Club Sale | It’s done!

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While I hope it doesn’t take this long , in my mind it could take up to 5 years before the ship is fully turned.

Brexit Jim will promise jam tomorrow, blaming all subsequent shortcomings on 'the previous administration'.

If Ratcliffe hasn't sorted it within five years, he really ought to be shown the door.
 
This is all fabricated nonsense from SP sorry to say.
Evidence/source please!

I agree it sounds contrived, and I’m particularly doubtful about “Mendes got the deal with City done”. The notion that City would have wrecked their wage structure to bring in a player with a massive ego who doesn’t follow instructions feels massively unlikely to me.

That said, the notion that Ronaldo wasn’t signed for footballing reasons, but rather for clicks and optics, feels perfect likely. Mendes hinting to Woodward that Ronaldo might be offered to City would have been enough to do the trick, without Rio et al needing to be involved.
 
i tend to skip though all their stuff for the very small periods of the show where actual content breaks through the crap. The episode about the club shitshow and parts of the Laurie one were really good. But I agree, way too much useless banter/humor. Also a reason why I can't stand the "hard man howson" shtick but can find some of his comments, especially related to his contacts/rio, interesting.

I don't think anything Howson said was too groundbreaking in terms of Ronaldo, i hadn't heard it put in that kind of timeline though. But if Howson's Ronaldo stuff is accurate and Laurie's stuff on how Antony was signed are close to the mark - Panic, Embarrassment, Optics. The trifecta of how we are so broken.

It's very difficult to skip things as its one gold nugget surrounded by a quarter of an hour (that feels like a day) of tripe. Which as said its a shame. Whitwell is, in my opinion, one of the top four football journalists in the football ( Romano, Stone, Ornstein and him). Stone has to abide to BBC rules (thus he may be slow at times) while Romano covers all the world which means he's not laser focused on us. That means that Ornstein and Whitwell are feckin mint. I can't believe that the SP guys would waste his time on such childish banter. Which kind of explains why Goldie is still no 1 despite the quality of the US is nowhere near to that of SP.

Tactically wise Howson is the best United youtuber there is by a mile. I like his solos and he certainly have contacts within the club. Most top channels do have contacts TBF and you can identify them according to their bias (Ole, Rio and Gaz for SP, Foster, Rasmus, Shaw and Ince for US) and were they tend to shoot at (if you're my competitor's mate then you're my enemy sort of thing). What I hate in Howson is how full of himself the guy is from his John Rambo like attitude because he served in Iraq right to how popular he is. He even wanted sole credit on a piece of Whitwell athletic piece which kind of exposes his ignorance. Top tier journalists would never publish anything if it isn't backed by multiple sources which makes Howson a voice among many at the very best. But the funniest was when he once said that he went to Carrington only to find a queue of academy/fringe players lining up to take a photo with him. I mean come on. These guys are used to meet the likes of SAF, ETH and the occasional visit of absolute legends like Robson, Irwin, Rio and co. They won't queue up to have a photo with a youtuber.
 
I’m sure Mendes would have suggested Ronaldo to City, but why would they want to sign him?

Mendes is a super agent, possibly the biggest agent around since Raiola kicked the bucket. I don't know a lot about him but I do know a lot about Raiola and I assure you these are Apex predators. People like them is why I wanted the likes of Ashworth as our DOFs as opposed to Mr Women's team expert.

Now I have 2 theories about what happened (or a mix of both)

A- Ronaldo wasn't generating any interest thus Mendes had used his influence at City to allow him to use their name to bait United into a deal. This benefits everyone from City (United will end up giving Ronaldo silly wages), to Mendes (big payout) to Ronaldo. Rio, Howson and in the end Woodward got caught out into the oldest agent trap in football. This is NOT the first time United won 'battles' against City and they all proved to be very expensive duds (Pogba, Maguire, Sanchez and Ronaldo). Can you see the pattern here?

B- Howson/Rio is using this story to protect their beloved Ole. Its common for Howson to come out of the blues to defend Ole even when the argument is completely unrelated. Its evident that there's a real push out there to rehabilitate Ole's reputation.
 
Mendes is a super agent, possibly the biggest agent around since Raiola kicked the bucket. I don't know a lot about him but I do know a lot about Raiola and I assure you these are Apex predators. People like them is why I wanted the likes of Ashworth as our DOFs as opposed to Mr Women's team expert.

