Nicky Butt this time:
https://www.teamtalk.com/manchester...ignings-stinging-assessment-dan-ashworth-work
https://www.teamtalk.com/manchester...ignings-stinging-assessment-dan-ashworth-work
Another ex-employee sticks the boot in.
- Thread starter Sassy Colin
- Start date
He's still butt hurt from being overlooked for the job a few years back.
The sort of opinion that won't go down well now but will look better and better as the season goes on. At least that's generally how it's been over the last 10 years.
I think Nicky Butt’s just bitter he was passed over a few years ago for Murtough (a person who was elevated to a role well beyond him by our banker posse). A lot of our esteemed alumni aren’t the sharpest knives in the draw either.
He claims they’re not superstars but we have been buying ‘superstars’ the past decade, all of which didn’t deliver all that much aside from maybe Zlatan pre-Anderlecht injury.
I guess he’d have probably thought Liverpool buying Salah or Man City buying De Bruyne weren’t great signings because they were discarded by Chelsea.
He claims they’re not superstars but we have been buying ‘superstars’ the past decade, all of which didn’t deliver all that much aside from maybe Zlatan pre-Anderlecht injury.
I guess he’d have probably thought Liverpool buying Salah or Man City buying De Bruyne weren’t great signings because they were discarded by Chelsea.
Nothing outrageous in his actual comments, only bit I disagree with is the idea that we've not improved the team this summer.
Our ex-players tend have a higher standard than most fans that's all.
Our ex-players tend have a higher standard than most fans that's all.
It comes across a bit delusional to talk about signing superstars and challenging for the title
We finished 8th and we haven’t been challenged for the title in over a decade
judging the signings on that criteria is dumb
We finished 8th and we haven’t been challenged for the title in over a decade
judging the signings on that criteria is dumb
We cannot judge those players until they've had a season in the EPL under their belt and a proper manager to lead them. EtH is shite and will always make the team look worse. Nicky is just butthurt.
The superstar angle is laughable.
Very few players are signed as established ‘superstars’, that’s pretty much reserved for Madrid / Barca.
The level of competition in football transfers isn’t comparable to the Fergie years.
Don’t know why we didn’t go for De Jong this year and modern equivalents to Ramos / Fabregas / Di Maria though. It would have went brilliantly.
We are in dire need of a superstar within our attack though.
Very few players are signed as established ‘superstars’, that’s pretty much reserved for Madrid / Barca.
The level of competition in football transfers isn’t comparable to the Fergie years.
Don’t know why we didn’t go for De Jong this year and modern equivalents to Ramos / Fabregas / Di Maria though. It would have went brilliantly.
We are in dire need of a superstar within our attack though.
But what if he and other ex players are right , we had the same knee jerk reaction when ex players and pundits questioned the Casemiro and Anthony signings.
He is only expressing his opinion on the players we bought , there does not have to be an ulterior motive other than an honestly held opinion.
He is only expressing his opinion on the players we bought , there does not have to be an ulterior motive other than an honestly held opinion.
Even Madrid (with the exception of Mbappe) don't go for established stars anymore.
And when they do (as with Mbappe), they lay the groundwork out years before and get them to run their contracts down. It's a sellers market. Buying established stars from other extremely rich clubs isn't possible unless you have real leverage - i.e. a threat of them walking on a free
It's always hard to sign superstars when you're not playing in the champions league on a regular basis.
All the players we signed, except Yoro, gave up champions league football to come here.
All the players we signed, except Yoro, gave up champions league football to come here.
We don’t need “superstars”, we need players that can play in the intended system. Time will tell, but it’s too soon to declare them either a success or a failure. And I have my doubts that the manager can get the best out of any of them.
Did well in the academy for us but is the clueless kind of comments that have led to us having horrible transfer strategy. Glad he's gone and we have Dan instead.
Saying none of them are superstars is hilarious. The onus is building a team, not repeating the same mistakes of the past. We’re also coming off 10-15 years of Glazer mismanagement so “superstars” in their prime won’t even consider Man United.
they left the champions league before the champions league left them.
