Jonno
Full Member
I am observing if there was some shifting of votes after the Martial news by Bouhafsi. Interestingly enough, there was no big shift at all and I remember the share for sacking being 33% some time ago.
All in all, if a manager has 1/3 of his club‘s fanbase calling for his head, that is a sign that things are going south rather quickly. If that number rises to 50% or thereabouts, you would think it would be unavoidable to sack him. Or else you risk a Wenger situation, with a manager who dominates everything on the inside and has no confidence from the outside, leading to a toxic environment and trust issues on all sides.
Except it's not 1/3 of the clubs fanbase, is it. It's 1/3 of a football forum for Manchester United. We have a whole range of football fans on here from all clubs, and whilst 'most' will be Manchester United fans, the majority of forum posters like to post when things are in a negative state or things aren't going right, or basically coming online for a moan. We all do it including me, but that then creates a place where things seem much worse than they are. I'm pretty sure if you forced the poll on every fan inside OT, it wouldn't be 1/3 saying calling for his head.
How you're comparing our current situation to Wenger at Arsenal is completely beyond me. Did we just finish 6th? No, 2nd.
Manchester United's trajectory post SAF - 7th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 2nd - Mourinho has quite clearly created an upward trajectory in Manchester United's premier league fortunes. Wenger: 4th 3rd 2nd 5th 6th - Downward trajectory, along with incredibly poor squad building in the transfer market, along with the inability to win against the other top sides. Compared to Mourinho's excellent ability to squad build in the transfer market, and excellent ability to beat the top sides as demonstrated when he beat every side in the top 6 in the final 2 months of the season.
I can tell you that the majority of fans (not 1/3) that I know personally, and I know a lot of United fans as I've been a season ticket holder for 10 years, are realists and appreciate the poor position United were in when Mourinho took over, and appreciate our first top 2 finish in years, the first moment of stability in years, one of the most successful managers currently in the game at our club.
Holding onto a manager without the trust from the outside (fans, players, agents, sponsors etc) makes no sense and the most successfull clubs are those who act quickly nowadays.
Look at Real Madrid in 2015, they lost ground in La Liga with Benitez, changed him for Zidane and won the CL at the end of the season.
Likewise Bayern, got rid of Ancelotti sitting in 3rd place a few weeks into the season, lured back Heynckes and won the title in convincing fashion.
Real Madrid in 2015 had a MUCH better squad than United currently have right now. Should we get Zidane in now and see if we win 3 CL's in 3 seasons? United don't even have a recognised CB pairing, don't even have actual Full Backs, have only just finally sufficiently completed their CM's... This current United squad is miles off the Real Madrid team from 2015.
The exact same can be said for Bayern. They have a tremendous monopoly of players in the German league. They should win the league every season without contest.
Barca does the same if a manager doesn‘t deliver (anymore). Luis Enrique was treble winner in 2015, domestic double winner in 2016 and domestic cup winner in 2017. His performance in La Liga and CL was not good enough in 2017, they changed him for Valverde and won the league at a canter in 2018.
I would love to see any manager come in, take this United team and propel them to about 105 points next season, which is what it would take to win the league. If you think someone should come in and 'win the league at a canter', then we should be aiming for about 115 points, yeah? Who in world football can do that? Maybe Mourinho is actually doing a better job than you give him credit for, over 80 points with a depleted team is quite an achievement. This squad is probably another 2 years away from being complete and that isn't his fault, it's Moyes and moreso LVG's fault for selling badly and buying terribly.
Mourinho inherited a midfield of Rooney, Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin, wingers of Depay and Januzaj. This re-build has come a long way but it's still got a long way to go.
Keep in mind the player material in every one of those situations was of course very good, but also they performed badly under the old coach and the squads were not transformed in huge scale. Some guys like Heynckes or Zidane couldn‘t make big signings and Valverde even lost his second best player.
Keep in mind the calibre of player Zidane, Heynckes and Valverde have at their disposal in comparison to United. You think Real Madrid would have won 3 CL's with Blind, Darmian, Jones, Rojo, Shaw, Young, Fellaini, etc etc etc.... come on. We have 1 world class player and that's DDG, Real Madrid have about 5 so changing the manager will allow a new manager to influence WORLD CLASS PLAYERS to win things. You change Mourinho, it's not going to turn Phil Jones into Sergio Ramos, Fellaini into Kroos, Martial into Ronaldo..... come on.
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