The key is to manage expectations

VidaRed

Unimaginative FC
Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
29,603
You see everything is connected to whatever expectations you conjure up in that brain of yours. If you think we'll sign 5 players this window and another 5 the next window and then challenge for the league and the cl then you're setting yourself up for a massive failure and the meltdown that comes with it. We'd be lucky to sign half as many by the end of next season. Expectations drive your emotions and how you react to events.

For peace of mind and an enjoyable experience I have lowered my expectations to us fighting for top 6. No way (atleast now and in the recent future) will the likes of west ham and leicester and their ilk dislodge us from 6th position. CL rules are changing next year and if we're lucky we'll nab 5th spot and get into CL. Every couple of years we might have a good run in europa and the league cup and if we stick with ten hag atleast we'd get to see decent football.

Expecting to compete for the league and cl every year will only bring anger and bitterness, we've had our run and we're done for now, don't expect any major trophies atleast another decade or two, the glazers might decide to feck off by then. I implore you to lower your expectations.
 
I'm expecting nothing from this club.

it's not the 90s or early 00s anymore.
 
The way to look at it is......

Usually there would be a world cup now, so most transfers would have been done late this summer.

A few clubs (like ours) are probably working on this schedule.

The big problem is, a lot of players have seen a) how bad we are and b) how new players have faired so badly at OT and with a World Cup just months away, don't want to risk coming here and not playing and missing a chance to play in the world Cup.

United pretty much brought all this on themselves, so we have to just expect very little and hope in 2 or 3 years, things improve drastically.
 
Well said, expectations on here were unrealistic. Folks expecting us to raise £70-80m in sales without realizing how big of a hurdle wages are. Then expecting 5-6 new signings to come in without realizing our inefficiencies in transfer market and a completely new management who don't have an experience prior.

Quality of our squad is going to be a major bottleneck for ETH, but I really hope he puts in a good system and our football bears some semblance of modern times instead of park the bus and counter shit we've been seeing for 6 years.
 
This thread is probably a joke but I actually do believe this fan base is way too passive as a whole. Other clubs would not stand for this nonsense we’re putting up with. Match going fans in particular are guilty.
 
I'm not panicking, and I'm still hopeful we can have a very successful window, but it's obvious that the people that have been in charge for the past several years have completely fecked us. We struggle to sell any of our deadwood because Woodward and his merry band of incompetent dickheads have given players wages completely disproportionate to their actual level.
 
Kush said:
Well said, expectations on here were unrealistic. Folks expecting us to raise £70-80m in sales without realizing how big of a hurdle wages are. Then expecting 5-6 new signings to come in without realizing our inefficiencies in transfer market and a completely new management who don't have an experience prior.

Quality of our squad is going to be a major bottleneck for ETH, but I really hope he puts in a good system and our football bears some semblance of modern times instead of park the bus and counter shit we've been seeing for 6 years.
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Well I hoped for 2 signings to the 11 and 1-2 other cheaper players signed for the future and depth.
That should not be unrealistic.
 
choccy77 said:
I'm expecting nothing from this club.

it's not the 90s or early 00s anymore.
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My expectations are low. I have no faith in the Glazers, their appointees, or anyone else on the administrative side. I'm willing to give ETH the benefits of the doubt but I don't expect his to tear up any trees next season. Slow and steady will be just fine.
 
Yeah, breing able to sign 10 players in two transfer windows is definitely unrealistic...though Spurs are showing how a well run club manages to do something close to that.

I doubt many people expect for us to sign 10 players and challenge for the league in 2024, you're making that up based on the general negativity on here, but that negativity is justified when they've seen this club run like a clown show for a decade.

I'd say the bigger problem is the seemingly widespread apathy of the fan base, cheering mediocrity into midtable, in order for the negativity to dissipate, then all the talk needs to be backed up with results.

This place is divided, it doesn't help when the majority keep telling people not to be negative, or to go support a different club.
 
Oh feck off


It's not real life, i don't have to lower my expectations for a club i love and support.

