Ole's Recruitment whilst at the wheel at United

fergosaurus said:
The fact that you say it's probably time to move on, after conceding 9 goals in the last two league games, and picking up 1 point from a possible 12, suggests to me that you're not as moderate as you might think. After the Liverpool game you said his position is untenable but since then it looks like you're starting to backtrack a little.
Click to expand...

Your analysiz of my phrasing is incorrect. I don't backtrack on anything.

Listen, I'm a fan. My impact on what happens at the club is near 0. So I enjoy living in the moment, and the moment is always hopeful that we win the next match. And the next, and the next.

He's still at the club, so I want the most positive outcome possible for as long as it is possible. Right now I'd be pretty happy about a fairytale turnaround, but of course that is unlikely to happen. But I would certainly like one.

When he does get fired, I still want to win every game, and I still won't spend time on here growling about needing people fired.
 
LoneStar said:
How can VDB be a 5? Considering we paid a good sum for him (40M) and he's barely made it to the team. The transfer is an absolute shambles every way. For the club and the player.

I could understand this if we already had a midfield of Kroos, Modric and Casemeiro, but we literally have no good midfielder and yet he barely got a chance.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was more rating the transfers based on the players talents and what we paid. It was more a 5 because I rate DVB still, the utilization of him has unequivocally been a 0 though and he's been a "waste of money" in the sense that he's hardly played.
 
What about those that got away during his tenure?

Haaland, Bellingham, Sancho, Fabinho to name 4 that were available but we acted too little too late.

The incompetence of those repsonsible for these players slipping net is unforgiveable and has cost us millions. In the case of SANCHO 74 million.

It is also worrying our lack of appeal to these players, we were once the dream move for most players, now we are second fiddle to teams like Dortmund, Leipzig,, we have lost our appeal, treating Donny, Sancho, Lingard, Bailly the way we are doesnt help either.

Throwing money at these players isnt the answer, we need a top class coach who players want to play for, who can develop them, the very reason id like to see Ten Haag as our next manager. Any young player coming in now and seeing Ole with that stupid half arsed smile on his face isnt gonna be bowled over, less so when he sees Carrick and Mckenna waitig for them on training ground armed with a clipboard and an ipad.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
OK, he may not be a top manager tactically but the one thing that Ole is regularly praised for is his recruitment.

So, in an attempt to bring some positivity, how would you rate his senior signings so far?

Bruno
Maguire
AWB
Cavani
Sancho
Van de Beek
James
Telles
Ronaldo
Varane
Click to expand...

I think his signings are mediocre at best given the outlay. Only Bruno can be judged as a success, the rest have huge question marks to them:

Bruno - Success, but a luxury player that makes it hard to incorporate a system around him. He is positionally all over the place and vanishes completely from certain games - much more than what should be expected from a top player. His lowest level is very low, his scoring level is pretty high. Take away his penalties and his ratio isn’t as good as one is lead to believe though. Insanely overrated on this forum, but that is only natural. Two months ago Shaw and Maguire were top class, they of course never were.

Maguire - Decent player. A travesty in terms of money spent relative to ability, but he is a good stopper in the Premier League. Not good enough for a title chasing side, too slow and and too many mistakes in him, but great aerial ability. A failure in many ways, but he is a starter so I’ll leave him as a decent buy. Not great, not shit, an average stopper.

AWB - Not as expected, pretty disappointed with him in the end, just doesn’t have the attacking force or smartness in him. Difficult to put him amongst the best right-backs in the league and certainly not matching the outlay. Would not be surprised if he was replaced by the next manager.

James - Sold to Leeds and never good enough for United, a failure.

Van de Beek - Never plays after all this time, so thus far he is a failure unfortunately.

Telles - Doesn’t play much, was brought in as a reserve. Probably a bit expensive compared to what he is giving us, and not getting any younger.

Cavani - Decent, always injured or unfit, but matching his reputation in that regard. On fire last year when fit, but we knew that was not going to last. Not playing much this year.

Ronaldo, Sancho and Varane are all dream signings, but they have only been here a couple of weeks - so no point rating them yet. It however took me 32 seconds to see that Varane is a world-class player and Maguire simply isn’t.
 
