These are all valid, but guess what, let’s go back further to the summer of 2005, the glazer family takeover, that was the beginning of it all, everything going forward is knock on of that year. Should never have been allowed by us the fans and by the PL.
United’s Worst Decisions of the Last 12 Years
- Thread starter ole@thewheel
- Start date
Don't get me started.
1. Woodward
2. Murtough
All the other bad decisions are just the result of these 2 appointments.
2. Murtough
All the other bad decisions are just the result of these 2 appointments.
In that case the cock-up was making the club a PLC, that was the route in to how the Glazer's got their foot in
Yes you are right because it made us vulnerable to what happened.
That away kit that made the players look like Confused Zebras, surely that has to be top 10.
1) Hiring Murtough as DoF (because "he did great thing with women team) and his brilliant idea "i will buy whatever manager wants"
2) Hiring Solskjaer who was ultimate disaster on and outside pitch and start of our downfall.
3) Ten Hag's contract extension
4) Everything about Antony's transfer.
5) Decision to not extend with De Gea and instead paying 50 mil for Onana.
2) Hiring Solskjaer who was ultimate disaster on and outside pitch and start of our downfall.
3) Ten Hag's contract extension
4) Everything about Antony's transfer.
5) Decision to not extend with De Gea and instead paying 50 mil for Onana.
Mind you the alternative prior to that was Michael Knighton, that day is singed in my memory of just about the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in a football stadium
De Gea and Onana were two separate decisions. Letting go of De Gea was correct, signing Onana was wrong.
Of course PSG battered us do you remember the team we had out in those games, I mean Shoretiere played for some of that game he was 16 or 17 at the time we were down to our bare bones
I mean if the Glazer were going to sell they would have, in my view they just wanted someone to take the pressure off of them and be visible I think they almost got their useful idiot in SJR
Yeah of course but the aftermath was very much a sign of a 'small' club mentality, it's kind of stayed here since then with fans constantly pointing out a win versus City or Pool as some great achievement whilst ignoring the dust building the trophy cabinet. Rio and the like hyped up the social media angle post PSG and the club inexplicably just went with the emotional choice- it was not a business decision.
Add Onana was available on a free the summer before and Mount had one year left in his contract but we still paid £55m.
This needs a thread and is more interesting. There's so many bad decisions that limiting this to 12 is too hard.
The start of our downfall? I really resent Ole's time as a manager, but he didn't start our downfall. We were a mess when he took over and in worse shape when he left.
Nah, he was only here 3/4 of a season. Barely signed anyone, didn't sell anyone.
His impact is neither here nor there.
Whatever damage some think he did was easily reversible.
The recruitment under LvG is what really began the real turmoil.
Nah man, we've had some good times still.
Been multiple cup finals, watching the teams lift the trophy lives on in the memory. Had some great players in that time here as well and some real personalities in the hot seat.
The last 12 years have still been far better for us fans than basically every other PL club bar City, Pool, Chelsea and Leicester.
1 - not backing Mourinho the summer after we finished 2nd
Agreed. And it's not as if we've seen them do anything great since. I'd say the were the right cogs in Fergie's United machine (dare I saw - Fergie's latter years United machine, which already wasn't as great), but I doubt they would have had a similar effect for anyone else.
We weren't looking to get rid of De Gea at the time Onana was available on a free, by the time ETH arrived he'd already signed a pre-contract with Inter
I'd say the error was not SACKING him then. Things were already turning toxic and the football was getting worse.
Giving Ole full time contract before the season ended.
It really didn't. He was sacked after 1 season and barely spent any money - signed only 2 players and neither are anywhere close to some of the disaster transfers of his successors.
Talk about exaggeration.
The error was employing him in the first place
Trauma porn thread? Cool
1. Keeping Ten Hag
1. Keeping Ten Hag
Decades? Lets not be crazy now. Moyes was awful chouce but he managed only to sign two players (who were at the end semi decent signings) and he was quickly sacked.
As a poster said above, how long can the list be?
It’s like we should have a top 100 list and then start whittling through and ranking them.
Managers: I’ve seen a lot of Moyes here. I don’t even know if Moyes would crack my top 50 worst decisions to be honest. He wasn’t here long, and he basically left what was an already aging Ferguson team + Fellaini and Mata. I’m fearing that ETH, more than any of the managers left a worse squad with more failed signings than any other.