My expectations are high, we finally have a competent manager, i'm quite certain he'll get around 4 players he wants and needs and he'll get us firing in the league.

EL semifinal minimum.
FA cup strong outing.
And fighting for the title at least till January.

I won't get dissapointed if this doesn't happen, but i can't go on thinking "yeah, 6th is about our level".

It's Manchester United for feck sake.
This will be a good season!
 
acnumber9 said:
No wonder you were such a fan of Rangnick.
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I only claimed that the board and the players are more responsible for the muck we're in than rangnick. That doesn't mean rangnick should have continued as manager, even if he managed to get top 4 I still would want ten hag at the helm.

I still stand by it.
 
Ours is not a bad squad at all. People are going to be pleasantly surprised this season with couple of tweaks and new signings. FDJ will transform the whole midfield.

You can mark my words. Not saying we will win the PL but we won't be terrible as you people state. We just had a horrible season if not the worst ever and we still came up 6th and were in top 4 battle until last couple of weeks.

Relax. Have a drink - it helps !!
 
yumtum said:
Yeah, breing able to sign 10 players in two transfer windows is definitely unrealistic...though Spurs are showing how a well run club manages to do something close to that.

I doubt many people expect for us to sign 10 players and challenge for the league in 2024, you're making that up based on the general negativity on here, but that negativity is justified when they've seen this club run like a clown show for a decade.

I'd say the bigger problem is the seemingly widespread apathy of the fan base, cheering mediocrity into midtable, in order for the negativity to dissipate, then all the talk needs to be backed up with results.

This place is divided, it doesn't help when the majority keep telling people not to be negative, or to go support a different club.
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How exactly is Spurs a well run club when they just sacked 2 managers in one season and is supporting Conte with whatever players he is asking for ?
 
That's the key for the Glazers, for sure. Cos the past decade Man Utd should have been 1st or 2nd every season, with the odd outlier 3rd, given where they were and the resources they had.
 
I got this.

If we have zero expectation on United next season, we will never be disappointed ever again.

This cheers me up. :angel:
 
bond19821982 said:
How exactly is Spurs a well run club when they just sacked 2 managers in one season and is supporting Conte with whatever players he is asking for ?
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Realising their mistakes early and correcting them swiftly?

Poch was performing badly after they didn't invest in their squad because of their new stadium, that was their mistake, but Poch left, then they tried getting Conte, didn't want to invest too much again and hired poorly - realising their mistake they appointed two people who have a definitive plan.

A few months later in January they bring in Bentacur and Kulusevski, that in turn helps them get top four, fast forward to summer, they've signed Kulusevski permanently, got in Perisic and are close to signing Spence, Bissouma and possibly Eriksen with another CB likely - that's their midfield, wingers and wingbacks and CB (having already signed a very good cb in Romero last summer) sorted, so about 7 players to overhaultheir squad in two windows.

Meanwhile United (not accounting for the previous nine years of failure) extended the contract of a manager who had just fell flat in a final with him already having a year on his current deal (many rightly predicted that wouldn't be a wise move) then a few months after that extension we fall apart, inexplicably giving the failing manager some time off after a humiliating set of defeats, only to sack him a month later.

Then we hire a guy with the aim of thinking long term, refuse to reinforce our squad in January, sign Ten Hag (I have faith in this guy, just not the people above him) and it looks like we failed to do any sort of groundwork on any players, letting the guy we hired to help us longterm go in the process.

So yeah, compared to us Spurs have been like a fecking Swiss watch.
 
The key is to set the expectation that United won't get relegated in 22/23. No guarantees, but that should be achievable.
 
It's the people in charge that give the feeling of having no hope with this club. Everything up until the first team seems like a good Foundation, everyone and anything beyond this is where the trouble lies. Incompetence of the highest order and a resounding lack of diligence.
 
bond19821982 said:
How exactly is Spurs a well run club when they just sacked 2 managers in one season and is supporting Conte with whatever players he is asking for ?
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Being well run does't mean you don't make mistakes. It means you're able to identify and try to fix them.