A nice reminder of why we dodged a bullet with him.
Armchair warriors. What has Butt done
I mean, we finished 8th and were handicapped on spending due to the last decade plus of wasting money. We could hardly pick the best 5 players in the world and sign a blank cheque for each.
Kind of tiring hearing every ex-Utd players wade in with comments like these, it adds to the constant noise that everyone loves to pile on to whilst helping absolutely nothing towards the feeling around the new setup. The only one I've got time for anymore is Rio primarily because he seems to get involved speaking to potential signings.
These aren't the glory years anymore and we all hope the new structure has come up with a plan to steer us in the right direction over the next couple of seasons. He said it himself, these are decent players to fill positions we're in need of improving on, which it looks like Ineos have done a decent job of on paper.
The ex-Utd players who are now all pundits are living so far in the past with regards to their current expectations it almost borders on delusional. We're Liverpool 1990 - 2020, all ex successful players clogging up the airways unable to comprehend how the current squad can't do what they managed to... the sooner this lot realize how much they're contributing to the constant negativity surrounding Man Utd the better.
These aren't the glory years anymore and we all hope the new structure has come up with a plan to steer us in the right direction over the next couple of seasons. He said it himself, these are decent players to fill positions we're in need of improving on, which it looks like Ineos have done a decent job of on paper.
The ex-Utd players who are now all pundits are living so far in the past with regards to their current expectations it almost borders on delusional. We're Liverpool 1990 - 2020, all ex successful players clogging up the airways unable to comprehend how the current squad can't do what they managed to... the sooner this lot realize how much they're contributing to the constant negativity surrounding Man Utd the better.
I heard he hit a prostitute
With friends like these guys, who needs enemies? Are these ex-players attempting to hurt the club? What is their angle? Worse still is when the likes of Scholes are speaking as the authority on something that is just a pure lie. This article again perpetrates this same lie. De Ligt was no backup to Dier. Got that? Great!
Also, Butt seems obsessed with the idea that we should be buying superstars. Nonsense. Stop attempting to hurt the club you bunch of clowns!
Also, Butt seems obsessed with the idea that we should be buying superstars. Nonsense. Stop attempting to hurt the club you bunch of clowns!
I'm sure Nicky phoned up Teamtalk so he could to get his message out and wasn't targeted by some hack whose only intent is winding United fans up with clickbait headlines.
This is exactly it. United were in no position to make signings targeted to bridge the gap between finishing 8th and contending for the league, nor would it have been prudent to delude themselves into going that route.
The club needed to trim the squad and the wage bill, reduce the age of the group, and bring in players to who raise our technical floor at key positions. They also needed to avoid locking into players on exorbitant wages who would be difficult to move on from, which they seem to have done including reports that de Ligt took a cut more in line with Maguire's current wages to come here. This means if/when United determine they need to upgrade on those players they will not be difficult to shift without taking negligible fees, part of the reason why we've found it so difficult to sell effectively.
All of this is very boring, prudent, and mundane stuff that is more about setting a foundation to then build from in subsequent years. That's not exciting and there will be people who just complain about how this is all unacceptable, but that should not concern INEOS. The goal isn't to just make top-4 at all costs, the level of ambition we had under the Glazers/Woodward which is partly the reason we are in the position we find ourselves in, which INEOS have done a solid, not perfect, job of slowly extricating themselves from in this window.
We can target stars, and afford the wages and fees that go along with them, once we prove ourselves as a solid, consistent Champions League club that needs that extra bit of quality to truly challenge.
Yeah that article reeks of not adapting your transfer knowledge since 2002. Waste of words.
It was from a Talkshite interview, which is by far the worst forum for airing negative views on United.
"Next we have United Class of '92 legend Nicky Butt, who's going stick the boot in like everyone else!"