Tom Cato said:
Your analysiz of my phrasing is incorrect. I don't backtrack on anything.

Listen, I'm a fan. My impact on what happens at the club is near 0. So I enjoy living in the moment, and the moment is always hopeful that we win the next match. And the next, and the next.

He's still at the club, so I want the most positive outcome possible for as long as it is possible. Right now I'd be pretty happy about a fairytale turnaround, but of course that is unlikely to happen. But I would certainly like one.

When he does get fired, I still want to win every game, and I still won't spend time on here growling about needing people fired.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, apologies if I've misunderstood you. I think we'd all love nothing more than a fairytale turnaround but I find it impossible to envisage.

It seems apparent that Solskjaer has taken us as far as he can and the only solution is to replace him with someone who can take us up a level. Even if we were to go on a good run there would always be a lingering doubt that it's all going to come crashing down and we're just delaying the inevitable.
 
RUCK4444 said:
I guess they are all rubbish eh? So why are people expecting us to challenge or sack him?

They are good players, recruitment has been improved under Ole, stop pretending it’s been terrible.

Take a glance at Moyes, LVG and Mourinho for comparison as a reference.

Imagine Ole overpaid for Fellaini or signed semi retired players like Schweinsteiger because he coached him once upon a time, or bought the likes of Dalot and Bailly.

We get it, it’s time for a new man to take us forward, what’s the point just trying to erode any positivity from his time here. It’s what kept him in a job.
Click to expand...

This. Ole is not the man to take us forward, but to try and shit on even the smallest of accomplishments in a lame attempt to prove some kind of point is...pointless

Great signings: Bruno, Cavani
Good signings: Maguire, AWB, James. Not sure about Maguire, i think hes a good player, but he we paid too much for him
Ok signings: Telles
Bad signings: VdB
To early to say: Ronaldo, Varane, Amad, Pellestri and Sancho. I want to put all three starters in the "great" category, but its way to premature. Amad has looked class, but he really should have went on loan this year

Also, the people moaning about Ole not unearthing any "hidden gems". Thats part of a bygone era. Even the "small clubs" and big teams outside the big 5 in Europe have vast scouting networks these days. Finding a new Vidic is next to impossible these days, since either he would have been snapped up by a big clubs academy, or would have been bought the second he showed any kind of promise

Calling any good signing a "no brainer" is also a bit daft, since we have the power of hindsight and its not like the club has a right of withdrawal if a signing turns sour, At the time, people thought Di Maria, Schweinstieger, Miki and Sanchez were "no brainer" signings, seeing as this place was in muppet overload, but that turned out pretty shite
 
RUCK4444 said:
Yeah but were not talking about Ole's tactical shortcomings, the OP is asking specifically about the quality of players we've brought in.

On the bolded for AWB, I disagree to an extent, he actually loses the ball very little, is good in passing triangles and beating his man on the wing, his crossing still needs a lot of work but he's continuing to improve going forward slowly but surely, it's been pointed out in a few games this season again. His positioning needs work though.

But back to quality of players, they are all good quality, no player is perfect but my opinion on Harry and AWB is that their good points weigh-out their bad points, more often than not, and the latter can definitely continue to improve with improved coaching.
Click to expand...

As i said they are good players on an individual level but tactics of the manager do play a big part in determining how successful or even useful a signing would be. Berbatov was a brilliant player but put him in a mourinho team he would be poor player, now imagine if a squad had 4-5 berba esque players and 4-5 players who are more suited to mourinho tactics you effectively have no team as no manager can utilize that group of the players properly. A problem we right now have at utd.

I disagree with your analysis of awb, he is always deer in headlights when closed down, he runs with the ball pretty well i'll give you that but as even you agree he doesn't do much with it so it matters little.