Sometimes it won't work. City are considered to be a well run club. But had Pep left City after 3-4 years, like he did with his previous club, would they have been able to successfully replace him? Who knows.
 
You lot would have us turn into Arsenal or something. How can fighting for the top 6 be the target? We finished 6th this season in what was an absolute disaster of a year for fecks sake. I expect us to finish in the top 4 and if we don’t the manager needs to be held accountable. End of.
 
Amir said:
Being well run does't mean you don't make mistakes. It means you're able to identify and try to fix them.
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Very true.

And you can only properly judge that over (some) time.

There is some reason to consider this the "post-Woodward" era. If we do, well - it follows that we shouldn't expect too much too soon. If there - finally - is a new structure in place, a fundamentally different approach to running the football side...and all that (which many of us have been crying out for since Fergie retired)...well, it won't manifest itself overnight.

However - for me, what this actually means is...we could be looking at two very different scenarios:

1) ETH is just another "manager" (not fundamentally different from any of his predecessors in terms of the structure he's working with or within).

or

2) ETH is a part of a (genuinely) new structure.

As far as I'm concerned, it will be far more interesting/to the point to see/try to assess which is which (1 or 2) than simply "rating" him, in isolation, as a "manager" who may very well be another category 1 figure.
 
Expect that we’ll get relegated, then when we finish mid table it’ll feel like a great season.
 
Amir said:
Being well run does't mean you don't make mistakes. It means you're able to identify and try to fix them.

Sometimes it won't work. City are considered to be a well run club. But had Pep left City after 3-4 years, like he did with his previous club, would they have been able to successfully replace him? Who knows.
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Tony pulis could win things with that squad.
 
I'm just happy we're no longer acting like mugs in the transfer market. Just had a wank after hearing United refused to meet Nunez' wage demands (that is definitely the reason he picked the scousers over a Europa league club who haven't won a trophy since 2017 by the way).
 
yumtum said:
Realising their mistakes early and correcting them swiftly?

Poch was performing badly after they didn't invest in their squad because of their new stadium, that was their mistake, but Poch left, then they tried getting Conte, didn't want to invest too much again and hired poorly - realising their mistake they appointed two people who have a definitive plan.

A few months later in January they bring in Bentacur and Kulusevski, that in turn helps them get top four, fast forward to summer, they've signed Kulusevski permanently, got in Perisic and are close to signing Spence, Bissouma and possibly Eriksen with another CB likely - that's their midfield, wingers and wingbacks and CB (having already signed a very good cb in Romero last summer) sorted, so about 7 players to overhaultheir squad in two windows.

Meanwhile United (not accounting for the previous nine years of failure) extended the contract of a manager who had just fell flat in a final with him already having a year on his current deal (many rightly predicted that wouldn't be a wise move) then a few months after that extension we fall apart, inexplicably giving the failing manager some time off after a humiliating set of defeats, only to sack him a month later.

Then we hire a guy with the aim of thinking long term, refuse to reinforce our squad in January, sign Ten Hag (I have faith in this guy, just not the people above him) and it looks like we failed to do any sort of groundwork on any players, letting the guy we hired to help us longterm go in the process.

So yeah, compared to us Spurs have been like a fecking Swiss watch.
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I don't know why would you bring us into the equation. We have been a mess which pretty much the whole world knows .

They didn't support Poch , hired Jose and sacked again just before a final to avoid the embarrassment of super league, then goes behind Conte and ETH (gets rejected ), finalizes Gattuso only to go back because of the Fan protest , hires Nuno but fires after 10 matches and hires Conte. Now supporting him with all the signings including a 33 year old .

Yeah, screams like a well run club !
 
I think we will just use this season to assess the needs and for ETH to get familiar with the squad we have. If he can get 1-2 signings in then fine but if we have to go into the season with no new players it will still be OK because he will get to know the players who are already there and will see whether he can get enough out of them. Then we will probably take 2-3 more years to slowly build the team, replace the departing players and get back to where we are competitive against top teams again. It was always unrealistic to rebuild in one year anyway. With no CL money we probably can’t afford more than those 1-2 signings anyway.
 
