He was allowed to make 5 signings yes. A team that wants to win the league needs 11 players. When Ole came in, Martial, Rashford were not established stars.
He would be the ultimate martyr. Would probably do him more good to be honest as well run clubs will look at his stint at Cardiff and United and see that he ultimately failed because he had inept owners.
Boggles the mind that Ole seems to see this position as such low priority when there is no other proper DM in the squad other than Matic
Dont start making stuff up. People were saying he hasn't been backed at all. He has. Of course we still need more players no one is disputing that. Quality of the squad is not good enough many players kept on contracts that should have been let go. However let's not pretend poor ole has had no backing. Team should be performing better than what it is.
How am I making things up?
Lets not go full fm here. I agree that he was not backed fully (for title challenge he wasn't for sure). But when he came he had:
Ole has 4 players he can use in a deeper midfield position:
Well he was backed last summer, I am not disputing that. He is not being backed right now which is my concern. Money could have been better used, yes but that comes down to the negotiators as well.
We are pretty much on same page here. Yep, this summer was cluster feck. Especially in situation where rivals are buying players.
People are forgetting what the aims for us should be, which is the title. To do so, you have to be backed every season unless the board loses confidence in the manager.
Majority of the players out were not first team players. I stopped reading when you mentioned Sanchez, as mentioned I am not disputing that we shouldnt add more players, just people were saying he hasnt been backed at all.
No, there definitely was a plan. But it was a plan written on the wall in shit.
Better than 3rd ? I think 3rd is reasonable given the squad
Clearly you watched alot of United games pre Ole.
Yeah it's hard to accept when you see our once great club being rotted away by leeches and there is not a damn thing we can do about it whatsoever
Never realised it was such a joke to love your club and be fecked off seeing it going down the pan due to leech owners and an incompetent board
That's why i added the sad part at the end, i'm one of the worst transfer muppets... The first thing i do every morning is to check the transfer tweets!
Spot on. We need signings to compete for trophies now. But what we have should be good enough to blow most teams away in the league and should finish top 4. Nobody is expecting PL or CL after our crap window, but we still expect good football, top 4 and a good cup run in at least the FA Cup.
Playing time is irrelevant, they're players widely considered by the fan base as no where near good enough. He's been backed with 4 players of the required quality so that's clearly a significant backing and improvement.
Some of the things Ole did were good. For example he removed the toxic environment left by Mou, he played some decent football, he gave kids a chance and he improved players like Rashy and Martial. In some other areas he wasn't. He spent 80m on an average CB, 50M on an average RB and 15m on a Championship level winger. Our tactics seems to be meah as well.
My big issue is that I worry whoever our next manager is will face the exact same issues Solskjaer has faced with the board, when every manager ends up failing spectacularly you have to start wondering are they set up to fail? I think the squad could be performing better too, Solskjaer's system doesn't elevate the players but rather the players are the ones who elevate the system. A better manager would get more out of our squad but not enough to challenge for a league, and I don't think any manager we have while the current board is in place have the capacity to back a manager to help him achieve a title win. We just seem to be stuck in an endless cycle.
Looks like Mata's good performance against Brighton Reserves came at just the right time then - no need for a new right winger
It's fine we'll sign some Championship players like King, Brooks and Rodon before the 16th October.
I don't think we'll sign anyone, we've left it very late.
Excuse me while I go and throw up at the prospect of signing championship level tripe
Ugh this is disgraceful beyond words
Well, it is not irrelevant, if you are first team you will play more games. The quality bit is very subjective, it doesnt matter what you, me or anyone else thinks as long as the manager thinks they are good enough.
I meant more the start this season
Brooks might be OK assuming we don't spend too much on him (£20m or so) and get rid of James at the same time. We can always stand having a punt or two as long as we've not got a bench full of them, and they tend to be easier to shift as long as you don't pay them OTT wages.
With the team and squad we currently have it should be more then capable of top 4 and playing good attractive football. We should at least look like a team that bears some resembalance of being coached. We need 2/3 more players added to what we have. Every player you mention in your list is nonsense, we dont miss any of them.
I don't think that our board wakes up in the morning and say that they are happy with entering CL glory on alternate year. So no, technically speaking, I don't think that Ole is set up to fail. However we do have an issue, something no modern manager whether he's Ole or Klopp can sort ie the lack of a football knowledgeable board who knows their stuff including a DOF. These people are instrumental as they are the ones who analyse the work being done by scouts, who negotiate transfers and who make sure that the club is a well oiled machine both when bringing players in, moving players out and handling contracts. United need to realise that the old fashioned manager who used to do everything on his own doesn't exist anymore. No one has that skillset simply because every modern manager has people above him who do that job for him.
I doubt that they can play in the CL though.
No they cannot, Champions League registration is day after the European window. Still give the David Brooks fan club optimism.
If we were playing only PL football then yes, this team is good enough. We are playing CL football too now. Players get tired, players get injured. If Martial gets injured, who do we have? We are relying on a 18 year old Striker from our academy to be our first choice RW for the whole season?
It's our level though isn't it...