Now I have 2 theories about what happened (or a mix of both)

A- Ronaldo wasn't generating any interest thus Mendes had used his influence at City to allow him to use their name to bait United into a deal. This benefits everyone from City (United will end up giving Ronaldo silly wages), to Mendes (big payout) to Ronaldo. Rio, Howson and in the end Woodward got caught out into the oldest agent trap in football. This is NOT the first time United won 'battles' against City and they all proved to be very expensive duds (Pogba, Maguire, Sanchez and Ronaldo). Can you see the pattern here?

B- Howson/Rio is using this story to protect their beloved Ole. Its common for Howson to come out of the blues to defend Ole even when the argument is completely unrelated. Its evident that there's a real push out there to rehabilitate Ole's reputation.
Oh I’m sure you’re right with A. It wouldn’t even need City to be “in” on it; Woodward got spooked ridiculously easily. Jose getting an improved contract on the back of a pretty innocuous comment offering mild praise to PSG is another example.

Regarding B, I’m not sure they’re helping protect Ole, though they might think they are. United fans fall into two groups: those that believe the manager’s influence over signings is exaggerated, and those that don’t. The first group (which includes me) wouldn’t blame Ole or indeed whoever else might have been manager at the time. The other group would blame Ole anyway, unless they were his diehard fans.
 
I’m sure Mendes would have suggested Ronaldo to City, but why would they want to sign him?
City had spent the entire transfer window trying to sign Kane, and 12 months later signed both Haaland and Alvarez. Guardiola was obviously looking for a striker to give City a different dimension, so in the last days of the window when they accepted they weren't getting Kane it seemed they pivoted to Ronaldo. I expect the plan was just for him to tide them over for 12 months until they could bring in either Kane or Haaland.
 
We did overpay for some players in the last 10 years, but you are exaggerating things. For a lot of those signings you listed, the fee was reasonable based on their age, CV, and footballing talent. Whether they were a good fit into our teams is another question. Our wage bill has probably been a way bigger problem than the transfer fees. We only really got fleeced with Antony.

The fees for Casemiro, Mount, Hojlund, AWB etc were not remotely reasonable
 
Oh I’m sure you’re right with A. It wouldn’t even need City to be “in” on it; Woodward got spooked ridiculously easily. Jose getting an improved contract on the back of a pretty innocuous comment offering mild praise to PSG is another example.

Regarding B, I’m not sure they’re helping protect Ole, though they might think they are. United fans fall into two groups: those that believe the manager’s influence over signings is exaggerated, and those that don’t. The first group (which includes me) wouldn’t blame Ole or indeed whoever else might have been manager at the time. The other group would blame Ole anyway, unless they were his diehard fans.

I think its A as well

a- we've seen that happen many many times. Manchester City is mentioned, United up the offer to the ridiculous and we end up with ''one over City' which turns out to be a bad buy for the money we've spent (Maguire, Sanchez, Pogba and Ronaldo)
b-It was widely reported that Ronaldo was on the market for quite some time. Ronaldo wanted to leave, Juve wanted him to go but were insistent that they'll get some sort of fee for him. No club wanted him in those specific circumstances (fee + huge salary) and his stock was started to fall. Mendes had to be creative.

However I am not sure if Ole was kept in the dark about it. Ronaldo was a United legend. He must have discussed this move with his former mates or SAF and those people/himself would have had a word with Ole (another United legend)

What I am certain about is Howson's obsession to make Ole look good. He keeps mentioning in almost every video even when Ole have nothing to do with that particular argument. Quite frankly they'll not helping him one bit. Coming 2nd and 3rd is considered the norm at a club like Manchester United thus exaggerating that achievement is making him look sillier. Then there's been occasions where Ole simply let the club down like when he went on holiday during a crisis or how he allowed Matic to keep discipline on his behalf (which was sort of backed by ETH when he said that he fount no discipline at United). Finally the rise of Ipswich (McKenna) had shifted the blame away from his 'incompetent' coaches and on him. If you ask me they are better off calling a spade for what it is. A very small minority of people can be football managers, out of them a very small minority can be EPL level managers and out of them a very small minority can do well at Manchester United even in normal circumstances. Considering how badly run we currently are then only a SAF can make us successful. Ole was meant well but he was out of depth at United as most managers would be. That's something everyone can accept and respect.
 
