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

[Christiansmith]

Can you imagine if he stays?

He accepts whatever stupid offer Woodward left behind as his 'legacy' and then the whole shebang starts up again, with players wanting the same and not being happy because he's essentially paid to dance on Instargarm

The biggest risk to us next season is Pogba staying.

It would be disaster. This would be his last big contract and he would coast even more. Goodness knows how much was offered to stop him leaving on a free. The question is does he wish to leave so much that he will take a 50% (at least) pay cut?

He’s a talented player no doubt but he doesn’t pull his weight. His defensive work is practically non existent. We should pray he ****s off.

 

[cytrax]

It would be disaster. This would be his last big contract and he would coast even more. Goodness knows how much was offered to stop him leaving on a free. The question is does he wish to leave so much that he will take a 50% (at least) pay cut?

He’s a talented player no doubt but he doesn’t pull his weight. His defensive work is practically non existent. We should pray he ****s off.

Of course he isn’t willing to take 50% pay cut. I imagine that he never saw this coming. He was counting on a strong payday. But he’s been so bad that no one is willing to take a risk on him even on a free transfer workout a pay cut.

This episode really demonstrates how dysfunctional this club has been. Offer a player that exists on hype and hope insane amounts of money to stay when no one else is stupid enough to put in an offer for him. Epitome of what has gone wrong at the club. Pure madness!

 

[Treble]

“Indeed, La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed Pogba will be offered an annual wage of £6.3m (€7.5m) by Juventus. Add-ons would take the sum over £9m-per-year (roughly £170,000-a-week).

That is far below the reported £350,000-per-week Pogba currently pockets in Manchester, though Juventus’ desire to secure his signature was made evident last week.”

He’s running out of options. Amazing that we offered him new contract last year and he turned it down.

I posted back in the summer of 2020 when there was all this talk of him leaving and the whoring in the press by Raiola, that NOT ONE club came in for him. I was expecting there to be a summer of will he wont he with some club putting in a bid and him/his agent pushing for a move. But...not one. That spoke volumes.

 

[Christiansmith]

Just read about United interested in signing Ngolo Kante. Probably one of those gossip stories planted by his agents to increase his renewal contract with Chelsea. If there is a grain of truth that Ten Haag might be interested, then I’m rather equivocal on this. He is 31 and has already given his best years to Leicester and Chelsea and I’m not sure how much he can contribute except as a squad member. In his role coming off the bench or playing off the bench is not ideal. And I must admit that I’ve never seen him as a great midfielder although many pundits think that his strength is very much understated.

 

[Chief]

My son told me about this yesterday, he seems to pic up on gossip from somewhere or other. Constantly on Youtube is why probably.

I agree, it's too late. He's still a decent player but then so was Matic when he signed for us and that didn't plast long.

We need to look to younger for this role. Rice, Bissouma, Phillips, all at their prime.

 

[cytrax]

What is up with this story of Darwin Nunez allegedly rejecting a move because of Champions League football. If the story is true, I’d rather have a player that understands why he wants to join this club. Talking about what he wants “next season” is particularly short sighted.

What I suspect is that players will be afraid to join because of the extreme negativity around players coming in and getting worse. I should hope that era is over with solid coaching and structural planning.

As for recruiting, we need to be laser focused on players that are desperate to play for the club using mix of youth in the ranks and strategically acquired new players. We have to negotiate better up front to stop being the butt of gossip jokes with rejection stories.

 

[Christiansmith]

What is up with this story of Darwin Nunez allegedly rejecting a move because of Champions League football. If the story is true, I’d rather have a player that understands why he wants to join this club. Talking about what he wants “next season” is particularly short sighted.

What I suspect is that players will be afraid to join because of the extreme negativity around players coming in and getting worse. I should hope that era is over with solid coaching and structural planning.

As for recruiting, we need to be laser focused on players that are desperate to play for the club using mix of youth in the ranks and strategically acquired new players. We have to negotiate better up front to stop being the butt of gossip jokes with rejection stories.

Yep. The strategy of buying the expensive star players that become available has not worked. We’ve had the DiMaria Falcao et al who flopped very badly. Because they didn’t fit in seamlessly. They had to be shoehorned and roles had to be identified for them. Whereas the top successful clubs identified the areas that needed strengthening and then the best players that would fit in and do the job. We need players not at their peak therefore on the way down but on the way up and who will reach their peak with us. Hungry players who want to get better with this team.

 

[Christiansmith]

Rangnick has admitted in the media yesterday that his own performance as a manager has been very poor. The lack of team spirit was due to him to a large extent. He’s made many mistakes.

He said CR was not the “pressing monster” he had believed (some of us could have told him that at the outset) and that had he realised earlier he wouldn’t have persisted with a system that wasn’t suited to the players we had.

Some of us had identified how **** he was quite early.

 

[Treble]

And yet failed to identify how shockingly **** Ole was until it was too late

I know which was the bigger call.

 

[Christiansmith]

And yet failed to identify how shockingly **** Ole was until it was too late

I know which was the bigger call.

Yes. He was NOT **** enough to get an awful team into 2nd and 3rd. Rangnick was so **** that he destroyed team spirit in a “great squad” by his own admission and only escaped the conference by a whisker

 

[Treble]

Yes. He was NOT **** enough to get an awful team into 2nd and 3rd. Rangnick was so **** that he destroyed team spirit on his admission and only escaped the conference by a whisker

Errrrrm... we wouldn't have needed Rangnick if Ole hadn't been an unmitigated disaster

It's embarrassing that you actually feel you're right about something in order to cover up the fact you were so catastrophically wrong about Ole

To the point you've been wishing United failed... almost revelled in it, since Rangnick came in. What a supporter

 

[Christiansmith]

Not at all. Ole was not good enough but 2nd and 3rd were not unmitigated disasters. Ole got sacked at the right time.

