In my original post I said the large scale apathy of our fan base, which is true since the fans who broke off and started a new club would represent what even half a % of our fanbase? The protests were extremely minor compared to what you would see at Barca and Madrid or what we did see at Liverpool who successfully ousted the owners. Granted the H&G tried to use the same business plan as the Glazers and Liverpool couldn't sustain it but the mass protests and threats to boycott season tickets and in particular RBS eventually got them out as they couldn't get refinancing done and had to put the club up for sale.
Unpopular Opinions Thread
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In my original post I said the large scale apathy of our fan base, which is true since the fans who broke off and started a new club would represent what even half a % of our fanbase? The protests were extremely minor compared to what you would see at Barca and Madrid or what we did see at Liverpool who successfully ousted the owners. Granted the H&G tried to use the same business plan as the Glazers and Liverpool couldn't sustain it but the mass protests and threats to boycott season tickets and in particular RBS eventually got them out as they couldn't get refinancing done and had to put the club up for sale.
Not sure how popular or unpopular of an opinion this is considering how much stick he gets on here, but Rooney is by far our most influential player on the pitch. When he doesn't play, the team noticeably performs worse. And to add to that, I'm delighted that he's been given the captaincy.
In all fairness, after his two massive strokes in early 2006, Malcolm Glazer hardly set foot anywhere outside his home.
Rooney is (and has always been) a better player than Van Persie.
Jonny Evans isn't good enough to be a regular starter for United.
Giggs will never be a good manager. He is relatively dumb and lacks any charisma whatsoever.
Jonny Evans isn't good enough to be a regular starter for United.
Giggs will never be a good manager. He is relatively dumb and lacks any charisma whatsoever.
Evans is good enough to be a regular starter for United (in my opinion is currently our best defender at the moment), it's just injuries have held him back in that regard. Agree with the other two though.
Complete bollocks Im afraid - the fans had little to nothing to do with H&G leaving Liverpool, not to mention the fact that they actually welcomed them with open arms when they first turned up - it was only years later that they started complaining. A big contrast to when the Glazers first appeared as they were opposed from day 1.
There was very little difference between the level of protest that the Scousers eventually managed compared to what happened in our own fanbase so I have no idea why you keep claiming otherwise.
Liverpool aren't that far behind United and the only thing that might probably help United pip them to 4th is the lack of CL
I'm a bit afraid of this myself... faded towards the end of the season, and didn't look so good for Belgium in the WC or the warm ups
Januzaj could still be good? 
Januzaj will be our star player in 3 seasons time. with loads of clubs in for him.
I don't think they're behind us at all.
He didn't shine as you would expect a player like Nani or Valencia to shine, i.e that they show good trickery and speed. He shone because he showed fabulous technique and looked the most intelligent player on the field at times. Townsend for Tottenham is a player I'd liken to looking good because everyone else was shit.
The other side of that coin is that when he plays badly, the whole team does. Yesterday was an example of him having an absolute mare and the entire team being shite.
He plays badly quite a lot during the course of a season too so it's not an ideal situation.
I agree with this. Although I think he can be a decent manager at a lower level that United.
Ferguson gets too much blame for choosing Moyes. Perhaps the ownership should have put a more robust system in place than just allowing someone to recommend his successor.
Rooney is already a club "legend".
Yorke was, marginally, the best player of the treble season.
Rooney is already a club "legend".
Yorke was, marginally, the best player of the treble season.
Agree with the above. My biggest fear for the future of United is that Giggs will erroneously be gifted the United job after LVG departs and may even undo some of the foundations that LVG will lay.
United will struggle this season with 3 at the back and revert to a back 4 by the start of December.
Ahh, but that was when he was deployed primarily as a 10. Even RVP looks poor when he's not getting the service he needs and looks even worse when Rooney plays bad. Hopefully, now with a superior No. 10 we wont have to rely on Rooney providing all the spark for us.
You're the one talking complete bollocks I'm afraid- The fans welcomed them on arrival because when they bought the club they promised a new stadium (spade in the ground within 6 months), world class signings and I quote "No Glazer style takeover" . Had the Glazers took over United and promised no debt, a stadium expansion to 100k and signing Batistuta I doubt even a handfull of Utd fans would have been protesting. Shortly after when Liverpools assets were in fact leveraged and Liverpool were in £350m debt despite being bought for a little over £200m to go along with zero world class signings and a number of public spats with the manager Benitez and board members is when shit hit the fan and the mass protests started. As for the actual threats "The fans don’t want him [Tom Hicks] to have even one share of my stake in the club, based on what they are sending to me. As a result of that we [my family] have received many phone calls in the middle of the night threatening our lives, death threats. A number came to the office and my son, Foster, and daughter-in-law, Lauren, have received them". Gillett
I'd say judging by these forums, I'd say your opinions in bold are fairy popular.
None of that contradicts anything I have said - I know there were protests and threats (nothing different to what happened at United), the point being that the fans had little impact on them leaving.
If you are going to say someone is talking complete bollocks you should at the very least try and counter something they've said. You've just ranted on about some other stuff which isn't relevant.
- Kagawa is talent wise agreed, mentally though I don't think he's up for it. I don't think many would disagree on his talent to be honest.
- Again I agree, especially towards the end of the season. I was there for the Villa title winning game and he was brilliant.
- If everyone is on form he's in top 5 but not our best.
- Was, in his type of role. Is nowhere near now and probably will never be again.
- I don't think you'll find many disputing that. He's a shite #10
- Again, many would agree, though with RVP being a LVG favourite and Rooney getting that new contract they're both guaranteed a place. Welbeck and Chica aren't good enough to replace them either.
- Agreed.
