How important is it to qualify for the CL this season?

Bastian

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I'm wondering if there are any silver linings here if - which seems almost certain - we fail to finish in the top 4.

Ronaldo would leave for CL regardless of the club's marketing wishes.
Pogba would leave for CL, so no 500K contract.

I don't think "we're almost there" just missing a leader type figure such as van Dijk has been for the scousers. I think there are way too many soft characters in the team and no leaders. If we continue on the assumption that this team is still developing just needing some extra touches, I can't imagine it'll amount to anything.

And a bit of an overhaul is much easier if we're not in the CL.

I'm still waiting on a cultural reset.

edit: We wouldn't buy Kane for Poch for some crazy fee when he's started his downward spiral
 
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Genuinely want us to miss out now. Firstly because the Glazers can go get fecked and secondly because they invest when we do miss out.

I'd go for Europa League or bust as well, don't want the Conference Cup.
 
Missing out on the CL would be a disaster for United, for reasons that have been discussed at length before.
 
Other than the money, we might potentially miss out on players we would ideally want who might want to be in the CL. Or we would have to convince them to join for higher wages, which again beats the purpose.

From a sporting perspective, we won’t be losing out on anything. I have zero hopes that we would win the PL or the CL next year.
 
If we miss out we'll only fall into a 2nd rate competition anyway be it europa or conference. Then when we get out of the group stages of that we'll start to take it serious as it's another route back into the CL.

We lose Ronaldo and that means Martial definitely stays as we've no senior strikers left at the club. We'd basically have Sancho, Rashford, Martial as senior attackers and Elanga, Amad and Pellistri as cover. That's 2 to 3 senior players needed before we even begin to look at our problems in midfield.

I expect us to leave the defensive issues this summer as we've got so many more players we need to bring in further forward.
 
P-Nut said:
If we miss out we'll only fall into a 2nd rate competition anyway be it europa or conference. Then when we get out of the group stages of that we'll start to take it serious as it's another route back into the CL.

We lose Ronaldo and that means Martial definitely stays as we've no senior strikers left at the club. We'd basically have Sancho, Rashford, Martial as senior attackers and Elanga, Amad and Pellistri as cover. That's 2 to 3 senior players needed before we even begin to look at our problems in midfield.

I expect us to leave the defensive issues this summer as we've got so many more players we need to bring in further forward.
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Though Cavani and Ronaldo leave, it doesn't mean Martial stays. Ronnie leaving saves a ton on wages, Martial being sold brings in money.

This could be a transformative summer for us, in terms of the long-term, not the short-term. Mata, Cavani, Ronaldo, Matic, Lingard, and Pogba leaving, Bailly and Martial sold. Counting the one who shall not be named, that's 9 players, and we've not mentioned Jones (who'll likely see out his final year), Donny (who may or may not be fancied by the new manager) and Henderson who is desperate to play.

If next season the league is prioritised over all the other competitions, with young players trusted in the other competitions and brought into the first team fold, the chance is there to actually try and build for the future.

Jose said it would be easier to start from scratch (regardless of the mistakes he made, that statement was probably true), Rangnick talked previously about rectifying mistakes. If we stop chasing our losses, we can actually become a football team again.
 
It's not that important. It pays for the Glazers annual dividends and allows us to squander more money on bad players who don't improve us.

Can't help but think we'd be better off as a club with less money, actually forcing us to make the budget we have go further. Just think, if we had less money we'd have never bought Maguire, AWB and Ronaldo.

To be clear, my point isn't that we should never qualify for the CL again. But instead given the mess we currently find ourselves in, we should think about walking before we can run. The team needs wholesale changes before we can even think about realistically competing for the CL
 
If it means Ronaldo leaving it might do us a favour
 
It is very important. Our standards have dropped so much under Ole the last few years that we need to set the right mentality going forward, which is always making champion league. Without champion league it will be harder to attract top players and it will impact us financially. I rather not see united play in the europa league again
 
Not all that important. I think we can still get Ten Hag or at least keep Rangnick which would still be beneficial. It'll rush out guys like Ronaldo and Cavani with less hesitation. Pogba will leave, class player that he is he just doesn't fit and with his mix of age/injuries... Probably for the best.

