Mourinho : "Transfer spend is not enough"

haram said:
We needed players of that calibre. Chelsea and City have top talents like Hazard and Aguero. We need to also have special players if we are to compete.
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I don't care who City or Chelsea have, that's got nothing to do with how Mourinho chose to spend his significant WarChest

I'll simplify it for you, and make it topical, you invite your Boss round to yours for Christmas Dinner, again i'll simplify it, you've got a £10 budget, do you pay £9 for a Turkey, knowing you've only got £1 left to get the extras(veg, drink, pressie for your Boss, Christmas pudding/gateau etc etc), or do you buy a £5 Chicken ??

Not suggesting Pogba or Lukaku are a Turkey, or for that matter a Chicken, but......
 
Class of 63 said:
I don't care who City or Chelsea have, that's got nothing to do with how Mourinho chose to spend his significant WarChest

I'll simplify it for you, and make it topical, you invite your Boss round to yours for Christmas Dinner, again i'll simplify it, you've got a £10 budget, do you pay £9 for a Turkey, knowing you've only got £1 left to get the extras(veg, drink, pressie for your Boss, Christmas pudding/gateau etc etc), or do you buy a £5 Chicken ??

Not suggesting Pogba or Lukaku are a Turkey, or for that matter a Chicken, but......
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Well does it not depend on who the "chicken" is.... and if the chicken is actually any good or not. If it doesn't fill me up or gives me food poisoning, I dont want it. Poor analogy tbf.

We needed players of Pogba's level. If you think we didn't I dont know what to tell you.
 
Class of 63 said:
I don't care who City or Chelsea have, that's got nothing to do with how Mourinho chose to spend his significant WarChest

I'll simplify it for you, and make it topical, you invite your Boss round to yours for Christmas Dinner, again i'll simplify it, you've got a £10 budget, do you pay £9 for a Turkey, knowing you've only got £1 left to get the extras(veg, drink, pressie for your Boss, Christmas pudding/gateau etc etc), or do you buy a £5 Chicken ??

Not suggesting Pogba or Lukaku are a Turkey, or for that matter a Chicken, but......
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Yeah you're right we should have signed drinkwater for 30, happy with Matic? So drinkwater and Matic. Save the Lukaku money let's see whol get us goals that we desperately needed. Lacazette, oh wait he was 55m and scores less. Chris wood. He's going alright with burnley. Or you know what, keep Rooney he's banging them in and get your boss waitroses best veg with what we saved.

As cute as your example is, it's completely and utterly off the mark.

Unless, like so many many many posters you can give me a squad turnover from van gaal, that's better than what we have with same budget, same size and got rid of players we needed then replaced
 
haram said:
Well does it not depend on who the "chicken" is.... and if the chicken is actually any good or not. If it doesn't fill me up or gives me food poisoning, I dont want it. Poor analogy tbf.

We needed players of Pogba's level. If you think we didn't I dont know what to tell you.
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If the aim or the analogy was to simplify- it achieved it's goal - it just simplified to the point it has no basis in reality and how football works
 
He's just not the man for the job if this is how he feels about current matters. In what works is our transfer spend not enough? He's only missed out on one player since coming here and he missed that player by a few million, a few million he could of easily made in the market if he didn't think the likes of Fellaini were good enough to play for the club.

When he had what was then by far the biggest budget in the world at Chelsea, we didn't sit and moan about the money they had. Sir Alex put things in place for them to be toppled. Developing young players and then getting great value in the market.

We need a manager who can get the best put of his players, not one that consistently moans about what he has. Also need a manager who can build a cohesive attacking unit. A manager that understands the development of young players.
 
SER19 said:
Yeah you're right we should have signed drinkwater for 30, happy with Matic? So drinkwater and Matic. Save the Lukaku money let's see whol get us goals that we desperately needed. Lacazette, oh wait he was 55m and scores less. Chris wood. He's going alright with burnley. Or you know what, keep Rooney he's banging them in and get your boss waitroses best veg with what we saved.

As cute as your example is, it's completely and utterly off the mark.

Unless, like so many many many posters you can give me a squad turnover from van gaal, that's better than what we have with same budget, same size and got rid of players we needed then replaced
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I read your post (#1066) earlier and i'll take you up on your challenge, I would have taken you up on it sooner but I went a made myself a Turkey sandwich :lol:

It'll be tomorrow now, but be ready to be surprised.

ps. Who is the Arbiter of value ?
 