Sarni said:
I think we will just use this season to assess the needs and for ETH to get familiar with the squad we have. If he can get 1-2 signings in then fine but if we have to go into the season with no new players it will still be OK because he will get to know the players who are already there and will see whether he can get enough out of them. Then we will probably take 2-3 more years to slowly build the team, replace the departing players and get back to where we are competitive against top teams again. It was always unrealistic to rebuild in one year anyway. With no CL money we probably can’t afford more than those 1-2 signings anyway.
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I think writing off a season for "assessing needs" is a bit unnecessarily slow. Surely ETH has a working pair of eyes and a TV screen, plus access to an abundance of analytical data. He's also capable of reading who is in our squad and where we are numerically short. We also have a number of staff that have been around the club that should have been assessing our needs. What is the output of our disastrous season if not a realisation of where we are short?

I also think the idea that 1-2 signings is okay is unnecessarily slow. It puts a lot of pressure on ETH to produce miracles from a squad that a number of managers have failed to get any real progress from. I think that puts him in a pretty thankless position and I think most top managers would be annoyed by that situation. It is going to take some time and patience but I don't think we should take that to ridiculous extremes that potentially stunt forward progress, and then by extension risk future revenue that would further slow us down.

Fans certainly could do themselves a favour by stopping panicking over transfers, negotiations, other clubs signings and micro analysing and entering a depressed state over every development (such is the current climate). But we do need to come out of this window with some deals that give the manager a chance.
 
Tavern in the town said:
You lot would have us turn into Arsenal or something. How can fighting for the top 6 be the target? We finished 6th this season in what was an absolute disaster of a year for fecks sake. I expect us to finish in the top 4 and if we don’t the manager needs to be held accountable. End of.
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Without him being backed ?

Our players have a decent track record in downing tools and getting managers sacked, god help ten hag if his job is on the line and he has to depend on this lot.
 
VidaRed said:
Without him being backed ?

Our players have a decent track record in downing tools and getting managers sacked, god help ten hag if his job is on the line and he has to depend on this lot.
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There’s no reason to believe the manager won’t be backed. Every single one of our managers spent big money in their first summer in the job, bar Moyes who was turned down by everyone. We’ll spend the money this summer, not a doubt in my mind.
 
BluesJr said:
This thread is probably a joke but I actually do believe this fan base is way too passive as a whole. Other clubs would not stand for this nonsense we’re putting up with. Match going fans in particular are guilty.
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Very true.

I'm surprised the Glazers aren't taking even greater dividends out of the club as little would change in regards to opposing them.
 
Abraxas said:
I think writing off a season for "assessing needs" is a bit unnecessarily slow. Surely ETH has a working pair of eyes and a TV screen, plus access to an abundance of analytical data. He's also capable of reading who is in our squad and where we are numerically short. We also have a number of staff that have been around the club that should have been assessing our needs. What is the output of our disastrous season if not a realisation of where we are short?

I also think the idea that 1-2 signings is okay is unnecessarily slow. It puts a lot of pressure on ETH to produce miracles from a squad that a number of managers have failed to get any real progress from. I think that puts him in a pretty thankless position and I think most top managers would be annoyed by that situation. It is going to take some time and patience but I don't think we should take that to ridiculous extremes that potentially stunt forward progress, and then by extension risk future revenue that would further slow us down.

Fans certainly could do themselves a favour by stopping panicking over transfers, negotiations, other clubs signings and micro analysing and entering a depressed state over every development (such is the current climate). But we do need to come out of this window with some deals that give the manager a chance.
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I think after years of trying to overhaul literally every other year, aiming for quick fix, it’s time to take it slow. Not look at the next 2-3 seasons but look beyond that, the club needs to restructure, strengthen many positions, start getting the best out of its players and it will take time whether we like it or not. We can’t spend £50m on players and then bin them two seasons after for next to nothing (and that is if we are lucky enough to offload them at all).
 
