The beginning of the end... (the original board vetoed Mourinho's transfer wish list thread)

Random Task said:
You have to question the validity of this article given the circumstances. I mean if any of this was even remotely true, Jose would have walked by now. There is no way he would stand for such a blatant undermining of his management.
Click to expand...
He's on a 15m a year contract. Only someone fecked in the brain would walk away from that.
 
Keeps It tidy said:
Well people are just following the manager who has spent most of the preseason moaning.
Click to expand...

He can moan all he wants. He got us into UCL and a respectable second place finish last season. Let's just see whether he can improve before we predict more doom and gloom shall we?
 
This "briefing" also makes very little sense when you start to think about it.

I mean, we were ready to pay £100m for Varane...except Varane was never going to be available for any price, and there's no remotely sane reason to think he would leave Real Madrid to join United, as it makes no sense at all from his point of view. So the idea Woodward met Perez over breakfast just to discuss this is completely laughable. Why bother? Mourinho is not an idiot and wouldn't have said to Woodward "get Varane, he'll join"...the idea we were prepared to pay £100m for a player that wasn't available is nonsensicle and is at best a feeble attempt by the club to brief the press and make it sound like they were prepared to spend money. At worst it makes Woodward an utterly incompetent loose cannon, who is living in lala land.

Then you are supposed to believe that the club was unwilling to pay just over half that on Alderweireld...a player who clearly was available or at least interested in moving, yet who we apparently didn't even enquire about? Despite enquiring about Maguire, Godin, Mina etc? Again, this is nonsensicle and is either a lie, the reason for not going for him is a lie, or it shows Woodward up to be a complete and utter buffoon, to take a decision like that into his own hands, and come to that conclusion without so much as speaking to Spurs. It is impossible to believe as it is very far beyond stupid to decide you want a centreback, and then not even enquire about the best one in the league who you have any chance of signing.

Jose said he gave the club 5 targets....so were the other 4 positions just ignored completely? Were all 5 targets centrebacks, as that seems extremely unlikely seeing as we signed two of them and one was a midfielder and the other a fullback. We just get a random brief about some centrebacks to try and save face for not signing one? Why?

For a brief that's come from the club it really doesn't add up, whatever angle you want to put on it. It makes Woodward sound like he's completely lost the plot. The manager of the team gave him names and he spent the summer pissing off to Spain on holiday to have breakfast and not bothering to even ask about the most obvioous transfer target...not decided it was too much money...just never bothered to ask. Ok...this doesn't really suddenly make sense if you put the "club doesn't trust Mourinho" angle on it. It just makes it twice as stupid and no less implausible.

I call bullshit. It's just a question of who's bullshit it is.
 
Last edited:
Eddy_JukeZ said:
Some good points there.

I mentioned in another thread today, that our summer so far is somewhat similar to 2006-2007. I'm pretty sure people had Chelsea walking the league then and no United fan thought we'd win the title.

So you never know. But a lot of internal improvement would be needed. Specifically from Jose imo.
Click to expand...

Yeah, as I say, none of that should really be used as a ringing endorsement of us, because from a neutral, objective point-of-view, we've had a fairly crap summer, and there's little to suggest we'll win the league.

But football is a weird game. And it often feels like a lot of pundits and journalists are basically paid to create pretend narratives over the summer that tend to fall apart as the season begins. Because a lot can change over the course of a summer, and often things don't change in the ways we expect them to.

Chelsea have basically made a habit in the past few years of finishing outside the CL places after they win the league. fecking Leicester managed to win it, a point that's worth bearing in mind irrespective of whether it was an anomaly or not.

But my wider point is that sometimes people focus a bit too much on individual transfers and ignore the unpredictability factor that can come into play at the start of a new season. Most people will assume City would walk it right now, but they've only won one-in-a-row so far, and this time 18 months ago people were speculating that Guardiola had basically failed at City and that he'd been found out. This time next year we might be expressing our admiration for Emery restoring Arsenal to a position of prestige atop the table, or showing our respect to Rafael Benitez after he managed to take Salford City to four successive promotions and the PL title within the space of a year due to new formatting rules that were introduced in November due to an ill thought-out demand from a coked-up Jack Wilshere.
 
