Transfer Rumours Let's ignore the big ****ing elephant and blame the latest manager, again. Are we nearly there yet?

Ronnie he can still play there no problem

 

Let's assume that Ole deserved to leave and that it was time for a new man. Yet what cannot be ignored is the 3rd and the 2nd placings in the league. Many dismissed that as nothing as if it happened by chance. Achieved by someone "not qualified for the job". But now with a better squad the new manager i presume you think "highly qualified" will be highly praised as a messiah if he scraped into 4th.

While I am not saying we should have kept the previous manager, the question of the appropriate replacement which some of us raised was very pertinent. We kissed many frogs before we found Fergie. I am afraid we'll be kissing a hell of a number of frogs from now on.

 

No one was immediatley avalable, Rangnick is the interim manager.

He won't be made permanent.

The only other viable option was keep Solskjaer, and that would also have been the wrong call.

He should have gone when we failed to win the EL, I know it and you know it, we all know it.

The Solskjaer ship has sailed.

 

I only mentioned ole in response to the previous post. I was of course one of those who in the end called for him to leave too as his position became untenable. I do realise that Rangnick is interim but the way the team is playing, with a system that seems to ignore the players strengths is actually regressive. He was viewed as a man who could change the culture as well as the mindset. I’m afraid we’ll be out of Europe this season for us to do a complete reboot with a brand new manager.

 

I completely agree that what he's trying to do is, on the face of it, wrong, and that any future manager will just start again anyway.

Hopefully the penny drops. He's not utilising our players in their best positions or formation, at all. It's pretty plain to see. Go back to a 4 3 3 and coach pressing in that formation, not this other nonesense.

Interesting that apparently he's bringing back Mike Phelan to restore some dressing room harmony.

 

Did he leave at all? I've seen Phelan on the touchline in recent games so not sure where this story in the papers has come from.

I think we can all agree Rangnick's having a mare. If he persists with his formation, the player selection and the performance/results don't improve, then we can also agree the board fcked up in its appointment.

We're at home to Villa in the Cup on Monday. They're playing well and it'll be a tough test for us as a team no doubt. Really would prefer not to get knocked out by the prick in charge of their club thanks.

 

My problem is that you keep bringing Ole into the conversation both directly and indirectly. You’re mentioning that he came 2nd and 3rd, blah blah blah. But you’re forgetting that we completely botched our leading position in the league last year. Further, it was clear that the players were no longer improving after his first year. To round this up, Ole’s long tenure has had detrimental effect on the team because there simply was no vision of what Ole himself wanted. Lots of money and talents wasted along the way as well.

To rehash my original point on your resolute rebuttal, I find it fascinating that you had been calling for Rangnick’s head only after day 26 on the job which openly demonstrates your absurd bias that you kept at bay for so long in support for Ole while forgetting that Rangnick is an interim manager.

What do I think of Rangnick?
On evidence of what I’ve seen so far, is Rangnick the right man to start as manager next season? I would say that he absolutely isn’t. He has more or less served up what Ole did with formation, etc. He needed to disrupt this team, but he hasn’t done so. He needed to inject new blood into the midfield, but persistently played it save which is stupid given there’s not much to lose at this point.

Could he turn it around? Perhaps he could as I believe he has what it takes to at least get the team playing with at least some sort of cohesion. But only if he disrupts the current setup.

 

Yeh it's a bit pointless quoting finishing 2nd last season, as he's largely responsible for us being 7th now. Which means you can't blame not being 2nd this season on Rangnick.

 

That’s exactly the point. The general consensus is that the club has achieved nothing since Sir Alex left. But I guess bragging about league position without actually winning it is succumbing to the low level mentality that we now live. That it is okay to give up the league from a leading position toward the end of December and have your biggest rival win it by March so long as we come second. The real story is one of collateral collapse that continued into this season.