Williams1960 said:
Pep got

De bruyne not on the level he is at now
Sterling? See du bruyne
Fernandinho will be replaced. Decent player.
Silva class
Aguero injury prone but class

Mourinho got:

De gea. Best keeper in the world and the reason why we are 10 points better off this yr.
Shaw best young full back in the country.
Martial the most expensive teen ever.
Mata was world class at Chelsea. Not much between him and silva.
Rooney. Still was just 31. Record goal scorer and has his worst season ever under mourinho.
Rashford. Best young player possibly in the world. Unbelievable under lvg for his age.
Herrera as good as fernandinho, wanted by barca (never would say it now with how he has regressed under jose)

Sterling and de bruyne go up levels under pep.

Martial, rashford and Shaw regress under jose.

What's the plan and vision under jose?
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:lol:

There are so many wrong things in this post that I don't even know where to begin.
 
RooneyLegend said:
He's just not the man for the job if this is how he feels about current matters. In what works is our transfer spend not enough? He's only missed out on one player since coming here and he missed that player by a few million, a few million he could of easily made in the market if he didn't think the likes of Fellaini were good enough to play for the club.

When he had what was then by far the biggest budget in the world at Chelsea, we didn't sit and moan about the money they had. Sir Alex put things in place for them to be toppled. Developing young players and then getting great value in the market.

We need a manager who can get the best put of his players, not one that consistently moans about what he has. Also need a manager who can build a cohesive attacking unit. A manager that understands the development of young players.
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^

The whole not enough money is pure utter bullshit. Our attacking movement has been static and piss poor for 3 seasons now. Hell it was arguably better under Moyes because of the leftover Fergie effect. Now we’re just devoid of ideas other than hoof crosses in like brainless automatons, and that’s all down to coaching.
 
Class of 63 said:
I read your post (#1066) earlier and i'll take you up on your challenge, I would have taken you up on it sooner but I went a made myself a Turkey sandwich :lol:

It'll be tomorrow now, but be ready to be surprised.

ps. Who is the Arbiter of value ?
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I look forward to it, fair play. I suppose any player that did move sticks to same value and others use your discretion
 
Hated Mourinho before he got to United and still feel the same way about him. Doesn't mean he's not a good manager or shouldn't have the job but he is just an utter prick. Some of the things that come out of his mouth are just comical
 
SER19 said:
Ok let's settle it. 300m budget for you from the day Jose arrived. Post your squad having used that money as you feel he should have. Bearing mind that these players he should have competing for the League had finished 4th 7th and 6th prior to his arrival. I want a well balanced side that should be top or second (which we are) and competing in Europe with the 300m. 22-25 players squad that's better than what we have

This is not just for dobbs this is for anybody who thinks what he has spent should have us at the top again.

As an aside I feel Pogba looks a better bargain with each crazy signing so that's 90m of your budget done - there's no way I can see us building anything without a player of his calibre
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You're asking posters to do what a clubs full worldwide scouting network does. It's an unfair question. You're also missing the main complaint, that the players he already has could be playing better than they are.

But in anycase that wasn't the point I'm making. I'm saying let's not start pretending we haven't spent a large amount of money just because VVD has moved for a crazy fee. Why compare all our transfers to specifically VVD.

SER19 said:
Yeah he cherry picked our core to suit but out of interest what 5 would you say he inherited as a core. Personally I think van gaal left a core of de gea, smalling, Herrera, rashford and martial. Not having a go but you're being pretty stubborn to cite Valencia jones smalling and young as key players to inherit when about 90% of the forum thinks these players aren't good enough and young being a revelation this year should be to his and mourinhos credit
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Mourinho inherited a very good set of defenders and goalkeepers. We were well drilled and not letting many goals in before he arrived, Mourinho has carried on with those same players and we've continued to be solid. Mourinho relies heavily on a good defense so that was a real boost.

It's absurd to do a comparison between what the two managers inherited and leave those out.
 
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This whole saga is looking like his final seasons at Real Madrid and Chelsea all over again and this is my worry. When you throw everybody under the boss and save your face in the process, most players would never say a word but foundations would begin to have been laid for down-tooling.

