Manchester United Superthread 2014 Mod warning Post #1880 #2613

Tbh I never expected to win much this year when the extent to which City and Chelsea were strengthening became apparent last Summer, that coupled with the fact that generally over Ferguson's time after every 3/4 league titles the squad would need rebuilding before we'd win it again, and of course we now had a new manager.

But never did I envisage a United so devoid of a playing identity and seemingly short of ideas. Noone seen a 7th place finish coming. Noone. And they can peddle the line of ''we have a plan in place if we don't qualify for the CL'' and the similar carefully choreographed stories in the press of ''Moyes didn't realise the extent to which he needed to rebuild until he took over'' all they want but none of it excuses a man who, in charge of a sub-par squad or not, is 9 months in a job and still doesn't know his best starting 11 or even the way he ideally wants to play

And the club's line on it all is equally as unimaginative as Moyes football ''philosophy'' - ''It's the United way'' and ''Ferguson was given time''.

But noone seems to be strongly questioning the vast vast difference between football in the age SAF was given time and the age we're in now. Fergie was given time at a stage when a club's main revenue streams were gate receipts and player sales. That meant there was no sponsorship or European TV money share to worry about and so long as you were a wealthy and popular club, you couldn't lose your financial and therefore playing competitiveness overnight short of being relegated.

Football clubs financial capabilities, and their squads, nowadays however are built on the massive sponsorship deals, the TV money, the European competition money and the stakes are infinitely times higher. 3/4 poor finishes in a row in the league and suddenly the lack of European income is painfully obvious and the sponsors will be moving on to whatever ''successful'' club has taken your place and suddenly when the team is being talked about in the media it'll be about ''How do they bridge the gap between themselves and ''big boys''?'', ''How do they make the leap from 5th place to 4th?''. And in reality, looking back over how often the top 4 has changed in the last 20 years, this only happens with the addition of a wonder-player that somehow every other club misses, someone in the top 4 performing woefully bad, a superhuman performance from a team over a season - or of course a mixture of them all.

The owners must be aware of the potential of this bad path that the club is currently on, and surely they won't risk their own future financial investment for something as both idealistic and unrealistic as ''The United Way''.

From MEN

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/manchester-united-fans-bid-fly-6882888#comments

Has hasn't learned from any mistakes so far! He keeps saying his squad needs improving, but even the lower teams can put up a sense of ambition or fight.

He has the squad he has, he must make the best of it. No point playing as if we had different players. At the very least make them hard to beat. Currently Utd are fairly easy to beat. Teams know if they can score 1st it pretty much game over.

That is down to Moyes.

Bannerman7 wrote: »

From MEN

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/manchester-united-fans-bid-fly-6882888#comments

This is cringe-worthy beyond belief. These so called fans should be getting behind the players and trying to encourage them, instead of this s**te.

Does anybody think that Moyes is in any way unaware of the felling of the media and fans towards him? What exactly are these brainless idiots hoping to achieve?

lads... is there a chance the Man U vs Norwich game will be moved from the 26th April 17:30 kick off ? - I'm looking at tickets.. but need to know if the game will be moved..

mike65 wrote: »

Well done! You have become Blackburn Rovers!

|Blackburn Rovers|Manchester United
League Position|31|7
Avg. Attendance|15,235|75,529
Revenue|£26.9m|£221.4m

Not quite there yet.

Timmyctc wrote: »

Saw this floating around.Funny. Remember when Neville wouldn't look Schmeichel in the eye when he was playing for City.
I would take Roy Keane and Paul Scholes out of retirement to help sort things out on the pitch :pac:

Why don't you make him a cup of tea and fetch his f*cking slippers while you are at it, Pat?

Plenty of times for niceties after the game if you've done the business on the pitch.

Macca07 wrote: »

Saw that too and I think he would be mad to go to Madrid. Don't think he would get into the team at the moment ahead of Marcelo, and would rot on the bench for a couple of seasons. United or Chelsea would be the best options for him, and I can't see us matching Chelsea if it comes down to it.

We'd be better off looking abroad for a cheaper option with a bit more experience.

I disagree.

Chelsea have Azpilicueta who is a very good footballer and doesn't look like getting dislodged as well as Cole in the background.

United are in a period of uncertainty. Shaw couldn't possibly guess who will be in charge come next season, and on top of that will likely have no European football.

Slight bias here, but I genuinely think Liverpool would be his best bet. The club is crying out for starting LB, and he'd have a young progressive manager to work under. Add European football to that and I can't see how Liverpool would not be his best option.

IITYWYBMAD wrote: »

This is cringe-worthy beyond belief. These so called fans should be getting behind the players and trying to encourage them, instead of this s**te.

Does anybody think that Moyes is in any way unaware of the felling of the media and fans towards him? What exactly are these brainless idiots hoping to achieve?

They're hoping to make the owners aware of how unhappy the fans are with the manager obviously. The press criticism of Moyes has been extremely mild so far. Nobody cares what Moyes himself is aware of.

Personally I think that an airplane display is a bit pointless because it isn't immediately obvious how many fans support it.

A chance was given to Moyes simply on his record of consistency at Everton,that's all well & good but it's a proven winner we need.
People hark on about "oh it took Fergie 4 years to win a trophy at United",he came to a club that was in the toilet & had players who were working harder on their drinking than on the pitch.Fergie had an armful of trophies already & a winning attitude.Moyes doesn't have this "Billy big bollix" attitude - he still gives the impression of a guy who's just won the lotto & doesn't know what to do with it.

There had been whispers in Spain that Ancellotti would be out of Madrid in the Summer despite what they might win,it's feasible that he could be available,I for one would like to see him at United,Klopp seems to have Dortmund in his dna at this stage and won't leave any time soon.Van Gaal won't be available until after the WC,we need somebody sooner than that to get a lot of work done.

Was looking at the paper roundup on the SSN app & one reports that Garay to United is pretty much a done deal, £17 million is the price but the report says that the fee could be a good bit lower due to his contract situation.

keeponhurling wrote: »

Well I suppose that regardless of who the manager might be next season, they will of course want a new CB, LB and CM.

So maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Moyes was restricted to signing these only. If Carvalho, Garay and Coentreau do get arranged, I think any potential manager would welcome them.
Let Moyes be the one who gets shot of Vidic, Rio, Evra, Anderson, Valencia, Giggs and a few more. Maybe Kagawa and Buttner.

Ferguson is still there to advise, maybe run transfers before him first as well.

Just don't let Moyes sign players we don't need.
then if next season starts in the same vein, change managers. And the new guy would at least have a balanced squad.

* I still would prefer if Moyes was sacked now.

Those new players still have to be managed properly my friend.

2moreMinutes wrote: »

Liverpool have Flanagan though who, you know, is one of the best left backs in England. Apparently.

I won't have a bad word said about Flano Alves! (I've seen him called that on Facebook)