Split this post off from the Greenwood thread because I didn't want to derail...but I agree completely. Still love the club but it's been apparent for a while that we've amassed a really, really unlikeable set of players. Obviously what Greenwood has done is on another level to the others, it's not even up for comparison...but even setting him aside into a category of his own, we've got a squad full of players who are far more interested in branding and off-field business/reputation, who are unmotivated, egotistical yet soft as Andrex, who just really don't seem to care...a very hard to like group.
There are exceptions of course, but it's a rotten squad. We should use this incident - as well as finally having a competent recruitment team - as a jumping off point to completely tear it up and start again. Lingard obviously gone. Shaw, who's extremely talented, I'd lose him too for the consistently wavering motivation over many years. AWB of course gone. There's been a lot of talk from well connected writers about Rashford....Andy Mitten ("Rashford is a strange character, there's a lot of chatter about his real attitude off the pitch." "I really don't know if he has a long-term future at the club.") and Samuel Luckhurst implying that Rashford's entourage sends him abusive emails after criticism. He should be one of the first out the door. It also shouldn't be accepted that Rashford - or any player/their team - leaks stories to the press. Rashford did it last year with his injuries, this year with his masturbatory PR piece a few weeks ago. Probably more we don't know about. He's also one of the few who'd command a really good fee. Henderson, Martial, Maguire, Pogba all easy sells/releases too.
We're not winning anything anyway. No downside to ripping it up and starting afresh, trying to build a likeable group of winners. Liverpool had a similar situation pre-Benitez and pre-Klopp. Barca have done it a couple of times in the recent past. Both Milan sides have done it recently. Knowing us though, we'll likely trundle on with what we have, throw out some fat new contracts to leopards that we're hoping will finally change their spots, while adding a couple of marquee signings who'll soon have the life sucked out of them by our toxic group.
Seriously..just imagine how terrible things must be for Ronaldo to come in and within a couple of months he's openly telling supporters how toxic the squad is and how bad the mentalities of our players are. And the reaction from fans was to debate it and question him, instead of believing what they've seen with their own eyes? Crazy.