An Irish Red said:
I have no faith in Mourinho but even then I have no idea how people can be supporting the board on this one.

Woodward isn't a football man and shouldn't be making decisions on who we sign. He's there to secure sponsorships and sign cheques, not give assessments on footballers.
Click to expand...
So if Jose says he wants Rooney back, Ed should just pay 100M and get him back?
 
Again...not to come across as overly defensive of him, but the complaints about Mourinho moaning seem to bestow a lack of knowledge as to who Mourinho is. He's been a notorious moaner all his career. I remember him looking miserable in 2003 when he won the UEFA Cup with Porto. He was notoriously miserable when at Chelsea at times between 04-06. It was common for Stelling and co to sit baffled in the Sky studio, wondering what else the guy could want because he was complaining about a refereeing decision in a game Chelsea had won 3-0 to send them 19 points clear at the top of the table in October. He basically left Inter because he felt out with the media, and spent a lot of his time at Real Madrid fostering random conspiracy theories about how aliens and UNICEF were fixing La Liga for Barca, even when he won La Liga with Real.

He's often been a notorious winner, but he's always been a notoriously moany bastard as well. It was sort of one of his oddly endearing qualities that made him a particularly interesting manager in his early years. That and winning the Champions League with a team from Portugal.
 
noodlehair said:
This "briefing" also makes very little sense when you start to think about it.

I mean, we were ready to pay £100m for Varane...except Varane was never going to be available for any price, and there's no remotely sane reason to think he would leave Real Madrid to join United, as it makes no sense at all from his point of view. So the idea Woodward met Perez over breakfast just to discuss this is completely laughable. Why bother? Mourinho is not an idiot and wouldn't have said to Woodward "get Varane, he'll join"...the idea we were prepared to pay £100m for a player that wasn't available is nonsensicle and is at best a feeble attempt by the club to brief the press and make it sound like they were prepared to spend money. At worst it makes Woodward an utterly incompetent loose cannon, who is living in lala land.

Then you are supposed to believe that the club was unwilling to pay just over half that on Alderweireld...a player who clearly was available or at least interested in moving, yet who we apparently didn't even enquire about? Despite enquiring about Maguire, Godin, Mina etc? Again, this is nonsensicle and is either a lie, the reason for not going for him is a lie, or it shows Woodward up to be a complete and utter buffoon, to take a decision like that into his own hands, and come to that conclusion without so much as speaking to Spurs. It is impossible to believe as it is very far beyond stupid to decide you want a centreback, and then not even enquire about the best one in the league who you have any chance of signing.

Jose said he gave the club 5 targets....so were the other 4 positions just ignored completely? Were all 5 targets centrebacks, as that seems extremely unlikely seeing as we signed two of them and one was a midfielder and the other a fullback. We just get a random brief about some centrebacks to try and save face for not signing one? Why?

For a brief that's come from the club it really doesn't add up, whatever angle you want to put on it. It makes Woodward sound like he's completely lost the plot. The manager of the team gave him names and he spent the summer pissing off to Spain on holiday to have breakfast and not bothering to even ask about the most obvioous transfer target...not decided it was too much money...just never bothered to ask. Ok.

I call bullshit. It's just a question of who's bullshit it is.
Click to expand...
Mourinho making it clear that he wanted more players as set the cat among the Pigeons. This is the clubs bullshit way of putting the blame at his door.
There is no version of this that makes Ed Woodward look good. And I'm far from being a Mourinho fan as one can get.
 
Ofc he wont walk away from the money, last time, he kept picking backstabbers in first XI. with "have nothing to say" follow up. Now when i think about it, thats actually mental, Ivanovic as RB and other 6-9 backstabbers week in week out regardless.
 
