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Let's All Laugh At... Let's all wonder what's going on at United?

CoopsieDeadpool

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2012
18,257
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Seafordian Spurs

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
2,157
4,141
Listening to TalkRadio in the drive home last night they were talking about the Manchester derby. The reporter said that Ole had read the team the riot act and warned them that they’re position at the club is at stake and that he will have a clear out.

Now call me a cynic but I believe this is the United friendly press preparing for a mass defection by the star players who see the place as toxic and has lost its way. The spin will be that Ole has lead the clear out where in reality he’s ineffectual as a man manager.

Ole, ineffectual? Completely. Imagine being a handsomely paid footballer. The fuck you'd listen to that wee shite for?
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,355
87,829
Manure have too many players who believe their own bullshit. Unlike in the past when they were utterly ruthless, no matter the opposition (remember their annual 7-0 demolitions of some poor relegation fodder like Ipswich or someone?) the team is full of the usual complacent egos who feel like Everton away is beneath their efforts.

Not that I'm complaining, I'm more than happy for Man Utd to continue to be average after 25 years of them insufferably winning everything.
 

LexingtonSpurs

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2013
13,456
39,042
How do you post gifs in here?
giphy.gif
 

Tucker

Shitehawk
Jul 15, 2013
31,131
146,025
Listening to TalkRadio in the drive home last night they were talking about the Manchester derby. The reporter said that Ole had read the team the riot act and warned them that they’re position at the club is at stake and that he will have a clear out.

Now call me a cynic but I believe this is the United friendly press preparing for a mass defection by the star players who see the place as toxic and has lost its way. The spin will be that Ole has lead the clear out where in reality he’s ineffectual as a man manager.

Nah, United have needed a proper clear out for a few seasons. Too many average players, and too many exceptional players who think they can coast through games.

It remains to be seen if OGS is the man to sort their issues out, but I suspect his good will with the fans will allow him to get rid of some big names and replace them with unproven youngsters etc.
 

Insomnia

Twisted Firestarter
Jan 18, 2006
20,199
55,543
Nah, United have needed a proper clear out for a few seasons. Too many average players, and too many exceptional players who think they can coast through games.

It remains to be seen if OGS is the man to sort their issues out, but I suspect his good will with the fans will allow him to get rid of some big names and replace them with unproven youngsters etc.
I agree & to be fair to their fans they've stuck by him
 

Krule

Carpe Diem
Jun 4, 2017
4,534
8,686
Ole is right about City. They are one of the most dirty teams against teams at a similar level I have seen. They basically put a bounty on Kane in the first leg. Because city don’t get punished does not mean they are not a dirty side.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48028390

Don't know why but this seems more like Ferguson talking rather than Ole to me....sounds just like the sort of "mind games" tactics he'd advise the new manager to adopt.
 

'O Zio

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2014
7,405
13,785
Nah, United have needed a proper clear out for a few seasons. Too many average players, and too many exceptional players who think they can coast through games.

It remains to be seen if OGS is the man to sort their issues out, but I suspect his good will with the fans will allow him to get rid of some big names and replace them with unproven youngsters etc.

Agree. While Mourinho and his antics was clearly a big problem, it wasn't the only problem. There are massive issues at all levels at Man Utd and getting in jolly old Ole doesn't solve that.
 

SteveH

BSoDL candidate for SW London
Jul 21, 2003
8,642
9,313
Now they are allegedly going for Zaha again ?? that will improve the moral!
In the dressing room!
 

Pellshek

Well-Known Member
Dec 30, 2015
2,509
7,289
From the peerless Barney Ronay:

Fronting up as ever, Ole Gunnar Solskjær came out to stand with players and applaud the stands. But it was still hard to shake the feeling the team in the sky-blue shirts had spent their evening in a kind of footballing Pompeii, the club that time forgot, stuck cranking out the same jangly playlist, staring back at the past while the present ebbs away.

None of this is Solskjær’s fault. He is simply the latest hired hand to find himself staring into that vacuum of leadership and planning, a job that is simply too big to fix from the factory floor. In Solskjær’s case there has been something particularly painful about watching that retro-schtick, the obsession with the shadow triumphs of the past, go from a source of inspiration to a source of stasis.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/apr/24/manchester-united-footballing-pompeii-solskjaer
 

TheHoddleWaddle

Well-Known Member
Dec 13, 2013
11,289
20,289
United are a long way off being anywhere near where they think they should be. This is the point, they had a fortunate run under Ole when.he started, but now it's normal business the lack of quality is starting to show across the team. They are where their performances have put them. There is no deserving in football. Their glory days are fading as teams.around them are ever improving.