At the start of the season both managers, off the top of my head, had the following players available for starting positions:

Bravo
Zabaleta Stones Otamendi Clichy Fernandinho De Bruyne Silva
Sterling Aguero Sane

De Gea
Valencia Smalling Baily Shaw
Fellaini Pogba
Mata Mkhitaryan Martial
Ibrahimovic

My starting eleven would consist of the bolded but there's a point worth noting about that city team namely that they were very thin on actual central midfielders. They had old Yaya, Fernandinho and Fernando in their ranks but had to improvise by getting attacking midfielders to play that role. It has worked big time but at the time it never looked like a wise decision as Silva was considered too fragile to thrive in the mid field hustle and bustle and De Bruyne was fond of loosing the ball rather easily and would easily get tired in the center. It's only because it has now worked that we can include them in the joint starting XI but going into the season lots of people thought that city was such an imbalanced side with a lot of attacking midfielders who loved to play centrally and could only get shafted wide because they could not all play behind the striker. It was a problem for them in Pellegrini's era because they often played one of De Bruyne and Silva out of position (on the wings).

I also recall that they actually wanted to sign Pogba because every man and his dog knew that they needed a replacement for the powerhouse that Yaya Toure once was but baulked at the price. I even remember that at the time, I was very jittery that were going to sign Pogba when it all seemed like it was going to happen. I wanted Real Madrid to steal the deal because at the time for some reason I never thought we'd pull that transfer.

Whilst I understand that we all have our different preferences I don't think there was such a big gulf between the two teams as such. I don't believe they were better in the goalkeeping department, I don't believe they were better in central defense, I don't believe they were better in full back positions, I don't believe they were better in central midfield (without the improvisation), I don't believe they were better on the wings as well. Attacking midfield position, I'll give you that one. Center forward, again I'll give that to you. They have the better players there. Let's talk about Conte. You'd expect a title wining team to perform as such with a new manager (the previous manager had been sacked) in a new season after they down tooled the previous one. But guess what, they were shambolic. And if you watched Liverpool vs Chelsea where the latter were torn to shreds you'd understand what I'm saying. But from then on, Conte actually looked inwards and gave he league something we previously had not seen, at least not in that magnitude. The 3-4-3 winning code that none was able to sufficiently crack. I am not a Chelsea fan but if I do not acknowlege it's brilliance, I'd be lying to myself.

We also forget that the Jose knows this league like the back of his palm going into his first season with us compared to Conte and Pep so the argument that he started on a lower pedestal has to take this point into consideration also.

I feel so sorry for Martial at this point because I know he can do more. See people have different temperaments but if you take the number 9 shirt for me and give it to another guy, It would piss me off and I won't utter a word about it but I could give 80% of my commitment and expect the manager to rely on that guy that got my shirt to deliver for him. You see players don't talk all the time but when a manager can readily throw them under the bus, sooner or later they'll begin to do their talking behind the scenes and before the screens on matchdays. I read an article on Sterling few weeks or months ago where Pep was getting praised for how Sterling seemed to have improved
him but he dodged the glory and said it was all down to Sterling because he was becoming less active on social media. If you were that player wouldn't you run through the wall for your manager? See its not always all about yourself. That attitude will produce another Real Madrid and Chelsea debacle.

I think there is a genius of a player somewhere in Martial waiting to be tapped. For such a young lad to have carried the team over the line the way he did it's quite disappointing that he has not hit his heights since then. People have differing preferences in football but I for one would love to see Rashford play more centrally. Yes he's still raw and all the that but I think he wouldn't do any worse than Sterling who for all his inconsistency still does deliver. I had great hopes in the young lad and still do. We seem to have forgotten how highly rated this young lad once was. I don't think we would lack bite in attack if we played Martial and Rashers off him, flanked by world class (or near world class) wide attackers like Mahrez.

At the end of the day it's all about the manager's preference but when it doesn't work out, its only fair we point out that person who made the decision was wrong.

I know we are second on the league table but that's a false sense of security because Burnley are closer to us than we are to City and so if fans express concern on the back of back-to-back average performances, they have a right to do so. See position on the table doesn’t determine points but points determine table positions. So its plausible that a team in 3rd can go as low as 6th in one single matchday. It's fair to look at our number of points compared to our rivals and our recent performances rather than actual position on the table and have a discussion about it.

I could come here and defend Jose but I owe it a duty to my conscience to tell it as I see it.

Apologies for the long post.
 
Dobbs said:
You're asking posters to do what a clubs full worldwide scouting network does. It's an unfair question. You're also missing the main complaint, that the players he already has could be playing better than they are.

