Ole says this season will be used to find next season’s squad

He’s right in what he’s saying, you don’t sell experienced players and replace them with young players and academy products and expect to compete right away.
We did right letting go of the players we did even if it’s set us back a bit this season, we needed to get the wage bill down and reset the squad.
If results stay poor and Solskjær has to go, we should bring in someone who will carry on what we’re trying to do rather than bring in another short term option like Mourinho was.
 
I think Ole is desperately trying to buy himself some more time. Was it LVG who asked the fans to judge him after 3 months, and then later revised that to 3 seasons?

The sad truth is the Ole experiment has failed in spectacular fashion. Even Moyes wasn't this bad. He is and always was just meant to be a stopgap, a temporary solution as a caretaker manager whilst we recruited a sporting director and a more competent manager with better credentials. Instead we appointed the Molde manager full term and are almost too embarrassed to sack him because of sentiment or whatever; and just when it looks like the writing's on the wall he'll pull a result out of the hat that'll keep Woody off his back.

I know he's in his dream job at the club he loves, but I wish Ole would do the right thing and realise he's way out of his depth and step down, because this club aren't proactive enough to sack him. It will be the best thing he can do to avoid tarnishing his legacy and saving the club.

Ok I am not in Ole's favour here but let us not rewrite history. Moyes will always be our worst manager Post Saf. We were in much better situation when he took over and all he did was turn us to a shit version of Everton. He was out of depth from the get go and his goal was to make it harder for teams like Newcastle.

Ole is not doing a brilliant job himself but Moyes started the rot. He was the original incompetent one.
 
Oh yeah of course he was. Going from wanting 5 or 6 at the start of the summer to being happy with 3..

if you don't realise that there is someone in charge of the transfers who over promises and under delivers to the managers, I don't know what to say to you. Mourinho was willing to poison the club over it, and you are dismissive of Ole for keeping a lid on his disappointment to keep a positive atmosphere? Ok
If he wanted players, wouldn't we have been linked to them earlier in the window? Those questions i asked were simple and you can't give me an answer without it reflecting badly on Ole.

Do i think Ole is putting pressure on Woodward behind closed doors? Judging from last summer, no i don't, not in the slightest. You can understand how that might be a problem going forward?
 
Not surprised.
Season was,minor the young players featuring occasionally ,a total write off.
 
This is bad.

When he took over, he couldn't have tactical influence and was just changing the morale -- so the team flew with high spirits on Jose tactics and training.

As time went by it imploded at the end of last season, with a string of awful defeats and everyone including Ole said he needs a good preseason for the team to play how he wants it to play and to have a good transfer window.

Cue season start with record breaking poor performances and now we're heading talks about next season.. with Ole critically blaming it on the squad! He says he'll fix it! It's nothing to do with him, it's the squad!

It's not that all great managers start hot. Fergie, Wenger and more recently Klopp needed time. But none of them did this badly. And certainly many more good/great managers have done a lot better with the same amount of time.

I'm just a little bit surprised because these words out of Ole's mouth is plain shite -- same as you'd hear from any other loser.
 
Just buying more time. He has no clue how to improve it. Some players will leave and others will come in, but in the grand scheme of things, not much will change.

The manager has to do the work on the training field and improve the play. Ole can't, he can only improve by improving the squad with transfers, but not by improving the players and team as a whole. The attacking play in possession is dead and he has no clue how to get better.
 
Ole and Ed will keep having to move the goalposts because neither of them are co percent or qualified to do their jobs. They’ll fail just like they have this season.
 
Not surprised.
Season was,minor the young players featuring occasionally ,a total write off.

Season is still easily salvageable to anyone with ambition. Top 4 isn't even that far away and Europa is achievable.


To give up on it when there was a transfer window we could have quote easily lined up say two reinforcements is an absolute joke.

Another example of kicking the responsibility down the line.
 