Actually for once I don't think it makes one bit of difference long term if we qualify for CL this season or not. We'll still have a similar core group to work with that we want to build around next season. And we'll be forced to build properly.

Signings wise we'd be forced to be smart for once and likely go for guys like Kamara for free ahead of spending 100m on Rice (who is class, but ffs don't spend that much). There's loads of good signings who we'd be able to get still and literally none of the guys that require CL football are we likely to get anyway. So it makes no difference.
 
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Bastian said:
I'm wondering if there are any silver linings here if - which seems almost certain - we fail to finish in the top 4.

Ronaldo would leave for CL regardless of the club's marketing wishes.
Pogba would leave for CL, so no 500K contract.

I don't think "we're almost there" just missing a leader type figure such as van Dijk has been for the scousers. I think there are way too many soft characters in the team and no leaders. If we continue on the assumption that this team is still developing just needing some extra touches, I can't imagine it'll amount to anything.

And a bit of an overhaul is much easier if we're not in the CL.

I'm still waiting on a cultural reset.

edit: We wouldn't buy Kane for Poch for some crazy fee when he's started his downward spiral
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Probably not a great miss on CR and Pogba. But we might fail to land a top #9
 
bosnian_red said:
Actually for once I don't think it makes one bit of difference long term if we qualify for CL this season or not. We'll still have a similar core group to work with that we want to build around next season. And we'll be forced to build properly.
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Fully agree with this. At this moment in time, we should forget about all short term goals — game results, league position, cup runs — and focus on building something larger, something sustainable.

Focus on developing values in our academy from the ground up, to make sure things like Greenwood are close to impossible to happen ever again. Create an environment that involves all aspects of life not just the tiny football bubble. It‘s obvious, that many (not just United) players don‘t seem to be able to deal with the stardom of the game.

Our signings should be smart, as you say. We need to make sure that it‘s not just the skill set and attitude on the pitch that‘s a fit, also all of their behaviour on and off social media should be vetted.

And for anybody worried that we‘ll drop out of the big 6 or so: feck it. Seriously, if you don‘t put sustainability, social responsibility, values and ethics above results in a ball game, feck you!
 
I don't think it would be a disaster for one season. However I think to find a silver lining in it is a bit of a stretch because we've tended to go out relatively early anyway, so it hasn't really fatigued or distracted significantly in recent years. Also, there is a strong possibility it is replaced by the Europa etc. So all we're really getting is decreased revenues and less interesting football matches.

I think the idea it affects players joining is completely overhyped. Let's be honest they follow the money. Which we offer, in absolute spades. Don't know why people go on about not attracting players for this reason. It's one year of a 4-5 year deal. I am not going to say it never makes a difference but I just don't think it makes a massive impact on a summers business.
 
Well miss out on our first choice players and possibly even manager.

I don't think we'll get top 4 to be honest. We've been all over the place amidst a pretty easy run of games.

Best we can hope for is that we can convince a quality manager to come in the summer and allow him to mold the team rather than forcing the likes of Ronaldo and Pogba on him.
 
Gums said:
Fully agree with this. At this moment in time, we should forget about all short term goals — game results, league position, cup runs — and focus on building something larger, something sustainable.

Focus on developing values in our academy from the ground up, to make sure things like Greenwood are close to impossible to happen ever again. Create an environment that involves all aspects of life not just the tiny football bubble. It‘s obvious, that many (not just United) players don‘t seem to be able to deal with the stardom of the game.

Our signings should be smart, as you say. We need to make sure that it‘s not just the skill set and attitude on the pitch that‘s a fit, also all of their behaviour on and off social media should be vetted.

And for anybody worried that we‘ll drop out of the big 6 or so: feck it. Seriously, if you don‘t put sustainability, social responsibility, values and ethics above results in a ball game, feck you!
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The problem is. None of this can be achieved with the parasites that are The Glazer family at the helm. We can hope things will change but they won't until they're gone.
 
MadDogg said:
It might cost us the manager we want, and then some of the players that we want to sign.
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Don't think it would bother Potter (his team won't even be in Europe and he might fancy having a year to get the squad ready for the CL and focus on top 4) or Pochettino (he wants the job bad), but maybe Ten Hag would turn it down and just wait another year for City and hope that's available.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
Well miss out on our first choice players and possibly even manager.