With maguire and awb we can't effectively play out of the back or play a higher line so as to hide the lack of workrate of likes of ronaldo or greenwood or pogba both of which would be fundamental to playing any sort of possession based game unless the manager works wonders on these players, which would take time, something we don't really have much of given most of the big names in the team like ddg, pogba, bruno, ronaldo, cavani etc are in late 20's or 30's. But if a manager wants to play the mourinho type of game our players are a bit too technically adept and lot less physically dominant for that to work effectively. I would like to see how a conte or a ten haag would do with this squad but it is unlikely that either could get this group playing their respective styles without atleast a few of big money signings being moved on, which basically means it wasn't a great job on ole's part as even he is struggling to get this group to play to a coherent plan.
 
When he goes he’ll be leaving the squad in a better place than when he found it. We’d been wheel spinning for ages with recruitment - Van Gaal bought a lot of dross, which Jose wanted to clear out so he could buy his own dross, which Ole then cleared out. We never actually improved the first 11 with our signings, from Van Persie right up until we signed Bruno. In between it was all flops and short term stop gaps to replace others who were leaving.

Thankfully his recruitment has been decent and the next boss should be able to do something with it right away. Usually when a new boss comes in it’s with the subtext of ‘well the first year doesn’t matter anyway, because he needs to have a clear out and start again.’

None of that now though. I’d back Conte to get us challenging with this team.
 
While I think he needs to be sacked now, I also believe that people are being a tad harsh with the criticism of his recruitment. Looking at his signings one by one, he’s bought James, AWB, Maguire, Bruno, Ighalo, VdB, Telles, Cavani, Diallo, Pellistri, Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo.

I’d argue that taking price into account, only Maguire has failed due to his £80m price tag, as he will probably never become even a £60m defender no matter which manager he plays for. As for Diallo, I won’t write him off yet, but it’s definitely acceptable for people to consider that transfer £35m wasted considering the number of quality young wingers we have in his position (Rashford, Greenwood, Sancho, Elanga). I think the rest of his transfers have been good, including Telles and VdB, just that he either strangely hasn’t played them or hasn’t got the best out of them. We managed to make an 8 figure profit from Dan James, who was only signed to be backup anyway, so he wasn’t a flop either.

And therein lies the problem with Ole. His problem has never been recruitment and team-building. The man can tell a good footballer, which you’d expect as he was one, and would probably make a good Director of Football, albeit that ship has sailed now as you can’t make the new manager work with the guy he’s succeeding. What he needs to work on for his next job after we close the book on this one is coaching and using his entire squad better, including being less stubborn with players who fail him time and again, and trusting his fringe players more.

Back to his recruitment, I believe he’s built the best team on paper that we’ve had since Fergie’s RvP side. Imagine someone telling you when Mourinho was manager that the likes of Telles, VdB and Cavani would play and just be considered squad depth for us, while Varane and Ronaldo would be in the first 11. This is why the media were touting us for the title in the summer. The moment we get a new manager with more tactical nous, like Conte, I think this team will go on to achieve big things. Essentially, what I predict and hope he’ll do is replicate the role Lampard played in Chelsea’s success for us.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Invictus
So, in an attempt to bring some positivity, how would you rate his senior signings so far?



Bruno - great
Maguire - bust, for that kind of money we should expect a Rolls Royce defender which he is not; poor business overall
AWB - bust, poor footballer, poor defensive awareness, very lackadaisical, needs a 270 degree body turn to complete a pass
Cavani - great
Sancho - too early to say, but as of 28-Oct-2021, a bust
Van de Beek - bust
James - bust
Telles - meh
Ronaldo - yong an learnin
Varane - good busines
Amad Diallo - bust
Pellistri - bust

We've spent a feckton to get d!cked 5-0 by Liverpool on our own backyard.
 
Pretty much the only 2 definite successful signings so far have been Bruno and Cavani, and the rest is 35, with Varane also looking quite decent. The rest have been either shit or have the fan base massively split on them.
 
Most of the signings have been good. But it is strange, why we have not found a No. 6 as replacement for Matic/Fred. It is the most important position, and still we have not focused enough at finding a world class player there.

In defence I would love us to sign Andreas Christensen from Chelsea. He is out of contract next summer, and he is one of the most underrated defenders in the world. I see him as one of the 10 best central defenders right now.
 
Loony BoB said:
Perhaps, but this season aside I think they've been worthy of first team places. Put a good midfield in front of them and get reliable backup for AWB. And for the love of God or money, better defence coaches.
Click to expand...

