Correct, the ship sailed a long time ago (the summer we qualified for the CL and didn't invest), we've just been surviving on buoyancy for a few years now
You're right DL it isn't Poch because he wasn't the right man for the job anyway. But this can be put right.
Maybe in another era but this league is piss poor. There's not a chance you'll be dragged in this season.
I felt Hoddle or somebody with Spurs connections was the right way to go. Not a fan of Hoddle as a manager but he gets the club and there's not a chance any of the players would be able to get away with consistently underperforming.
Hoddle had his chance and failed, what's he done since? Totally the wrong choice. Was he better than Graham? No.
Yesterday really was a shambles, even though we've suffered some horrendous defeats in recent seasons, I think that performance was arguably the worst I've seen. I must admit even I'm beginning to lose faith in a lot of these players now, we've had guys here long enough now to have made some form of positive contribution and too many are just still continuing to under perform, 3 managers in 18 months and none of them have been able to get the best out of the group on a consistent basis, it's no longer the managers fault and I've realised I was probably way too hasty on the other two guys and felt it was easy to blame them for the poor form (although they did make questionable decisions). We have a group of players where the majority couldn't give a toss about the form and results, as long as they get their comfy pay checks they go home happy. We are so mentally weak it's awful to watch and it hurts knowing we're becoming a laughing stock of the league. Only a few players left with a bit of dignity yesterday - Chadli, Mason, Kane and Rose, Chadli again was nearly the reason we were able to salvage something from a dire performance with his fantastic goal, Kane and Mason worked hard albeit with no real substance but I can appreciate if a player is working hard and Rose, despite an average performance played on with what seemed a bad injury, I'm not sure if the TV Cameras showed it but around 80 minutes, Rose went down, it was hard to see what the problem was but Kaboul had the ball and was about to play it out, Rose told him to play on and not worry about him, I think he didn't want any possible Spurs momentum to be halted with a stoppage, he then managed to pick himself up and go down the wing a number of times trying to help the team find an equaliser and as soon as the match had finished, he fell to the floor and I'm pretty sure the medical team rushed to him with a stretcher but I was walking down the stairs so couldn't pay much attention, I hope he's ok. With those guys aside, the rest of the team should be ashamed of themselves, Naughton was poor, Kaboul and Fazio were horrendous, Kaboul's time is up in my opinion and I think Fazio has arguably had one of the worst starts to a player's career at a new club, 2 red cards and hasn't looked great in his performances against good opposition, Capoue was s**t again, after a good start to the season he's completely faded, Eriksen has been well below par, must pick up his form, Lamela contributed nothing bar one good freekick and then silly fancy shuffles that either led to a misplaced pass or being tackled, Dembele done what Dembele does, takes on a guy then plays a sidewards pass, Townsend was ineffective and Adebayor added jack when coming on. Something needs be sorted and quick, otherwise we'll be in for a terrible, terrible season.
Rose went down because he was kneed in the chest by N'Zonzi, SoS. Had to have oxygen, but he's supposedly ok.
Ah right cheers PNP, I thought I heard someone in the crowd on the way out mention something about oxygen but I wasn't paying too much attention.
Our system seemed to be working well when we had Capoue and Bentaleb in the middle of the park - but since Bentaleb got injured it's not worked at all, which means if our system doesn't work without Bentaleb in it then our system doesn't work. It seems that every few years we make the same mistake of putting together a midfield that gets easily bullied by the physical teams and/or easily bypassed by the pacy or crafty teams, the last example being the period where we had the pairing of Zokora and Jenas in midfield, a pairing that struck fear into the hearts of our back four and our fans, but certainly not the opposition.
The awful thing for us is that United have a manager in Van Gaal who has the presence required to tell the board, the players, tell anyone really what he wants done to sort United out, and they'll do it. He can tell the world Luke Shaw is unfit and put him on a personal fitness program, he can drop Mata whenever he wants, he can say the training ground was too windy even though Fergie never seemed to complain. Moyes could never have done these things without the club tearing itself apart from the inside. People in the media can question LVG but I bet he has the backing of everyone at United, from the chairman to the cleaners, because of his record and reputation in the game. We can only watch this rebuild while we have a man who may well want to make high profile changes/omissions/sales as well, but is hamstrung by being a lesser name and having a chairman who has a history of NOT backing managers when they want significant change (as this usually requires signifiant investment), and seems to only be interested in maintaining the success of the club from the point of view of maintaining profit, rather than success being for silverware and the fans. Maybe Pochettino doesn't even have the strength of will to force these changes.
Spot on Huddle. Pochettino is too lightweight and is no match for the top coaches in the PL, FDB on the other hand is.
I can have no faith in a manager who makes our worst defender 'un droppable' by making him captain. As a unit, our defence is a shambles, and the lack of quality in the midlfield and attacking thirds is there for all to see.
What makes you think that De Boer would have the necessary backbone, if you will, to succeed where Pochettino is (so far) appearing to fail? I know he has won titles in the Dutch league and is a bigger name than the Argentinian but I think the problem would be the same - that the very players that Levy/Baldini thinks to be the solution may be in some cases the cause of the problems, and anyone who expresses that view to Levy gets canned. Levy wants a yes man, who will muddle along with the players that he has chosen for the fans to support. If the manager looks in danger of dropping too far down the league (and thus endangering the club as a business) then Levy will sack and look for another minion without an opinion. Sometimes we get a success, a trophy or a top 4 finish when the stars align, otherwise we get near non-existent net spends and raising ticket prices. I believe that Pochettino wants to make significant changes to the squad (in terms of numbers and in terms of big names leaving) and I can't think that De Boer wouldn't want to either because regardless of the off pitch problems clearly all is not well on it either. I don't think Levy would listen to either of them though. He'd listen to a Van Gaal, or a Mourinho, but we tried to get one of them and the inevitable happened - along came a bigger club.
Worryingly Kaboul is not our worst defender. Fazio and Vlad look even worse than Kaboul (who has hardly covered himself in glory this season). Which really begs the question who is putting this squad together. After a poor season last year, we have essentially bought a back up goalkeeper, left back, centre back, defensive midfielder and a twenty year old centre half (who has been playing right back). We've just added more average players to a squad that was average last season. I see Comolli has been talking today about our lack of a scouting system. In almost every respect the club has lost its way over the last couple of years.
Why would any manager come to us...unless he is allowed to chose his own signings he will be as screwed as the previous managers we have chewed up and spat out
Fazio ,Vlad and Kaboul should be sold,we will still have 3 C/B's to choose from until we get better replacements/
Then he chooses his own signings colin, he STIPULATES it before he starts. Besides, I think he'd be successful.
