I'd say the people who suggest the likes of Cantona,Neville and Giggs,who has been attached to a long running meme, are generally joking.
Man Utd set to appoint Director of Football (when hell freezes over)
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Some are joking, but some are deadly serious.
I'd cut him a little bit of slack given how little first team experience he had when he joined the club (only a season and a half). He's not been a runaway success but he's not been a flop either. I'd probably rank him a solid 6. Which is the same i'd rank Matic. While Pogba and Lukaku get a 7. Ibra an 8 and everyone else 5 or less. I don't think any player has really come in and made a huge obvious difference though. That's the real concern for me, none of the signings look like obvious clear improvements to what we had previously.
Pogba is a clear and obvious improvement to what we had previously.
Baffled that people would rank Ibra's contribution over his.
Baffled that people would rank Ibra's contribution over his.
Same defense that kept most clean sheets and gave second fewest goals last season?
Maybe we should ask our manager what changed? If the system is now attacking setup I would ask Jose to change it back, its not like we scoring for fun in this "new" fluid attacking system . But we are leaking goals at a alarming rate.
To be fair it's not really the same defence.
Last year:
Young--Jones--Smalling--Valencia
This year:
Shaw--Lindelof--Smalling--Young
Smalling is the only player who has retained his spot. Young has switched sides and seems to be struggling a lot more defensively on the right, and Jones (comfortably our second best central defender last season) has been replaced by Lindelof. I expect Jones or Rojo (whichever regains fitness first) to go straight into the team when they get back. As much shit as they get, Jones and even Rojo are better defensively than Lindelof and a very shaky Bailly.
Shaw has also taken over the leftback spot, but that's probably a net positive.
By same defence probably means same players available for selection which is correct.
But have we really? Depends what you mean with "spent" I guess.
I would say that we have invested 400m under Mourinho. In players. The net worth of that investment is probably not less today, one could argue that just Pogba is worth double for example.
So this is not "spending" meaning that we are throwing cash to the sheep. When you say things like we are not getting bang for a buck you are kinda insinuationg that we have lost this money "spent". Which we really have not.
In todays market the real cost for the clubs is the wage bill. And we have the largest in the PL depending on which report you want to believe.
My point with this argument is that one should maybe stop with judging managers on transfer value or "net spend" (stupid term). Its really not relevant as long as the transfer market doesnt crash.
We have money to invest in players, that has not been the issue since the Glazers took over, however much people want to push this narrative.
That said: I would give Mourinho a 2+ on a 1-5 scale for his transfer business. But it has nothing to do with how much he has spent in transfer fees. Its because that the players that do cost the club money has not performed.
The easily most expensive deal under Mourinho isnt Pogba or Lukaku. They will be worth the same or more if we decide to get rid. Its the Alexis deal even if he essentially came on a free (factoring in Mikhy).
That deal bleeds the club and based on his performance its not a good one for Mourinho.
Love a bit of net spend banter.
Same players in the squad, but some of them haven't actually been available. I'm not saying those players being injured is the only cause (it's certainly not), but it is a contributing factor that shouldn't be forgotten.
Stop autoerotic asphyxiating on our noodle sponsor wrappers you pillock and fire the coward on the touchline.
Mourinho's just gone studs up on Chinless 
"Juventus is champion seven years in a row and are not happy with what they have. They want more. They have Barzagli, Chiellini, Rugani. They want more. They go for Bonucci."
That's why we'll never ben in Juventus' league whilst the Glazers and Woodward are here.
Get used to it. We can go through as many managers as we want.
"Juventus is champion seven years in a row and are not happy with what they have. They want more. They have Barzagli, Chiellini, Rugani. They want more. They go for Bonucci."
That's why we'll never ben in Juventus' league whilst the Glazers and Woodward are here.
Get used to it. We can go through as many managers as we want.
Mourinho's just gone studs up on Chinless
"Juventus is champion seven years in a row and are not happy with what they have. They want more. They have Barzagli, Chiellini, Rugani. They want more. They go for Bonucci."
That's why we'll never ben in Juventus' league whilst the Glazers and Woodward are here.
Get used to it. We can go through as many managers as we want.
If Ed gives Mourinho any more money to waste on players he can throw under the bus at a seconds notice it would be a disgrace .
We are failing because we have a manager who doesn't trust his players and certainly can't inspire or improve them
I honestly feel for the poor feckers who think the next manager will do anything of note here.
It's the hope that will kill you.
I don't think there's a single Mourinho long term success story in terms of transfers. Ed needs a DOF not to help him, but to help Jose. Jose just hasn't got a clue in the current market of the last 3 years.
I don't trust Mourinho's transfer vision at all. Almost as bad as LvG.
I don't trust Mourinho's transfer vision at all. Almost as bad as LvG.
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Really the fact we might get a manager that doesn't prefer to criticise his players at every opportunity but instead wants to work with them and try to win matches and play football .
You are right that would be horrible
At this point both need to go. Jose for underachieving, considering recent results and Ed for his overall "contribution".
Regardless of Ed, Mourinho has spent and yet isn't even using his new £50mill midfielder, why? A vetoed central defender would not change this entire situation around at all.
This is spot on. Mourinho will get sacked, and then the posters on here will have another devil to chastise and abuse.You can't just hire a manager, give him loads of money and expect him to run the footballing operations of the club. Scouting, recruitment and long term planning is what makes a club, not money.