But in anycase that wasn't the point I'm making. I'm saying let's not start pretending we haven't spent a large amount of money just because VVD has moved for a crazy fee. Why compare all our transfers to specifically VVD.



Mourinho inherited a very good set of defenders and goalkeepers. We were well drilled and not letting many goals in before he arrived, Mourinho has carried on with those same players and we've continued to be solid. Mourinho relies heavily on a good defense so that was a real boost.

It's absurd to do a comparison between what the two managers inherited and leave those out.
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I think you're being deliberately small minded again. If you don't want to entertain the discussion about how he could have rebuilt the squad with that money without relying on the argument that our global scouting network should find good players then there's no point to the conversation.

It seems in simple terms you're saying: we should have bought players that would win us the league. Nobody can argue with that.

And it's more revisionism and selective wording to start praising the foundations he took over. We were never even near the conversation for second or first in the past three years, we were the 7th and 6th and 4th best team in the league and never deserved higher. He has improved is hugely, results wise if nothing else. Don't like the style of it? Separate discussion. And I'm not saying disregard completely but again youre clearly being deliberately tunnel visioned to not acknowledge the posters point that a team already containing it's core and the current leagues best performers - then added to with MORE money than mourinho- is just a totally different proposition to us.

You can't have a discussion without applying at least a little balance and rational thought. It's not a sign of weakness or being wrong.
 
SER19 said:
I think you're being deliberately small minded again. If you don't want to entertain the discussion about how he could have rebuilt the squad with that money without relying on the argument that our global scouting network should find good players then there's no point to the conversation.

It seems in simple terms you're saying: we should have bought players that would win us the league. Nobody can argue with that.

And it's more revisionism and selective wording to start praising the foundations he took over. We were never even near the conversation for second or first in the past three years, we were the 7th and 6th and 4th best team in the league and never deserved higher. He has improved is hugely, results wise if nothing else. Don't like the style of it? Separate discussion. And I'm not saying disregard completely but again youre clearly being deliberately tunnel visioned to not acknowledge the posters point that a team already containing it's core and the current leagues best performers - then added to with MORE money than mourinho- is just a totally different proposition to us.

You can't have a discussion without applying at least a little balance and rational thought. It's not a sign of weakness or being wrong.
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I won't come up with a list of who we should have bought for a few reasons. The primary one being I actually think he's done alright in the transfer market. I wouldn't differ too much.We should have got a right winger which would have made a big difference but mistakes happen.

The second reason I'm not going to engage in that is because you know what happens. I come up with a list of names and the transfer experts in here will tell me they weren't available or would cost way more than what I think they would. Been there done that. Would be a pointless circular discussion.

This was you just over a year ago:

SER19 said:
We have an incredibly talented squad. There is no two ways about it, we often are guilty of thinking the grass is greener but a squad including de gea, smalling, bailly, shaw, blind, Herrera, pogba, carrick, ibrahimovich, mkitaryan, mata, martial and rashford, not to mention a healthy amount of players that while not necessarily popular with fans are also very talented players of a good age profile and mix of experience to at the very least be competitive in this league.
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In order to be fair I'll point out in the same post you complained about the character of our players and felt the core needed a rebuild.

Well in addition to that "incredibly talented squad" Jose has since bought and spent a lot on that core. A centre back, centre mid and centre forward. Totalling in the region of £150million.

Given the above post of yours I've quoted and the money we've spent since do you still think Jose hasn't had enough to get us playing better and closer than 15 points?
 
giorno said:
Because he had to buy midfielders and strikers, since he inherited a team with neither
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would one more signing in his 1st season and then this summer really have done much damage ? a full back in each and we would have improved
 
Williams1960 said:
Pep got

De bruyne not on the level he is at now
Sterling? See du bruyne
Fernandinho will be replaced. Decent player.
Silva class
Aguero injury prone but class

Mourinho got:

De gea. Best keeper in the world and the reason why we are 10 points better off this yr.
Shaw best young full back in the country.
Martial the most expensive teen ever.
Mata was world class at Chelsea. Not much between him and silva.
Rooney. Still was just 31. Record goal scorer and has his worst season ever under mourinho.
Rashford. Best young player possibly in the world. Unbelievable under lvg for his age.
Herrera as good as fernandinho, wanted by barca (never would say it now with how he has regressed under jose)

Sterling and de bruyne go up levels under pep.

