Dear INEOS: If we had a decent interim manager the last 5 weeks, we...

[Nonameisknown]

What you fail to realize is INEOS have repeated actions like this to look back on and not make a move yet.

 

[Salt Bailly]

I think we should bring Ole, Jose and lvg back for the cup final. Triple threat. Pep would brick it.

 

[TheLord]

ETH will be fired at the end of the season, even if we win the last few matches. That's a certainty.

If that is the case, we may start experimenting with an interim. At least, he may have a long shot at competing against City (not saying, winning) in the next fifteen days, instead of being smashed 0-6.

 

[Tarrou]

No it doesn't. Everything needs fixing at the same time. We have a capacity to fix most things in conjunction. We don't have to queue the tasks.

of course you need to queue tasks in a big corporation

just one example is the people above the manager are responsible for choosing the new manager, so if some/most of those people have not even started yet, or had much time to bed in and review the structure, you're just going to have the same set of people who chose the last manager choosing the next one

 

[ErikElevenHag]

I'd rather lose every game between now and the end of the premier league season to ensure we aren't in any european spots. If you aren't in the champions league it's of more benefit to not be in europe full stop.

United is enough of a pull to get players in, the problem is we keep recruiting terrible ones. I'd rather a season with a new footballing structure, new manager and hopefully some well recruited players in finding their feet and seeing our league form improve. The Europa league is a shit distraction which we aren't likely to win anyway.

 

[crossy1686]

of course you need to queue tasks in a big corporation

just one example is the people above the manager are responsible for choosing the new manager, so if some/most of those people have not even started yet, or had much time to bed in and review the structure, you're just going to have the same set of people who chose the last manager choosing the next one

I do wonder if these posts are based on reality. So you’re saying Omar and Dan are sitting at home, in a bunker with no contact with the outside world and zero clue as to what is happening at United? Do you think they’re going to walk in on day one and be like “so what have I missed lads? How are we doing? Did we qualify for the CL or what?”

Nah you’re right, they need at least 6 months to come to the office before they could possibly make any decisions.

No ones asking for anything at this point except the removal of Ten Hag. The rest can wait until the summer.

 

[sugar_kane]

Assuming everything panned out the same injury wise I don't think an interim would have made a huge difference. We still start with Casemiro and Jonny Evans at CB, no starting LB and no natural DM.

Unless we get some key players (ie, Shaw, Martinez, Varane) back very, very soon and they can be match fit for City then making a change now achieves nothing.

That DM spot remains a gaping hole even with everyone fit. Eriksen is useless and Casemiro is beyond finished.

The only way I'd be interested in an interim is if we got Ole and gave him one more shot to get us the trophy he deserved. That, or Jose for pure box office value.

McClaren would be beyond pointless, the players clearly don't respect any of the coaching staff and he can't magically make players fit again.

 

[Tarrou]

I do wonder if these posts are based on reality. So you’re saying Omar and Dan are sitting at home, in a bunker with no contact with the outside world and zero clue as to what is happening at United? Do you think they’re going to walk in on day one and be like “so what have I missed lads? How are we doing? Did we qualify for the CL or what?”

Nah you’re right, they need at least 6 months to come to the office before they could possibly make any decisions.

No ones asking for anything at this point except the removal of Ten Hag. The rest can wait until the summer.

we were talking about a different thing, but it seems you decided not to respond to that and invented a new thing I didn't say to argue against

I would suggest reading your post and my reply and trying to respond again if there was any remote chance I would bother to read what you came up with, but sadly, there isn't

 

[gerdm07]

Assuming everything panned out the same injury wise I don't think an interim would have made a huge difference. We still start with Casemiro and Jonny Evans at CB, no starting LB and no natural DM.

Unless we get some key players (ie, Shaw, Martinez, Varane) back very, very soon and they can be match fit for City then making a change now achieves nothing.

That DM spot remains a gaping hole even with everyone fit. Eriksen is useless and Casemiro is beyond finished.

The only way I'd be interested in an interim is if we got Ole and gave him one more shot to get us the trophy he deserved. That, or Jose for pure box office value.

McClaren would be beyond pointless, the players clearly don't respect any of the coaching staff and he can't magically make players fit again.

I don't understand how anyone can say we've played the best we could the past 6 weeks given our injury situation. That is simply not true and it's the manager's fault.