Have a look at what the Arsenal heads did; they hired a DoF and revamped their scouting BEFORE the manager left. We did that 4 years after SAF left. Jurgen Klopp did not specifically demand Mane or Salah, he wanted some players from the Bundesliga. Liverpool's scouting convinced him to get them.
A specialised individual will almost always outperform a single person that tries to do everything.
Lets all pretend like the CBs didn't play well today, and that the CBs were the issue
They're terrible bringing the ball out of defence.
Isnt Jones fit now? He played 3-4 games ago
Then play another way ffs, has nothing to do with Lukaku being totally MIA yet again does it?
We've tried to disguise it or play around it.
It's difficult to be a top level side if your centre halves can't help build up and aren't comfortable 1 vs 1 when pushed up the pitch.
Indeed I mean not like Benfica played any top sides in the UCL with Lindelof at CB or anything.... Excuses excuses excuses
Its getting a bit pathetic now
When he have the ball in the final third we are utterly clueless and that has nothing to do with the CBs what so ever.
Our delivery from wide areas is total rubbish again nothing to do with the CBs
Our CF is not even playing the game again nothing to do with the CBs
Our DM isn't tracking runners from midfield again nothing to do with the CBs
But lets keep talking about CBs like its going to magically make us a better side
Ed, if you are reading this then do your bloody job and sack Mourinho!
Well said! It really is getting tiresome now.
Exactly
Deserves to be ridiculed by his employee. Jose isn't the kind of person a club should keep past his expiry date. If the sacking comes at a later point in the season it would mean we wasted this period we could have used to salvage our season.
Hit the nail right on the head. Something I've been thinking for since summer.
Mate, you're wasting your time. You'd think our CBs played in the conference before we found them.
@montpelier that’s what I was talking about in the other thread, board is blamed fully and Jose victimised by some. That’s what sets it all of when there’s clear lack of objectivity flying around from Jose fans. Apparently, Boateng instead of Lindelof would have made us Barcelona.
ah right - yeah I see if the focus is entirely Mourinho whines about Centre backs then you refocus on that as another stick to beat Nourinho with, I can see how you are looking at things
I don't think anyone is right if you polarize it that much though. Mourinho doesn't help, Mourinho doesn't even help himself as far as we are concerned. But it still isn't all the fault of Mourinho. Or about a ''The Players the Great'' vs ''The Players are not Great'' argument. These players are a team full of faultlines before they even start. CB, DM, CF too many faultlines to be helping the players where the jury is still out (Rashford, Martial lets say)
Haven't even mentioned Young & Valencia - but I will now, some of this started a long time ago - in the last 2-3 years of SAF even, short termism, renewals rather than big money investment then we got Moyes & LVG and on we go, pointing the finger at Mourinho for everything from last minute equalizers to evry daft thing he says being the end of the World
I dunno - I don't think things are looking very good though, however we choose to target our frustrations.
So basically all our problems will be solved when we get the centre half that Jose wants. Lukaku will automatically become better at controlling the ball and bringing others into play. Matic will stops watching players go past him. Fred will be in the starting lineup doing something. Alexis Sanchez will stop running into players. You can't really believe this.
The above mentioned players in addition to Lindelof and bailey are his buys and they are all absolute shit. Even if Jose stays he should not be incharge of buying or identifying players. A compiled list should be given to him which he can say yes or no to. He hasn't got a scooby doo of United's needs.
The ineptness of Woodward and our board cannot be understated. Proper successful clubs would have sacked Jose after Sevilla. We used to laugh at Chelsea and Perez for their hastiness. Chelsea is the most successful english club of the last decade due to it and Real have won all of the CLs due to not accepting mediocrity.
I refuse to be brainwashed by Jose.
Jones, Smalling, Lindelof, Bailly, Young, Valencia, Darmian, Rojo and Shaw are all brilliant.
We should be competing for the league with those players.
Ed was right in the summer.
Jones, Smalling, Lindelof, Bailly, Young, Valencia, Darmian, Rojo and Shaw are all brilliant.
We should be competing for the league with those players.
Ed was right in the summer.
Well said.
The only justifiable reason for not sacking Mourinho is that the board haven’t been able to go for the bloke they want. Because there is no other viable reason for him being here.
No they aren't. However Mou should cut the excuses and get on with his job.
Mou spent alot of time during the press conference praising Juventus and how they buy the 'best'. Which is kind of ironic considering how much they spent on it.
Sandro was bought from Porto for 26m euros
Cancelo was signed for 35m from Valencia after spending a year at Inter.
Chiellini was bought on cheap
Bonucci was brought back in a swap deal with Caldara (rated 35m euros)
Betancur was bought from Boca for 9.4m euros
Matuidi was bought from PSG for a 20m + 10m fee
Lets have a look at his transfers in defence. In his first year he spent 34m on Bailly. In his second year he spent 31m on Lindelof and 40m on Matic and this summer he spent 20m on Dalot. That's 125m worth of talent and yet the defence is nowhere near as fixed. Lindelof and Bailly aren't first team level, we still play Young as RB and Matic is already showing signs of ageing.
Juve have a far and superior structure than us and their transfer strategy is excellent. Most of their signings would have been absolutely slaughtered by United fans if United did it as most of them are either not flashy or even old players for 1-2 seasons.
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