Ruud Gullit: 'Manchester United are stuck living in the past'

Rolaholic

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Ruud Gullit: Manchester United are stuck living in the past

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1660338048

Can't say that he's all that wrong honestly, we're very much a club that has come to value sentimentality and romanticism a lot more than efficiency and on-pitch results. We've morphed into a 90's/00's Liverpool style Nostalgia FC where we prefer to look back on our past successes rather than being hellbent obsessed with achieving future success.

Not unlike the old schoolmate who peaked in secondary school/college and continues to harp on about the old days as they've stayed static in life while those around them have evolved into better versions of themselves over time.

Even the way we hand out contracts and extend players is awash with looking backwards rather than forwards which is why we always end up with players who should've been moved off of years prior but haven't been able to be moved on due to their high wages that they've been rewarded with despite of a lack of consistent performance or on-pitch success.

We really could take a page or 2 out of the playback of the current big dogs in world football who have become well oiled machines due to an obsession winning at all costs/achieving success and doing away with any form of sentimentality if it ever gets in the way of achieving those successes.

Our 'United DNA' has become as big a hindrance in the way we do business in the post-Fergie years as any as its given way to the whole 'jobs for the boys' sentiment and constant rewarding of mediocrity. It doesn't mean we need to ditch the clubs identity entirely or ignore it, just that it wouldn't hurt to be a lot more cutthroat with the way our club affairs are ran. That's the way the modern game has evolved but we haven't evolved with it yet.

Would also help to have owners who were genuinely invested and interested in overseeing a successful enterprise rather than being passive and content with squeezing every ounce they can get out of the club no matter our fortunes in terms of actual performance. Our on the pitch stagnation will absolutely begin to have an impact on our commercial success much sooner rather than later.

Even with the massive headstart that we were afforded under Fergie, our commercial advantages over the likes of City, Chelsea and Liverpool will continue to dwindle until it's evaporated entirely and they've overtaken us given our current trajectory as they continue to be amongst the elite in Europe on the pitch and we continue stagnating and behaving apathetic over being a fallen giant stuck in the past
 
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"If you see also, in midfield, you know, you need players who can play."

Oooff.
 
He knows we had a feck ton of success after the 90s right? Anyway he said about the media and former players causing meltdowns after a defeat before ETH joined and he’s spot on. The only cure for that is to win though.
 
Its a mirror of liverpool when they went into decline in the 90s. All the ex pundits having a say.
 
Gandalf said:
He is not wrong to be fair but if we are living in the past it should be pointed out that this cnut has not been relevant since long before SAF retired.
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He's not running any aspect of a football club based on that though. ;)
 
Becoming more and more obviously that we are literally likely decades away from doing anything.

It's been 10 years now since SAF retired and those 10 years have come pretty fast and because of that we've managed to stay somewhat relevant. We're currently at our lowest we've been in those 10 years and it feels now we're entering our next phase, a phase where we'll become irrelevant and likely finish further and further down the table. How quickly we can get out of this slump will likely depend on how quickly the Glazers decide to sell up, then and only then could we start to see a reemergence. But even then we may find we have to go through a couple of different ownerships before we're truly back
 
Feel like ETH is the end of all that crap to be honest - there won’t be any more older players coming in or sentimental signings. Class of 92 in the media are the biggest issue now, they seem about as unknowledgable as all of us, they just have a voice and create so much negativity. We lost to Brighton, we might lose to Brentford…we’re trying to finally move on from this intangible ‘Untied way’ rubbish and it will take time/be difficult for multiple seasons.
 
Meh, we’ve tried LVG, Mourinho, Ten Hag. A shit tonne of different profile players, spent an insane amount on transfers and wages.
None of that has to do with being stuck in the past. The club are constantly trying to do something new, they have just been utterly shite at it.
 
Rolaholic said:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1660338048



Can't say that he's all that wrong honestly, we're very much a club that has come to value sentimentality and romanticism a lot more than efficiency and on-pitch results. We've morphed into a 90's/00's Liverpool style Nostalgia FC where we prefer to look back on our past successes rather than being hellbent obsessed with achieving future success.

Not unlike the old schoolmate who peaked in secondary school/college and continues to harp on about the old days as they've stayed static in life while those around them have evolved into better versions of themselves over time.

Even the way we hand out contracts and extend players is awash with looking backwards rather than forwards which is why we always end up with players who should've been moved off of years prior but haven't been able to be moved on due to their high wages that they've been rewarded with despite of a lack of consistent performance or on-pitch success.

We really could take a page or 2 out of the playback of the current big dogs in world football who have become well oiled machines due to an obsession winning at all costs/achieving success and doing away with any form of sentimentality if it ever gets in the way of achieving those successes.

Our 'United DNA' has become as big a hindrance in the way we do business in the post-Fergie years as any as its given way to the whole 'jobs for the boys' sentiment and constant rewarding of mediocrity. It doesn't mean we need to ditch the clubs identity entirely or ignore it, just that it wouldn't hurt to be a lot more cutthroat with the way our club affairs are ran. That's the way the modern game has evolved but we haven't evolved with it yet.

Would also help to have owners who were genuinely invested and interested in overseeing a successful enterprise rather than being passive and content with squeezing every ounce they can get out of the club no matter our fortunes in terms of actual performance. Our on the pitch stagnation will absolutely begin to have an impact on our commercial success much sooner rather than later.