 

[Tarrou]

I'd sack him today, the trouble is what's the point.

Might as well see out last few games then they can sack him, he's gone anyway he knows that, players are going to get a wage drop for no European football .

They can sort this mess out in pre season .. if Tuchel wants the utd job give it to him , so far he the only guy who's sticking his hand up..

well the players seem to have completely given up on him

so whoever comes in for a few games, which includes the chance to win a trophy, won't have that issue

the way I see it is we keep ETH for the cup final and have about 5% chance of winning, or bring in an interim to lift the spirits and at least have a 20%. chance (odds pulled out of my arse obviously)

 

[The Mitcher]

What I don't understand is that INEOS are apparently after the best of the best. It's why we now have their most recent higher up appointments and a host of lower level sacking.

Yet they seem to be dithering and overly sentimental when it comes to ETH. Apparently he deserves a fair shake whilst most of the players are put up for sale, if rumour is to be believed. At the same time Wilcox needs a month to determine if ETH is good enough despite a whole year's worth of poor results that prove he's crap.

They want Champions League football and deem it vital yet refuse to sack the manager who doomed us to no European football all together. Apparently getting to a cup final he nearly blew is reason enough, also.

We also hear rumours of the impending sack, whilst also hearing rumours he may stay. ETH is convinced he'll stay. But of the rumoured replacements, aside from Tuchel the strongest rumours are Potter and Southgate. The former failed at a big club and admitted he couldn't handle the pressure, and his failure looks worse now his successor is starting to improve after just as bad a start. The latter completely failed at club level and is the sole reason why England have failed to win silverware.

You can't promise United fans a return to the winning ways of the past in one breath, then putting out suggestions that Southgate will be our manager. If so, they are clueless. You only need to see how badly run their other football clubs are to see that.

Can they possibly end up making this a success? Possibly, sure. But they are setting themselves up for a really hard first full season in charge if their actions, or lack there of, this season are concerned.

 

[Rightnr]

Yea mate lets penny pinch with a genuine trophy on the line.

The state of modern Utd fans, zero ambition or passion

It's pathetic faux-intelligence.

This is what the club PR has cultivated over the past 10 years with constant propaganda and sharing of bullshit stories on Instagram and the other socials for these fans to care about the well-being of millionaires who are shit at their job and keep paying their salaries despite years of proven failure.

 

[Hughie77]

well the players seem to have completely given up on him

so whoever comes in for a few games, which includes the chance to win a trophy, won't have that issue

the way I see it is we keep ETH for the cup final and have about 5% chance of winning, or bring in an interim to lift the spirits and at least have a 20%. chance (odds pulled out of my arse obviously)

That be nice the horse has bolted now trying to close the door is beyond now, would love to see a new guy in , but would that make Utd look like bad again bring more press issues etc etc..

I think we all know eth us gone ..

 

[Andy_Cole]

Pathetic owners.

 

[Mart1974]

I’m not fan of Ineos however United fans need to just for one moment understand just how bad the situation was when they took over.

1. The Glazers gambled hugely in the last 3-4 years, the profit that the club was making under Sir Alex had dried up to such an extent that all cash reserves where depleted and the club had to use a company credit card Facility of £300m.

2. From 2015/16 season, the club tried to buy players like Di Maria, Sanchez, Pogba, Falcao, Lukaku, Ronaldo, Cavani and many more with instalments as well as cash and decided to put the players on huge wages.

3. Please open the link I’ve provided on the clubs true profit and loss over the last 14/15 years. The last time the club made a profit was 2019 and subsequently since then they have had record losses in last 4 years. The days of making £148m profit with their accounts are long gone.
They were rightly fined by UEFA last season and without Sir Jim’s $200m(£159m investment), potentially next season we could have started with a points deduction

https://www.statista.com/statistics/383903/manchester-united-profit-loss/
(It might behind a paywall but you can open free for the first time)

4. The club had no available cash, none which is why they couldn’t do nothing this January with regard to Transfers. The debt which was originally £358m in 2011/12 has now spiralled out of control with historic club Debt now at $650(£518m), the club revolving credit facility $344m(£274m) and Existing Owed $379(£301m) Transfers. In 2013 the club owed £34m in transfer amortised fees.
That total of £1.092 of debt means the club is at breaking point. There’s no point turning over £650m if you lose £400k per week!
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...man-united-finances-debt-glazers-28038776.amp