Ok I am not in Ole's favour here but let us not rewrite history. Moyes will always be our worst manager Post Saf. We were in much better situation when he took over and all he did was turn us to a shit version of Everton. He was out of depth from the get go and his goal was to make it harder for teams like Newcastle.

Ole is not doing a brilliant job himself but Moyes started the rot. He was the original incompetent one.
Ole is 6 points worse off than Moyes at this point in the season, and he's had longer than him. I think it's close, but neither of these managers should be mentioned in the same breath as Manchester United.
 
He’s right in what he’s saying, you don’t sell experienced players and replace them with young players and academy products and expect to compete right away.
We did right letting go of the players we did even if it’s set us back a bit this season, we needed to get the wage bill down and reset the squad.
If results stay poor and Solskjær has to go, we should bring in someone who will carry on what we’re trying to do rather than bring in another short term option like Mourinho was.

The trouble is it was Solskjaer's decision to make those changes. It was his decision to not go for more experienced players, it was his decision to give Lukaku a second string role, his decision to omit Sanchez to inter with a weakened squad.

People in summer complained about our spending yet Ole reaffirmed that money was more than available. Solskjaer has said that the club will not have contingencies to sign in the market but will go for all priority targets so any short fallings are a direct result of his approach. The reality is we just have a rubbish manager, I cannot see any squad full of fans favourite surnames that will have us competing for the league under Ole.

Ole points to Liverpool's success but doesn't have the intelligence nor the talent from a managerial perspective to make Henderson, Milner, Wjnaldum play above their level. To take Salah, Mane from decent performers to world class individuals. To create one of the best false 9 in Firminho, a Robertson / Trent into two of the best fullbacks in Europe. Look at the development of Fabinho in recent months, much of what Liverpool touches turns into gold dust due to the impetus of coaching. Klopp exemplifies traits that we have seen in Sir Alex in not having the best resources available but making the most by giving his players the belief to excel. We are seeing a similar transition with Leicester this season.
 
Same old arguments. X is doing better so therefore our manager is shit for not matching him. Love it. The reason why we struggle for creativity isn't because we have no creative players, nah, it's being Ole hasn't used his brain to create it. We have one creative player who has been injured for most of the season. Stating that can be coached is myopic and willfully ignorant. There's a reason why Klopp didn't try to 'coach' Mignolet and Lovren into better players and instead went out and spent £140m on replacements. And Pep has spent circa £750m on improving a squad already capable of winning the league. But you expect Ole to turn Fred into Scholes yes? You expect Young to suddenly become an adequate fullback? Complain about how shit the players are, while bemoaning why the manager isn't doing better with them. Flawless logic.

No Lingard doesn't. And that isn't because he's suddenly become a bad player under Ole. Greenwood is a terrific prospect but the notion we should be relying on an 18 year old without any prior first team experience should be setting alarm bells off in your head about the quality and depth of our squad, not to mention Lingard has a massive 1 more appearance in the league then Mason. The refusal to actually drill down into our issues really is incredible.

Oh yeah, it's favouritism alright. As it apparently was with LVG and Jose. That's a line straight out if the school of Ben Shapiro that.

Here here
 
There is clearly a mentality issue in the squad when we are playing the lesser sides, so what else can a manager do other than repeatedly remind these guys that they are playing for their futures.
 
Scott McTominay is average. Daniel James is average. They are ok, but let's be realistic, they are not going to help us get back to the top.

I don't think it takes balls to persist with kids. Not when there is no pressure on the club to succeed. Ole says it's fine losing, it's a long term plan, everyone buys it, sounds like a cushty job to me.

Also, the kids are being developed with what culture? The loser mentality? Team full of losers with no experienced winners is really going to help them reach their full potential isn't it?

Since when do you breed success, inside an environment with no high standards and expectations being set?