Even with the massive headstart that we were afforded under Fergie, our commercial advantages over the likes of City, Chelsea and Liverpool will continue to dwindle until it's evaporated entirely and they've overtaken us given our current trajectory as they continue to be amongst the elite in Europe on the pitch and we continue stagnating and behaving apathetic over being a fallen giant stuck in the past.
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It's kind of true but also just bollocks. We don't ever talk about the past, we don't approach transfers in a way that Fergie/Gill did, we just don't. Have we failed to modernise? Absolutely, yet we aren't nostalgic or harking back to a bygone era. We've just failed to modernise effectively. I actually think we'd have more success if we mimicked the Fergie era by signing PL players from our rivals. The likes of Van Dijk, Grealish, Walker etc may have wound up at Utd instead of our rivals.
 
I think MU is trying to change. We got Ten Hag, not Pochettino. A good step for sure, and we need to get behind him completely or he won‘t succeed.

First thing to fix now, is get players in. We are criminally short in midfield and attack.
 
Yep we're stuck in the past.

Every manager post fergie was yoked with absurd romantism unrealistic handicaps
1. Maintain the old ways
2. Training Giggs to take over
3. Develop youth at all cost, while most managers arent even designed for that and can't even do the main job just about right
4. Giving clean slate on every deadwoods we have. Martial, rashford, etc are given clean slate again and again every new manager. Thinking they could somehow "work their magic"
5. Relying on Ferguson for advice, and dilly dallying with it. First it's moyes, then it's the board LvG with Giggs, then it's all Ed's Jose, then back to SAF ole, then arnold ETH with SAF as semi DOF

We should really broke free from the past. Only when we're starting to become successful again then we can worry about romantics.

At this rate we're all worrying about youth, and Manchester DNA crap while ignoring that we dont even play the basics right
 
"If you see also, in midfield, you know, you need players who can play.”

:rolleyes:
 
I don’t think we are. It’s a cop out cliche people keep spinning. If we were living in the past we’d be making better transfers & winning more often. We’re very much so living in the present, airy incompetence in every department from playing staff to most departments above the manager.

Who are the they that talk about the 90s too much? Maybe I don’t listen in enough but it just feels like another ex-pro talking for the sake of it. We do nothing with the efficiency or to the levels of success of the 90s.
 
Sviken said:
We're not stuck in the past, we're just shit.
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Well you were, it’s open whether you’ll revert to type with ETH but remember there was a certain ex SAF player (who had no business or qualifications to be your boss) bleating the United DNA horn up until the back end of last season. If that’s not living in the past then I don’t know what is.

Liverpool stopped the nauseating history crap and are now successful again, it would be wise to take note
 
We speak about the 90s too much? Really? Do we, or does the media?
Maybe they should do their research. They would then find out that we actually won even more after the 90s than in the 90s.

But saying they speak about the 00s too much doesn’t sound as “cool” as 90s I assume.

We just have incompetent people running the club.
 
No shit Sherlock.
We've been calling club out since Mourinho era. Thing was about to change then Ole happened.
 
He's spot on, we let the midfield deteriate under Fergie and then have failed to address it since he retired, we still think units with no ability on the ball like McTominay are viable.
 
I think that's horseshit really. We aren't living in the past. Within the Manchester United world every man and his dog agrees that we aren't good enough and that there's a long way to go before we're competitive again.

That doesn't mean that we're no longer a big club, we're still definitely big in the sense that we have a huge fan base and are financially strong. Accordingly we should be aiming to attract a high calibre of players to help us bridge the gap, and understandably that won't always be easy without CL football.
 
You need power, you need technique, you need stamina, you need the right mentality.
We lack power, technique, stamina … all of which Rabiot will go a long way in addressing in midfield and fans are giving ETH hell about it … that’s what Ruud Gullit is referring to in respect to being stuck in the past. If we manage to get DeJong in addition to Rabiot.. that will be a top class midfielde to be honest.
 
So basically utd needs "open heart surgery".

And the person who could have done it was exited from the back door.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Feel like ETH is the end of all that crap to be honest - there won’t be any more older players coming in or sentimental signings. Class of 92 in the media are the biggest issue now, they seem about as unknowledgable as all of us, they just have a voice and create so much negativity. We lost to Brighton, we might lose to Brentford…we’re trying to finally move on from this intangible ‘Untied way’ rubbish and it will take time/be difficult for multiple seasons.
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Yet he tried to sign a 33 year old Arnautovic.
 
iammemphis said:
Yet he tried to sign a 33 year old Arnautovic.
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Should ten hag coach the players or scout around ? Sure he can preferences but to expect him to draw up a list of players for multiple positions is setting him up for failure, he never did that at ajax.

Our club is a shambles and when it all goes to shit they'll make ten hag the scapegoat which would then be lapped up by a good section of the fans who'd be calling for his head.
 
I'd say the biggest part of being stuck in the past is clubs mentality towards the managers job. It should be the most dispensable role in the club, yet we're waiting for the next Ferguson era. It's stupid.

There's not another Klopp or Pep out there, so we need to learn how to regularly change managers like the other big successful clubs.
 
iammemphis said:
Yet he tried to sign a 33 year old Arnautovic.
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our main target Nunez wasn’t achievable so we’ve had to look elsewhere. Clearly our budget isn’t huge so we need to get creative.

He would have been a decent stop gap if he wasn’t a racist prick.

I suspect we will look at another similar type of signing like we did with Ighalo as cover
 
Don Corleone is still involved. Coming in for crisis meetings with Ronaldo last month, for feck sake, and his hugely influential capos bleating shit in the media every week.

We are never going to move on from chasing The United Way™.
 
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