I don't think we'll get top 4 to be honest. We've been all over the place amidst a pretty easy run of games.

Best we can hope for is that we can convince a quality manager to come in the summer and allow him to mold the team rather than forcing the likes of Ronaldo and Pogba on him.
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Top players won't come to United anyway. CL qualifying won't make much difference to the current attractiveness of Old Trafford.

Team needs a complete rebuild and could do without a distraction
 
NoPace said:
Don't think it would bother Potter (his team won't even be in Europe and he might fancy having a year to get the squad ready for the CL and focus on top 4) or Pochettino (he wants the job bad), but maybe Ten Hag would turn it down and just wait another year for City and hope that's available.
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Potters a good manager yes, but is he good enough for us? We’ve been down that road with moyes and it’s too risky. Can you see a manager like potter competing with guardiola and klopp? Will the players respect potter? Who hasn’t won anything and came from a lower team. The man we need is Enrique, he’d be perfect and fits the criteria of manager we need.
 
At least not being in the top 4 should guarantee Ronaldo leaves. We would then be compelled to get a non-geriatric striker.
 
Red00012 said:
If it stops us paying £100 million for Declan Rice so be it
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Yeah not really fussed about the qualifying for the CL because our problems are much deeper than attracting top players, we don't seem to have the ability to identify any top players anyway so what's the bother? To grow our absolutely monstrous wage bill and bring in the next round of moaners and whiny brats who can't back up their contracts on the pitch? Bring in anyone who tries to modernize our tactics and these snakes will sink him .

I think the best move we could make is to promote Ralf to be our Sporting Director, fire all Woodward's cronies, bring in a young manager on the rise, let him select who he wants amongst the players and coaches with Ralf's aid and strap up for a tough clear out and rebuild that could take up to three summers. It's absolutely imperative to accept that just a change in coaching won't bring success and we need a change in mentality across the board and most importantly get rid of the egoistic loafers.
 
Bastian said:
We wouldn't buy Kane for Poch for some crazy fee when he's started his downward spiral
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Sounds like exactly something we would do. 4 year deal on 400k a week... Another one that we wouldn't be able to shift on like Maguire.
 
Don't actually think we will miss out on too many players IF we get the recruitment profile right. As others have mentioned we pay very good money as it is. A lot of contracts will offer a good basic with kickers for CL qualification. Conversely some players who are staying may take a reduction if we are in the Europa.

No CL means no Haaland or Rice but it could mean some good young hungry player coming in at a fraction of the cost
 
Rather than some financial issues which are actually good because feck the Glazers and the fact I love CL football I don't see this as really important.

First as many have said Ronaldo would leave.

Second if there's anything we'd learn after all these years then imo we should stop looking to sign the big mega stars but start looking at the younger, hungrier players. It's supposedly one of the big reasons why we signed Ralf anyway.
 
Bastian said:
I'm wondering if there are any silver linings here if - which seems almost certain - we fail to finish in the top 4.

Ronaldo would leave for CL regardless of the club's marketing wishes.
Pogba would leave for CL, so no 500K contract.

I don't think "we're almost there" just missing a leader type figure such as van Dijk has been for the scousers. I think there are way too many soft characters in the team and no leaders. If we continue on the assumption that this team is still developing just needing some extra touches, I can't imagine it'll amount to anything.

And a bit of an overhaul is much easier if we're not in the CL.

I'm still waiting on a cultural reset.

edit: We wouldn't buy Kane for Poch for some crazy fee when he's started his downward spiral
Click to expand...
It’s exactly the kind of thing we could do
 
How is that even a question? It's everything, it's the main goal of the season every time.
 
Very. The loss of income will set us back years when it's crucial to make multiple signings this summer.

We've already blown it in this easier run of fixtures. We'll be closer to 8th by the end of the season.
 
I don’t think it makes much difference, for last 8/9 years we’ve been going nowhere whether we’ve qualified for Champions League or not.
 
I personally don't give a crap because it's not like we would win it either.

The only thing that happens is thet it effects our transfer in ability - which is unlikely to be booming when we don't even know next seasons manager.
 
