That NYtimes article is more journalistic nonsense. People love some hyperbole, and United fans are such easy targets right now. Huge sections of the fan base are frothing at the mouth, ready to get the pitchforks out, so winding them up with doom mongering and claims of chaos is just too easy. Too many clicks to be had. The press equivalent of a tap in.
Reminds me of about three years ago when there were all these articles saying how bad the academy was and how far behind it had slipped versus all of our rivals, especially City. Previous United players sending their kids to City’s academy because ours was so terrible. No actual content on the quality of coaching, all just smoke and mirrors based around shiny new facilities. Three years later United continue to churn out class players from the academy, and are clearly the top big club in England when it comes to youth development. Especially when you factor in pathways to the first team. If it hadn’t been for factors out of our control, we could have a front three (Rashford, Garnacho and Greenwood) of top players from our academy starting for the first team. And what other big club can say that? None.
People need to massively chill out and let this summer play out. The media is feeding off the fear caused by decades of incompetence and indifference by the Glazers. It’s simply impossible at this early stage to know (a) what the Ineos regime is doing behind the scenes, and (b) how the trajectory of the club will change under their stewardship. This is something to be measured in years, not days or weeks.
I’m very relaxed at this point. They’ve already appointed a lot of top people. They are clearly doing extensive analysis and due diligence on the manager position. And it’s not like we are currently without a manager. We have one that the majority of the fan base apparently want to keep (however misguided that sentiment is), and who is currently on holiday. There’s not a lot of transfer business happening in the lead up to the Euros. Hardly anyone has done anything yet. So this is the perfect time to do all this analysis and due diligence. I am quite sure that targets have already been sounded out, agents spoken to, and the work of offloading players and working on the budgets and organisational structure is ongoing.
Nothing is going to be solved in one summer. The Glazers have made such a mess of this, it’s going to take 2-3 years to get us to a stable, sustainably competitive position - barring miracles from the anointed coach. And that’s exactly how we should be looking at this. Not so much where we are at the end of the season, but more where we are in 3 years. Are we on a solid upward trajectory? Has the squad been adequately retooled with players that fit a consistent playing philosophy, to the point where we don’t need massive turnover every year? Has training and medical infrastructure improved? Are we on a concrete path to a new or redeveloped stadium? Is the club consistently profitable to the point where it can reinvest significantly in the playing squad and future capital improvement projects? Are fan groups being consistently engaged and listened to, and being made a part of a community based approach to local regeneration? Are we continuing to embrace, and improve, our youth development record and pathway to the first team? Have we managed to reignite growth in the commercial department as a key cog of profitability? Etc etc.
The modernisation and reorganisation of the club is a massive project that will take time, patience, and facing a lot of difficult decisions. It’s so much bigger than rushing to placate fans with rapid decisions, or bringing in some marquee players for a short term uptick. It’s about reigniting this club and rebuilding the foundations, which have rotted out beneath our feet. It’s a massive job. So all the nervousness and judgement from certain sections of our fans, and all the gleeful hyperbole and mockery from select sections of the media, are essentially meaningless to those who really understand what needs to be done.
What I have seen so far is a regime that has brought in several of the most coveted football experts in the world. Ashworth, a man universally lauded for his work in the industry, Berrada, one if the most highly rated executives in the football world, Wilcox, another highly rated executive talent, one who turned downed Liverpool to come to us. Blanc, as a temporary CEO, and having a permanent seat on the board, as a man of huge experience and repute in European football. A French David Gill. We’ve poached top medical people from Arsenal. There’s actual movement on the stadium with some heavy football, finance, sport, and political figures involved, with work ongoing to secure public funding or tax breaks. There is a huge sweeping review of operations which is already creating organisationally wide changes.
There is so much evidence to suggest that Ineos is going about things in a deliberate, informed, decisive and expert way, and yet people are derailed so easily by a two week wait to know the fate of the manager. I suspect the bed wetters right now are the same people who will laud a young player for being a massive talent one week, only to call him absolute shit a few weeks or months later. And I don’t suppose there is much one can do about people who think like that. Must be stressful. For them. For the rest of us, those who don’t like to live in a constant vortex of drama, gossip, hyperbole, extremes, conspiracy and vitriol, the early signs are positive and we need to let it play out over an extended period of time before coming to any serious judgement.
For context, in 2017 I was appointed CEO of a small to medium sized business with 150 employees. The previous CEO had virtually bankrupted the company, the public image was shot, debts had piled up, and the organisational culture was toxic. It took me two years to turn that company around, to the point where it was profitable again, debts were cleared, we had a positive public image, and it was a desirable place to work again. Two years, and this was a small, tiny company by comparison, with not even 5% of the complexity of a massive club like United. That first year especially, I was haunted by the litany of terrible decisions made my by predecesor, and had to own many of them as the consequences of his decisions often weren’t felt for several months after he had been relieved of command. That was at least 18 months of abuse from people, people angry about what came before and that change wasn’t happening fast enough, and then other people angry about any change happening at all. “What do you mean I have to come to work on time???” These were the same people who two years later were lapping up the success and pretending to have been a key supporter and influencer in the change initiative all along.
People are predictable, and largely quite stupid. People want change immediately, but they also complain about most of the changes. One thing they definitely don’t want you to do is think about your changes, and take time to plan them out and do them properly. That’s just indecisive and dithering, until it isn’t and all the thoughtful hard work starts to pay off, and then they were a crucial part of it all along.