City had spent the entire transfer window trying to sign Kane, and 12 months later signed both Haaland and Alvarez. Guardiola was obviously looking for a striker to give City a different dimension, so in the last days of the window when they accepted they weren't getting Kane it seemed they pivoted to Ronaldo. I expect the plan was just for him to tide them over for 12 months until they could bring in either Kane or Haaland.

The issue with Ronaldo wasn't the player himself but the financial package behind the deal. Ronaldo was determined not to lose a single euro in terms of salary while Juventus was determined to get 15m out of him. That meant that Ronaldo would cost around 42m in the first year and 26.8m for each year after that for a player who was already 36 years old. That's something only a Woodward and a Murtough could accept
 
City had spent the entire transfer window trying to sign Kane, and 12 months later signed both Haaland and Alvarez. Guardiola was obviously looking for a striker to give City a different dimension, so in the last days of the window when they accepted they weren't getting Kane it seemed they pivoted to Ronaldo. I expect the plan was just for him to tide them over for 12 months until they could bring in either Kane or Haaland.
Fair enough. I wonder how it would have gone? I dare say he’d have banged a few in; let it not be forgotten that he scored quite a few for us and we were largely crap.

I just can’t see him being happy with not playing every minute of every game. Surely City would have thought about that?
 
The litmus test for me will be when the deal is fully ratified, just how hands on will Sir Jim actually be?
Why get a dog, and then bark yourself? “

He will obviously delegate to more experienced and specialist people, which is exactly as it should be.
He can be judged on those appointments and his investments.
 
Not sure if true or been covered here, but apparently ten hag wanted to keep Martial for the 1 year extension but Sir Jim over ruled him and wanted Martial out.
 
Was just watching a stretford paddock stream about the club shit-show. Even though i don't like him, that Stephen Howson bloke has contacts and had been involved in getting Rio Ferdinand's youtube show going. I don't know if he meant to talk about it so openly, but he went through how the Ronaldo deal to MUFC went down.

Mendes got the deal with City done, but didn't tell MUFC. He allegedly told Ronaldo that MUFC didn't want him, Ronaldo calls Rio to tell him the deal to City is done. Rio calls Woodward, the club freaks out and just does a deal out of seemingly embarrassment and optics. Howson then suggests that "Ole was probably the ninth person told, and was not asked if he wanted him, but told the deal was done".

Now take all that with a mountain of salt, but i seriously doubt Rio keeps things completely guarded to his chest. If that is how we are functioning, it just goes to continually reinforce how players like Antony, Sancho, Maguire keep costing so much. Panic, embarrassment and optics. It always comes back to these three things and seems to go a long way to show how you can spend a billion for no reward. If INEOS is going to impact anything positively, it HAS TO BE this stuff.

I can believe this. To my memory Ronaldo coming to us seemingly came out of nowhere. A lot of the steam seemed to be pointed at him going to city
 
It's very difficult to skip things as its one gold nugget surrounded by a quarter of an hour (that feels like a day) of tripe. Which as said its a shame. Whitwell is, in my opinion, one of the top four football journalists in the football ( Romano, Stone, Ornstein and him). Stone has to abide to BBC rules (thus he may be slow at times) while Romano covers all the world which means he's not laser focused on us. That means that Ornstein and Whitwell are feckin mint. I can't believe that the SP guys would waste his time on such childish banter. Which kind of explains why Goldie is still no 1 despite the quality of the US is nowhere near to that of SP.

Tactically wise Howson is the best United youtuber there is by a mile. I like his solos and he certainly have contacts within the club. Most top channels do have contacts TBF and you can identify them according to their bias (Ole, Rio and Gaz for SP, Foster, Rasmus, Shaw and Ince for US) and were they tend to shoot at (if you're my competitor's mate then you're my enemy sort of thing). What I hate in Howson is how full of himself the guy is from his John Rambo like attitude because he served in Iraq right to how popular he is. He even wanted sole credit on a piece of Whitwell athletic piece which kind of exposes his ignorance. Top tier journalists would never publish anything if it isn't backed by multiple sources which makes Howson a voice among many at the very best. But the funniest was when he once said that he went to Carrington only to find a queue of academy/fringe players lining up to take a photo with him. I mean come on. These guys are used to meet the likes of SAF, ETH and the occasional visit of absolute legends like Robson, Irwin, Rio and co. They won't queue up to have a photo with a youtuber.
Whitwell is great, Stone is fine, Ornstein has an inflated sense of self importance (but is ok) and Romano isn't a journalist but a clickbait merchant.
 
