Worst-case scenario

Nogho

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2022
Messages
846
Location
Sverige
TBD
  • A loss in Bilbao
  • Defeats to Chelsea and Villa


    Current situation​
  • £1 billion in debt (including external payments)
  • High-earning loaned-out players who want to leave but are hard to sell
  • Reported disputes between Sir Ratcliffe and the Glazers over how the club should be run
  • The worst season in living memory
  • An ageing stadium
  • An overblown idea of a new £2 billion stadium
  • A desperate need for players in key positions
  • Frequent sackings across the club and, according to the media, low morale among staff
  • The Glazers still own 70% and only seem interested in financial gain

How on earth is the club supposed to bounce back from this? If we lose in Bilbao, revenue drops, Champions League hopes vanish, and we’re left with a manager who hasn’t moved the team or the players forward at all during his time here.


Is there a real risk, as Amorim suggests, that we may soon no longer be considered a big club? Will casual fans stop following us, leading to fewer merchandise sales and sponsorship deals? Where could this downward spiral end? Could it even end in bankruptcy?


Genuinely worried.
 
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2 more defeats to hit the astounding position of losing exactly half of our league games this season.
And surely the worst ever home form in 40 years?

We're hanging a hell of a lot on winning that cup final to make it "alright" to lose so much.
 
It isn’t that grim at all. The club moves on and will prepare for next season with transfer, and we’ll be transfer muppets for two months
 
We are still a big club in terms of reputation and image but on the field we are nowhere close and there isn't much to be optimistic about either.
 
Definitely not as bad as you’ve made out. The way the club bounces back is endless more football matches in the future. They’ve bounced back from much worse.
 
Don't we lose over 25m a year with our adidas deal, if we fail to qualify for the CL for two consecutive seasons? Fun times ahead.
 
Nogho said:
TBD
  • A loss in Bilbao
  • Defeats to Chelsea and Villa


    Current situation​
  • £1 billion in debt (including external payments)
  • High-earning loaned-out players who want to leave but are hard to sell
  • Reported disputes between Sir Ratcliffe and the Glazers over how the club should be run
  • The worst season in living memory
  • An ageing stadium
  • An overblown idea of a new £10 billion stadium
  • A desperate need for players in key positions
  • Frequent sackings across the club and, according to the media, low morale among staff
  • The Glazers still own 70% and only seem interested in financial gain

How on earth is the club supposed to bounce back from this? If we lose in Bilbao, revenue drops, Champions League hopes vanish, and we’re left with a manager who hasn’t moved the team or the players forward at all during his time here.


Is there a real risk, as Amorim suggests, that we may soon no longer be considered a big club? Will casual fans stop following us, leading to fewer merchandise sales and sponsorship deals? Where could this downward spiral end? Could it even end in bankruptcy?


Genuinely worried.
Click to expand...

Things are rarely as bad (or as good) as they appear to be. You’ll still be able to attract top players, one year you’ll get a summer transfer window where everyone’s a winner, and you’ll eventually find a manager who gets the best out of what he’s got at his disposal. This last bit is why I can’t see Amorim staying too much longer- you can’t blame him for the players he inherited, but you can’t expect that a Man Utd manager will get the majority of those players playing at full potential. Over the next 1 to 3 seasons he’s going to lose the likes of Casemiro, Maguire and possibly Fernandes to age (all 3 of whom have probably bees assets to the team since he arrived). So he’s going to have to find ways to make things work in imperfect conditions.
 
Giant risk. We will feel the consequences of nepotism and financial mismanagement especially under the EtH for many years to come. It would be completely unrealistic to think we can splash hundreds of millions on his former players or players that shared the agent with him and his son and run away with it. Every company, every government would struggle for years following such burning of money.

Thing is, even the EL win doesn't fully salvage this season. It is extremely important, yes, because it gives us plenty of money and a hope we can bounce back. But it's not going to solve every issue.
 
You can't really have a worst case scenario discussion without mentioning possible relegation next season. Just to cheer everyone up a bit.
 