We've got a coaching team who don't know what it's like to win anything, coaching a group of young players who don't know what it's like to win anything. That sounds like a flawed plan to me. Like the blind leading the blind to be exact.
It's obvious we are 3 top class players away from resembling a team again.
Ole will live or die by whether those next 3 signings succeed or not. Erling Haaland will be a good start. Kalvin Phillips and James Maddison would complete the rebuild. I wouldn't say no to Grealish also to boost the squad further.
If James Garner can be ready by the start of next season, then we have a creative box to box player to come in when we need to break down Watford, and then Scott McT can come in and take his place when we're playing Liverpool or City, and need a bulldog in midfield snapping at heels.

Getting the right players in is the hard part, but if Ole can get his main targets, this team absolutely can be challenging again by next year.
 
Has anyone read his full quotes or are we just going by the ultimate bellend Sam Luckhurst on the tweet?.

Undoubtedly he will base next squads requirements on how the ongoing evaluation goes along with the current squad. That does not mean he's given up on top 4 or written off the season. Come on, let's criticise him if he actually writes off the season himself. Going by dumbass sensationalist headlines is not what if want to associate the car with.
 
Ole is 6 points worse off than Moyes at this point in the season, and he's had longer than him. I think it's close, but neither of these managers should be mentioned in the same breath as Manchester United.
Context is different. Moyes took over a side that were champions, mentality was totally different of that side. The side we have now is nowhere near what Moyes had. This is not to defend Ole, far from it but It's hard for me to accept anything else than how much of a disaster Moyes was. That is why I said let us not rewrite history. Moyes was horrendous and Ole has some right ideas but don't know how to implement one.
 
There is clearly a mentality issue in the squad when we are playing the lesser sides, so what else can a manager do other than repeatedly remind these guys that they are playing for their futures.

Is there though? They just don't seem to know how to create the right space, make the right runs, play the right pass, etc, I'm not sure a better mentality, or even better players will solve that if they aren't been shown how to do it properly.

It's hard to think of another team that can tear into the top teams like few can, and then look so bereft of ideas against 'inferior teams'.

To me it'd be easier to get behind all this if we were tonking the small teams, and getting outclassed by the bigger ones, then you could see clearly where the issue is.
 
If he wanted players, wouldn't we have been linked to them earlier in the window? Those questions i asked were simple and you can't give me an answer without it reflecting badly on Ole.

Do i think Ole is putting pressure on Woodward behind closed doors? Is he hell, he acts like he darn't rock the boat for fear of losing his dream job.

Lukaku left late in the summer because we wanted more for him. That left us with little time to find a replacement. Ole said that he wanted it to be sorted earlier, it wasn't and we couldn't find the 'right one' so had to leave it for another window and back his current squad. Again the person who sorts the transfers was responsible for the negotiations.

I very much doubt the club are signing players based on instagram so didn't consider that part worth responding to.

We valued Longstaff at £20m, Newcastle put the price to £50m to scare us off, which it rightly did. We didn't offer £50m for him, so you were being completely off your rocker and I didn't respond to it. We only know about him for certain, I'm not aware of other players we looked at but that obviously (or at least it should be obvious) doesn't mean there weren't players we were trying to get in midfield.

Do you want the manager to rock the boat? That really worked out well previously.
 
The trouble is it was Solskjaer's decision to make those changes. It was his decision to not go for more experienced players, it was his decision to give Lukaku a second string role, his decision to omit Sanchez to inter with a weakened squad.
It’s only trouble if you think those decisions were wrong though.
Letting go of players like Lukaku, Sanchez, Darmian, Fellaini etc was the right decision, even if they might have been useful on a short term basis.
We needed a reset, a clean break with the squad and starting anew with talented young players was the right thing to do; even if the league table shows us going backwards a bit.
Like I said, if Ole ends up not being up to it, the worst thing we could do is sign another Jose and bring in More 26/30 year olds with huge question marks on their ability.
 
Ole didn't make Lingard miss that chance last game. De Geas mistake was just one of those things.
Ole didn't make them do that, you're right.

But it's ridiculous people think that's the problem people have. It's abject performance after abject performance we're being made to watch that's the issue, with no sign of it improving. No idea of the type of football we're trying to play, unless it's only counter attack. Which would be an even bigger problem I'd have with him. Fergie didn't only play counter attack, he played many ways.

