.
#newstructure
Same old same old don't know why anyone thought it would be different this time round.
Why does it feel like the blueprint for the club is the Woodward years, coupled with the negotiation judgement of the aptly named Judge. To be frank, this window has confirmed that the club is almost directionless and lacks real ambition, how can a club as big as Man Utd with its pressing needs be outspent by clubs in the bottom half, terrible times ahead of the club doesn’t make significant and modern appointments.
Last edited:
McFred and Martial starting the season. The feck is going on.
It is very clear that the choice of key people to manage the club is based solely on running the club as a business to make money for the Glazers as the key priority.
Improving and doing well at football is nowhere in the list of factors in recruitment.
Murtough should be sacked on the spot for his performance as DoF this Summer but unfortunately he will stay for years to further damage the club.
Not many expected Dalot to be our starting right-back either.
This club's lack of ability to sign centre midfielders is going to send me off the deep end. It's like a gaping black hole that is impossible for us to sign players for. Even when we were good, we seemingly struggled to buy top quality midfielders compared to other positions. As for Murtough...the more things change the more they seem to stay the same.
I called this out about 2 months back. I said that ETH is being set up to fail and he will be fired in his 3rd season.
People probably thought I was too negative, but I know how this is going to turn out.
Remember, our aim is 4th place. That's it. And the best part of it is that if the manager fails, he gets fired, then we hit the reset button and most fans are happy again. That doesn't work on me cuz I know that hitting the reset button every 2-3 years is the surefire way to not win trophies.
The problem is not the potential firing of ten Hag in his 3rd season but we'll replace him someone who needs to sign 7-8 players to implement his style.
We go back to square one with every new manager. When the time comes to replace ETH, we need someone who can pick up where he left off.
Was so thirsty for midfielders back then I wanted us to sign Defour and moussa sissoko from Toulouse. I am so desperate in the present I was checking out the Grillitsch YouTube video.
Yep we will let got of ETH and then somehow convince Diego simeone to finally leave Atleti and then buy him his own set of players. From possession football to counter attack. Just going in a circle.
Started brightly, but currently fumbling the bag and drowning. This was a summer for decisive action and it’s the one thing we haven’t had.
This post makes no sense. You're complaining that the club presses the reset button every 2-3 years, but you seem to be also complaining that the clubs not hitting the reset button this summer?
ETH has said multiple times, the squads much better than the way it performed. He seems relatively happy with it, so I don't know why you think he's being set up to fail?
I still think one of the biggest issues is Arnold and Murtough were appointed or earmarked for their roles at a time that the club thought things were going well. They were Woodward’s guys and expected to pick up where he left.
Since then everything has fallen apart and now it’s a totally different job and they are completely unprepared and maybe even unable to do what is required. We’re seeing a slow and poorly prepared response to failure from people who don’t really know what they’re doing.
The RR debacle and this transfer window are 2 huge black marks against Murtough already, Arnold seems pretty quick to ensure he can’t be blamed for anything so I don’t see him having much loyalty or patience.
Since then everything has fallen apart and now it’s a totally different job and they are completely unprepared and maybe even unable to do what is required. We’re seeing a slow and poorly prepared response to failure from people who don’t really know what they’re doing.
The RR debacle and this transfer window are 2 huge black marks against Murtough already, Arnold seems pretty quick to ensure he can’t be blamed for anything so I don’t see him having much loyalty or patience.
You can only clear deadwood if they want to leave and if someone wants to take them, he cannot make them leave or just imagine buyers into existence
FdJ this is on the manager for me, if the manager has indicated to do all we can including to wait it out what more can he do, he agreed the fee already the money is there
I agree on the RW/CF and RB issue totally but then he got 3 of the targets for the manager too transfers arent like a sweet shop and you just get everything you want in one go
Did it?
We've somehow spent 60m and have a worse squad than we did last season.
Murtough is a pound shop DoF and wouldn't be near any other top job if he left us. I query if he would even get a job at another Premier league club
What the feck are they doing? Actually though. They will need time of course - but you look at this transfer window and it is just complete inactivity. It is complete incompetence to be planning on going into the season with Martial as the only "fit" striker, only for him to get his inevitable injury which has constantly happened for years, and now be scrambling. Its fecking game 1!!! What the feck are they playing at? We don't have any wingers past our staring 2. Again. Straight up negligence and they're preparing us for failure. Its harmful to the club and its harmful to the players the way we have handled this window. Sancho and Rashford will be forced to play every minute possible and will lead to injuries, as it always does when you don't have adequate cover.
I honestly can't believe that we are a day before the premier League season and we've allowed ourselves to be in this position with the attacking group. The midfield is whatever. Quality should be better, but at least we have enough players who are of premier league quality there and we have depth. Our attack? We have 3 adequate level players who want to be here, a 37 year who doesn't suit the manager and who is acting up and desperate to leave, and then a bunch of kids who are nowhere near ready. Its fecking sabotage.
All this talk about Woodward this Woodward that, wasting a ton of money.. well feck, I'd rather waste money on failed signings than just sign nobody at all. Useless twats. 50m net spend this window with 65m total spend, its fecking pathetic.