Its simply way too early to be making calls like that. Ugarte hasn't even played for us yet. As for saying we always used to go for the very best - we always used to win the league and play CL too
I can't see much wrong with what Butt says. The new signings are not exactly likely to be fought over by the likes of Real Madrid, Man City and Bayern Munchen, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. But then United are no longer at that level and haven't been for a long time. For where United is at these days, the new signings look decent and might improve us. I sincerely hope so. There's no need for us to attack the man just because we do not like his message. Butt's United is long gone.
The 3 best teams in PL City, Arsenal and Liverpool didn't signs all "superstars" maybe except Haaland.
We did sign superstar prices though
don’t get the “bitter” allegations thrown at Butt. it’s OK to not always buy/see/understand whatever vision the club may have
Come on, give the new players a chance Nicky!
Does it matter if they're superstars or not? I would argue during Fergie's time, the majority of players we signed weren't superstars and only reached that status whilst playing for us.
I personally got more satisfaction seeing us hone rough diamonds into the finished article.
Does it matter if they're superstars or not? I would argue during Fergie's time, the majority of players we signed weren't superstars and only reached that status whilst playing for us.
I personally got more satisfaction seeing us hone rough diamonds into the finished article.
People are being too sensitive. I think he makes some fair points. We spent 200 million on 2 cbs, a fullback, a non-prolific striker and a DM. Apart from Ugarte it's not the type of spending that makes you go they got much better in x area. The counter to that is AR87s post which is a reasonable and understandable perspective as well.
Even if he turns out to be correct as in all of our signings fail, his argumentation is still shit, it'll be the case of a broken clock being right twice a day.
“I don’t see a plan in the project, in the signings, I don’t understand what kind of players they’re going for” — the vision is pretty clear, both in terms of the player profiles (relatively young players as opposed to fully formed superstars) and the preferred system that those players fit into (even though this system may be the wrong one).
“But the players that we’re signing, they’re not superstars of their clubs. They’re just decent players.
“Man United used to go and sign the best players and now we’re getting players that are maybe not even playing for their respective clubs the season before, we seem to be on the market for buying those players and it’s strange.” — how did the adult Disney land strategy panned out for us before? The "maybe not even playing" thing is clearly angled at De Ligt and Ugarte and it's been talked to death already.
“The signings for me don’t scream out challenging for the Premier League. I think what Man United are trying to do at the minute is build the squad just to get back into Europe and [the Liverpool loss] highlighted that fact particularly in midfield.” — I'm not sure what exactly about our new signings particularly in midfield he understood from watching our game against Liverpool considering that all of our midfielders that featured have been at the club for longer than Ashworth.
Yeah, the superstar angle is a bit strange especially when I would argue that United weren't really in the market for superstars under SAF. It was more prospect, upcoming top players or very steady veterans. Now where he has a point is that United were almost never in the market for reclamation projects but even then that's a strategy in itself.
The media still regurtitate this nonsense about Bayern preferring Dyer to DeLigt every chance they get.
Liverpool and Arsenal are the obvious points of comparison for us, having gone from a similar sort of mess to the one we're in to PL challengers (or in Liverpool's case, PL & CL winners). They're the closest blueprint for what we want to do, and they didn't do it by trying to sign "superstars".
If anything a desire for superstar signings may have contributed to the mess over the last decade. It's the sort of approach people who aren't very good at recruitment would take to recruiting footballers.
If anything a desire for superstar signings may have contributed to the mess over the last decade. It's the sort of approach people who aren't very good at recruitment would take to recruiting footballers.
He expects us to sign “superstars” after finishing 8th?
Give me some of what you’re smoking, butt. No, that didn’t come out right.
Give me some of what you’re smoking, butt. No, that didn’t come out right.
Our ex players should just shut up. It’s like it was with Liverpool for years where every ex player knew it better only to show off. If I remember it correctly klopp stopped it by calling it out quite early in his reign. ETH should do the same - it creates a siege mentality at least. Even if it’s we against the world including our ex players
When he comes out with stuff like that, it rather confirms that the club were right to let him go.
It doesn’t look bad now. The players brought in are clearly average and because fans want something to cling onto they’ll overrate them.