Gary Neville said a while ago, we play in moments and rely on bits of quality. We can't impose our will on any team for a sustained period. Watford, the worst team in the league, imposed themselves on us for 90 minutes last week.
 
Are people really saying that our squad is not good enough to not lose to Watford? Literally the worst team in the league? There are excuses, but no excuses for being beaten by teams with much much worse squads than us.
 
Hey guys, remember that time we got beaten 2-0 by one of the worst PL sides ever and people actually refused to put any blame on the manager?
 
Wait is he trying to say we are in the process of a rebuild? I am shocked by this information, shocked to the core.
 
He has a striker coming towards the end of his peak, happy and banging the ball into the back of the net for fun, the most creative midfielder not called Kevin in the league and one of the best defensive midfielders in the league.

He's doing an excellent job, but lets see how he does once they leave - which they will in the next few years

mhmm not sure I buy that. How were Leicester doing with the same team last season under Puel?


Good managers can make a big difference- with a decent one we could be there or thereabouts for top 4. But we don’t & we aren’t
 
I'm surprised so many of you hadn't grasped this already.

This season is day zero of the big rebuild. All bets are off. Any result that happens is just what it is, good or bad.

We changed our approach to transfers and we got rid of deadwood. It was obvious from the squad as we went into the first game that this year was a complete write off so why didn't you lot write it off?
 


There's little wrong with what he's said, I don't know why anyone has an issue with it. He's at least frank enough to know we are behind but can catch up. And in no way shape or form did he rule out achieving something this season.
 
Lukaku left late in the summer because we wanted more for him. That left us with little time to find a replacement. Ole said that he wanted it to be sorted earlier, it wasn't and we couldn't find the 'right one' so had to leave it for another window and back his current squad. Again the person who sorts the transfers was responsible for the negotiations.

I very much doubt the club are signing players based on instagram so didn't consider that part worth responding to.

We valued Longstaff at £20m, Newcastle put the price to £50m to scare us off, which it rightly did. We didn't offer £50m for him, so you were being completely off your rocker and I didn't respond to it. We only know about him for certain, I'm not aware of other players we looked at but that obviously (or at least it should be obvious) doesn't mean there weren't players we were trying to get in midfield.

Do you want the manager to rock the boat? That really worked out well previously.
So you don't think the club puts commercial activity ahead of the football side? (Why buy Pogba, then not surround him with similar top players? Maybe, because we wanted a popular face of the club to keep us relevant?).

You must have misread it, i never said we offered £50m, if we did, he would be here wouldn't he? I said they wanted £50m.

I don't care what the manager does, as long as he gets results. I know if i had someone making me promises beforehand, then doing completely the opposite, making me look like an idiot, i wouldn't sit there grinning and bearing it, like it seems to be the case with Ole.

That's a loser mentality is it not?
 
I still see more positives in keeping rather than sacking him. Some of the changes I really do like but he's really starting to piss me off with half of what he says. I can't stand comments and press-releases that think the fecking fan-base are all idiots. Some fecking honesty please, it's not that hard, nor a failure to be honest. Merry Christmas!
 
I'm surprised so many of you hadn't grasped this already.

This season is day zero of the big rebuild. All bets are off. Any result that happens is just what it is, good or bad.

We changed our approach to transfers and we got rid of deadwood. It was obvious from the squad as we went into the first game that this year was a complete write off so why didn't you lot write it off?

‘Writing off a season’ as Manchester United. Fck me the Ole cult is amazing. LVG Especially & Jose were better managers but they weren’t allowed to write off seasons- as they shouldn’t as we are the biggest club in England.

We are NOT such a poor squad to be where we are, it’s not a great team but we should be around top 4 no doubt with a better manager.

