It’s led me to take a but of a break or at least a huge reduction in my online consumption. It’s so grating. Every conversation seems to directly or indirectly relate to us too. I saw a headline this morning quoting Souness saying ‘Manchester United would love to have Bale, Kane and Son’. What do they have to do with us? Why are we even in the conversation? About a trio that have never even played together either.
I didn’t watch too much of SSN during the window but tuned in on deadline day, and it was clear that the day had been almost dedicated to Manchester United, and every conversation was about what United will do, or for any other team’s business, it was ‘is this what Manchester United should have done?’.
There was a point in the window where United were considered the more likely destination for Gareth Bale. And if you took the temperature of media sentiment towards him at that time, it was overwhelmingly negative. Loads of gaslighting polls ‘United fans, would you be happy with Gareth Bale as an alternative to Sancho?’ In depth discussion of his injuries, salary, whether (as usual) our ‘structure’ needs an overhaul because we’ve known Gareth Bale existed for 10 years and are about to move for him now (‘why not sign him earlier?’). Fast forward just a couple of weeks and he joins Spurs and the narrative changed overnight. Documentaries on Sky, Hero returning, and not one mention of his salary.
Compare the coverage of Bale to the outright disrespect of Edinson Cavani, and then ask what the difference is in their respective circumstances. There isn’t any. Same when we were linked with Dembele. No different to Bale. Brilliant at his best, suffered with injuries, cost Real/Barca record money and a proposed loan. All of a sudden used as an excuse of ‘clueless United’.
Every deal done by every club in the final week of the window was just part of the game. It is only United who, every year, are demanded to have all of our number one targets signed on the day the window opens or something. Or we’re again ‘desperate and clueless’. We sign a player in September, it is ‘well why didn’t they sign him in July?’.
The worst part of it is that it creates an unnecessary cloud of negativity over the club all the time, which puts us under pressure before we’ve even had a chance to deserve it. Under Mourinho we finished second, and went into the next season in ‘crisis’. Liverpool finished fourth and were praised massively. This year, we finished third, and again, began the season with talk of ‘with all the problems at United’. And our own fans are entirely complicit in this nonsense with their endless complaining and frankly, naivety in seeing that they are being played for entertainment. Towards the end of the window I got exhausted going around the forum defending us from mindless playground derision, largely based on non-factual criticism.
It was so clear yesterday that everyone tuned in to see another car crash, and had to reluctantly praise us after winning. Even then, Miguel Delaney chose to adopt a take on our 1-4 away win by leading with ‘bar the corner, all of United’s goals came from counter attacks rather than breaking teams down’. Like really? Is this what we’re doing now?
The football hasn’t always been great, but I do feel that the actual football bit comes last. The scene has already been set and the crisis created before a ball is kicked. Any bad result, or even a win that wasn’t convincing enough for their liking just serves as a self-fulfilling prophesy.