Did you watch them yesterday? Complete smash and grab. Everton really should have won.
Where will we finish?
- Thread starter charlenefan
- Start date
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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.
City
Pool
Chelsea
Utd/Spurs/Arsenal slugfest
I've gone for an optimistic 4th
Pool
Chelsea
Utd/Spurs/Arsenal slugfest
I've gone for an optimistic 4th
From here it looks like fourth at best, hopefully no lower than sixth. I'd love to be wrong but I can't honestly say we look like overturning the points difference on the top three.
Now where did you get that. From what I saw yesterday against Everton, they were crap and to be fair have been riding their luck which is typical arsenal. They have been mediocre.
5th I reckon. Disgraceful really.
At least they’ve the quality up front to smash and grab. We could have done the same on Saturday, but Lukaku was horrendous, among others in attack.
I genuinely wish we could smash and grab if it meant we secured 3 points.
I have us 6th. We are firmly in midtable form right now.
Who knew predictions were as easy and just taking the first handful of games.
I mean those above us couldn't possibly go through their own bad run.
I mean those above us couldn't possibly go through their own bad run.
To me, they look much better defensively than they were during the first two games. I would still expect us to finish ahead of them but I don't think it's a guarantee.
This is right. Things could look comolecomp different after game 15 after Arsenal and Chelsea have played a bunch of Europa games .
That’s exactly what we did against Leicester in our first game of the season.
You bring up the time we finished 6th under Jose.
The league placing does not actually matter. It's irrelevant...to Woodward.
What is relevant is getting into the CL the following season. Why? Money.
Think about it: 4th place is not a trophy. 4th place is not a gold, silver or bronze medal. 4th is actually pretty poor for a big club.
But when you think of it from an earnings perspective, 4th place is just as lucrative as 1st place.
Last season, for finishing in 2nd, MUFC earned £149,767,145
MCFC, for finishing 1st, earned, £149.438,654
CFC finished 6th to earn, £141,713,582
https://talksport.com/football/3763...ned-tv-and-their-final-position-180518283150/
Now, given that finishing 1st, 4th or 6th equates to roughly the same amount of money earned, the EPL has no financial relevance. Finish in the top 6 and you are good.
The problem is that if you finish 6th, you won't get the CL money which gets added on top of the above amounts listed.
So, the only thing that matters is to make the top 4 and get the CL money.
This is the model which AFC used and their owners earned themselves plenty of money.
Now, I want you all to answer this question, while putting yourselves in Woodward and The Glazers' shoes:
if MUFC can make the CL (and get the CL money) by finishing 1st or 4th AND earn the same amount of EPL money finishing 1st or 4th, why would Woodward spend £250M, say, to buy Jose players, in order to come 1st?
I mean, what is the return on investment here? Spend £250M and earn £0.5M back, making a loss of £249.5M?
The 4th place finish is a perfect business model, while the 1st place model is financially poor (unless like LCFC, you get lucky and win the title on a low budget, against the odds).
Perhaps this will give people the true reason why Woodward pulled the plug on Jose's transfers and decided to net spend £50M, with the 4th place target in mind.
...and for the record, I think Jose will get 4th place. He is just too good, not to. If he leaves after doing this, then it'll be because he has no faith that Woodward can provide him with the funds to win the title. Remember, Jose doesn't care about financials - like us, he just wants to win.
It's interesting that CFC won all their games.
They played a Europa League game on Thursday, then drew their next EPL game. It could be a coincidence, of course.
I had no idea the gap between 1st and 4th is so tiny. To be honest,I suspected that Woodward was applying the Arsenal business model but now really have no doubt that the real goal is top four (which also explains the timing of the Moyes/LVG sackings - I would suspect that the managers have a contract clause regarding not delivering CL).
On topic, before the season started, I placed the following bet @50:
Premier League top six:
1. Man City
2. Liverpool
3. Spurs
4. Chelsea
5. United
6. Arsenal
So far, I think I may have underestimated Chelsea, but things are otherwise going as I expected. I don't think I will be wrong about United by more than a single place. I'd say they are most likely to finish fifth, then sixth, then fourth and don't see a realistic chance for a finish in top three or below sixth.