How about a better manager?
 
Bruno 9/10
Maguire 5/10
Awb 4/10
Telles 3/10
Cavani 6/10
VDB 1/10
Amad 2/10
James 5/10
Pellestri 2/10
Ronaldo 7/10
Varane 7/10
Sancho 5/10
No DM -/10
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Sorry, I was more rating the transfers based on the players talents and what we paid. It was more a 5 because I rate DVB still, the utilization of him has unequivocally been a 0 though and he's been a "waste of money" in the sense that he's hardly played.
Click to expand...
That's fair mate. I think he can be decent under a different manager too. Hopefully he stays in the winter and has some patience.
 
Bruno - 9/10
Maguire - 6/10
AWB - 5/10
Cavani - 6/10
Sancho - na
Van de Beek - 2/10
James - 2/10
Telles - 2/10
Ronaldo - na
Varane - na.

Always thought his signings were overstated but still pretty good, but having seen it like that, it paints a very different picture.

Only one success, three mediocre signings, currently three failures. The signings this summer are too early to judge but I'd expect at least one of them to fall onto the lower end of this scale.
 
Bruno 9/10
Maguire 6.5/10
AWB 6/10
Cavani 7.5/10
Sancho 5/10
Van de Beek 5/10
James 3/10
Telles 5/10
Ronaldo 7/10
Varane 8/10
 
I think based on the players we bought, the transfers haven't been as bad as people think. Maguire is bad right now and he was overpriced but partnered with a quicker center back, he's not a terrible player. Is he worth 80m? Of course not. But that's not Ole's fault. In terms of the scouting, I'm less impressed. Maguire and AWB being prime examples of obvious choices. They were just big premier league players that everyone knew. No finding lesser-known players from foreign leagues like Leicester does for example and then sells them on for 10 times what they paid. Finally, in terms of Ole's buying players to fit the way he wants to play, I think that's been the worst of all.
Why buy AWB if you want to play out from the back? Why buy a pass-and-move player like Donny if your main tactic doesn't involve moving? Why buy Sancho who's a skilled playmaker if you prefer attacking wingers that run at people like Giggs? Even more so, when you know you have so many other options and Rashford and Pogba to play on the left. Not to mention a much more needed CDM.

We should also talk about the players he didn't get, mainly Bellingham and Haaland. Imagine if we'd have got them. So you can't say his choices are totally bad. But no matter how big a club is, why would any young player come to United instead of another team when there's virtually no path to the first team? Ole's stubborn refusal to play anyone but his trusted players has really fffd him. Because if our high-quality squad players can't even get a game when some of the first teamers are stinking up the pitch, what chance do they have? So, you can't really blame them that they choose to go to teams like Dortmund. Ole playing youth is a total myth. That's what's so god damn sickening everytime he speaks. He spouts the United Way but it's nothing but bullshit. And then the board spout the same shit as if he's actually doing any of what's says he's doing. I guess you could say that he's finally playing front foot United football. He's just doing it without a defense.
 
HailtotheKing said:
I think based on the players we bought, the transfers haven't been as bad as people think. Maguire is bad right now and he was overpriced but partnered with a quicker center back, he's not a terrible player. Is he worth 80m? Of course not. But that's not Ole's fault. In terms of the scouting, I'm less impressed. Maguire and AWB being prime examples of obvious choices. They were just big premier league players that everyone knew. No finding lesser-known players from foreign leagues like Leicester does for example and then sells them on for 10 times what they paid. Finally, in terms of Ole's buying players to fit the way he wants to play, I think that's been the worst of all.
Why buy AWB if you want to play out from the back? Why buy a pass-and-move player like Donny if your main tactic doesn't involve moving? Why buy Sancho who's a skilled playmaker if you prefer attacking wingers that run at people like Giggs? Even more so, when you know you have so many other options and Rashford and Pogba to play on the left. Not to mention a much more needed CDM.