And who’s the one to show him this door? Safestyle?

I'll show it to him if I have to.

Sick of parasites at the club. Sicker of parasites hanging around the fringes, lurking, ready to pounce.

All Ratcliffe has done so far is throw money about, inducing the Glazers in their typical vice. He's told us what we've been saying to one another for well over a decade. A billion to state water is wet.

It's all encouraging, but he must be analysed on results and only such. Another two decades of 'next season' is not on.

Delighted Qatar failed, but all the same, very nervous about what follows.
 
Not sure if true or been covered here, but apparently ten hag wanted to keep Martial for the 1 year extension but Sir Jim over ruled him and wanted Martial out.
Ah the good old ‘apparently’ source. Has about as much integrity as my crack addict father (God rest his soul).
 
Not sure if true or been covered here, but apparently Sir Jim wanted to keep Martial for the 1 year extension but Ten Hag over ruled him and wanted Martial out.
 
Not sure if true or been covered here, but apparently ten hag wanted to keep Martial for the 1 year extension but Sir Jim over ruled him and wanted Martial out.
Not sure if true or been covered here, but apparently Sir Jim wanted to keep Martial for the 1 year extension but Ten Hag over ruled him and wanted Martial out.
:confused:
 
In the fortnight since the deal was made official, in a period where he can’t directly affect decision making at the club before ratification from the PL? Riiiight…….

Don't be tediously pedantic when you get the point.

He's said all the right words and pulled all the right moves, sure, but we desperately need more than both. More than optics.

Results.
 
With Ineos having to be consulted on any transfer business in January, I hope they come in with the mindset of not throwing good money after bad for the rest of the window.

There's very few, if any players that we can afford to bring in this month that will improve us. Clubs don't let good players/pros leave for peanuts or extortionate loan fees.

I don't think he's the guy to take us forward, but we're back to one game a week with a lot of the squad close to returning. The lighter schedule should hopefully mean less injuries - let's see if the manager is true to his word about an upturn in results once he's got everyone back. If we end the season well, great. If not, we'll have enough information to look at to make the decision about getting rid of him. By which point JCB and the others will have been in the position for a few months and will know exactly what needs to be done and who is available.

I can't stick another January window brining in yet another short term fix that doesn't actually improve us.

We've got enough to limp on to the end of the season playing one game a week.
 
Doesn’t make sense at all. They’ve had access to all the data for months so either the article is wrong or they are incompetent.
Or the Glazers “forgot” to tell them about the undocumented bonuses that are paid via the Cayman Islands.

If so, expect a flurry of warranty claims. That won’t exactly set the working relationship of the board members off to a good start.
 
Or the Glazers “forgot” to tell them about the undocumented bonuses that are paid via the Cayman Islands.

If so, expect a flurry of warranty claims. That won’t exactly set the working relationship of the board members off to a good start.
That’s just something that you imagined. INEOS knows everything about the finances. The article is not true. They may want to sell Casemiro but they haven’t just decided based on learning information about his contract. Probably had access to that information for 6-12 months.
 
That’s just something that you imagined. INEOS knows everything about the finances. The article is not true. They may want to sell Casemiro but they haven’t just decided based on learning information about his contract. Probably had access to that information for 6-12 months.
You’re the one who suggested they were incompetent :)

Due diligence processes can never reveal everything. Which is why there are warranties.

But yes, it seems highly unlikely that they had a load of transfer plans for January that have been put on hold as a result of stuff they’ve only just discovered. Anything that might trigger a warranty claim is only likely to emerge after a while.
 
Or the Glazers “forgot” to tell them about the undocumented bonuses that are paid via the Cayman Islands.

If so, expect a flurry of warranty claims. That won’t exactly set the working relationship of the board members off to a good start.
Funny how the goblins insisted on a clause of no public criticism
 
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