Failed transfers: Where to begin. First, it looks like we just acknowledge that are the undeniable choices - the unmitigated disasters. These include: Sanchez, Sancho and Anthony. The unholy trinity. Satan’s version of Law, Best and Charlton. Di Maria! Probably more deserving than Anthony…
Schniederlein, Schweinsteiger…
We could spend a week ranking our transfer failures.
Successful transfers: This where things get even muddier and murky. Who was our most successful in the last 12 years?? Arguably I guess we’d have to say … Bruno Fernandes?!!! I mean who is the competition with? After Bruno … who? De Gea? Herrera? Shaw? Maguire? Dalot? Fellaini? Garnacho? Martinez? Danny Blind? Pogba? Dan James?
Players who don’t fit anything:
One of our biggest mistakes is that we occasionally seem to buy players for no reason, with no idea how they fit into the team, much less make the team better. Kagawa, Mata, Mount, Zirkzee, Eriksen, etc. Every once in awhile, we’ve just bought a player for unfathomable reasons and try to shoehorn them into the side. Proper clubs typically don’t do this.
We overrate our academy and youth players and then overplay them and ultimately ruin them: Rashford, Januszaj, etc.
We have underrated players who could’ve at least done a job for us and sold them off and replaced them with crap. Johnny Evans, M. Keane, Herrera, Fred, the twins, Gomes, McT, Hernandez, etc. We have this uncanny ability to scapegoat or not appreciate what could be decent squad players on acceptable salaries.
Wages and contract extensions:
Now we get to the big one. I feel this the crux of it, and dare say almost more than the ownership, although I agree Glazers probably sit firmly at #1. I dare say our football on the pitch and current predicament really comes down to this.
United have a reputation for:
1) Paying over the odds to bring a player in, to the point of being suckers and massively overpaying. Antony, Maguire, etc.
2) Having a squad on massive wages, where the top end earners are paid world class wages. Our goalkeepers (De Gea, Onana) were some of the highest players on the planet. We buy backup fullbacks and put them on like 125,000 a week. I saw where Rashford’s stats at 287 games were comparable to Jermaine Pennant and Steed Malbranque. Yet we are paying him like he’s Mbappe.
3) Because we pay above the odds for our entire squad wages, anytime anyone is relatively successful, we have to give them a massive contract extension and wages.
4) It’s terribly difficult to shift players because of the wage structures.
5) The players we can easily shift, end up being homegrown, or useful and can do a job for us on reasonable wages. So we sacrifice and lose our depth - and always have to focus all our efforts every transfer window to desperately get rid of the over-compensated crap we have. I mean honestly, how many times have we viewed getting rid of, Ronaldo Mk.2, Rashford, Sanchez, Rojo, Anthony, as “wins” for the transfer window?
I think it’s too simple to just say “Glazers”, “Woodward”, “Moyes”, “EtH”, etc. I’ve seen things like “Rooney’s contract extension” or “Phil Jones” mentioned over the years. Rooney was the last world class, or near world class player, we had who even had an argument to be anywhere near deserving top end wages - even if he was nearing the tail end of his career. Phil Jones didn’t cause this, Moyes didn’t cause this…
Buying players we didn’t need on big wages. Having all the squad players on wages bigger than Real Madrid would pay.
Giving massive contract extensions and raises to players the moment they perform.
Neglecting to buy players we do need, in positions we need, for players and spunking it on crap.
Having a reputation to overpay in the market - and then continuing to perpetuate that by doing the same damn thing over and over.
Our terrible habit - most likely leftover from Robin van Persie - to think there’s “one magic signing”, “one golden bullet” that will restore us to prominence. We do it over -and over - and over again. Sneijder, Sanchez, Pogba, Sancho, Anthony, etc. Newsflash. Van Persie was actually a pretty crap transfer considering he won a title and then downed tools, pouted and fecked off.
Ultimately, it’s our wage structure. We can’t pay our squad like we’re Real Madrid winning the Champions League every year. We have to clear it out. We’re in the bottom half of the premier league. We’re worse than Crystal Palace, Fulham and Forest.
Lower the wage bill.
Buy players who actually want to play here.
Buy players we need, in positions we need, on decent wages.
Only pay world class player wages for real, proven world class players. Goalkeepers are a dime a dozen.
Keep homegrown and reasonable talent for depth, on reasonable wages
Don’t keep “pushing out the boat” to try to buy the “silver bullet”.
It’s like we should have a top 100 list and then start whittling through and ranking them.
Managers: I’ve seen a lot of Moyes here. I don’t even know if Moyes would crack my top 50 worst decisions to be honest. He wasn’t here long, and he basically left what was an already aging Ferguson team + Fellaini and Mata. I’m fearing that ETH, more than any of the managers left a worse squad with more failed signings than any other.
