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

The club didn't offer him a new contract until PSG came in then tried to keep him when it was too late.

Sorry didn't realise you had to be in a Central position to be a leader. But **** it I'll bite..... Salah! That mightnt pass your test though cos he plays on the opposite side!

Good luck to you and your mental gymnastics! 😆👍

The martial, rashford, greenwood front line looked to have so much promise under Ole - adding Sancho seemed like to would elevate our options further too and really did feel like we had a properly elite front line.

And then we lost some of that fluidity with the signing of Ronaldo. and then Greenwood… and Martial lost his mojo and his fitness and Rashford either looked good or rubbish depending on the year. ANd Sancho just never looked the player he did at Dortmund.

Crazy to think about how good it looked like it could be and how NONE of it worked out!

I honestly can't remember anyone else, only player I know was offered reduced terms was De Gea but obviously years later.

Players who left the same year as Herrera are Young, Valencia and Darmian. Smalling, Sanchez and Rojo left on loan.

I have many times discussed why the club progressed as it did over the past decade, and why the playing squad is what it is as a result.

It isn't even a complicated discussion, everybody already knows what happened.

You had a senior executive who were not involved and not competent enough on the football side. This meant not enough pressure for high playing standards coming from above.

This filtered down to a playing squad that had too many characters quite happy to accept those lower standards.

While this was happening there was a succession of managers who did not have the absolute authority to demand high standards from the players, Moyes and Van Gaal to begin with did not last long enough to be untouchable enough to purge all the players who were content with the low standards.

Mourinho clearly did demand high standards but was never backed to the extent needed, it was never at any point "his way or the highway" and when he was sacked the lack of high standards in the playing squad festered even further.

At this point the squad was poisoned with players like Martial, Pogba, Lingard and Mata, players at their best on instagram rather than on the pitch.

At that point its now been 5/6 years of low standards and that culture has now become the norm. Players joining the club join a group of players that are a long way removed from the times where players in training would absolutely destroy each other if they felt that a player was not giving 100%. Used to be that players joining had to work hard to keep up, now they just have to coast to fit in.

Players like Rashford are now part of that culture. Where we differ is that you think that absolves him of responsibility. Whereas I think it makes him part of the problem.

Top players are driven, even in malfunctioning teams they still manage to perform, even in bad times they keep working hard. Players like Rashford don't. And thats on them, that comes from within.

I have many times stated my opinion that Juan Mata was the worst influence on the squad in the past decade, because there you had a senior player in his absolute prime who was happy to quietly play a bit part for years. Who performed well when things were good but hid when times were bad. Rashford is another Mata, a senior player in his prime who would rather huff on the field than bust his hole trying to drag his team over the line.

Would things have been different for Rashford if he joined a peak Fergie team? Possibly, but just think about that, because the question involves the concept that defines most of these players. The concept that they can only perform when everything else around them is perfect. That if they were surrounded by legends they would have played better and worked harder. The thing is, those sorts of players wouldn't get into those peak Fergie teams in the first place. I happened to read Fergies biography at Christmas and one theme from the whole book is the importance he places on hard work and strong character, there is no way he puts up with Rashford for more than ten minutes.

What happened to Rashford? He was a good player in a squad that had a bad culture, and he wasn't a strong enough character to grow in spite of it. What do the club learn from it? Nothing they didn't already know, they need to change the culture in the squad and the only way that happens is to keep purging the squad until it has a majority of players who are driven to succeed, and will push to succeed even when things around them aren't perfect.

Sad it's come to this but there was clearly something very wrong.

Rashford was obviously doing something very wrong for Amorim to ostracise him from the team. It's for the best that he's moved on. A very good player when on form and seems like a very decent fella but I do wonder if some demons there. Hope he does well.

I wouldn't be holding Villa up as some well run club just yet folks. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't they pay like 90% of there turnover on wages? That is going to be very hard to sustain. They are blessed the Saudi's are around. They had a very good season last year but they look to me like they are starting to creak in spots.

Very interesting couple of day coming up. Surely we have some scope to make another signing now.

You have many times noted that Rashford is a victim of circumstance, a product of his times, let down by the people that were supposed to develop and support him.

Its a nice thought and all and it has a lot of basis in reality. But it absolves him of responsibility for his own character. I suspect Rashford has never read "Invictus".

Disagree and pretend to stop reading all you want, it matters not.

Whitwell linking us with a loan move for Leon bailly.

Hopefully it's just some transfer nonsense.

Welcome