Ferguson said:
I’m skeptical of these newspaper reports. I think it is just a bunch of lies.
Click to expand...
Someone told them. I have little doubt they were told. Ed was supposed to meet with the journos two weeks ago, the day Mourinho let the world know he wanted more players. The briefing was cancelled/postponed. Even the beeb are reporting the same thing almost word for word.
Doesn't mean it's not a lie.
 
I agree with the board decision on this one. People can call them whatever they want but this is a good decision.
 
Adisa said:
Mourinho making it clear that he wanted more players as set the cat among the Pigeons. This is the clubs bullshit way of putting the blame at his door.
There is no version of this that makes Ed Woodward look good. And I'm far from being a Mourinho fan as one can get.
Click to expand...

If there's any truth to it, which I just can't think there is, the only possible option is for the club to sack Woodward. As it would mean he has ignored Jose's instructions in order to spend the whole summer pissing about deliberately doing things that are in neither Mourinho or United's interest.

It doesn't really matter what your feelings on Mourinho are. That is incompetent behaviour that would get you immediately sacked from any job where there is money involved.

"Ed did you invest the transfer budget in that asset Jose asked for?"
"No it was too expensive"
"Oh really? How much was it?"
"I don't know, I didn't actually ask"
 
Last edited:
An Irish Red said:
I have no faith in Mourinho but even then I have no idea how people can be supporting the board on this one.

Woodward isn't a football man and shouldn't be making decisions on who we sign. He's there to secure sponsorships and sign cheques, not give assessments on footballers.
Click to expand...

You don't need to be a football man to know spending 50M on Alderweireld when he will be free in 12 months and 29years old is a bad idea. If Man United sanction 75M for Maguire, we fans have no right to say anything to Liverpool purchase on VVD.
 
noodlehair said:
If there's any truth to it, which I just can't think there is, the only possible option is for the club to sack Woodward. As it would mean he has ignored Jose's instructions in order to spend the whole summer pissing about deliberately doing things that are in neither Mourinho or United's interest.
Click to expand...

Woodward’s interest align perfectly with those employing him.

The priority is not success on the pitch and never has been under the Glazers.
 
Sereques said:
You don't need to be a football man to know spending 50M on Alderweireld when he will be free in 12 months and 29years old is a bad idea. If Man United sanction 75M for Maguire, we fans have no right to say anything to Liverpool purchase on VVD.
Click to expand...

And who make sure for you that no other club will move and get him next season ?! We had a chance to sign him now. Next summer everyone will be up to get him. Good luck with that then.
 
If your not going to back a cheque book manager then don't employ a cheque book manager. Having said that I think Mourinho has had plenty of backing up to now. He's already bought 2 fairly expensive centre backs in previous windows yet feels he needs to buy another. No wonder the board are not keen to splurge more money on a position that's already been covered.
 
noodlehair said:
If there's any truth to it, which I just can't think there is, the only possible option is for the club to sack Woodward. As it would mean he has ignored Jose's instructions in order to spend the whole summer pissing about deliberately doing things that are in neither Mourinho or United's interest.

It doesn't really matter what your feelings on Mourinho are. That is incompetent behaviour that would get you immediately sacked from any job where there is money involved.

"Ed did you invest the transfer budget in that asset Jose asked for?"
"No it was too expensive"
"Oh really? How much was it?"
"I don't know, I didn't actually ask"
Click to expand...

He has signed 2 sponsorship deals for the board within a week. He's probably getting praised by the Glazers now.
 
kouroux said:
The only way forward is hiring a director of football who will work in close proximity with the manager. Why is our club not even interested in adressing things but we need a general footballing policy and not a succession of short term solutions.
Click to expand...
Hubris. Ed doesn't want to relinquish any power.
 
el3mel said:
He has signed 2 sponsorship deals for the board within a week. He's probably getting praised by the Glazers now.
Click to expand...

If the above scenario actually happened he would be sacked. There's no way around that. It would make him incompetent and you don't put incompetent people in charge of your millions of pounds of money.