Martial, rashford and Shaw regress under jose.

What's the plan and vision under jose?
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Whatever you are sniffing...I want some.
 
reddaz71 said:
Mourinho is clearly frustrated with trying to compete against a club run by an oil rich state when his employers are the Glazers and Woodward,I think he would jump at the chance of taking the PSG job so he can feel he would be competing with Pep on a level playing field in every respect,rightly he has called out Utds powerbrokers and he wants these guys to know he his in the business of winning trophies and titles not lining the pockets of the owners!!

As for the Glazers themselves we can only hope that they are now starting to get ruffled and majorly alarmed by spiralling,over inflated transfer fees and Mourinho calling them out enough to maybe start taking serious stock of where things might be heading as clearly those particular financial issues will not be in there interests unless as we suspect they are more than happy to just be in the top 4 each season!!!
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Exactly right about the Glazier scum . They did the same with the NFL club they owned .These people have only one interest in life and that is making money and more money and a utd reaching decent levels like 4th or champions quarter finals is still capable of massive profits for them.They need to be forced out somehow
 
Maradona10 said:

But mourinho is wrong.
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What a pointless comparison. 10 years ago United already had assembled a squad and City had to buy one from scratch and who is still playing for either club after that long time?
 
amolbhatia50k said:
So let's celebrate Sir Alex basically? Which I think we should of course.
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Well yeah. City have underachieved since the takeover in relative terms. Up to this season they have never dominated the league, never even put up a serious defence of their title and never reached the CL final. Only this season do they look like getting a real return on their investment. It has been a long time coming really.............£2bn later.
 
mike bird said:
Well, this is funny. Small club Liverpool just bought a defender (mediocre in my opinion) for £75m and people are questioning what Jose said about £300m not being enough.

This makes Pogba buy a bargain, so thank you Jose. Also, Lukaku, a steal, thank you Jose. Lets not talk about Bailly, who is probably worth now close to £150m, when comparing quality.
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:eek: Steady on.
 
Dobbs said:
I won't come up with a list of who we should have bought for a few reasons. The primary one being I actually think he's done alright in the transfer market. I wouldn't differ too much.We should have got a right winger which would have made a big difference but mistakes happen.

The second reason I'm not going to engage in that is because you know what happens. I come up with a list of names and the transfer experts in here will tell me they weren't available or would cost way more than what I think they would. Been there done that. Would be a pointless circular discussion.

This was you just over a year ago:



In order to be fair I'll point out in the same post you complained about the character of our players and felt the core needed a rebuild.

Well in addition to that "incredibly talented squad" Jose has since bought and spent a lot on that core. A centre back, centre mid and centre forward. Totalling in the region of £150million.

Given the above post of yours I've quoted and the money we've spent since do you still think Jose hasn't had enough to get us playing better and closer than 15 points?
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I genuinely don't. I stand by that post and point out that some of the names were mourinho signings. And the fact is that as a result of that squad (that came 6th) being added to well again this year we are now second. And he still has more to sign so for all the bought and all he improved "it's not enough". His business has been good as you say, we still need players as you say so the argument that 290m wasn't enough is clear cut.

Would it be better if we were ten points off city? 8? 6? They're having an absolute freak season they've won 19 from 20. This is not the normal standard to compare to. We can only look within and he has massively improved the squad with good business, and should be backed to do the same again by fans and board

Will concede we could be playing 'better' more often sure, but trust that he's getting us close. Too many short memories here compared to December two years ago he deserves a knighthood!
 
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Dobbs said:
I bore the forums with my opinions all the time. Please don't try to distract with straw men.

If you feel undermined that's down to your own posts Lentwood. Your current posts are a blatant contradiction of your previous.

The reason I've laboured this point is that the forum should be a place for honest, straightforward, chat about football, free of agenda.
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I’m not sure what my agenda is? If I do have one I suppose it’s not wanting us to keep sacking managers! I wasn’t on RedCafe during the Moyes era but I always supported LvG (I’m sure you will probably dig up a post from 2015 where I criticise him for something!)

I also want everyone just to calm down a bit and try and enjoy it for what it is. Maybe I’m in a minority but on the whole I don’t find us boring and I’ve enjoyed this season much more than any post-SAF
 
NJM78 said:
Whatever you are sniffing...I want some.
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It's over the top, but there is some merit to it. When they arrived, it wasn't necessarily in the cards that Sterling would be ahead of Martial, that Sane would outperform Rashford or that Shaw was a bust. Pep has made a frighteningly good forward line with three kids - None of who were exactly the envy of other top teams when he came in.