4th...i hope
Arsenal don't look good. But they have a new manager and thus seem more likey to imrpove than United under Jose. Very hard to predict their campaign. Might end up far from top 5 or scrapping with Spurs and us for top 4. The latter does not seem likely though, for now.
I really think we're going to finish outside the top 5. At least, I've prepared myself mentally for it!
Doesn't it say everything about this manager that despite being in charge of one of the biggest sides in the world & spending one of the biggest transfer chests since arriving, the average Man Utd fan is hoping we will scrape 4th. If this fraud isn't challenging for the Champions League & League this season he needs to go, considering the rubbish football we are expected to watch.
4th
Leicester game for a start
This guy knows what he’s talking about. It’s absolutely spot on.
I think we will finish 3rd.
I think we probably have the 4th or 5th best XI, the 3rd or 4th best squad overall and probably the 3rd or 4th best manager.
Depending on injuries, 3rd-5th is to be expected, with 4th being about par.
Notice that we only ever truly spend big when the club has lost income by not qualifying for the CL,wash,rinse,repeat!!
6th. No trophies.
That's my optimistic view!
That's my optimistic view!
I'm a half pint full type a guy but i think this could be our worst year since Sir Alex left. I hope i'm wrong.
If the players and fans stick on board with Jose...I think we will get 4th place behind City, 'pool and Chelsea
If a bad run of form comes sometime before or just after xmas and Jose has a meltdown/the players turn on him...he'll get sacked and we will have left it too late to get back in the top 4.
On a side note, unless they really improve I don't see Arsenal as a threat. Spurs are the team that I fear will get the other spot.
If a bad run of form comes sometime before or just after xmas and Jose has a meltdown/the players turn on him...he'll get sacked and we will have left it too late to get back in the top 4.
On a side note, unless they really improve I don't see Arsenal as a threat. Spurs are the team that I fear will get the other spot.
On Peps tits.
We won't be challenging for the league, given that LFC have only just spent a big wad of money and MCFC have consistently outspent us.
Regarding the CL - I'm not even going to bother commenting here. It is embarrassing to even compare our first team with the first teams of Madrid, Barca, Juve, Bayern, etc. We are not in their league, unfortunately.
I don't think it will be that bad but it will be worse than last year. Probably somewhere around Moyes and LVG's 2nd year on points. I think we'll struggle to hit 70. Zero ware.
I honestly can't see better than 5th for us. We've already finished 6th once under Mourinho and I thought we played better football that season than we are now. 5th or 6th imo.
Im going for 5th and that's just pathetic. If we finish 5th the manager will have to leave. However I see at least 3 better teams than us in the league at the moment, and Spurs also if they stay injury free
Or he doesn't, and is so wide of the mark that it's scary
Who knows? I don’t think it sounds unlikely at all.Or he doesn't, and is so wide of the mark that it's scary
4th at best
Now we can't do anything of note we need to pray its 5th and out of the CL places.
Need Woodward to feck off.
It's a shame for Mourinho, he's a top manager who's done well but we need Woodward to feck off. Surely no CL again would be the final nail in his coffin.
4th and CL and we're just treading water.
Need Woodward to feck off.
It's a shame for Mourinho, he's a top manager who's done well but we need Woodward to feck off. Surely no CL again would be the final nail in his coffin.
4th and CL and we're just treading water.
1. Chelsea
2. Liverpool
3. City
4. Spurs
5. United
6. Arsenal
We will be battling with Arsenal for 5th.
2. Liverpool
3. City
4. Spurs
5. United
6. Arsenal
We will be battling with Arsenal for 5th.
So what everyone is really thinking is that Mourinho will some how have us magically play better. We have yet to play any of the top teams and are dropping points at an alarming rate. 6th would be a fair reflection of where we are at. We are not better then Spurs or Arsenal at the moment.
Or it falls apart with the fact the whole buisness model of United is based on winning, entertainment and bringing in new revenue through advertisement. You could say our fan base is still big enough to draw in investment anyway but what company’s want to really invest and be associated with a non glamorous, non winning entity.
I think he is quite far off the mark or at least I hope he is, nah actually I’m pretty sure he is.