I have also never appreciated Fletcher. For me he has been a loyal servant to the club but he has never been able to drive the team when the going got tough.
Disagree. From 2008 till 2010/11 he was immense for us - drove the midfield and was the closest we've come to a Keane esque player (nowhere near Keane of course, but a damn sight better than all the other pretenders to that throne). He's lost a fair bit from his peak, but the fact he can still play a role after three years on the sidelines and having part of his bowel removed shows he still has the mentality required. Fat Anderson isn't even fit to lace his boots.
Second highest spenders in Europe behind PSG over the last 18 months and not bought one player fit to play for any of the few top clubs around Europe. Nice Woody.
The test of that useless pratt Woodward will be Di Maria. Can United get their man in the face of competition? United have to show resolve and get him at all costs. If not then we will have all the big European clubs walking all over United in getting their targetted top players ..
Mata wasn't really needed, Herrera took 3 windows to get despite no serious competition and far too much money was spent on Shaw (wages and fee) so it's not exactly brilliant business on the face of it.
People who talk about "good business ", "paying too much money" " paying over the odds" simply do not get it. United need to spend whatever it takes to get their targets. If it means paying 30-40% more, so be it. The days of getting bargains because of the United and ferguson names are over. It is just that Pratt Woodward seems not have realised this yet. I just hope that when he does ( and sure he will) it won't be too late.
Agree. And credit to Liverpool that's what Brendan has done. Is Lallana worth £25 million and Lovren £20 million? Not in my opinion, but he wanted those players and the club delivered. Woodward seems to be penny pinching, and with all of this huff and puff about breaking the world transfer record if needed,it looks to me as if there isn't that much money to spend/or those money sucking w**kers from America won't give you the money so they can pocket the profit. The best thing that can happen to Utd is that someone nukes the Glazer family as I predict, until they are bought out, it's going to be a struggle to get top 4 as they are only interested in sucking every last penny out of the club.
Nicely put. The truth is, if as the OP thinks United are heading for a long period in the doldrums or are even completely ****ed (not happening), then it's the Glazers who will have put us there. 100% undeniably, completely and utterly down to them. ****s.
They'd be better with their eyes facing forwards instead of rotating around like a couple a ballerinas!
I think the problems go deeper than anything the Glazers have done. The whole structure of Utd was based around SAF identifying a few players every summer that he wanted, and the club focusing purely on those players. We get them great, if not then SAF would happily sit back and know he could make do with what he had. Problem is that now we do need to sign players, as whoever we bring in won't be able to do as well with the squad as SAF did. So we can't follow the old model of focusing on specific players and ignoring all others, as we can't afford to miss out on them, like we did last year. We're having to balance the chance of getting a range of different, which no one at executive level really has much experience of. It's a learning curve for the whole club, and we saw the problems it caused last summer when we missed Fabregas and Thiago and then ended up buying Fellaini cos we'd run out of time and needed someone. Hopefully it'll come, but I think we still need a season or two under the same manager to get some form of stability back and move forwards with purpose in the transfer market.
It will take time to stop the rot. Too many players are still fergie's. It is like a squad without a leader.
I think that's bollocks, to be frank. I agree with some but how do you explain that Ferguson completely changed his whole m.o., something he'd sworn by his whole career, as soon as the Glazers walked through the door? All this no value in the market, utter tripe. It was because they starved him of funds. The previous Ferguson would never have let Keane, Giggs, Scholes, Vidic and Ferdinand age and deteriorate before our eyes. He'd have replaced them long in advance. I'll be honest, at the risk of upsetting anyone, to think otherwise is f**king stupid and blind and brainwashed.
I am not going to disagree when I have always said that the GGs bear the major part of the responsibility where we are at the moment. When the likes of Chelsea and City were spending like there was no tomorrow that was the time that United had to watch the pennies. Anyone else but fergie iwe would have won nothing in the last few years. Even when we were winning titles in the last 5 years even the RS were spending more than united. Under ferguson United was winning titles whilst spending like a mid table team. It was high time for the GGs and their henchmen to behave like a top club. Ferguson is no longer around to bail them out.
I agree. Look at the £80 million you had for Ronaldo. Everyone knows that went straight to the bank to pay the interest when it should have been re invested into improving the squad. Just lucky that Giggs and Scholes managed to play at a level for so long, as their ability has dragged Utd through these past couple of seasons.
I can see your point to an extent, but honestly don't see how SAF changed his whole MO after the Glazers. And I don't see the financial constraints he faced having changed massively. Heck, the year before the takeover we lost Robben and Essien because, in the words of the board, the transfer of Rooney took up our budget for two full summer windows.
He was even more constrained after. How can that not be when the debt to be serviced by the club itself was so massive? Every year the interest repayments + the "consultancy fees" (!) to the Glazers could have bought several Ronaldos and Messis.
Since when was that SAF's style? Even before the Glazers United never used to spend money like that..... Yeah they bought big a few times (Rio, Rooney, Veron etc) but they never spent like that.