Although Silva was obviously better than Mata, both looked to be going over the hill 18 months ago. Only one of them had a rennaissance.

Rooney was a busted flush well before Mourinho came and Herrera was never as good as Fernandinho.

Besides spending more, city are spending better and getting a fair bit more out of the players they have.
 
Ramshock said:
How old are they again?
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23 - Lindelof, 24 - Lukaku and 28 - Mkhi. Too old for the under-18s, where some of their performances belong.

Let's be honest here, they aren't exactly young players waiting for their first opportunity. They are established players.
 
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SER19 said:
I genuinely don't. I stand by that post and point out that some of the names were mourinho signings. And the fact is that as a result of that squad (that came 6th) being added to well again this year we are now second. And he still has more to sign so for all the bought and all he improved "it's not enough". His business has been good as you say, we still need players as you say so the argument that 290m wasn't enough is clear cut.

Would it be better if we were ten points off city? 8? 6? They're having an absolute freak season they've won 19 from 20. This is not the normal standard to compare to. We can only look within and he has massively improved the squad with good business, and should be backed to do the same again by fans and board

Will concede we could be playing 'better' more often sure, but trust that he's getting us close. Too many short memories here compared to December two years ago he deserves a knighthood!
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Well....yeah. If we were only 6 off we'd still be firmly in a title race.

I just don't get how you thought we had
an incredibly talented squad a year ago, have significantly added to it since and still think this is the best we can do.

My only conclusion can be is that huge stock has been put on this 2nd position and qualifying from a very easy CL group.

I suppose we'll see as the season progresses. It'll be interesting see how the various posters respond(including myself) depending on how we do from now until May.
 
do.ob said:
What a pointless comparison. 10 years ago United already had assembled a squad and City had to buy one from scratch and who is still playing for either club after that long time?
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After Moyes & LVG disasters we have a shit squad and have to buy one... but nope Mourinho is killing football.
 
royboy16 said:
Interesting that from 2013 onwards that there wasn't that much difference in spending between both clubs.
674/776
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They had a better squad, better talents, better structure and a better academy. 100 million in spending (2 full backs or one griezmann or one serge milinkovic or 1.5 debruyne, 2 sterlings, 3 sane's i could go on....) 100 million more on this squad and we would be close if not equal to city.
 
Unfortunately I kind of agree with Mourinho. We’ve been lagging behind since the last couple of seasons under Fergie in my opinion, transfer wise. The football world has completely changed with Chelsea, City and PSG. I’m not sure we’ll see the dominance we had under Fergie ever again.

There is no doubt in my mind that we’re still going to have to throw a shit load of money at the team to catch up with the likes of City but even then I’m getting this horrible feeling that there’s more to do within the club too.
 
B20 said:
It's over the top, but there is some merit to it. When they arrived, it wasn't necessarily in the cards that Sterling would be ahead of Martial, that Sane would outperform Rashford or that Shaw was a bust. Pep has made a frighteningly good forward line with three kids - None of who were exactly the envy of other top teams when he came in.

Although Silva was obviously better than Mata, both looked to be going over the hill 18 months ago. Only one of them had a rennaissance.

Rooney was a busted flush well before Mourinho came and Herrera was never as good as Fernandinho.

Besides spending more, city are spending better and getting a fair bit more out of the players they have.
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Sterling was very good at Liverpool and that's why City splurged 50m on him although he did lose some form but he is young and that's the reason Rashford is slipping, yes Jose plays him more defensively but youngsters generally are inconsistent just like Sterling was. I have no doubt Sane will have a dip in the next season or so. I personally think Rashford is slightly overrated and I believe Martial to be the better player with a wider ceiling. He did sulk last year after losing his number 9 and splitting with his wife but he has improved this year though not on the level of Sane/Sterling. Rashford although decent stats looks worryingly short of any form.

Silva though is miles ahead of Mata, I like Juan, but I would take Silva everyday over him. Fernandinho is a better player than Herrera but not much difference I guess. Rooney had well and truly lost it.