We should also talk about the players he didn't get, mainly Bellingham and Haaland. Imagine if we'd have got them. So you can't say his choices are totally bad. But no matter how big a club is, why would any young player come to United instead of another team when there's virtually no path to the first team? Ole's stubborn refusal to play anyone but his trusted players has really fffd him. Because if our high-quality squad players can't even get a game when some of the first teamers are stinking up the pitch, what chance do they have? So, you can't really blame them that they choose to go to teams like Dortmund. Ole playing youth is a total myth. That's what's so god damn sickening everytime he speaks. He spouts the United Way but it's nothing but bullshit. And then the board spout the same shit as if he's actually doing any of what's says he's doing. I guess you could say that he's finally playing front foot United football. He's just doing it without a defense.
Click to expand...

Not being funny, but whose fault is it then? Presumably Ole knew that he had a choice: sign Maguire for 80m or pursue another option for a lower price. Are we saying that's not on Ole?
 
Usually, managers just give clubs a list of names to go after. It's up to the negotiators to pay the price that brings them in. And it's up to the scouts to find better options to go on the list. Our scouting department is crap it seems. And the egos of our upper management are so out of wack that they just think they can bully anyone to lower their prices. They probably thought Leicester would fold this time and they didn't. Because unlike United they're a shrewd business.
 
HailtotheKing said:
Usually, managers just give clubs a list of names to go after. It's up to the negotiators to pay the price that brings them in. And it's up to the scouts to find better options to go on the list. Our scouting department is crap it seems. And the egos of our upper management are so out of wack that they just think they can bully anyone to lower their prices. They probably thought Leicester would fold this time and they didn't. Because unlike United they're a shrewd business.
Click to expand...

Other managers also actually you know coach the players rather than just leave it all to his assistants.

Seems like our managers just pick a matchday XI, and in the summer give a list of transfer targets. What an easy job.
 
Skills said:
Other managers also actually you know coach the players rather than just leave it all to his assistants.

Seems like our managers just pick a matchday XI, and in the summer give a list of transfer targets. What an easy job.
Click to expand...
Yeah tbh the more we learn the more you question what he actually does do other than make it a nice fun, casual environment to play football.
 
HailtotheKing said:
Usually, managers just give clubs a list of names to go after. It's up to the negotiators to pay the price that brings them in. And it's up to the scouts to find better options to go on the list. Our scouting department is crap it seems. And the egos of our upper management are so out of wack that they just think they can bully anyone to lower their prices. They probably thought Leicester would fold this time and they didn't. Because unlike United they're a shrewd business.
Click to expand...

The Manager - especially at United - has final say. Scouts, negotiators and all the rest of it... ultimately, our manager decided it would be wise to lump 80m squid on Harry Maguire. He owns that one.
 
When you don’t have a plan or unable to implement one it’s quite difficult to assess the recruitment. Some will improve under a new manager some will be deadwood.

The recruitment still looks erratic and appears as though it’s being done with very little thought or understanding of how a team is going to be put together. Given the recruitment is done by a committee it’s hard to know how much blame to give Ole and who else is at fault.
 
Last edited:
HailtotheKing said:
Yeah tbh the more we learn the more you question what he actually does do other than make it a nice fun, casual environment to play football.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's mad isn't it.

It's why I'm not so harsh on Carrick and McKenna because they're obviously left to do a job way out of their depth. They're basically doing the job Klopp & Guardiola do themselves, while Ole and Phelan seem to have relieved themselves of any coaching accountability
 
Sadly, as time passes Ole's recruitments might turn out about as bad as LVG's recruitments of Falcao, Di María, Depay, BFS, Herrera, Blind, etc. On paper, very impressive signings, but unfortunately most of them turn out rather disappointing. Too many past their peak players and too many underperformers.

Bruno is the one obvious outlier, and hopefully Varane and Sancho turn out decent as well.
 
yamo123x said:
What about those that got away during his tenure?

Haaland, Bellingham, Sancho, Fabinho to name 4 that were available but we acted too little too late.

The incompetence of those repsonsible for these players slipping net is unforgiveable and has cost us millions. In the case of SANCHO 74 million.

It is also worrying our lack of appeal to these players, we were once the dream move for most players, now we are second fiddle to teams like Dortmund, Leipzig,, we have lost our appeal, treating Donny, Sancho, Lingard, Bailly the way we are doesnt help either.