MadDogg said:
It might cost us the manager we want, and then some of the players that we want to sign.
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the egos of players and coaches are completely different

players want all the gold in the lost city
Coaches want to be the man who takes them there

missing CL won’t deter an elite ambitious coach from taking the United job
 
Bastian said:
Though Cavani and Ronaldo leave, it doesn't mean Martial stays. Ronnie leaving saves a ton on wages, Martial being sold brings in money.

This could be a transformative summer for us, in terms of the long-term, not the short-term. Mata, Cavani, Ronaldo, Matic, Lingard, and Pogba leaving, Bailly and Martial sold. Counting the one who shall not be named, that's 9 players, and we've not mentioned Jones (who'll likely see out his final year), Donny (who may or may not be fancied by the new manager) and Henderson who is desperate to play.

If next season the league is prioritised over all the other competitions, with young players trusted in the other competitions and brought into the first team fold, the chance is there to actually try and build for the future.

Jose said it would be easier to start from scratch (regardless of the mistakes he made, that statement was probably true), Rangnick talked previously about rectifying mistakes. If we stop chasing our losses, we can actually become a football team again.
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Yes agree. It would actually be better to finish 8th rather than 5th,6th. No European competition would allow more coaching time for the new manager. It would also mean no high salaried players with big egos to match being signed. This could be a turning point in the type of player we go for. A Diaz rather than a Maguire for example.
 
bosnian_red said:
Not all that important. I think we can still get Ten Hag or at least keep Rangnick which would still be beneficial. It'll rush out guys like Ronaldo and Cavani with less hesitation. Pogba will leave, class player that he is he just doesn't fit and with his mix of age/injuries... Probably for the best.

Actually for once I don't think it makes one bit of difference long term if we qualify for CL this season or not. We'll still have a similar core group to work with that we want to build around next season. And we'll be forced to build properly.

Signings wise we'd be forced to be smart for once and likely go for guys like Kamara for free ahead of spending 100m on Rice (who is class, but ffs don't spend that much). There's loads of good signings who we'd be able to get still and literally none of the guys that require CL football are we likely to get anyway. So it makes no difference.
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Yeah that would definitely force us to look at options like him rather than expensive shiny toys
 
We’ve proven time and time again it isn’t important at all. We seem to spend more when we’re out of it. We need to become a top team again and it doesn’t matter whether we’re in the CL or not. The only thing from the fans perspective is that the Europa is so depressing and the CL much more exiting. But we have a much greater chance of winning the former.
 
I don’t think it’s that big a deal for a team like Utd who rake in tonnes of money anyway. Obviously it’s nice but missing out for one season is not the end of the world. Consecutive absence from it is a major problem though.

Liverpool still attracted Klopp despite being an EL team and losing their best players. Chelsea still attracted Conte despite finishing 10th(!) the season before with no Europe whatsoever.

In some ways it may be more advantageous for a manager to come in at a big team at a low ebb. Expectations are lowered and they can get working without having sky high expectations in their first season and it’s a pleasant surprise if they overperform like in the case of Conte at Chelsea.
 
wolvored said:
Yes agree. It would actually be better to finish 8th rather than 5th,6th. No European competition would allow more coaching time for the new manager. It would also mean no high salaried players with big egos to match being signed. This could be a turning point in the type of player we go for. A Diaz rather than a Maguire for example.
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Yeah definitely better to miss out altogether rather than end up in Europa
 
LoneStar said:
Other than the money, we might potentially miss out on players we would ideally want who might want to be in the CL. Or we would have to convince them to join for higher wages, which again beats the purpose.

From a sporting perspective, we won’t be losing out on anything. I have zero hopes that we would win the PL or the CL next year.
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from a sporting perspective we miss out on the top players meaning on a sporting perspective our downward trajectory continues. We need a top striker for one and so do all the top teams. Without the CL, coupled with the fact we are in free fall as a club…it’s hard to imagine just great wages will attract that type to the club. Course we won’t win the top trophies next season but maybe the season after if we somehow rescue this season. 4th leaves us no worse off than anyone who didn’t finish as champions in my mind.
 
Maybe we'd actually get players who want to improve and get the club back where it should be, maybe we'd get lower quality players, who knows?
 
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