Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 26.09.24

paulbok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258976#Comment_123258976

Does anyone actually care who is the first stadium sponsor, aside from the odd pub quiz answer?

You're right in that you wouldn't get top money for the current rights for Old Trafford but it'd still get £30m minimum a year.

The new stadium to hopefully take 5 years to build and however many before shovels hit the ground, so you are potentially missing out on 200m+ just to hold on to only have a sponsor on the new stadium. Mental money to be turning down given the current state of the finances.

No reason a sponsor couldn't span both stadiums, with a shared name with Old Trafford and then the outright name for the new stadium at a much higher price.

Robson99

Now would be a great time to be sponsoring OT..it could be getting a lot of media coverage if the regeneration project goes ahead

FrankN1

Big game tonight... predictions?

FourFourRED

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259864#Comment_123259864

I honestly do think we’ll go through in regular time tonight. After three 1-1 draws in a row 😅

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259422#Comment_123259422

If he starts scoring for fun would you not want him back?

y0ssar1an22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259864#Comment_123259864

i'm feeling optimistic, 2-0

Manc-Red_

2-1 Utd tonight for me .

Mitch Connor

Onana, MAzraoui, De Light, Lindelof, Dorgu, Ugarte, Casemiro, Dalot, Bruno, Garnacho, Zirkzee.

2-1 to United.

JRant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259864#Comment_123259864

I predict another soft penalty given against us tonight by VAR to knock us out.

PARlance

Don't care how we get through but just hope we can squeeze by. It would be a long couple of months with nothing to play for bar league position.

The Big Easy

I'm as confident as you can be in the circumstances that well go through tonight.

Sociedad are/have been poor all season, they struggle to score goals and lack quality generally.

We also are/have been poor all season but I believe we are improving, however slowly. I will go with 2-0/3-1

All_in_Flynn

Listened to the Athletic FC podcast this morning and was interesting to hear Mark Slaters view. He's pretty confident Jim is going to use the stadium as a way to become majority shareholder at the club.

I did find it odd that Ed Woodward was at the game on Sunday. He is the most likely of the Glazers to sell his portion of the shares.

The Davestator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259796#Comment_123259796

Very few brands in the world wants to be associated with a crumbling stadium - as it reflects poorly on their reputation as well as utds.

randd1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259323#Comment_123259323

I think we can all agree that Rashford's level is fairly average and mid-table at best, and that's he's miles behind Harry Kane as a striker.

Harry Kane has scored 24 goals or more a season for the last 11 seasons, and in 7 of those seasons he has scored more than 30 goals in them.

Rashford is nowhere near that level of consistency. He had one great season where he scored 30 goals, and only two other times has scored more than 20 goals a season in all competitions, and that was 21 & 22 goals, lower than Kane's lowest in that time.

I think we're just going to accept that Rashford was given the benefit of the doubt because he was a home-grown talent that came up through the club, he was our player and we desperately wanted him to do well, and for that reason he was given plenty of leeway. But he's not a young lad anymore, he's been playing in the league for the guts of 10 years now, and that's more than enough time to come to a judgement.

In the main he was an average player and had one great season, two decent seasons, a few very average seasons and a few bad seasons, and even in his good seasons we went missing at times for weeks on end. He is, and always will be, a very average player capable of the odd good spell.

And let's be honest here, Kane did it with Spurs for a decade which is an achievement on it's own given it's Spurs, who have been every bit mis-managed and topsy-turvy over the years as United have been (though off the field United have been far, far worse). And he's seriously delivering the goods too with Bayern at the minute with top players around him. And as for effort, I'd take an injured Kane any day over what Rashford calls an effort these days.

In terms of raw talent, leadership, team-play, and goal-scoring, all of it together, overall Rashford is miles behind Kane and Kane's average is Rashford's best. And when Rashford's best attribute, his pace, is gone, I don't see him being any use to anyone.

Hindsight is wonderful, but it's clear with it he was not, nor was ever going to be, a top player, he could do good things occasionally or have the odd good run of form, but he was more miss than hit, and didn't deliver far too often. He certainly was not good or consistent enough to build around, and certainly miles off what Harry Kane brings to a team.