Throwing money at these players isnt the answer, we need a top class coach who players want to play for, who can develop them, the very reason id like to see Ten Haag as our next manager. Any young player coming in now and seeing Ole with that stupid half arsed smile on his face isnt gonna be bowled over, less so when he sees Carrick and Mckenna waitig for them on training ground armed with a clipboard and an ipad.
Click to expand...

We were in for Haaland and Bellingham. They chose Dortmund for their own development. Only today Dortmund we’re saying that we offered more for Haaland at the time.

Do you still lambast Fergie for missing out on Gascoigne, Shearer, Hazard etc. Hazard in particular we missed out on purely because Fergie didn’t like paying a big agent fee. His attitude cost us having one the leagues best players at a time where it may have made the difference in a couple of tight title races.
 
Unlike past signings like Fred, Fellaini and Lukaku I could see any of them our signings and Ole with the exception of AWB and Dan James being quality for Liverpool or City.

I get that people are emotional right now but the retrospective on Maguire is frustrating. He’s never been worth £80m but then really no defender is. Not even Van Dijk would have had the effect people are demanding of Maguire on us because he would be playing behind Fred abs McTominay with Ole’s tactics. If Maguire played for Pep or Klopp he’d look one of the leagues best CB’s.

AWB is frustrating. He’s had two solid seasons for us and his defensive work has often been fantastic. His positioning at the back post is not good enough and he’s not the modern attacking full back so he loses style points. Tactically this season both Shaw and AWB seem to be defending their flanks solo and both have looked poor as a result. We don’t need to have our full backs perform like TAA and Robertson so I still think a too manager could make it work for AWB. There is still a lot to like about his game. His best comparison may be Azpilicueta for Chelsea and he still has time to reach that level with coaching and maturity.

Cavani was a resounding free transfer success.

Bruno has been fantastic.

Sancho and Van De Beek seem ideally suited for possession football which we don’t play. So two good players playing for the wrong team. I’d love to see what a new manager does with them though.

Ronaldo is great. Our problems have nothing to do with his pressing. There are only a handful of teams who have their front man press excessively. Firmino and Luis Suarez are the best examples of pressing forwards. Lewandowski, Benzema etc don’t press like that and Ronaldo doesn’t have to either for us to be successful.
 
sparx99 said:
His attitude cost us having one the leagues best players at a time where it may have made the difference in a couple of tight title races.
Click to expand...

This is also a bit of a liberal interpretation. We won the title comfortably in Hazard's first season at Chelsea and didn't get anywhere near it for the rest of his time in England, doubt he would have single-handedly saved the Moyes and Van Gaal seasons.
 
Brexit_Brigade said:
This is also a bit of a liberal interpretation. We won the title comfortably in Hazard's first season at Chelsea and didn't get anywhere near it for the rest of his time in England, doubt he would have single-handedly saved the Moyes and Van Gaal seasons.
Click to expand...


Tbf I didn’t realise how late in Fergies time it was. I thought it was 2011 when we missed out on him. However, Fergie either covered for the Glazers or just got old and annoyed with agents from 2007 through 2013. He got all Wenger with his value in the market crap and he stopped replacing our players when they needed to be.
 
Bruno and Cavani, that's about it.

Telling is these two had instant impact, they can overcome a lot of deficiencies.
 
sparx99 said:
Tbf I didn’t realise how late in Fergies time it was. I thought it was 2011 when we missed out on him. However, Fergie either covered for the Glazers or just got old and annoyed with agents from 2007 through 2013. He got all Wenger with his value in the market crap and he stopped replacing our players when they needed to be.
Click to expand...

Yeah, your overall point is spot on. We were stuck worrying about value in the market while Chelsea and City were stockpiling top players in the early '10s, and it came back to bite us as soon as Fergie left. Ended up having to splash big money anyway and did a terrible job of it.
 
Chip said:
Sadly, as time passes Ole's recruitments might turn out about as bad as LVG's recruitments of Falcao, Di María, Depay, BFS, Herrera, Blind, etc. On paper, very impressive signings, but unfortunately most of them turn out rather disappointing. Too many past their peak players and too many underperformers.