I was thinking about any positives that might arise from a loss to Spurs.

If we can manage to still bring in enough quality, we can perform better in the league and with fewer games to play, we might not accumulate as many injuries. We’re not ready for a CL campaign and so while it’s a huge step backwards, it might help us to rebuild.

Of course I want us to win, but it might not be the end of the world.
 
If I'm not mistaken, at one point in history, whilst Liverpool were winning everything, we got relegated and still was the highest attended team in the country.

We will always be the biggest team in this country.
 
Maybe we'll get relegated, and then the United curse will finally be satisfied that we've suffered enough, and will finally leave us the feck alone.
 
We'll never die.
Remember: The night is always darkest before the dawn.
Excelsior!
 
Existing squad + 1 or 2 attacking signings + cheap goalkeeper + no Europe + back to basics formation = top 10 minimum, potentially much higher.

As shite as it may seem, there are actual foundational changes that will help us in the long term, they’re not just penny pinching changes for the sake of it. A win in Bilbao would speed everything up though.
 
Hoof the ball said:
If I'm not mistaken, at one point in history, whilst Liverpool were winning everything, we got relegated and still was the highest attended team in the country.

We will always be the biggest team in this country.
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Wouldn't say always.
In the short term definitely. Mid term probably.

But give it another decade or 3 of mismanagement who knows?
Missing top 4 was a horror a few years ago.
Then 8th felt rock bottom.
We could come 17th this season quite easily losing half the games. The cup final has led to fans sort of writing off losses against mediocre teams as alright because of the cup.

Chances are we'll know whether Amorim is a longer term guy by the autumn.
If we're still losing half our games even with a decent window it will be worrying.

Could staying up become a new normal? Hard to see it but certainly no room for complacency. Not if the money pot dries up.
 
If we lose to Spurs and having no Europe would mean cutting the team down significantly and perhaps not having the european distraction next season might benefit us in the PL more.

We take the financial hit of what CL could bring, but if we can sell more players as we'll need to cut the team down, would that be as bad or more ideal?

Obviously I want to win the final, but not being in Europe next year as damning for a re-build/reset?

Although, I guess having CL would attract better players, and feck it, we better win it for bragging rights too otherwise it's going to be a rubbish summer
 
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Summit said:
Don't we lose over 25m a year with our adidas deal, if we fail to qualify for the CL for two consecutive seasons? Fun times ahead.
Click to expand...
No, under the terms of the new deal, the penalty is £10m every time we fail to qualify. It doesn't need to be twice in a row anymore.
 
Nogho said:
TBD
  • A loss in Bilbao
  • Defeats to Chelsea and Villa


    Current situation​
  • £1 billion in debt (including external payments)
  • High-earning loaned-out players who want to leave but are hard to sell
  • Reported disputes between Sir Ratcliffe and the Glazers over how the club should be run
  • The worst season in living memory
  • An ageing stadium
  • An overblown idea of a new £2 billion stadium
  • A desperate need for players in key positions
  • Frequent sackings across the club and, according to the media, low morale among staff
  • The Glazers still own 70% and only seem interested in financial gain

How on earth is the club supposed to bounce back from this? If we lose in Bilbao, revenue drops, Champions League hopes vanish, and we’re left with a manager who hasn’t moved the team or the players forward at all during his time here.


Is there a real risk, as Amorim suggests, that we may soon no longer be considered a big club? Will casual fans stop following us, leading to fewer merchandise sales and sponsorship deals? Where could this downward spiral end? Could it even end in bankruptcy?


Genuinely worried.
Click to expand...
40Acsk.gif
 
The worst case scenario is one that was unthinkable when the sc*m took over. Even if we win the EL, we have an atrocious record with signings and getting rid of our high earners will be very difficult. There's also the fact that Jim will want to cash in if a big offer does come in for Bruno.

So worst case next season: we sell Bruno because we can't sell dross like Rashford and Sancho. We spend that money badly as usual. Without Bruno we are likely to be even closer to relegation. So worst case next season is that we actually get relegated. Once that happens, we will likely stay down for a while due to the financial situation and having to pay off players.
 