Failed transfers: Where to begin. First, it looks like we just acknowledge that are the undeniable choices - the unmitigated disasters. These include: Sanchez, Sancho and Anthony. The unholy trinity. Satan’s version of Law, Best and Charlton. Di Maria! Probably more deserving than Anthony…
Schniederlein, Schweinsteiger…
We could spend a week ranking our transfer failures.
Successful transfers: This where things get even muddier and murky. Who was our most successful in the last 12 years?? Arguably I guess we’d have to say … Bruno Fernandes?!!! I mean who is the competition with? After Bruno … who? De Gea? Herrera? Shaw? Maguire? Dalot? Fellaini? Garnacho? Martinez? Danny Blind? Pogba? Dan James?
Players who don’t fit anything:
One of our biggest mistakes is that we occasionally seem to buy players for no reason, with no idea how they fit into the team, much less make the team better. Kagawa, Mata, Mount, Zirkzee, Eriksen, etc. Every once in awhile, we’ve just bought a player for unfathomable reasons and try to shoehorn them into the side. Proper clubs typically don’t do this.
We overrate our academy and youth players and then overplay them and ultimately ruin them: Rashford, Januszaj, etc.
We have underrated players who could’ve at least done a job for us and sold them off and replaced them with crap. Johnny Evans, M. Keane, Herrera, Fred, the twins, Gomes, McT, Hernandez, etc. We have this uncanny ability to scapegoat or not appreciate what could be decent squad players on acceptable salaries.
Wages and contract extensions:
Now we get to the big one. I feel this the crux of it, and dare say almost more than the ownership, although I agree Glazers probably sit firmly at #1. I dare say our football on the pitch and current predicament really comes down to this.
United have a reputation for:
1) Paying over the odds to bring a player in, to the point of being suckers and massively overpaying. Antony, Maguire, etc.
2) Having a squad on massive wages, where the top end earners are paid world class wages. Our goalkeepers (De Gea, Onana) were some of the highest players on the planet. We buy backup fullbacks and put them on like 125,000 a week. I saw where Rashford’s stats at 287 games were comparable to Jermaine Pennant and Steed Malbranque. Yet we are paying him like he’s Mbappe.
3) Because we pay above the odds for our entire squad wages, anytime anyone is relatively successful, we have to give them a massive contract extension and wages.
4) It’s terribly difficult to shift players because of the wage structures.
5) The players we can easily shift, end up being homegrown, or useful and can do a job for us on reasonable wages. So we sacrifice and lose our depth - and always have to focus all our efforts every transfer window to desperately get rid of the over-compensated crap we have. I mean honestly, how many times have we viewed getting rid of, Ronaldo Mk.2, Rashford, Sanchez, Rojo, Anthony, as “wins” for the transfer window?
I think it’s too simple to just say “Glazers”, “Woodward”, “Moyes”, “EtH”, etc. I’ve seen things like “Rooney’s contract extension” or “Phil Jones” mentioned over the years. Rooney was the last world class, or near world class player, we had who even had an argument to be anywhere near deserving top end wages - even if he was nearing the tail end of his career. Phil Jones didn’t cause this, Moyes didn’t cause this…
Buying players we didn’t need on big wages. Having all the squad players on wages bigger than Real Madrid would pay.
Giving massive contract extensions and raises to players the moment they perform.
Neglecting to buy players we do need, in positions we need, for players and spunking it on crap.
Having a reputation to overpay in the market - and then continuing to perpetuate that by doing the same damn thing over and over.
Our terrible habit - most likely leftover from Robin van Persie - to think there’s “one magic signing”, “one golden bullet” that will restore us to prominence. We do it over -and over - and over again. Sneijder, Sanchez, Pogba, Sancho, Anthony, etc. Newsflash. Van Persie was actually a pretty crap transfer considering he won a title and then downed tools, pouted and fecked off.
Ultimately, it’s our wage structure. We can’t pay our squad like we’re Real Madrid winning the Champions League every year. We have to clear it out. We’re in the bottom half of the premier league. We’re worse than Crystal Palace, Fulham and Forest.
Lower the wage bill.
Buy players who actually want to play here.
Buy players we need, in positions we need, on decent wages.
Only pay world class player wages for real, proven world class players. Goalkeepers are a dime a dozen.
Keep homegrown and reasonable talent for depth, on reasonable wages
Don’t keep “pushing out the boat” to try to buy the “silver bullet”.