I honestly can't believe that we are a day before the premier League season and we've allowed ourselves to be in this position with the attacking group. The midfield is whatever. Quality should be better, but at least we have enough players who are of premier league quality there and we have depth. Our attack? We have 3 adequate level players who want to be here, a 37 year who doesn't suit the manager and who is acting up and desperate to leave, and then a bunch of kids who are nowhere near ready. Its fecking sabotage.
All this talk about Woodward this Woodward that, wasting a ton of money.. well feck, I'd rather waste money on failed signings than just sign nobody at all. Useless twats. 50m net spend this window with 65m total spend, its fecking pathetic.
This is one of the reasons we're in this mess, countless failed signings for the sake of it. Why would you want to do this again it never works.
The reason we are in this mess is because of garbage managers and garbage coaching. Last seasons squad was horribly bloated. Now, we are horribly short in attack. You know there is a happy medium between having squad options of Rashford, Sancho, Ronaldo, martial, Greenwood, Cavani, Lingard, mata for just 3 positions... Compared to having just Rashford, Sancho, martial and Ronaldo. You need 5 attackers. Maybe you can get by with 4 if they're all versatile and have excellent fitness records. But you generally need 5 attackers for the front 3 of a good enough level. One of our 4 is 37 and wants out, another is always injured, another has just come off a terrible season and we're hoping more than anything that he recovers his form. But absolutely no depth. What we need right now is a panic signing, because going into the season without another winger will lead to losses of form, injuries, and bad results purely because we don't have players. Panic signings aren't the reason we are in this mess. Its not knowing what a squad actually needs in terms of balance and numbers.
What was the bright part?
This place can be very ridiculous sometimes. Everyone agrees things aren't how they should be but when you call out something you have the pseudos and "perspective" merchants rushing to defend the status quo of the day.
This regime didn't just start making questionable moves, most recent is letting so many key roles leave with no replacement just to end up scrambling for help mid-window. They clearly underestimated the scale of operations in running a summer window.
They are repeating the same mistakes the club did 3 years ago, we had a thin squad and Martial was the only recognized striker. He got injured a couple of weeks after the season's start and missed 2 months.
Nothing ever changes at Manchester United.
Rangnick experiment was also an unmitigated disaster. It's not been a very auspicious start for him.
Yup. 19/20 we scrambled and signed Bruno and Ighalo in January because Pogba got injured and we relied on playing Pereira regularly, Rashford got overplayed into a spine stress fracture, martial miraculously stayed fit, and Dan James played every game and Greenwood was slowly integrated. Now we have Martial who is always injured, Sancho and Rashford who will have to play every game and are reliant on 37 year old want away Ronaldo to be our main striker in a system he doesn't suit. Shambolic
I hadn't even heard of Sesko until he scored against Liverpool. United fans go crazy on social media about him scoring one goal. Suddenly Murtough is chasing him.
Does no sound like great scouting to me. More like desperation.
Awful at buying and selling. Looks like nothing has changed.
We needed a big summer and the board has failed the fans and ETH. If injuries start piling up on the front line, we are completely f'ed. Midfield neglected for another summer even with the pursuit of FdJ which is an absolute joke at this point. It seems like we will always be caught in a long winding transfer window when it comes to our targets. The board has showed ineptitude once again in having the ability to build a squad while making intelligent decisions in the market. How in the f, after a full summer with no tournaments / distractions, we are going into the season with the same midfield as last season. There is only so many tweaks ETH can make, the rest is on the ability of the players. It's just incredibly discouraging that the season starts this weekend and we do not look anywhere ready to challenge top 4. The last f'ing thing we need is now this Ronaldo drama looming over the club.
You're not wrong, but the club can definitely put more pressure on the deadwood to leave.
Take away their first team status and tell them "have your agent find you a club or you can see out your contract in the reserves".
It's worse than last season in my opinion. We've effectively replaced Matic and Pogba with Garner and VDB as things stand. Matic and Pogba had their flaws but they also had their upside that unfortunately I don't think exists for McFred, nevermind Garner and VDB.
The selling you can somewhat excuse given the contracts we are trying to shift. But the buying has been poor. It's embarrassing not to get some semblance of a squad before the first game. Having no midfield reinforcement bar eriksen is particularly disgraceful.
Agreed, you can even argue that Matic was our best midfielder last season and once again, we have not brought in a 6. Replacing Pogba with Eriksen is already a net positive IMO, not like Pogba could be relied on to stay fit for an entire season.
If we can’t field a senior forward on opening day, that’s a fireable offense and it could well happen if martial is out and Sancho is ruled sick.
No he wasn't.
I imagine they've told the agents to do this already and you can threaten them with the reserves fine they'll still be collecting 100+k a week in the case of Jones and probably Bailly too their agents arent going to tell them to leave unless they get better offers, again a mess not of Murtough's making Woodward should have just left contracts to expire you only need to renew contracts if they make sense for the squad/team we used them to 'protect investments' rather than the good of the team.
- Status