Everybody should actually feel positive for a change... because we're actually doing what everybody says we've needed to do for many many seasons now. An actual reset. People like to talk the talk about needing changes, needing a full reset, but clearly when it comes down to it, this fanbase has shown it wants instant gratification and isn't willing to suffer short term pain in order to maintain long term gain. People are already calling for INEOS heads or that Amorim hasn't been backed and so on.
Here's why it's nonsense.
Now for starters i'm not saying INEOS has been perfect in their decision making, but I can't fault them for Dan Ashworth, who clearly made a mistake in wanting to keep ETH. They had a plan, and Dan Ashworth is one of the best in his positions, it just didn't work out, some things don't. I'm glad they at least recognised that and acted accordingly. Now beyond that I don't feel like it's right to blame INEOS for everything when they've put some of the best in the world in their position into place in order to make all these decisions, so really it's the likes of Berrada and Wilcox that are overseeing most of this.
1. Amorim is being fully backed to do what he needs to do in order to whip this team into shape.
This means bringing a culture and an identity to the team that has resisted it for the longest time, first and foremost, he is not caving into changing, nor being forced to change because of bad results that we all should have known would come, hell, Amorim himself warned us of this multiple times. Short term pain for long term gain.
This also includes being backed to do what he needs to do in order to sort out the dressing room, if this means having some tough conversations with players, dropping them, selling them, GOOD. See the loaning and likely eventual sale of Rashford this summer as ultimate proof of this backing. Again, everybody wanted a manager and a team in place that would finally get rid of players that shouldn't be here and we're getting our wish, but it can't be done overnight. People whine that we are cutting staff and so on, well it's virtually impossible and it takes time to shift players because of the extreme negligance from previous regimes handing out stupid contracts that other clubs won't pay for these players, because they recognise they aren't worth it. This is why we end up paying part of the salary in loan deals. They are clearly making efforts to end this now, with us only giving Dorgu 40k a week... in previous regimes we'd have given him 100k plus i'm sure of it. Which leads me onto my next point...
2. We are clearly targeting (eventually buying) and selling players with a plan in mind
This regime has essentially inherited multiple seasons of negligent and borderline criminal player recruitment and selling. Yes, this includes the ETH era which, except for maybe the last transfer window, has essentially set us back as well. These are the two problems we've had.
- We've been buying players who weren't worth as much as we paid, given them wages they didn't deserve, and at ages and profiles that didn't make sense.
See Casemiro and Mount as a prime examples, huge overpay for a player Madrid didn't want, and another who's contract was running out at Chelsea, paying massive wages to Casemiro especially even though he can barely move around the pitch and rarely ever plays, hell he seems to have been usurped by Collyer at this point. Mount can barely ever stay fit for a few games in a row, meaning he's never available to see any return on the investment we made. This all culminates in other teams not willing to pay Casemiro's salary, and nobody will sign Mount because of his horrendous injury record. So we've been stuck with them.
- A huge inability to sell players, holding onto them too long, giving players undeserved contracts to keep value on the books, selling them for little to no money.
See Lingard, Pogba, and other academy graduates as main examples. Players who we can't sell because of high wages, age, or injury record aside, we've had a terrible habit of holding onto players we shouldn't have when we could have been making money that would go a long way into helping us rebuild a team. You want to know why we are mostly skint and skirting the edge of PSR right now? This is why. Say what you want about Chelsea and Man City, but they do pretty well in this regard, which allows them to reinvest in the squad when required. We sent Lingard on loan to West Ham, all things considered he did pretty well, he clearly wasn't good enough to play first team for us but he'd found his level... and what do we do? We bring him back even though we had good offers to sell him, which would have been pure profit, and again, help us reinvest in the squad. Instead we keep him, don't play him, then he eventually just ends up going on a free. A complete waste.
- So how are we rectifying these points?
Clearly they aren't shy of selling academy players who they feel won't make it, which is good, all pure profit, helps us get on the good side of PSR, meaning we can spend a hell of a lot more investing in the squad by selling players who were never going to make it here. They are also looking to, and have been successful in some ways, in shifting players out who they feel doesn't fit the vision for the squad. Rashford is pretty big, but of course it's clear they are looking to shift Casemiro, Malacia, Antony... all of which I think will be gone this summer, they'll also see the end of Lindelof, Eriksen, Evans, and so on this summer. Meaning a lot of high earners who clearly don't deserve these wages will be freed up from the books.
and despite what people might say on twitter, there is clearly a plan irrespective of the manager in place, though i've no doubt he helps in suggesting some players. We've clearly identified the fullback as problem areas. So we've invested in two young talented full/wingbacks, one in Diego Leon, and another in Patrick Dorgu who is also very versatile and can player both wingback positions and can also play in Amorim's 10 positions if needed. According to Ornstein we are also putting in place a plan to sign Quenda in the summer, which means we'll have sorted both Wingback positions by the summer with young, talented, technical and athletic players. A far cry from Dalot and Mazraoui who I think are rather ill suited to Wingback in Amorim's system. We also seem to be investing heavily in youth talents, players like Chido Obi, Heaven, Kone, all feel like they are not too far away from first team. Hell, Heaven has been signed as backup to first team, a talented young defender.
Does it suck that we didn't bring any more reinforcements in January? Yes, but i'd rather we hold out till summer where we can get the players we want at a reasonable amount rather than overpay for players we don't want in January because we're panicking.
Don't be surprised to see us target a 10, a striker, a midfielder, and a LCB as priorities in the summer. Cunha has a release clause this summer, Osimhen might be available at a reasonable price, talks of Ederson for the midfield. Maybe we'll go back in for Branthwaite? I don't know of course, but I would expect us to have a busy busy summer. But remember, we'll get better, it doesn't mean we'll be the finished article.
The Glazers have left this club destitute and in an absolute shit show. I'm no **** for INEOS, but I don't envy them trying to sort through this financial and cultural mess they have found themselves investing into. It's going to take time, I understand peoples lack of patience I really do. But we need it now more than ever. It feels like for the first time in a long time there's light at the end of the tunnel.