Shaw was fecked after leg break, Pep would have made no difference. He is now being trusted though, it has just taken this long and many have commented on his desire, commitment, diet etc which played a factor it seems. Pep didn't think 'I will improve my full backs after one season' instead he just got rid of them all and bought new ones! Jose didn't have that luxury as his hand was forced to buy a striker with Zlatan injury, imo we would have bought a 9 this summer not last.
I dont think Jose buys have been bad, Matic and Pogba definitely improved us, Mkhi was only 27m (cheap these days) and he has disappointed for sure after being the most creative player in European football the season before. Bailly looks promising but unfortunately injured all the time, Zlatan did very well before injury and Lindelof jury is still out. Cant fault it too much.

City well and truly underachieved last season for me and I think United are overachieving this year. I think we will finish 4th as I have predicted all season, City lead will just increase for me as momentum is well and truly with them and they do have a very good manager, just like we have although very different approaches. City have the better squad, confidence, form all of it and will only strengthen further with unlimited funds. That is what Jose is worried about in presser, we are a great club but not a great team, City have a great team but they're nowhere near our level as a club - United are obliged to win leagues and so is he, both will not with the current squad.
 
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NJM78 said:
Sterling was very good at Liverpool and that's why City splurged 50m on him although he did lose some form but he is young and that's the reason Rashford is slipping, yes Jose plays him more defensively but youngsters generally are inconsistent just like Sterling was. I have no doubt Sane will have a dip in the next season or so. I personally think Rashford is slightly overrated and I believe Martial to be the better player with a wider ceiling. He did sulk last year after losing his number 9 and splitting with his wife but he has improved this year though not on the level of Sane/Sterling. Rashford although decent stats looks worrying short of any form.

Silva though is miles ahead of Mata, I like Juan, but I would take Silva everyday over him. Fernandinho is a better player than Herrera but not much difference I guess. Rooney had well and truly lost it.

Shaw was fecked after leg break, Pep would have made no difference. He is now being trusted though, it has just taken this long and many have commented on his desire, commitment, diet etc which played a factor it seems. Pep didn't think 'I will improve my full backs after one season' instead he just got rid of them all and bought new ones! Jose didn't have that luxury as his hand was forced to buy a striker with Zlatan injury, imo we would have bought a 9 this summer not last.
I dont think Jose buys have been bad, Matic and Pogba definitely improved us, Mkhi was only 27m (cheap these days) and he has disappointed for sure after being the most creative player in European football the season before. Bailly looks promising but unfortunately injured all the time, Zlatan did very well before injury and Lindelof jury is still out. Cant fault it too much.

City well and truly underachieved last season for me and I think United are overachieving this year. I think we will finish 4th as I have predicted all season, City lead will just increase for me as momentum is well and truly with them and they do have a very good manager, just like we have although very different approaches. City have the better squad, confidence, form all of it and will only strengthen further with unlimited funds. That is what Jose is worried about in presser, we are a great club but not a great team, City have a great team but they nowhere near our level as a club - United are obliged to win leagues and so is he, both will not with the current squad.
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His buys have been fine - Just not as good as city's. But really, as a club you should stop looking at what city are doing and focus on how you are progressing as a team on your own terms. Mourinho may not be doing a world class job for you, but he's steadied the ship and put you on an upward trajectory as a club again. I imagine he will keep doing that for the time being, even if it is not as fast as some people want. I don't really see how you can afford to jeopardize that.
 
Maradona10 said:
100 million more on this squad and we would be close if not equal to city.
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200 million wouldn't bring you close. Why are you guys doing this even? City have lost 2 frigging points all season. No one catches up to that. No one. It's fantasy to talk about how you catch up with that. You wait a season and wait for them to reach a human level again.
 
...well, personally, I would rather hold on to any money we have this season, and think a little further ahead. We aren't going to win the Premiership, and I cannot see us winning the Champions League (unless we are MIGHTY lucky), there are simply too many teams better than us.

What I wish to see is a more confident United attacking team (and the fact that this is now a hope or request is the biggest issue here...). I also wish to see the manager get the best out of the current players. If we are going to do any business, then it would be to simply offload some who are not good enough, and get some money in.

Jose thinks this is monopoly, and still has a 2006/7 mentality. These 'I need money, money, money' managers are out of date. Yes, budgets are important, but the quality of coaching, and playing strategy is now being scrutinised, more than ever in this media and stats heavy environment ( Look at Newcastle's performance last night, simply disgraceful) Mourinho is struggling to deal with a change in the football world, and throwing more money at him isn't going to change anything.
 
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