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Ten Hag and everything he was involved in way out in front. Ruined us.
LVGs gutting of the squad, Sanchez, Sancho, De Gea's £400k extension, Ronaldo, Schweinsteiger all in the mix for the rest.
The damage Moyes did was minimal compared to others. I think in hindsight if he'd stayed that summer we'd have got some good players in, Kroos for one.
Ole one of the few things they got right. Would be good to be a regular top 4 side again like we were under him.
In the end it all comes down to player recruitment and they've got it is wrong as realistically possible. There's hardly a single player that City, Liverpool and others have bought that we couldn't have got ourselves at some point.
LVGs gutting of the squad, Sanchez, Sancho, De Gea's £400k extension, Ronaldo, Schweinsteiger all in the mix for the rest.
The damage Moyes did was minimal compared to others. I think in hindsight if he'd stayed that summer we'd have got some good players in, Kroos for one.
Ole one of the few things they got right. Would be good to be a regular top 4 side again like we were under him.
In the end it all comes down to player recruitment and they've got it is wrong as realistically possible. There's hardly a single player that City, Liverpool and others have bought that we couldn't have got ourselves at some point.
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We didn’t play Shoretire in the PSG games. He made his debut in 2021, aged 17.
Unwarranted contract extensions to “protect resale value” was a stupid policy. Extensions to players like Jones and Martial.
The lack of a proper structure on the football side of the business.
Woodward in general.
The lack of a proper structure on the football side of the business.
Woodward in general.
Schniederlein and Di Maria footballing wise were bad transfers, but on the flip side we sold them for almost as much as we paid for them so they cannot be classed the same as some of the other names listed
The 2023 summer window is right up there for me.
1. Getting rid of one of the safest set of hands in European football (albeit he made a few mistakes as all keepers do) to sign Onana who promised to ‘take more risks’ at the beginning of this season but often can’t do the basic required of a goalkeeper.
2. Signed Mount from Chelsea because he was available. At the time we played with one 10, who was and is our captain. Even if Mount was fit, in the old system he wouldn’t have played many games over Bruno. Pointless signing and indicative of spending under the Glazers.
3. In a summer where Kane finally leaves Spurs and United fans are singing ‘Harry Kane, we’ll see you in June’ we opt to sign a 20 year old that has scored 8 or 9 goals for his team. He would make a brilliant second striker that could build experience in cup games and coming on from the bench but to rely on him as our sole striker at such a huge club is utterly reckless and not fair on the lad.
We went into that summer in a good place, just really needing a centre forward and we ended up trading down on a keeper, signing a shiny toy for no reason and spending on a striker that can’t cut it (and shouldn’t have to) at his age instead of signing one of the PL’s best ever strikers.
I know we’d have paid far more for Kane than Bayern did but without the other transfers we could have afforded it.
1. Getting rid of one of the safest set of hands in European football (albeit he made a few mistakes as all keepers do) to sign Onana who promised to ‘take more risks’ at the beginning of this season but often can’t do the basic required of a goalkeeper.
2. Signed Mount from Chelsea because he was available. At the time we played with one 10, who was and is our captain. Even if Mount was fit, in the old system he wouldn’t have played many games over Bruno. Pointless signing and indicative of spending under the Glazers.
3. In a summer where Kane finally leaves Spurs and United fans are singing ‘Harry Kane, we’ll see you in June’ we opt to sign a 20 year old that has scored 8 or 9 goals for his team. He would make a brilliant second striker that could build experience in cup games and coming on from the bench but to rely on him as our sole striker at such a huge club is utterly reckless and not fair on the lad.
We went into that summer in a good place, just really needing a centre forward and we ended up trading down on a keeper, signing a shiny toy for no reason and spending on a striker that can’t cut it (and shouldn’t have to) at his age instead of signing one of the PL’s best ever strikers.
I know we’d have paid far more for Kane than Bayern did but without the other transfers we could have afforded it.
Kane was never joining United, Levy was never selling him to us and it's pointless thinking we missed the boat on him
Bingo. He would have been just another Casemiro. And we needed to move on from de Gea as well.
* Not sticking by Ole.
* Anything ten Hag.
* Anything ten Hag.
Solskjær should have been sacked earlier than he was and didn’t win a trophy.
Make it ten Hag and you've got a point.
Agree on De Gea but in hindsight his replacement looks to have been a wrong choice as well
Again with the fixation on trophies. Ten Hag won two trophies and we are in the worst situation the club has been in since 1974. Trophies are important but not at the expense of the long term future of the entire club.