5. Sir Jim knew that he had to operate in a very smart way, first task was to invest capital/Cash to make sure the club could operate in the same way, not fall short of PSR/FSP, his $200m investment prevents this as it prevents the club from losing more than £115 allowed over 3 years. The second reason that he allocated £120m of the $300 promised was free up the credit card facility and make sure the club could effectively have a working capital of at least £160m should they need this in the summer. His biggest task however was to remove nearly all of the Exec Directors who had overseen such a huge decline in the club on and off the field in the last 15 years, all while still trying to be the friends of the Glazers so he could take more and more control.
https://theathletic.com/5340986/2024/03/14/man-united-debt-jim-ratcliffe/

6. Before he replaced the manager, he needs a new CEO, DOF, CFO, COO, Technical Director, Recruitment Director and many others whilst at the same time streamline the 1100 employees who work for the company and show very little in achieving goals and KPI’s Set. The most important new recruit to Sir Jim’s new Board and Senior Management structure of the club is not as most people believe Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox or even Dan Asworth no it’s the recent bombshell news that Roger Bell will take over from Cliff Baty( A Glazer Man). This means that Sir Jim with only 27.7% has managed to be in a position where he really is calling all the shots. The CFO of a club like United needs to be best in class and here you have a lifelong Man United Fan in Roger Bell who is used to producing balance sheets with a profit and quickly turning around to Acting CEO Jean Claude Blanc, David Brailsford and Sir Jim and providing areas within the club that are not working, this is why the staff are now being ordered back to offices, company credit cards stopped unless good reason and there will be huge redundancies applied, so excuse me, I’m no fan of ETH either but how on earth would any fan expect Sir Jim and David Brailsford to have time to sack ETH when there is a huge financial compensation outlay to consider which will have a profound effect on the clubs ability to spend under PSR/FSP in the summer.

Summary
At this exact moment, Sir Jim and Ineos are playing the waiting game, they have probably considered that he needs to be sacked, however they will allow, Berada, Wilcox and Ashworth to have the final decision. They may have decided that as long as he gets Europa League Football, either by wining the FA Cup or Coming 6th, they may give him the first 10 PL games, simply because they probably did t realise just how bad things were behind the scenes, no fitness coach, poor medical department and many other issues which did not help him in achieving success.

Sacking ETH might not be necessary if another team like Bayern want him which would mean no compensation would be required, however should his team fail to provide any evidence that they have the ability to perform for him in the last 5 games, then he’s gone and so to is a marquee player like Bruno or Rashford because that £60-70m will be necessary to back the new coach.

Let’s be clear here, he has no more lives left and probably needs to go unbeaten to the end of the season with at least 3 or 4 victories. Even if he won the FA Cup and Came 6th, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was replaced as early as June 15th

Great post.

 

[Yagami]

@gerdm07 predictably got some stick for this but I'm 100% with him. The fact that some already question INEOS will be labelled impatient, but, for some of us, the fact that they've been more than happy to write this season off when something could've been done about it is not a good look.

Something can still be done about it, too. We could still end this horrendous season on a relative high should we beat City, and the best chance of doing so is getting an interim manager in, but they're not going to do that. They're more than happy to let ten Hag - who should've been sacked months ago, never mind weeks - continue despite overwhelming evidence that he's a huge problem.

 

[Tarrou]

That be nice the horse has bolted now trying to close the door is beyond now, would love to see a new guy in , but would that make Utd look like bad again bring more press issues etc etc..

I think we all know eth us gone ..

yeah 100% gone the only question is before or after the cup final

 

[Woziak]

@gerdm07 predictably got some stick for this but I'm 100% with him. The fact that some already question INEOS will be labelled impatient, but, for some of us, the fact that they've been more than happy to write this season off when something could've been done about it is not a good look.

Something can still be done about it, too. We could still end this horrendous season on a relative high should we beat City, and the best chance of doing so is getting an interim manager in, but they're not going to do that. They're more than happy to let ten Hag - who should've been sacked months ago, never mind weeks - continue despite overwhelming evidence that he's a huge problem.

