Let's All Laugh At... let's all laugh at United

[Mr Pink]

I remember people laughing at Vidic and Evra after they'd both made a mess of their first few games. Didn't turn out too badly for them.

I'm skeptical of Martinez as well but you can't conclude that he's not going to make it based on one performance.

Yeah but Vidic and Evra had the foundations of a Phenomenal side around them with the best manager the PL has seen.

This is a shit show they're trying to bed into.

 

[piedpiper]

Poch would not sort them out. He would also be sitting there demanding de Jong atm.

Okay I think with the right structures in place....either way I wouldn't want him there.

 

[arunspurs]

This is B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T (sound on) ?

 

[$hoguN]

It's not comical at all. If you hired a SD and let him get on with it without interference, who has the power to rebuild from the ground up, they could turn it around with the money they had. The SD would need to be very good and get it right though.

This whole structure you talk of, what is it if not the sporting side? It's not the dinner ladies or the accountants at United causing the issues.

It's the owners employing the wrong people. 12 months ago, United should have sacked Ole when it was clear it wasn't working, and appointed Rangnick or Campos and let him get on with it as a SD.

Stupidly, because Ole finished 2nd in the covid season, they gave him another season when it was obvious the guy was out of his depth. That really fucked the club,, and all the decisions since then have been bizarre.

In truth even appointing Ole in the first place was a joke. He was never going to beat the likes of Klopp or Pep to success.

Their owners are clueless, all they had to do is appoint a top quality SD and let them get on with it, but they appoint United yes men like Murtough and Fletcher instead.

They do need new owners, of course, but because their decisions have been so terrible. If they had simply made the right decisions in the first place, they wouldn't be where they are.

No sporting director can operate without interference. At the end of the day people need to do the negotiation, sign the cheques etc. There are always limits. It’s fantasy to think that any sporting director has free reign

 

[Ribble]

They’ve got even better than that. They’ve got Darren Fletcher as performance director, and Steve McLaren as his assistant.

? Fletcher in before the end of the season, then! ?

 

[rossdapep]

This says it all. They needed a revolution and instead the owners and manager decided a couple of new signings from the Dutch league would suffice.

You wonder how much of it has been ETH telling them what they want to hear. He may have come in and said “don’t worry I’ll get the best out of the current squad.” The fact that they have completely ignored Rangnick’s quote above is hilarious. He was spot on. They needed wholesale changes this summer and it hasn’t happened.

ETH has been there since May too. They’ve had the whole summer to get ready.

I’m loving it because large swathes of young people in the 90s chose United because they are glory hunters and now they’ve got to suffer through their mediocre years.

What a complete waste of time that was everybody.
The whole purpose of getting Rangnick in was so that he could evaluate and then advise them on a way forward, then help oversee that.
It felt like he'd been there after 2 months and they decided they wanted him out.

I actually think Ten Hag was contacted about the role but told the heads at United he didn't want someone like Rangnick around, so they stopped listening to him.

I was told by someone (via Rangnicks's business partner) that he was really not happy there and that was as early as March. Which sounded like he knew he wasn't been listened to at all.

Rangnick gets a lot of shit from football fans but if they had allowed him to give the club an overhaul, and bring in his own kind of coach/players, they'd be on a better path because they would certainly have direction.

 

[Aphex]

No sporting director can operate without interference. At the end of the day people need to do the negotiation, sign the cheques etc. There are always limits. It’s fantasy to think that any sporting director has free reign

I didn’t say there would be no interference and free reign. What I’m saying is the owners have appointed clueless people to run the club, if they had appointed a proper DOF and let them get on with appointing a manager and then supporting that manager they’d be much better off, they’d have a strategy and direction. It’s not hard to understand what I’m saying.

 

[$hoguN]

I didn’t say there would be no interference and free reign. What I’m saying is the owners have appointed clueless people to run the club, if they had appointed a proper DOF and let them get on with appointing a manager and then supporting that manager they’d be much better off, they’d have a strategy and direction. It’s not hard to understand what I’m saying.

it’s not about a sporting director. The owners want marquee signings as they are looking for profits and commercial deals. They have appointed execs with that remit. The recruitment strategy is driven by the desire of the owners so no Sporting Director is going to get what you are talking about. Basically the problems for Utd stem from the owners down and that’s why sporting directors are irrelevant. Rangnick told them the hard truths and he was moved on.

What you are advocating is a total change in the owner’s model and wishes.

to get the change required the owners need to change their model, appoint people who can deliver on it. Let them find a DoF or whatever. Basically my point is that you have hugely undersold the problem

 

[Ruffinthepuffin]

Marko Arnautović and Rabiot.

Absolutely banter club at the moment. ??

 

[fb9]

Can you imagine what the likes of Haaland, Nunez, Kane, Antonio and Mitrovic will do to Martinez. On the floor or in the air it doesn't matter. Even their left back is tiny. Imagine the pair of them in a back 4. Just mental business from them. Love to see it. Coys

 

[Hakkz]

Okay I think with the right structures in place....either way I wouldn't want him there.