Bruno is the one obvious outlier, and hopefully Varane and Sancho turn out decent as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah, so much of the time, the players that appear crap for us go on to much better things. I never thought Di Maria was bad. Herrera was good for us. Blind did well at Ajax after he left. BFS, I'll give you, and Depay is now at Barcelona. So, not bad, all things considered. The issue wasn't their quality, it was their fit to the new manager. And obviously when you switch to a manager that has a completely opposite philosophy, certain players suddenly appear surplus to requirements. I'm sure Jose would have loved Di Maria for example. That's why a DOF is so important, so you only invest in the players that fit your team, regardless of who the manager is. Another of the multiple reasons why this board has failed spectacularly at its job.
 
Roboc7 said:
When you don’t have a plan or unable to implement one it’s quite difficult to assess the recruitment. Some will improve under a new manager some will be deadwood.

The recruitment still looks erratic and though it’s being done with very little thought or understanding of how a team is going to be put together. Given the recruitment is done by a committee it’s hard to know how much blame to give Ole and who else is at fault.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

In terms of Maguire and AWB we there were lots of reports at the time that they were ole's first choice targets

As you even if some of the blame for the poor/average signings can be attributed to the committee, a huge part of the issue is that there isn't a clear style and way of playing. This should determine the profile of players we recruit
 
yamo123x said:
What about those that got away during his tenure?

Haaland, Bellingham, Sancho, Fabinho to name 4 that were available but we acted too little too late.

The incompetence of those repsonsible for these players slipping net is unforgiveable and has cost us millions. In the case of SANCHO 74 million.

It is also worrying our lack of appeal to these players, we were once the dream move for most players, now we are second fiddle to teams like Dortmund, Leipzig,, we have lost our appeal, treating Donny, Sancho, Lingard, Bailly the way we are doesnt help either.

Throwing money at these players isnt the answer, we need a top class coach who players want to play for, who can develop them, the very reason id like to see Ten Haag as our next manager. Any young player coming in now and seeing Ole with that stupid half arsed smile on his face isnt gonna be bowled over, less so when he sees Carrick and Mckenna waitig for them on training ground armed with a clipboard and an ipad.
Click to expand...


We tendered an offer to Haaland, he chose Dortmund. The club did not want to include a release clasue in his contract. The guarantee of gametime in Dortmund was of course also pivotal. BUT, I assume you are refering to the time when Ole recommended that Manchester United sign Haaland when he was still at Molde and the club did not act. Ole literally told us to sign the player and we didnt.

We had Bellingham at Carrington. Him and his family was given a tour of the grounds by Sir Alex Ferguson, and the club went all in to secure his signing. He went to Dortmund because they were willing to promise a 17 year old regular first team football.

Sancho was priced too expensive for the club by Dortmund. They were in for him multiple times.

Fabinho was a Liverpool player before Ole came here.

Are you remembering events incorrectly?
 
Without going through every single name overall Ole's acquisitions and purges have been a significant net plus over what he was bequeathed by Jose, who left the squad in total shambles.

The problem has been, as we all know, that Ole has failed to get the most of this collection of impressive names and turn into a defensively and offensively cohesive squad. His tactics are poor, his trust in Fred and McTominay is wholly misplaced and he too often does not react to in-game situations with the right substitutions at the right time. In short, he's squandered a very decent squad that he's assembled.
 
He has made the squad WAY better. Mourinho, Moyes and LvG wastnt able to have the pull OGS have had. Even Maguire and AWB has been logical and pragmatic transfers at the time. The standards are higher now.

The big minus is that the wages are still so high. Plus he has not been strong enough to get what he NEEDS - this season a DM.

Still I dont think Ole gets credit enough for the work he has done for the club. He might be tactically not good enough, but man, does the situation still look better than after the other three.

And I have a feeling Sancho could be his first real flop. He is so one footed its almost painful. And the Ronaldo transfer might cost him the job - it messed up the (insufficient) tactical structure that he did have, and made a squad in nice progress suddenly inbalanced.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.