Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 12.02.26

That’s the point. Bruno get knocks and runs them off most of the time. Mount and Mainoo get knocks and it’s automatically 2 weeks off. It’s as if some players are unwilling to play if they are not fully 100% when the reality is most players are rarely 100% during the course of a season

I don't think he's up to the job at all. We gave him enough time and there's very slow progress. We should go for Emery no hope of that.

It shows how apathetic I have become that I just knew by the lack of....anything....within the first 20 mins that it was going to be one of those nights and I decided to go to bed at HT.

To my absolute non-surprise, United had gifted Wolves 33.3% of their entire points tally for the season when I woke up.

I am completely done with Amorim, just as I had slowly started thinking maybe sticking with him is the better play. Nope, he offers zero. The arrogance of early days Mourinho with the know-how of a Sunday League manager.

But at least he hoodwinked a few with his pre-game warm-up vs Newcastle.

Ya he tried hard but its just not happening for him. But I would give him a chance under a new manager and 2 decent middle of the park players behind him. Ekitike was the player we should have gone for. He looks a proper player

We did go for Ekiteke. He rejected us so we had to move on.

Delap was our no one target. When he went to Chelsea we started arsing about. Supposedly were interested in Ekitike but no bid etc IIRC. Then Pool pounced

For anyone suggesting we move for Emery I'd suggest you look into how ingrained and just how much power he has at Villa. He's not leaving Villa for us because he's not going to get the freedom at Utd that he has there. I know thats not going to stop any of you mentioning him every 3 days but it's never happening

Its a good point.

Plus Villa are consistently challenging for Top 4 now. Would he even want the United job? Even leaving the power point to one side, it's always likely he would turn his nose up at us.

United are effectively a mid-table team. The current state of the Table is putting a gloss on our position but it's a weird season of inconsistency in the PL - in a month or two we're much more likely to be somewhere near our natural level, probably round 10th place.

Tbf the evidence suggests they are just as bad with him also. The issues at this club are far beyond single players or managers and have been for some time. Nothing will change once those leeches remain the owners.

Given how inconsistent the teams around Utd are, with a competent manager, I think the club would presently be comfortably inside the top 4 and in a great position to have Champions League next season. Along with making all us fans very happy, it would have huge implications for the club financially, when it comes to how much INEOS can spend and the calibre of players they can attract in the summer.

I don't want to completely hammer Amorim, even though to be honest it is tempting with the state of his tactics and his inability (or possibly just pure stubbornness) to learn from his mistakes. After Grimsby, I would have been surprised that come the start of the new year, the club would even be in a position to make the UCL. But at least the chance is still there. UCL football for next season is there for the taking. Unfortunately, Amorim is not going to deliver that IMO. And this will have a painful knock on effect in the summer and into next season. Surely INEOS are thinking about that. If Amorim wasn't their man, he would be long gone. But I think they've hedged their bets on him now.

Others might mention that most of us(me included) probably would have taken Europa League at the start of the season. But the way it's been laid out in front of us this season, the club are blowing a great opportunity. And if some of the teams around us cop on a bit, and get more consistent, I wouldn't fancy Utd to make the Europa.

When it comes to crediting Amorim for stamping out player power.

ANY MANAGER can stamp out player power, just as long as they are fully backed by the board. If the board allow them to dump whoever they want, if it is made crystal clear that no player will win a battle with them, then the player power fades away. But if there is any sliver of doubt about the manager authority then the player power remains.

Mourinho, Rangnick, Ten Hag, any of them could have changed the culture in the dressing room if they had been given the same rope as Amorim has. But they weren't.

Its definitely a good thing that the dressing room culture appears to be changing somewhat, no arguments there. But its not actually Amorim that has done that, it is Wilcox/Berrada/Big Jim. Appoint Giggs or Carrick a year ago, tell them that results and performances don't matter and that their main aim is to get rid of toxic players and we would be no worse off than we are now.

Is it worth a year of **** performance just to maintain that manager authority and force that change of culture? Yes, I would say so.

But the question today is what happens next? The toxic players are gone now, the culture has developed, there comes a time when the manager no longer gets to be bulletproof in service of changing that toxic culture, but actually has to start performing on his own merits.

Amorim hasn't performed well on his own merits since the day he walked in the door.

Perhaps it's a bit like Mrs Doyle's rationale in Fr Ted for wanting to make the tea herself instead of using the 'Teamaster'?

"Maybe I like the misery".

I was at the game yesterday 🙁, and you can see that sesko does make alot of good runs. I think someone else here mentioned it from a being at a previous match.

There was a few times he was in space between the wolves defenders or running off their shoulders and instead of giving him the pass the ball was recycled back around. You'd see haaland making similar runs and the ball is played over the top, or a through ball, to him to run onto. Ugarte wasn't gonna make those passes. Also we're just too slow to get the ball into the box to him. Numerous times we got the ball out wide to dorgu or Shaw and they just take one or two extra touches or pass it over and back to each other. There never seems to be, or at least very few, first time balls.

Apart from Emery there's no one that sticks out for me as a definite must get. Like Glasner is doing very well at Palace but look at Frank since moving to Spurs. Maybe Glasner can adapt his style and tactics for a bigger club.