I don't think they will ever have the right structures in place. I also think personally that the more reign Poch gets, the worse he does because he's shit at scouting players.

 

[A Bit Much]

Having seen us go from meltdown to being competent it can be done in a fairly quick time, but you need to be brutal and pick the correct players.

If man United got rid of Maguire for a top class CB, got a proper cm in and a striker they'd be looking much better. Not to say a title challenge but a decent side. As it stands though, they've struggled massively.

Another thing to keep in mind is that players go there and become worse. Sancho was one of the most exciting young players in Europe and he's been so poor at United.

 

[Adam456]

They seem to be in a bit of a catch 22 scenario. They need a manager who will start from scratch and build the team up, which will take years but the media/fans etc all expect instant success. Yet if they get the kind of manager who could do that sort of thing (Conte type) then their squad isn’t good enough. Seems the obvious answer is to let a project fully play out but they don’t seem keen to wait for that. They’re sort of in the same boat as Barca… just with less extortion ?

There are another 4 pages I haven't read so apologies if I repeat anything anybody else has said.

I am absolutely loving the shitshow going on up there. Long may it continue. And it seems poetic justice for the first (and biggest) club to sell out to American owners who, IMO, treat football like mainstream Hollywood film:

Buy a franchise, assemble a cast of famous characters, promote like crazy and pump the revenue wherever it can be found, regardless of whether the end product is actually any good

So this makes me laugh. A lot. And often.

That said, we have been in this situation a lot of times. A number of stars, apparently thin and unbalanced squad. Then in comes a new manager and suddenly we win games and players everybody agreed were shit start playing really wel again. Suddenly we don't need a major overhaul any more. We need 4 or 5 players

Say what you want about their owners but they have definitely backed their managers financially.

It's just the chopping and changing and the managers who arrive of course are not going to say no to star strikers etc.

They get the right guy in with a strong mind and he will decide what positions really need strengthening and they will probably back him. Then suddenly half of their players will suddenly be good enough again.

As many have said, they needed a Conté and thank eff they didn't get him

 

[JeremyPaxton]

Another thing to keep in mind is that players go there and become worse. Sancho was one of the most exciting young players in Europe and he's been so poor at United.

This is the bit I find hard to understand. It's happened a few times where they've bought hot talent and just made them worse:
Sancho: £75m,
Wan-Bissaka: £50m
Van de Beek - £40m

 

[Pekoni]

This is the bit I find hard to understand. It's happened a few times where they've bought hot talent and just made them worse:
Sancho: £75m,
Wan-Bissaka: £50m
Van de Beek - £40m

it’s interesting how players that go there turn to shit eventually. I think the last player, who didn’t start regressing instantly was Bruno, and even he’s shit now.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Its incredible how badly run that football club is from a football perspective. Its like the owners want to fail again and again. They should be pushing for titles and the only title they are winning is the bantz league.

 

[rossdapep]

This is the bit I find hard to understand. It's happened a few times where they've bought hot talent and just made them worse:
Sancho: £75m,
Wan-Bissaka: £50m
Van de Beek - £40m

It's as if these players were actually overhyped.

I was on holiday a couple of years back with my brother and some of his friends, all United fans, and all they would talk about was the Sancho signing how they were "putting another bid in".

As we know, they didn't get him that summer and ended up spending 75m on him. All that waiting and money yet he doesn't look anywhere close to the level required yet.

A classic case of their fans getting caught up in big money signings with names. I think that's the mistake they've repeatedly been making. 'Names' and 'big fees' as if that is that is a strategy for success.

Most of these players have had either question marks about 'where they will fit in at United', needed to adapt to PL or they only had one good season behind them elsewhere.

I can't recall the last time I looked at a United signing and thought "Yeah, that's a smart signing". It's either been "I think they overpaid" or "Can they live up to the hype?"

 

[Aphex]

Having seen us go from meltdown to being competent it can be done in a fairly quick time, but you need to be brutal and pick the correct players.

If man United got rid of Maguire for a top class CB, got a proper cm in and a striker they'd be looking much better. Not to say a title challenge but a decent side. As it stands though, they've struggled massively.

Another thing to keep in mind is that players go there and become worse. Sancho was one of the most exciting young players in Europe and he's been so poor at United.

The difference is we had two of the best attackers in world football in their prime, and that is the hardest part of the pitch to find elite players. All we had to do is sort the defence and midfield out, which sounds simpler than it is of course, but it's true. United don't have a single elite attacker, Ronaldo barely qualifies now because at his age he is a maverick who just doesn't fit a system.

The main thing is we hired FP and thankfully managed to tempt Conte. But you can't underestimate Son and Kane, Conte doesn't come here without them, I am sure of it. Now we've also got lucky with Kulu, somehow we just signed the next KDB to complete the trio.

Good times to be a Spurs fan, tough shit United.

 

[barry]

Twitter can be so kind

 

[barry]

And another