I think even those United fans that stubbornly backed him are now overwhelmingly agree with you about ETH that he must be sacked.

Ineos are not exempt from any blame, however we have to remember that took a Christmas Eve ; ‘Take it or Leave it offer’ from Sir Jim, The Glazers, knowing that they were broke made life very difficult for both bidding parties.

At that time the club wasn’t playing well and maybe had the INEOS takeover happened earlier in the summer, I’m pretty confident Sir Jim would have sacked ETH after no CL football was going to played in Spring 2024.

When they eventually rubber stamped the minority buyout at the end of February, the results started to plummet, initially in January and Early February the results improved and after Sir Jim finally became co owner of the club results became increasingly worse.

Before His Co ownership was actually rubber stamped, so from the 24th December 2023 after the West Ham defeat until the 27th February 2024 The Club played 10 games won 7, drew 1, lost 2, defeats at home to Fulham and West Ham away caused concern however progress was made in the Premier League and FA Cup and the club was in a genuine fight for top 4 with 44 points from 26 PL games.

After Sir Jim rubber stamped his co ownership on 28th February, United have played 12 games in all competitions, they’ve Won 4, Drawn 5, Lost 3 and made the FA Cup final possibly undeserved, however their PL form has Fallen off a cliff P9 W2 D4 L3 GS 16 GC20 GD-4 Pts 10

From 24th December to 27th February
P8 W5 D1 L2 GS 19 GC 11 GD+8 Pts 16

Now I’m not saying that Sir Jim and Sir David trying to be far more hands on from 28th February 2024 had a detrimental effect, but they were both quick to brief the media with how things would change, however they are not football men and should have learnt their lessons from Nice!

Sir Jim wants Dan Ashworth asap, then pay the £15m and get him in March and all of a sudden you have a football man that understands what’s going on, not someone who thinks a good speech here and there will motivate some of our generally uneducated selfish footballers who don’t do well under pressure.

They are so entitled, if you give them a voice they will use it as the very excuse your trying to eradicate from the club.

So yes, Ineos have actually started poorly under their tenure, the club went from a PL team averaging 2points per game to 1 points per game and had things carried on the 2 point average then the United would have another 8 points now and still have a chance of CL football.

Is ETH a bad manager?
No but he’s not an elite one either and right now United need the best available otherwise you are going to have a lot of chiefs; Blanc, Brailsford, Ashworth, Wilcox, Berada and Sir Jim all pulling in different directions and things might actually get worse before they get better!

That’s why a strong Manager like Tuchel is the only choice, he can show the examples at Chelsea and what was right and what was wrong in that environment.

This club been through turmoil for the last two years with the takeover not being what we hoped for, now we have a new Co Owner, it’s important that he remembers he still has had no success whatsoever in football, no domestic cup finals nothing, and now he will sit at Wembley for his first domestic final as a co owner hoping for a miracle?
Sir Jim, not wanting to change a manager before a final doesn’t really mean to much in the grand scheme of things.

Put Zidane, Mourinho, Conte anyone in a one off game with these brittle players against a dominant City and you still hope at best for maybe a 3-1 defeat.

Last year those players walked up to get runners up medals and that normally affects players, but our squad is so brittle it won’t make a shred of difference.

Even if you have Varane, Martinez, Shaw fit and Bruno and Marcus rested as soon as that first city goal goes in, they will capitulate!

ETH been awful this season but so far and this is confrontational have INEOS, Sir Jim sent out a memo that he broadcast to the media about cleanliness, yes he’s right but the U18 squad have just won the double, their mostly kids and that could have been handled in house and a lot better!

So far Ineos, too much media briefing, Talk is cheap, time for Action.
1. Get Dan Asworth in let him sack the manager.
2. Sell the players you need to
3. Release the players you need to
4. Get your new Manager in
5. Buy the players the club needs
6. Let the Football people run the football club and less1% Gains BS and roadshows meeting players that your probably get rid of in the Summer.

 

[Zen86]

There’s not really any point in bringing an interim in now, unless they think there’s a better chance in the final. And that’s not exactly a given.

 

[tomaldinho1]

If we get tonked by Arsenal, you might get your wish to be honest. I don't see the point and I assume he is still in his job due to the cost of sacking him but a heavy loss there or at Newcastle might just force them to do something.