Salfordlad70 said:
I was thinking about any positives that might arise from a loss to Spurs.

If we can manage to still bring in enough quality, we can perform better in the league and with fewer games to play, we might not accumulate as many injuries. We’re not ready for a CL campaign and so while it’s a huge step backwards, it might help us to rebuild.

Of course I want us to win, but it might not be the end of the world.
Click to expand...
I’ve been banging a slightly odd drum for a while and I think it MIGHT almost be beneficial to not be in Europe next season.

In short, mainly because I believe that if we are in the CL, we have a much harder job of getting rid of players, and I actually think that this is as important, if not more so than getting the right players in. As an example, Rashford will return and instantly be on his highest level of weekly wage and clubs will be put off by it. The only way that this is solved is by us footing some of the bill, or giving him a higher pay off.

This will be the same with all the players so our wage bill will be at its highest and all players will be harder to move on in any shape or form.

Add to this, I like to think, and this is where in think my idea might be a bit bonkers, if we have no CL, Amorim can sit down with the squat and have an open conversation about where we are at and what they want from their career in the immediate term.

I genuinely think that we could start next season with a squad of ‘capable’ payers who genuinely want to be at the club and will run through walls for the manager. I will take some convincing that we will have that in the CL due to the difficulty in moving a number of players on
 
Worst case scenario may come next season when we get relegated by Amorim. We might win the Europa league and get champion league next season but due the no. of matches played, we got embrasses and kick out of Champion league in the 1st round, early exit in the league/fa cup and we are at the bottom of the league. Finally we get relegated being the worst team in EPL.
 
K Stand Knut said:
I’ve been banging a slightly odd drum for a while and I think it MIGHT almost be beneficial to not be in Europe next season.

In short, mainly because I believe that if we are in the CL, we have a much harder job of getting rid of players, and I actually think that this is as important, if not more so than getting the right players in. As an example, Rashford will return and instantly be on his highest level of weekly wage and clubs will be put off by it. The only way that this is solved is by us footing some of the bill, or giving him a higher pay off.

This will be the same with all the players so our wage bill will be at its highest and all players will be harder to move on in any shape or form.

Add to this, I like to think, and this is where in think my idea might be a bit bonkers, if we have no CL, Amorim can sit down with the squat and have an open conversation about where we are at and what they want from their career in the immediate term.

I genuinely think that we could start next season with a squad of ‘capable’ payers who genuinely want to be at the club and will run through walls for the manager. I will take some convincing that we will have that in the CL due to the difficulty in moving a number of players on
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I agree with everything in your post. It almost feels like we have to fall yet further still to be able to rise up again. It’s a tragic outlook that I share and it’s kinda where we’re at right now.

That said, I’ll be mortified should we lose next week. There are of course many benefits to beating Spurs. CL and the money it brings, a trophy and the ability to attract better players, but it won’t fix anything I fear. Certainly not long term.

I can’t believe we’ve managed to make such a mess of things.
 
Von Mistelroum said:
The worst case scenario is one that was unthinkable when the sc*m took over. Even if we win the EL, we have an atrocious record with signings and getting rid of our high earners will be very difficult. There's also the fact that Jim will want to cash in if a big offer does come in for Bruno.

So worst case next season: we sell Bruno because we can't sell dross like Rashford and Sancho. We spend that money badly as usual. Without Bruno we are likely to be even closer to relegation. So worst case next season is that we actually get relegated. Once that happens, we will likely stay down for a while due to the financial situation and having to pay off players.
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If we get relegated, we’ll probably go into administration.
 
Offside said:
Definitely not as bad as you’ve made out. The way the club bounces back is endless more football matches in the future. They’ve bounced back from much worse.
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Yes we have. However, in those days, football was not the business it is today. If we do find ourselves staring bankruptcy in the face because of the debt, then United may cease to exist and end up like Rangers did.
 
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