"We just said to the players that we won't have a problem if we keep performing like that every week.' The above comment came from Steve on Saturday... and probably most weekends this season. We DO have a problem as the players DO play like that most weeks and we get NO points from it usually. We all know what needs to be done in the acquisition of a striker and a CB at the very least. News today that we have cooled our interest in Townsend and Saido. If this is true then shame on Mike as both would have improved us immensely. For the sake of a couple of extra million we look like missing out as both apparently want to come to us. The selling clubs should also think hard about the lost value in having an asset drawing a wage for the remainder of the season whilst not contributing to the team....... I'd just like to see Mac grow a big pair of balls and directly put a quote out along the lines of: 'The effort is there but we desperately need fresh firepower up front and defensive cover.' Over to Mike but I honestly think we will not strengthen with quality now..... and that the trap door is fast approaching.
His comment following the match that Mitrovic was excellent outside the box just sums up Tufty, they have a week to get a striker or we are gone, we need goals nothing else matters now.
The problem we have now - having ignored England for far too long - is that the money from broadcast deals for Spurs and West Brom is about to go through the roof - they don't need Mike's cash. We, thanks to Mike, Lee and Graham, have dallied and followed a flawed policy for so long it's now killing us. The threadbare scouting approach has left us with no plan B. We're staring at Jeremy Peace hoping he'll blink, but he won't. I blame Ashley for employing buffoons, but in terms of relegation most of the blame now sits with Charnley & Carr. £70m we've spent and we are getting the exact same results. How is this even fcking possible?!?!
He's pointed to Riviere and Cisse and believes that they will provide the goals. McClaren is living on another planet. It doesn't matter how you play if you aren't getting the results. We won't have a problem? The league table suggests otherwise. Fail to sign a striker and we are effectively relegated. This team is toothless up front.
Haven't you heard, we're too good to go down. And Coloccini said we played well Saturday and did everything right but win. There you haz it.
Ahhhh, we're applying the old Ashley logic which dictates if we can finish 5th on a shoestring one year, it MUST be possible every year. So it transpires we've bought from the Segunda once - Perez - and he's really good, so EVERYONE in that league must be good.
I really want us to do a Leeds now. If that's what it takes to get through to that idiot and his minions then so be it. Absolutely ridiculous that we STILL don't have a striker signed.
I actually don't care, football is football. I'd sooner be lower down the leagues so fatty doesn't make money, that's simple as that. We'll come back up eventually. Happily go down, if it meant the metaphorical death of Ashley, Charnley and probably Carr (I'm a little hesitant here because I do wonder how strict his remit is; he did demand we sign, for example, Aubameyang who's now worth £100m allegedly). However, I have great news - I have FOUND the striker they want in Spain's high-flying second div - Florin Androne. 22, best years ahead of him, bags of potential, Eastern European. Nailed on. Transfermarkt has him a £1.4m value, so £7m should seal the deal.
From McLaren's point of view what, with the current players there in mind, is he supposed to say? If we don't get a striker we're down? What if we don't get a striker then he has just told his strike force they are not good enough. Yes, some strikers may respond and go out to prove him wrong but do many on here honestly think that is the mind set of most modern day footballers? More likely they will go into their "shells" a la Colo and Sissoko and we will go down. Or he can "big" them up in the hope that they will respond positively and score the goals necessary to keep us up. What do most people respond to at work being belittled in the media or positive support? It's not rocket science. Also what he says to the media doesn't mean it is something he believes or even what he is saying in private. The football we are playing, in general, is miles ahead of what we played last season including Pardew's run. McLaren was never going to fix what was wrong here in one transfer window because the Club has been run down far too long for that and it was always going to take time to change course and improve. I will start to judge McLaren at the end of the next transfer window. Too many people want a "magic" wand to solve deep rooted problems and refuse to give someone a reasonable amount of time to do it.
I think where people question it is looking at Watford, Leicester, Bournemouth, West Ham and Tottenham as examples of clubs who have taken decisive action with the manager (we didn't), brought in a lot of players for small sums of money (opposite to us) and each one sit above us in the table, some by quite some distance. How have they achieved these things where we have failed, when each one has followed the same approach - buying young, inexpensive players, playing progressive football and achieving results. How can so many other clubs do it, when ours, with a £70m budget dithering over managerial appointments as Carver tried his best to relegate us, gets it so fundamentally wrong? How do Leicester go from relegation candidates to title challengers? How do Watford come up and identify/bring in 15 new players? How do West Ham recognise the need for a charismatic coach with ties to the area? We're clinging on by fingernails and have it all to throw away, yet are doing our very best to do exactly that. Before long we'll have something like the 8th largest ground in the country when once only Old Trafford took in more fans. We're just dithering and withering! I accept there's deep rooted problems at the club, but guess what? They're all still there!!! I'm not sure how we hope to rectify things when the very causes - Ashley, Charnley, Carr - are still there. It's nonsense really, none of it makes any sense (aside from the obvious and uncomfortable truth that we're only there to survive and be a poster for SD, but we all already know that).
I appreciate and accept most of what you're saying. The particular point I was trying to pick up on was the, in my opinion, the unfair and unrealistic criticism of late on what McLaren is saying, to the media, after games. Realistically what is he to say? Anyone on here an employer and fancies slagging off his workforce in the media AND then expects that same workforce to fight for him to help the company survive?
I'd agree if we were going the right way about it. Unfortunately we are not. If you give any half decent manager 70m to spend, I'm pretty sure even starting from scratch they could get you well away from the relegation zone. We are still making the same mistakes and doing nothing to correct the deep rooted problems. I disagree on the standard of football too. We have been absolutely awful to watch generally. One thing I'm pretty sure of, if we'd given Pardew the control McClaren has had, given him 70m to spunk, we'd be a hell of a lot higher in the table and we'd have been a much better watch. The one time he was mildly supported in the market, we ended up with Cabaye, Tiote, HBA, Ba etc entertaining us. McClaren asked to be judged after 10 games. He has had more than double that (23) and we've been ****e. I don't think fans expect to be in the top 8 (like the board were deluding), but I think we could have maybe expected to see some entertaining football, be at least well clear of relegation and be progressing from last season. We're worse than under Pardew having spent a fortune. I'm the first to give people time and mount a defence for a manager but this is not working. Steve has to look in the mirror and ask was spending 25m on Mitrovic and Thauvin really the way to go? I like Mitrovic, I think he'll turn into a decent player but in terms of us, we've trying to run before we can walk. This football board have ****ed up from what I can see. Not Mike because he has pumped in the funds. If I was him I'd be sitting thinking "why do I bother". I understand what you are saying about the media situ though and agree. That is a no win scenario which we've seen before with Pardew. You publically support the players and have a go behind closed doors - they run to the media and you are the devil. You get behind them you are soft. You slaughter them in the media, you don't understand modern football. You can't win today.
