Chicken Panini Nice! Good choice, Yes Thanks Genuinely. I'll get him in the Rematch! Yes Thanks, the New Catalogue will be out in June, January in Liverpool.
OK. This is a very bad patch. The worst in the last 25 years. The only uncertainty is how long this period will last. Some are overoptimistic and say we are now climbing up the hill again to reach the top. I think we haven't reached the bottom yet as it takes a long time to turn round such a massive club run in a specific way for decades. Everyone especially players have been used to a certain of thinking and playing. When things go bad the worse thing is the element of uncertainty and panic. Players reach a point where there are more afraid to play at OT than away. This state will give a boost to the opposition. Instead of coming to OT afraid of getting whipped and getting a thrashing, they now feel confident of getting at least a point. It is a double whammy. It will take time to make people scared again to come to OT. But provided the GGs are on board to spend, and I do mean spending way over the odds for the players United want (at least 30-40% extra for the desperation and no CL factors), it will be a matter of when and not if the recovery begins. It will probably be another season in doldrums for United but I am hoping I am wrong here.
Totally agree here. The rammifications of another season outside of the CL, financially speaking, would be catastrophic, not only do you lose out again on the TV money and potential prize money, but I believe your shirt sponsorship deal total drops by like a third if you dont get in to the CL. So we are talking potentially tens of millions (maybe even close to 100m) you will miss out on next season if you dont get top 4. Plus there is glory hunter crowd, and sorry to say this, but any team who have been as successful as United in the last 20 years are going to have a large section of glory hunters globally following them and parting with their cash for United merchandise, another season of mediocrity could see your turnover drop considerably as that fickle crowd start donning City and Chelsea shirts. Surely the money men at United can see that parting with a huge sum of cash now to ensure this doesnt happen makes sense. Or they could play it cheap and risk losing A LOT MORE.
Not sure that should ever be seen as a bad thing for a club to have TBH. Sure, its quite common to take the piss out of glory fans but all clubs actually want to have them too as it means you're being successful, plus it generates more income too.
You can spunk over how many "fans" your club has, how much money the board can receive through merchandising efforts etc, but it's the 11 on the pitch that actually dictates where your club is in the pecking order, and quite frankly Man United are currently a shambolic horror-show of their former selves. Too many average players bought over the last few years of Sir Alex's tenure, the nucleus of the squad that was good is now old, and the other teams are getting better. It's all part of the natural order of dominance, decline etc in sport. Fortunately, however, with so much money exploding into the game, off-the field superpowers have the chance to turn it around on the pitch, BUT, it's going to be incredibly expensive. To attract great players, great players who want Champions League football and trophies, you'll need to pay them more money to come to a club not offering either right now. Once you pay these players more money, everyone else wants more money, including the average players. It's a snowball effect situation that could potentially gazump the club if the board and management aren't careful. Still, they've got enough world class players to finish 6th or so at the moment.
Still time to put things right. If the GGs spend the huge amount needed (I said £300m before the Mata buy) and the patience required then I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some one said that United was currently like an ordinary team. I wish it was. An ordinary team will not play like the ball had 1000 tons of TNT in it. An ordinary team will not have the huge burden of expectations on it.
Aye thats my point. These people are the reason United's turnover is so big. There are far more glory hunters than there are hardcore fans. So like it or not, thats where the cash is coming from. If they continue to be ****e on the pitch, then a lot of these fans will look elsewhere, and Uniteds turnover will drop.
I was surprised at the amount of empty seats before final whistle, win or lose I'd have thought they'd have stayed yesterday.
Why? Are we going somewhere? Weve played one game. Arsenal lost theirs last season, city lost theirs a few years back and won the title..
And we won ours 4-1 last season. Can't deny we've got some serious problems, but if I had a quid for everyone who'd predicted the end of Utd over the past two decades I'd probably have enough time on my hands to bother writing a response the size of the OP!
So I hear LVG broke 2 recent records yesterday - Technically speaking you could make that 3 records as he beat Moyes to breaking 2 records Like Moyes I don't think LVG has a clue who his best players are, injured or not. I'm pretty certain he thought he'd be walking into a squad with better players than he has. The main men clearly need to get spending - you need at least 100mil spent before the window closes, because January is a long way off. But will you spend? Or is Woodwood and the Glazers on some mad self destruct mission? I genuinely feel sorry for the state you've ended up in.... Like **** do i
People who have not been to the far east have no idea how massive the club is. Even when United had a **** season, you would have thought that the support (being "glory hunters" as some have said) would drop. NO they actually grew. The intensity of that support is just incredible. United has the biggest global following of any team in any sport and I am astounded that it has nothing to do with the success or failure on the pitch.
First home loss on the opening day of the season since 1972. First time Swansea have beaten you in the league (not sure if that's just old trafford or not?)
"Mind you I've been here during the bad times too - one year we came second." - Bob Paisley **** quote from a **** overrated manager posted by a deluded RS asshole .
That loyalty has never been put to the test though Christian. Until last season United had never had a "**** season" in the PL era. Like I said earlier, even during the Djemba Djemba/Kleberson days, SAF's Uniteds idea of a "**** season" was finishing 3rd and winning a domestic trophy. Trust me, if you stop winning **** for a long time, the support will wane. You think some Asian dude has any sort of emotional or geographical connection to your club? They support your club because they win stuff, pure and simple.