 

This is ridiculous misinterpretation. No one was bragging about our previous positions. I was only pointing it out in the context of our current struggle. It is natural that some of us ignore the positives when they don’t like the manager. ANY decent manager would be able to do better with this marvellous squad it has been written here over the last 2-3 years? This is plainly poppycock. Managing Utd is and always be a Herculean task that only a few men could potentially pull it off.

One thing we can all agree is that Rangnick is not the man we’ve been looking for. He’s interim so that’s fine but the earlier we get a decent permanent manager the better.

 

I disagree that managing Manchester United is somehow an impossible task because United is somehow an institution that is cut above the rest and nothing else compares. I have no doubt that the major contributing factor to the challenge is terrible decision making by the club; and my god, we have made tons of them in the last decade. If the board can become more methodical in the way they manage football affairs, along with providing resources to the right manager, there is no reason to suggest that Manchester United is any more unique than the next club of its calibre.

 

You are giving possible reasons for the difficulties. Not disagreeing with you. Once these factors are sorted we MAY see light at the end of tunnel. But the facts are clear that none of the managers appointed so far has had any measure of success. The task has been beyond them. Whether the likes of Pochetino or Ten Hag will do any better I am no longer sure.

 

I don't know if ppl were saying that ANY decent manager would do better with this squad. But there are managers out there who are better than Ole and capable of achieving more. That's just a simple fact unless ppl genuinely believe that Ole's the best there is.

Just because Rangnick may not be that manager doesn't change that. None of us were saying, just appoint anyone. We wanted someone better than the previous guy. The idea there isn't one out there is clearly nonsense.

 

I'd say at this current time there are three candidates; Poch, Rodgers, Ten Haag.

Who would you prefer?

There are clear pro's and con's to all three but my personally hit the ground running choice would be Pochettino. It's a clear career progression for him and I assume the 'never won a trophy' monkey will be off his back by the end of this season.

 

Poch is the preferred option for me. I think he'd suit our style.

Marca reporting today Zidane to replace Poch in the summer so looks like this may all already be in place.

 

I'd agree that it's the favourite situation, no brainer really.

Rodgers I am very wary of, and Ten Haag can wait.

I think Poch would work with the younger players a treat. He's not a magician though, so we still need to buy a proper top class centre midfilder, to play alongside (hopefully) DVDB.

Rice still the big target but I think Bissouma looks a top prospect.

 

As fas as signings go, I think we should forget the idea this window and have Rangnick concentrate on getting rid of some players.

Pogba and Martial need to leave, as a starter for ten.

I'd be looking at off loading Lingard, Shaw, Bailly and Lindelof as well, although the last three probably in summer. And if Ronny doesn't want to stick around next season, so be it.

 

Shaw, Bailly? Wow I'm surprised you want them gone tbh, even in the summer. If that's the case then we will be needing at least another CB (or 2 depending on Varane's injury problems) and another first choice LB as I don't see Telles being it.

We'd be looking at 3/4 major signings including the CM.

 

I don't know why we need another centre back, we'd still have Maguire, Varane, Jones and Mengi and Tuanzebe can come back. I also see McTominay as moving back there as he's just not good enough as a fulcrum CM. Especially if we do get Rice (for instance) on board.

The ones we bought; Bailly, Lindelof etc. have been found wanting, time to give the youngsters who we actually dveloped a proper chance.

Shaw is an arse. He's got time to turn it round, but his attitude has stunk this season. We can bring Brandon Williams back to support Telles.

We are also looking at Julian Alvarez, maybe even this month. He'd be long term replacement for Cavani and Ronaldo, alongside Greenwood.

So, two major signings needed, not 3 or 4.

 

I also think AWB can play right hand side of a back three with wing backs.

I like Lindelof but he's very lightweight for a centre half. There was loose talk of him and McTom switching positions, no idea if that's a goer but it'll all be down to the new manager obviously.

Throwing cash at marquee signings isn't the way to go this window, and it needs to be kept to a minimum next.



Stickied by the way.