They'd be better off accepting a 3/4 season rebuilding process. Didn't Ferguson teach them anything? Theres no buying their way out of this, unless they have a spare 400+ million in current market conditions.
 

brendanb50

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2005
4,484
3,890
United are a long way off being anywhere near where they think they should be. This is the point, they had a fortunate run under Ole when.he started, but now it's normal business the lack of quality is starting to show across the team. They are where their performances have put them. There is no deserving in football. Their glory days are fading as teams.around them are ever improving.

They'd be better off accepting a 3/4 season rebuilding process. Didn't Ferguson teach them anything? Theres no buying their way out of this, unless they have a spare 400+ million in current market conditions.

This is it in a nutshell. They need a solid long term plan to work to with consistent buying in line with that plan. Multiple managers + multiple plans = short term, expensive buying & no consistency.
 

TheHoddleWaddle

Well-Known Member
Dec 13, 2013
11,289
20,289
This is it in a nutshell. They need a solid long term plan to work to with consistent buying in line with that plan. Multiple managers + multiple plans = short term, expensive buying & no consistency.

If the wages and transfer fees stay as they are, it'll be a victory for football in the long run. It'll force clubs into the way of thinking you have highlighted. Which only benefits younger talent, especially outside the mega rich.

United should take the opportunity to go back to what made them a global success story, by developing their own and only buying the exceptional.
 

nailsy

SC Supporter
Jul 24, 2005
30,536
46,628
It is an interesting point of fact though isn't it. There they were doing sod all for Mourinho and along comes Ole with his ex player reputation and suddenly they are transformed. I admit the sides they played during that period weren't first class opposition but certain individuals looked totally different class to a couple of weeks previously.
Placebo effect ?? whatever it was it's now gone and the board will rue the day they let emotions rule and handed him a long term contract. Why did they do that ? It's not like he was going to go anywhere else....I can only assume it was to appease the frustrated fans .
At the moment he is being forgiven and allowed to make his excuses but once he dips into the transfer market and starts to build "his" squad there will be no hiding place.
Then his inadequacies and lack of experience will be laid bare for all to clearly see.

The only reason I can think of is that they wanted to sort out their transfer plans for the summer. If they waited until the end of the season before appointing someone they have less time to get the deals done and could miss out on key additions.
 

KILLA_SIN

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2008
7,812
14,452
I don't think they will get back to the Glory Days so easily , They were pretty much 3 clubs competing for the top players, Madrid, Barca and R Madrid after the Italian league fell away. Chelsea came along and stirred the pot and added a bit more competition for players, now we have PSG, City, Juve and Munich in the mix. Thats 9 clubs they could realistically be competing for in the summer for the top players. Add Liverpool, Atletico, Dortmund and ourselves just off the top of my head and it gets a bit more competitive.

Now they have the possibility of De Gea, Lukaku, Pogba, Sanchez all leaving for Champions League elsewhere, An inexperienced manager, who probably has little draw so I don' see how they are going to get where they want anytime soon.
 

Styopa

Well-Known Member
Jan 19, 2014
5,136
14,177
During the late 90s and the early 2000s no British side could compete with Man U in the transfer market - OK Wenger managed it at Arsenal with some extremely astute buys but Utd's spending power was unrivaled. The emergence of the superich owners at Chelsea and then Manchester City smashed that hegemony. Man U won the league 8 times in the 10 years prior to Abramovich's take over of Chelsea. They have won it 5 times in the 16 years since and just 3 times in the 11 years since Manchester City were taken over. It has been a gradual decline with a few good years here and there, particularly in the early to mid 2000s when they had Ronaldo and a peak Rooney. But they have found it harder and harder to compete in recent years partly due to what was a perfect storm brewing in the managerial appointments of Pochettino, Klopp and Guardiola - surely 3 of the finest managers in world football - and partly due to some very poorly thought out managerial appointments of their own since Ferguson retired.

I think they need to go back to the drawing board now and think in terms of 3-5 year projects, building themselves up from the ground and not relying on big name signings like Pogba or short term managerial fixes like Mourinho to bring them success. The appointment of Solskjaer may have been partially motivated by this kind of thinking but whether he can really transform the club, or even whether he will be given time to, remains to be seen.
 
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