Of course I wanted Utd to recover and wanted us to go for the CL places whilst others had given up. I really wasn’t expecting this interim to be so **** as a manager.
No matter who is manager I’ve NEVER wanted Utd to lose in more than 50 years of supporting this club so **** off. You are just a ****ing despicable glory hunter.

 

[Christiansmith]

Congratulations to City for their new title (through gritted teeth). The biggest of the lot despite the RS pretending it’s the champions league. The real treble (Title, FA cup and champions league) will stay unique to one team for another season. Now we have RS fans saying that their cup double is better than the title. Not only ******ed but deluded

 

[Chief]

Not at all. Ole was not good enough but 2nd and 3rd were not unmitigated disasters. Ole got sacked at the right time.

Of course I wanted Utd to recover and wanted us to go for the CL places whilst others had given up. I really wasn’t expecting this interim to be so **** as a manager.
No matter who is manager I’ve NEVER wanted Utd to lose in more than 50 years of supporting this club so **** off. You are just a ****ing despicable glory hunter.

Don't agree with that bit. He should have been sacked for failing to win the europa league.
Unfortunately, we were becoming the new Arsenal, where champions league qualification is deemed a trophy so he stayed put.

He also more or less gave up on winning the league too, actually quit while we were ahead.

I really don't get why it's only me noticed this? Saying we're not good enough to win the league when being in first place going into the new year ffs! Just gave his team a free pass.

Absolutely utter piss poor Mikey Mouse management right there. If I were in charge at United, he's sacked for that. Everyone had the knives out for Moyes when he was coming out with similar ****e but because Ole is an ex player and frightfully nice he gets away with it.

 

[Treble]

Rangnick has literally nothing to do with the problems at United. It's mindboggling that someone would think so.

The past 6 months are not why we are where we are.

 

[Christiansmith]

Don't agree with that bit. He should have been sacked for failing to win the europa league.
Unfortunately, we were becoming the new Arsenal, where champions league qualification is deemed a trophy so he stayed put.

He also more or less gave up on winning the league too, actually quit while we were ahead.

I really don't get why it's only me noticed this? Saying we're not good enough to win the league when being in first place going into the new year ffs! Just gave his team a free pass.

Absolutely utter piss poor Mikey Mouse management right there. If I were in charge at United, he's sacked for that. Everyone had the knives out for Moyes when he was coming out with similar ****e but because Ole is an ex player and frightfully nice he gets away with it.

I always said the owners wouldn’t sack a manager who provided them with the golden goose I.e a lucrative CL place. Failing to win the Europa with nothing riding on it apart from a trophy wasn’t going to shake the GGs. Even though for many the loss of the Europa was completely avoidable and wouldn’t have happened with a good manager. Us calling him to be sacked at that time was utterly pointless as he was not only not sacked but given a new huge contract. Eventually he was sacked by the owners when the CL was at risk. No doubt they employed Rangnick to salvage the CL place. It was one of his key objectives if not the main one. And he failed and he admitted responsibility. The players played their role too as I said many times.

Yes, I agree the last six months is not why we are here but looking at the way it panned out it would not have needed a genius manager to retrieve a top 4 place.

The season is at last over. Some here have said they couldn’t wait. Neither could I. New season, new manager. Hopefully new structure. Hope springs eternal.

 

[Treble]

Thank fck it is over.

Not bcos of the season we've had, but because NOW Ten Hag is officially in charge and we can set a new direction and that has to start tomorrow.

I hope there's a plan here, and someone's been doing their homework leading up to this day, I really do. We'll know soon enough. If we're still scratching our balls come August, like we've done every year for the past 9 years then heaven help us.

 

[Christiansmith]

How many seasons do we give a new manager? That is a reasonable question as we have a new season looming. And how do we assess progress or improvement? Not as straightforward as it seems. Most other fans use the league rankings or matches won or lost. Trophies? Cups are really luck. At Utd, some here dismissed the league rankings under the previous manager.

Mikel Arteta has after 31/2 - 4 years in the job, not taken his club into the CL even once. Given the opportunity this season he didn’t take it. The best ranking he’s achieved is 5th. Yet he’s been given a new huge contract (remind you of someone?) and some of their fans are saying he’s improved the team. From 8th to 5th.

For us, I’m going to set a low threshold for next season. As long as we improve team spirit and give 100% on the pitch without capitulating at the first set back, I’ll see that as a step forward. The suitability of the players coming in is another.

 

[Treble]

I'll make it simple.

It's ALL about the performance on the pitch. If we finish top 4 playing turgid thick pea soup we've made zero progress.

You can tell when a team is heading in the right direction under a manager.

There is a football identity.

A style of play that all the players are responding to.

Players are brought in specifically to suit that identity and the style of play, NOT because they happen to be marquee signings

Players can clearly be seen to be improving under the manager <---- something that hasn't happened in 9 years.

Specific areas of our play are proving successful, whether that's in defence, attack and/or midfield.

The only thing I'd like to see in terms of results, is that we become solid at home again. A fortress where teams no longer take it for granted they have a chance against us. That has to be the starting base in terms of building long term success

THAT is how I judge progress. Note, NO mention of league position. Because that naturally comes after AND more importantly is sustainable ONLY when you get the above right.

 

[cytrax]

Yup! It certainly can’t be about league position at this point in time. Saving grace is that we now appear to be at an absolute rock bottom. With the bad apples out of the way, we should look to recreate a culture of self accountability to the team, and hard work that is visible for all to see. That is my expectation for next season.

Oh yeah, there needs to be method to how we play. Not just the simplistic counter attack nonsense.