2011-2012 final standings 1 Manchester City (C) 38 28 5 5 93 29 +64 89 2 Manchester United 38 28 5 5 89 33 +56 89 3 Arsenal 38 21 7 10 74 49 +25 70 4 Tottenham Hotspur 38 20 9 9 66 41 +25 69 5 Newcastle United 38 19 8 11 56 51 +5 65 6 Chelsea 38 18 10 10 65 46 +19 64 How much did Chelsea spend to finish 6th only 3 years ago??
2011 summer transfer window: £50m. We won Champions League and FA Cup. Would you settle for that for £50m? I would every time
To add my 2 cents worth, I think both United's title win in Fergie's last year AND the 7th place finish last year are both red herrings really. Fergie's title winning side were not a great team by any stretch and won that title by a combination of Fergie's brilliance and RVP's best ever season. Moyes was always going to struggle to emulate that but fell further than anyone expected. Yes LVG took over a team that just finished 7th but the squad he inherited were never as 'bad' as a team that would normally finish that low once you factor in a couple of key signings to replace the outgoing defenders in particular. With the squad he has, consisting of a fair few P.L winners, plus a massive spend, he has to be expected to get top 4 minimum this year; especially when factoring in the inconsistency of other teams such as Liverpool, Everton, Spurs and even Arsenal to a point. Jury's still out I think, but I would have expected a bit more given the lack of European football and early league cup exit and given LVG's credentials. .
I wouldn't quibble with most of this. Only that the team/squad left by SAF/Moyes was not as "bad" as players in any other team but for United without the great man people underestimated how bad or worse they were. One minute they were world class, the next they were absolutely useless.
World class under Moyes, now useless under van Gaal. Don't forget, Moyes turned them from serial winners and sucked all the talent out of them and handed them over as average to van Gaal. Thus van Gaal became bizarrely bombproof from that moment onwards.
This is where I disagree with many here. Were they that good in the first place? My view is that SAF made them ;look better than they were, in playing in a winning team. The likes of Cleverley, Fletcher, Hernandez, et al would they have been outstanding in any other team? Last season, I lost all confience in almost all the players. Yes Moyes wasn't as good as we expected. He was not wholly to blame. For me the players had to take the lion share of the responsbility. Players used to a system and to a manager couldn't do it a different way.
I'm being sarcastic Chris. I agree with you, while the squad had won the league it was on its arse. It needed a major overhaul. That was patently obvious to me. Marouane Fellaini does not constitute a major overhaul when you've just lost Vidic, Ferdinand and Giggs.
You guys are talking absolute sense, makes a refreshing change from UiRs misguided hooey. Perhaps you can explain it to him, because apparantly, in UiR world, your squad is awesome, LvG is the best coach ever and its only because you have injuries that you aren't 30 points clear. And last year was ALL Moyes' fault because he just sucks and he turned the entire squad (which was worldclass) into a **** team. (this is his words not mine) and LvG has made them all super awesome again.
