The identity of Manchester United

eire-red

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Aug 9, 2018
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I'm currently watching the Busby documentary and it almost makes me wish I was alive back then to witness such a period.

Football was a game for the working class, and it was so different from now so there's no comparison really.

However, it's fascinating to see how much of a trailblazer Busby was with his management methods, ideals and belief in youth. Above all, the ultimate goal was to entertain the working class who passed over much of their hard earned money every Saturday to forget the trials of living in Manchester post World War 2.

Thankfully Busby's approach led to building a successful club in the 50's and 60's, and changed the future of Manchester United as a club, despite unprecedented circumstances and tragedy that can never be forgotten.

And then came SAF and the class of 92, and in many ways the heart of Manchester United was reignited once more after a couple of decades languishing in mediocrity. But it wasn't just the success, it was the style of football, with entertainers all over the pitch and a core of youth, just like those early years under Busby. It's almost eerily similar when you look back on it now.

As incredible and unprecedented as the success was, sometimes I can't help but wonder if the weight of our past success is crushing the current squad. Ex pro's, players, current staff, all the managers we've burned through, they talk about the identity of being United as "winning".

But that's not an identity, or an ideal. It's an outcome, the end product of believing and working towards a way of playing. Almost every club, no matter how big or small, has a way of playing, except us it seems.

What are we now as a club? Is the arrogance of our past success and the weight of expectation holding us back? If positions in the league table didn't exist, what would you want to get out of watching us play? What can we do differently to achieve that? Has the club forgotten what it means to play football?
 
I think looking back at different eras is nice and there's things you can take that will always apply. They are probably going to be the general things such as playing attacking football, and playing youth. That doesn't really go out of fashion and we would like to think should apply to us then and now, they just look slightly different.

But beyond that the identity has to match the landscape we're in because the players are very different, the economics are different, the competitiveness is different, the way the game is played is different. So it all has to be geared towards realism not nostalgia or sentiment. You wouldn't be able to transplant the way Matt Busby operated to now and think that would immediately work. The general principles might work but the application is very different in order to operate effectively today. So ultimately it's more about looking at what is needed now than harkening back to those days or Fergie.

The issue is a culture is set by owners, in my opinion. It doesn't compute that the most powerful people within an organisation that hold the decision making power will be able to cede all ability to set a culture to the sporting manager. It just doesn't because where the crossover exists, such as within transfers, within hiring key staff that heavily influence sporting success and directly work with the manager - the expectation and example is set by the owners. If they set a standard of being distant, poor communicators, not inclined towards high performance above financial parameters then it will be difficult to set an elite sporting culture. That's probably why we've constantly chased our own tails. There's a common denominator and as much as we hope for a cult of personality to revolve around a particular manager that will become our saviour, the malaise seems fundamental.
 
eire-red said:
I'm currently watching the Busby documentary and it almost makes me wish I was alive back then to witness such a period.

Football was a game for the working class, and it was so different from now so there's no comparison really.

However, it's fascinating to see how much of a trailblazer Busby was with his management methods, ideals and belief in youth. Above all, the ultimate goal was to entertain the working class who passed over much of their hard earned money every Saturday to forget the trials of living in Manchester post World War 2.

Thankfully Busby's approach led to building a successful club in the 50's and 60's, and changed the future of Manchester United as a club, despite unprecedented circumstances and tragedy that can never be forgotten.

And then came SAF and the class of 92, and in many ways the heart of Manchester United was reignited once more after a couple of decades languishing in mediocrity. But it wasn't just the success, it was the style of football, with entertainers all over the pitch and a core of youth, just like those early years under Busby. It's almost eerily similar when you look back on it now.

As incredible and unprecedented as the success was, sometimes I can't help but wonder if the weight of our past success is crushing the current squad. Ex pro's, players, current staff, all the managers we've burned through, they talk about the identity of being United as "winning".

But that's not an identity, or an ideal. It's an outcome, the end product of believing and working towards a way of playing. Almost every club, no matter how big or small, has a way of playing, except us it seems.

What are we now as a club? Is the arrogance of our past success and the weight of expectation holding us back? If positions in the league table didn't exist, what would you want to get out of watching us play? What can we do differently to achieve that? Has the club forgotten what it means to play football?
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You just touched the real importance! For me, I prefer watching we can play a truly beautiful game with a consistent style, even though it might not work out to get a result every time. League position or cup winning isn’t so important if we can’t have a pleasing style. I didn’t realize that until we won the league cup last season. I was surprised to find out that I was actually not as happy as I was supposed to be.
 
When I started to support this club, it was special and different because of Fergie. No club in the modern game had a manager influencing the club as much. When he retired, the club lost his soul, even more so because we have corporated owners who don’t care about football.
 
Growing up, things you associated with Manchester United were winning, of course but as well as that; attacking, front foot football. Old Trafford was a ground where teams were beaten before they even stepped on to the pitch. Youth being given a chance. The forefront of innovation. The envy of the world when it comes to our commercial deals.

Now though, we’re just a laughing stock. Teams don’t fear us anymore. Commercially, we are still able to compete but the gap between us and others is much much smaller now. Our training ground, stadium has lacked investment for years and as such has fallen behind many others in terms of standards.
 
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