I have a really bad feeling this summer is going to be a complete shambles.
Multiple times over the past week we’ve heard this is a ‘decent squad that finished second’, Rangnick has left and a position we’ve needed to strengthen for years seems to be targeting a player who doesn’t want to join the club.
You can have ETH, Pep or whoever managing the club, whilst it’s a circus behind the scenes we’ll never get back to the top.
Let’s say ETH doesn’t work and we’re mid table in January? what then? sack another manager after he’s spunked another summer budget on players the next manager doesn’t want? meh load of shite.
You make it sounds like this is a "Damned if we do, damned if we don't" summer. Whether we buy new players or not, you'd find a negative perspective.
To me, the jury is still out regarding this summer. What should be used as a metric for this summer's success is not the stardom level of players we bring in. It's how the profiles of these upcoming signings fit with our game-plan vision.
I guess you are having bad feelings about this summer because of a mismatch of all our scouting elements throughout these months: Ralf Rangnick mostly suggested Bundesliga gems, while Ten Hag seems to prefer nimble, technical players from Holland/Erendivisie (I'm not even mentioning another side that is our scouts's recommendation which consists mostly British players or trendy Premier League "proven" stars).
How we would fare next season depends a lot on this summer. If Ten Hag targets players based on their profiles and how they would fit in his philosophy, then I'm all for giving him and our board the benefits of doubt this summer. Rangnick wanted our team to press for the ball high-up on the pitch and immediately progress the ball vertically within 10 seconds, hence we had rumours with targets like Nkunku, Haidara... Ten Hag, on the contrary, prefers his team having fluent buildup from the back (More similar to City than Liverpool). Based on the rumours we get after his appointment, I think the profile of players we scouted have been quite consistent with Ten Hag's brand of football:
- 1 DLF (De Jong)
- 1 CDM (Kante)
- 1 CB (Pau Torres)
- 1 RB (Timber)
- 1 CF (Nunez/Nkunku)
- 1 RW (Bergwijn/Antony)
It is not hard to picture to an extent the kind of football Ten Hag wants to build here. How successful it would be is still a question. But the way our team have conducted transfer business until now has at leaset earned them this summer to me:
1) We revoked Pogba's contract offer. The old United under Woodward would have caved in to Pogba's demands immediately after there were links regarding Pogba to City. Would have looked no different from PSG and the way they handed everything to Mbappe on a silver platter. But the current United board didn't fall for Pogba's bait.
2) We seem to not plan on dithering the whole summer for De Jong. Instead we stepped up and told him to make up his mind, so we could move on to other targets. This is how a top club supposedly operates and conducts themselves in business.
3) Even taking Erik ten Hag on-board was something the current United reign should be credited for. An up and coming manager, who everyone thought was destined for Manchester City, joined United because he supposedly believed in the "project" we want to build here. REAL great men search challenges, not comfort. Ten Hag having the gut to join such a massive job like United (Even cutting short his old Ajax contract earlier by tens of days) really earned my respect. And I'm sure his workaholic, obsession-to-football attitude would rub on our players. We definitely need them to step up in both their games and their mentality.
Just some early signs, I know. But those are enough to give us hope this summer and realize things are NOT that doom-and-gloom like in the past few days.