I'm just glad that I'm not a schoolboy anymore. Back in my day, a classmate quite literally pretended to be sick for a whole week after his team(Arsenal) lost against us. That only made it worse of course. People screamed "glory glory Man United" wherever he walked for a couple of days. Even the Liverpool supporters joined in.

I still care about the club I grew up watching, but at the end of the day it's all about money. Rich assholes being hired by even richer assholes. Social media has made things even worse.

Just show me some heart. Just entertain me. And please make Sir Alex smile if he's in the stands.
 
bond19821982 said:
I don't know why would you bring us into the equation. We have been a mess which pretty much the whole world knows .

They didn't support Poch , hired Jose and sacked again just before a final to avoid the embarrassment of super league, then goes behind Conte and ETH (gets rejected ), finalizes Gattuso only to go back because of the Fan protest , hires Nuno but fires after 10 matches and hires Conte. Now supporting him with all the signings including a 33 year old .

Yeah, screams like a well run club !
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Jesus you're going offended some weird tangent here, I replied to OP saying that it is possible to practically overhaul a squad within two window as Spurs to their credit, are in the process of doing so.

So I was giving an example of how we/us/United (that's us in the equation) could possibly do it with a little bit of planning, wo what if one of the handful of signings is 33 years old? Does that make him a bad signing?

Signed in 6 months:

Bentacur (24) - £16.3m,
Kulusevski (21) - £38.5m,
Forster (34) - FREE
Perisic (33) - FREE,
Bissouma (25) - £25m.

Looking likely :

Spence (21) - £20m.

Possible :

Eriksen (30) - FREE.

Those above players cost less than £100m, most would be an improvement on what we have, that's also not them finished their two windows yet, so 5 players signed in one and a bit windows so far - again, this is why I made the comparison for the OP.
 
The title of this thread is good but the idea is quite off.

When I look at the threads here and in Twitter, I feel that the meaning of the word fan is no longer true. A fan always gets behind the team, supporting them, regardless of whether they will challenge for titles or not. Obviously they will make remarks if the team's performances are not good, but if the team gives a better performance in the next game, they will be happy for that as well. They will be interested in seeing signings, but even if there isn't, they are willing to see optimism in other ways. I have supported this club during SAF days, Moyes, LVG, Jose, Ole, Rangnick etc and I have enjoyed all the victories during their time with the same amount of optimism. Obviously this season has been one of the worst in terms of performances but there is room for optimism in terms of a new manager, redefined football operational structure and great progress in the academy.

The people we see here and in Twitter are not fans of the club, rather, they are fans of the club's historical success. They act more like investors who have invested a large sum of the money in the club and expect to see success overnight. We can't call them plastics since their pride and ego is too huge to let go of this club, but we also can't call them fans since their interest is only in the club's success. Its like they want Manchester United to win every game so that they can pump their chest in front of others. My only advice to these group of people is to learn to have some optimism. If you can't, then don't spoil the optimism of true fans by posting baseless posts.
 
I expect nothing but more misery next season. I do think we can scrape a 5th place finish though!
 
The problem with accepting mediocracy is that it breeds more mediocracy. If we aim for 5/6 then 7th is acceptable. All those teams aiming for 1st might not get first but just by setting those standards will move further and further ahead of us. Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool are light years ahead already. Newcastle will join them soon. Thats top 4 gone. Spurs look like they are getting their act together. Even Arsenal might be doing better than us. And who knows which other club will be bought out by oil giants in the next few years. And here we are accepting and aiming for 6th! That will in reality mean we are a mid table club praying for a class of 92 miracle. Even then look at Liverpool. They hit the jackpot but still City have won what 4 of the last 5 Prem Leagues? When Newcastle get there it will be Man City, Newcastle, Man City, Man City rinse and repeat until Leeds or someone gets bought by Quatar.
When big companies are challenged they radically adapt or die. We don't want to be Kodak
 
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