Even if you had little interest in keeping an eye on proceedings you'd just have to step in when stuff like that started happening. It's equivalent to leaving someone too look after your car and you turn round to see them for no apparent reason reversing it into a wall.
 
el3mel said:
And who make sure for you that no other club will move and get him next season ?! We had a chance to sign him now. Next summer everyone will be up to get him. Good luck with that then.
Click to expand...

Next summer, the only clubs that will be interested will be Italian clubs or the ones lower on the table. He will be free and if he really wants to play at OT, he will be here. Spending 50M just to get one over Italian clubs is beyond laughable.
 
So Jose wanted Martial shipped out because he went missing in games. The board refuse to sell, are we to now assume that Martial won't even be on the bench? Are we just going to send him to the reserves now until the Jan window because woodward can't buy or sell players?
 
noodlehair said:
If there's any truth to it, which I just can't think there is, the only possible option is for the club to sack Woodward. As it would mean he has ignored Jose's instructions in order to spend the whole summer pissing about deliberately doing things that are in neither Mourinho or United's interest.

It doesn't really matter what your feelings on Mourinho are. That is incompetent behaviour that would get you immediately sacked from any job where there is money involved.

"Ed did you invest the transfer budget in that asset Jose asked for?"
"No it was too expensive"
"Oh really? How much was it?"
"I don't know, I didn't actually ask"
Click to expand...
I don't think he was entirely ignoring Mourinho. Just wasn't going to go out of his way(paying market price) for players he deemed were too old . or not good enough, regardless of what Mourinho thought. If say Alderweireld were available for 25m, I think he would have done it.
 
Sereques said:
You don't need to be a football man to know spending 50M on Alderweireld when he will be free in 12 months and 29years old is a bad idea. If Man United sanction 75M for Maguire, we fans have no right to say anything to Liverpool purchase on VVD.
Click to expand...

I don't see what there is to say about Van Dijk now. The market has changed (look at the price of Kepa and Allisson).

You either pay what it takes to get the right players to improve your team or you fall behind those who are willing to do so.
 
Wan said:
Chelsea days. Lukaku, Salah, KDB.. I'm not saying Martial will turn out the same way and be successful in the future, but there is no harm in keeping him. He's only 23.
Click to expand...

your also assuming that Jose doesn't just relegate him to the reserves scrap heap because he doesn't want him any more and Martial doesn't want to work with Jose. Jose could easily not play him to January window.
 
After reading Simon Stone's article it does make me laugh how the same people who label our clubs planning or transfer strategy as directionless or haphazard then turn around and say that Ed is incompetent for spending big on the likes of an injury prone Boateng. We've just spent big money on both Fred and Dalot. This follows the previous two Summers where we paid out huge for 23/24 year old Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku.

Press briefing or not, I tend to believe Stone's article and it's stance that we would have happily smashed the world record fee for a defender of the right profile. If Raphael Varane is that profile then I'd expect we'll go in hard for a Champions League proven player who's yet to hit his prime in the next window or two. Someone like Skrinier comes to mind, who will be tested with Champions League footy this season.

I wanted another player or two in as much as the next muppet. I was rock-hard for Toby Alderweireld, but by the more likely accounts we didn't even approach Spurs for him. It makes sense in hindsight. He'll cost 25 mill next Summer and perhaps only a little more in only 4-months time. If we're within touching distance of top come January and then we sign Alderweireld for a considerably lower fee than we would have had to pay this window, will any of you naysayers give Ed Woodward credit then?

I'd like to pose this question. All things considered, of all the players who have moved this window, which of them are you upset about Manchester United not being in for? I'd take Dalot's potential over Ricardo Pereira, and with Fred onboard and Pereira staying with us there's really no argument for the likes of Jorginho or Kovacic.

Who else? Or are we all complaining about not picking up contracted players who have stayed with their current club and not moved to any of our competitors..
 