In fact, I would say had we bought Kane 5/6 years ago, we'd be in a far better position now for it, as he has the type of talent and type of character to build a team around lead by example to young players. Instead we got the likes of Sancho, Pogba and Rashford's attitude into the club, and look what that's done.

Seattle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259864#Comment_123259864

It's tempting to take the positives from the 1st leg in Spain and the 2nd half v Arsenal. But they are the types of games we've done OK in under Amorim. We have been utterly dreadful when there's an expectation on us to be the dominant side. Based on that, I have no confidence for tonight. But it's an opportunity to turn this pattern around.

Seattle

@The Davestator

It isn't crumbling, that's a ridiculous exaggeration. If it was crumbling it wouldn't pass the safety tests required to hold people and play football matches in it.

It's outdated and has many problems, but nothing that would prevent it from getting a lucrative sponsorship deal.

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260043#Comment_123260043

Is that a serious question?

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260385#Comment_123260385

I have a feeling he might be quite cautious tonight and set the team up to play like the Arsenal game. He doesn't want to be doing that but from his recent comments, I thought he was suggesting that type of approach.

The Davestator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260403#Comment_123260403

It doesnt matter what the reality is. All that matters is that the narrative is that its crumbling, leaking and needs to be replaced. The opposite of a good sponsorship partnership!

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260413#Comment_123260413

I get that you're probably talking about him being disruptive or something but if you send a player put on loan who is out of form, and he regains that form, and your remaining options aren't scoring....

I'm with you, I'm not convinced he will, Asencio seems to be the one igniting their attack, but I'm just saying if he starts outscoring the likes of Hojlund and Zirkzee and goes deep in the Champions League he's starting to force the question

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260499#Comment_123260499

I don't care if he scores 20 goals in Villa's dozen or so remaining games. The only way I'd have him within a mile of Manchester is if he's coming for an away fixture for his new team.

He's massively inconsistent. He's massively overpaid. He's had numerous disciplinary issues.

We need shot of him.

NITRO95

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260499#Comment_123260499

The only question he's forcing is how much money another club is willing to pay us for him? He's done at Utd and no amount of assists or goals will change that

8-10

Fair enough!

Julez

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260477#Comment_123260477

Sponsors won't care too much about that either though, all they'll care about is how often there name is said in the media, TV, word of mouth ect. If it was renamed Boards.ie Old Trafford, views to this site would skyrocket. It's all about getting your brand name in people mind. Yes, probably not quite as lucrative as a brand new stadium, but just being attached to Man Utd, even in it's current state is definitely worth something to sponsors right now.

Mitch Connor

With the training ground upgrade being opened in the summer, I wonder if we will get a sponsor for that. We used to get like 14million a season from AON for that.

Toranaga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260537#Comment_123260537

Which part of Manchester are you from that you wouldn't want someone from there to be allowed within a mile of the place?

I see Cole Palmer was talking about what it was like to grow up in Wythenshawe and the amount of graft you've to put in to make it. Maybe you are from there too?

It's not worked out for Rashford at United and he let himself down last season but the anger and bitterness seems to be only coming from fans and not the player.

FrankN1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260771#Comment_123260771

Probably the anger comes from him being on massive wages, and showing little or no effort. Then moving club and showing a bit more effort.

Also that fact that he's been given 10 years and people still think he's a top player. He's absolutely not. Everton or Spurs would be his ceiling. Good on his day, but usually not his day.

Iseedeadpixels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260667#Comment_123260667

Boards.ie 🤝 Old Traffold

Both falling apart.

Match made in heaven tbh.

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260667#Comment_123260667

Sponsors only caring about how often they are mentioned in the media just isn't true. Sponsors regularly pull plug when there are lots of negative media attention.

Not saying that Old Trafford is akin to some disgraced athlete or anything. But the public image of Old Trafford is that of a stadium in decline. Attracting a sponsor would be a hard enough sell imo. Big brands care about their image and product association, and when you're talking about spending 10's of millions a year, that matters.

If there was no new stadium announcement, it would have been a hard sell. Almost impossible sell now that there's a bright new shiny thing coming down the line.

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260771#Comment_123260771

I'll rephrase so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities.

The only way I'd have him within a mile of Manchester United is if he's coming for an away fixture for his new team.

And there's no anger or bitterness here. I just don't want him near United again because in my opinion he's overrated, overpaid and a bad influence on those around him.