The excuses need to stop & he needs to be sacked
 
It's obvious we are 3 top class players away from resembling a team again.
Ole will live or die by whether those next 3 signings succeed or not. Erling Haaland will be a good start. Kalvin Phillips and James Maddison would complete the rebuild. I wouldn't say no to Grealish also to boost the squad further.
If James Garner can be ready by the start of next season, then we have a creative box to box player to come in when we need to break down Watford, and then Scott McT can come in and take his place when we're playing Liverpool or City, and need a bulldog in midfield snapping at heels.

Getting the right players in is the hard part, but if Ole can get his main targets, this team absolutely can be challenging again by next year.
How much will all of them cost? £200m? You don't think we can find foreign players with just as much ability for less?

I also don't think the club are going to sanction that anywhere near that much, when we have been averaging £60/70m net, these past 3 years. So what then? Give him another 2 years? Makes a mockery of Ole's grand plans if so don't you think?

I don't think Garner will be the answer for years. He's only 18. I don't think it's fair to expect anything of him until then.

You're right, getting the right players in is the hard part, but where i am at, seeing his management this season, where we are completely useless in front of a deep defence, I don't think it will make as big a difference as it should. We can get the best players in, but they won't play to their full potential with Ole in charge. He's just not good enough.
 
I'm surprised so many of you hadn't grasped this already.

This season is day zero of the big rebuild. All bets are off. Any result that happens is just what it is, good or bad.

We changed our approach to transfers and we got rid of deadwood. It was obvious from the squad as we went into the first game that this year was a complete write off so why didn't you lot write it off?
The problem is if we lose to Newcastle or Burnley he will want to bin most of them, if they beat Arsenal he will want to keep most of them.
 
Those players would definitely improve us but I can't say with any degree of certainty just by how much. Again, I'm done with Ole, I can't see him taking us forward. Put it this way, I'd rather Poch in right now than those two in January. But hey, I will happily own up to the fact I was wrong if we sign a couple of class additions and start looking like a proper cohesive football team. All I want is us to get back to Champions League football and see us play good football as I'm sure you do. We just have different opinions on how to proceed. We shall see soon enough as I don't think Ole is getting sacked before next season. Although, I think we should sack him now and hire Poch, I still think Ole will be given 2 more windows. If he proves me wrong then fantastic. I already said to one of the other posters that 2 wins against City and Spurs sucked me back in and gave me a glimmer of hope but Sunday, was devastating, infuriating and I'm just tired now.
So what will Poch then with this current squad? Again, we know what our overwhelming weakness is, and considering he was performing worse than we were with a markedly better squad, what will he change that's going to improve on what we are currently doing?

This is my problem with the criticism Ole has been getting. I certainly think he deserves some, but when absolutely no one can offer up a suggestion on our we improve the biggest weakness in our game without signing players, I call it unfair.
 
Imagine applying this sort of logic to any other profession

"So the last qualified guy we hired didn't actually work out, so I decided instead to hire someone completely unqualified instead! Oh and he's actually doing an even worse job than the qualified guy did, but I'm not going to sack him in favour of trying with someone qualified again, because obviously if it didn't work last time it won't next time, right?"

This is exactly what those supporting Ole are basically saying if you follow their logic through.

It’s utterly ridiculous
 
The problem is if we lose to Newcastle or Burnley he will want to bin most of them, if they beat Arsenal he will want to keep most of them.
I don’t think it works like that, I think it’s more likely that us fans on here will flip flop on opinions on players.
The likes of Rashford, Martial, James, McTominay, Fred?, Pogba, Williams,Maguire,AWB and De Gea will be in future plans regardless of one off performances.
 
LVG & Jose both won us trophies and had us in/ around top 4.

So if they failed then Ole definitely is & should be sacked ASAP

valid argument, but wouldn't the counter argument to that be, LVG and Jose had more than 1 transfer window to build their team. I think it's a case of giving Ole at least another 2 windows. You seen the difference Pogba made with those 2 passes in his cameo v Watford. With him back, maybe 1- 2 signings we could have a good go at top 4 and Europa. Jose only got CL that season because he won Europa.