Cloudface said:
Why is everyone so obsessed with age?
Bailly, Lindelof, Pogba, Fred, Dalot and Lukaku have all been signed by Mourinho at 25 years or younger.
Matic, Sanchez and Mhikityrian at 26-30 years.
Is this one of those things where if we keep repeating how old everyone is we can pretend we're right and pat ourselves on the back for our foresight?
Click to expand...
Well seems our board is obsessed with age too, not just us.
 
noodlehair said:
If the above scenario actually happened he would be sacked. There's no way around that. It would make him incompetent and you don't put incompetent people in charge of your millions of pounds of money.
Click to expand...

He's very competent in generating money for the board and signing sponsorship deals. He has been brilliant for it ever since he got the job tbf. The debts have been reduced and the value of the club is always at the top every year despite the crap results on the pitch.

The article proves that he's crap and incompetent when it comes to actual football, thinking Varane is available and not even asking how much Tobby value and thinking he's no better than what we have proves how much he knows about the sport, but on the financial he's the dream man for the Glazers, and Glazers' only aim from the club is to generate money for their pockets. We are more of a business club than a football one now, and Ed is doing that job well.

Problems would have been controlled if the Glazers hired Ed to do the financial work and gotan actual DOF to be in line with the manager, get someone who actually understands football to be in charge of transfers. Ed is trying to act like one and give his crap opinions on target when his football knowledge isn't higher than what I know about NFL.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
Were we linked with any good LBs or RWs? Other than Sandro for a brief prior it seems not. Very surprising given our lack of quality in both areas.
Click to expand...
Mourinho himself said after signing Sanchez we won't pursue another attacker this transfer window. But that was end of Feb.

If going by what Witsel's agent said, saying we were interested in Witsel(with Kante top of the list), it seems we were after another DM?

So a CB and a DM?

My guess is that we're after Tierney for the LB spot when he becomes available and ready to move.
 
What's with this "we'd have spent £100m on Varane" thing?

About £220m is a more realistic proposition.

Not exactly sure why Woodward is trusting his own judgement on player quality above Mourinho's either. Mourinho is the one who found frikkin Varane in the first place.

bond19821982 said:
I am with Ed on this. What was Jose's wishlist ? Willian, Perisic,Mandzukic, Godin,Maguire,Alderweireld - we will end up looking for replacements in 2 years.

We could actually learn a lot from Liverpool and City deals (irony considering that's how we used to operate under Fergie and Gill).
Click to expand...
Maguire?

Also haven't all City and Liverpool's deals been stupidly inflated?
 
Last edited:
Adisa said:
I don't think he was entirely ignoring Mourinho. Just wasn't going to go out of his way(paying market price) for players he deemed were too old . or not good enough, regardless of what Mourinho thought. If say Alderweireld were available for 25m, I think he would have done it.
Click to expand...

But if he never spoke to Spurs as the information clearly claims, he has no idea that Alderweireld wasn't avaiable for £25m, or for any amount. He just wouldn't know. Yet an amount of £60m seems to be mentioned, so I'm not sure how that is explained.

It's the ramblings of someone who is making stuff up, and I'm not convinced it would be Woodward as i serves no benefit to him to make himself look like an idiot.
 
Sereques said:
Next summer, the only clubs that will be interested will be Italian clubs or the ones lower on the table. He will be free and if he really wants to play at OT, he will be here. Spending 50M just to get one over Italian clubs is beyond laughable.
Click to expand...

How exactly do you know that the top clubs won't move for someone with that profile when he's that cheap ? Completely illogical.

We also thought that Sanchez would go to City for free at one time, remember ?

Football changes from year to another. There's zero proof he will end here one year later.
 
An Irish Red said:
I don't see what there is to say about Van Dijk now. The market has changed (look at the price of Kepa and Allisson).

You either pay what it takes to get the right players to improve your team or you fall behind those who are willing to do so.
Click to expand...

City have the best squad in the league, how many of their players cost 70M+? No matter how bad things maybe, we should always spend with sense, else the club will end up wasting millions on transfers with little improvement to the squad just to satisfy muppets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.