The much (internally) lauded "cultural reset"

[glazed]

What did that cultural reset actually consist of?

It was the triumph of marketing and money over football. That's why it's so painful for Ralf to turn it 360 degrees.

 

[Revaulx]

Nope, they're not and I didn't suggest they were. Evra being a good example of this.

When a player comes to this club there are certain expectations beyond those at other clubs. You have the basics, work hard, nurture your talent, thank the supporters, etc but as United fans we maintain additional expectations about players who join us and that is that they develop a connection to or understanding of our history and use that to form part of their motivation and identity. Generally, we aren't a fanbase that wants to see mercenaries whose only motivation is money and maybe trophies. Sure there are some fans like that but they are probably better off supporting a club like Real Madrid so as to avoid periods of disappointment like the one we're in the midst of now.

Really? I don’t think most fans give a toss about players’ ”connection” with the club’s history, though it’s certainly extra nice if they do develop one. We want players that are capable, hungry and hard working; we don’t expect the players to be doing it in honour of Brian Greenhoff RIP or whoever. The reason we didn’t like Alexis wasn’t because he was a mercenary; it was because he was crap. His ludicrous wages were the icing on an already shitty cake.

Evra, again, and Vidic are counter examples to this. I'm sure a number of us would've sacked them off after their debuts.

Very true!

I don't know. They're good players but why didn't we sign them first (TAA excepted)? Is your suggestion that our scouts have a United DNA criteria?

Loads of people will say I’m spouting conspiracy bollocks here, but I’m really not sure how much involvement our scouts have in our recruitment. It seems to me that a lot of it is down to agents and/or clubs giving Ed a call and telling him how great he’d look in the eyes of the world if he’d only sign the player they happen to be trying to offload.

 

[Irwin99]

Sadly, I think we can put to bed the idea that he left us in a better position than he found us, at least in terms of squad balance, style of play etc. I have so many doubts still about more than half of these players and I don't know why i'm still surprised by matches like the Villa one- it was classic Jose/Ole ball.

 

[Amir]

Sadly, I think we can put to bed the idea that he left us in a better position than he found us, at least in terms of squad balance, style of play etc. I have so many doubts still about more than half of these players and I don't know why i'm still surprised by matches like the Villa one- it was classic Jose/Ole ball.

The "better squad" thing was Solskjaer's last saving grace. Now that it's also gone, we're left with three years wasted years and tons of wasted money.

 

[Seij]

It was a sales pitch that worked really well for him to keep his job. Every single one of us here can say "I want this team to be the most hardworking group of players who outrun every other team and play fast, attacking football that the club is known for" over and over. Doesn't mean that any of us actually has a clue how to make that happen.

We spent more than anybody else in the world during his reign and now have the most expensive team as well. The only area we can see that seems to be our players' expensive attitude.