- Agreed. The sooner we realise he's just a neanderthal with no brain and will continue to pick up more injuries than good reviews the better.
- Agreed. The sooner we stop persisting with him because he has 'potential' and realise we only care cause he's a Manc the better.
- Agreed in terms of goal scoring. He's bloody awful at the minute though and has been for as long as I can remember.
- Well, off the pitch he is, but he's a football so you'd expect it, almost.
- Agreed. British players are shite. Tradition is wonderful of course but we need to move with the times and pick/sign the best players, regardless of nationality.
Finally someone agrees with me..
They are ahead of us. They have re invested the Suarez money well.
They have replaced him with Rickie Lambert, a reasonably good player from a club that finished 8th and a complete gamble from Portugal. No they haven't.
Some of these opinions are a joke. Fair enough though, its what the threads for really.
I have a few, but I think the ones that would garner the most attention are:
-Zidane is overrated. He's a fantastic player for sure but tended to go invisible in many games and a good last tournament (WC 06) has led people to give him a slightly unjustified legendary status about him. Call it a recency bias. He is no where near a top 10 player of all time like many others think.
-Pirlo is very overrated. After manhandling England in the Euros everyone has changed their opinion of him from a solid playmaker to a brilliant genius in central midfield who could run the game while oozing class everywhere as he sips a glass of wine and strokes his beard. His vision is second to none but it doesn't take a tactical masterclass to shut him down (see Park, Ji-Sung) and I would certainly not put him in the same class as Xavi or Iniesta or even Scholes.
If I think of better ones I'll add them, but I feel most strongly about Zidane and Pirlo.
-Zidane is overrated. He's a fantastic player for sure but tended to go invisible in many games and a good last tournament (WC 06) has led people to give him a slightly unjustified legendary status about him. Call it a recency bias. He is no where near a top 10 player of all time like many others think.
-Pirlo is very overrated. After manhandling England in the Euros everyone has changed their opinion of him from a solid playmaker to a brilliant genius in central midfield who could run the game while oozing class everywhere as he sips a glass of wine and strokes his beard. His vision is second to none but it doesn't take a tactical masterclass to shut him down (see Park, Ji-Sung) and I would certainly not put him in the same class as Xavi or Iniesta or even Scholes.
If I think of better ones I'll add them, but I feel most strongly about Zidane and Pirlo.
Of course it does, once the fans started to threaten boycotting the games along with RBS themselves the bank refused to refinance the loan agreements for H&G even when they offered to put their American assets against the loan. The fans had a huge impact on them leaving.
You do know we also signed lallana? And signed a right back, leftback, centreback and defensive midfielder.
Seems silly to claim markovic is "a complete gamble" without having seen what he can o. But I get it, you just like saying we replaced Suarez with lambert.
They were the two guys I was referring to. I think Liverpool's business is impressive in that they know where they stand and have bought accordingly, however, I don't think you have improved going forward. Defensively, I do expect a noticeable improvement.
2 unpopular opinions here.
1) The squad is largely fine.
It's hilarious that the caftards have complained so vociferously about Jones and Smalling not getting gametime at CB. Now that they are getting it, and we have had a great preseason, everyone thinks they aren't up to it.
2) Fellaini (if he isn't sold) may still come good this year. He didn't have the best debut season (which of our players did much better last year? Hardly a good benchmark season for any player) but he still had his moments. It was only 25 minutes but against Valencia he showed what he was capable of. There were rumours he was playing with an injury for a lot of last season as well.
He could be a surprise package this year. Don't think it's possible? Look at Young - I was with the majority of people wanting him sold, but LVG has turned him around so far. I think with more of a preseason/training under his belt, no injuries, a new system/manager and the team actually playing good football, Fellaini could still have a role to play.
1) The squad is largely fine.
It's hilarious that the caftards have complained so vociferously about Jones and Smalling not getting gametime at CB. Now that they are getting it, and we have had a great preseason, everyone thinks they aren't up to it.
2) Fellaini (if he isn't sold) may still come good this year. He didn't have the best debut season (which of our players did much better last year? Hardly a good benchmark season for any player) but he still had his moments. It was only 25 minutes but against Valencia he showed what he was capable of. There were rumours he was playing with an injury for a lot of last season as well.
He could be a surprise package this year. Don't think it's possible? Look at Young - I was with the majority of people wanting him sold, but LVG has turned him around so far. I think with more of a preseason/training under his belt, no injuries, a new system/manager and the team actually playing good football, Fellaini could still have a role to play.
That's not true. Vast majority of the fans here are very happy with their performances (especially Smalling).
Nope - the banks would have kicked them out even if the fans had done absolutely nothing because their business plan failed - the fallout between H&G themselves was also a lot to do with it. Banks make financial decisions, protests from fans will have had virtually no impact.
Plus that is nothing different to what happened at United anyway. Fans also threatened to boycott and in fact many did (which I actually think was the wrong way to go about things) and sponsors were also targeted for years - everything Liverpool fans did was only copying what had happened at United years before.
Anyway this not the right thread for this discussion, feel free to bump any of the Glazer related threads and Im sure you will get more opinions from people who were around at the time.
Fair enough, maybe I'm just in the wrong threads. The impression I get is that the majority opinion is that Jones - Smalling - Evans as first choice isn't good enough and needs to be strengthened, something I disagree with.
From what I’ve read, the majority opinion believes we need to strengthen in centre back position because we have no depth (only 3 senior CBs). And I agree with that.
I rate Smalling and evans very high, not sure about Jones though.
I think it is more about the fact that next in line is Blackett/Keane so that is why we clearly need at least 1 more CB - I have no issue with the 3 but they are all injury prone (in fact I think Evans is a doubt for Saturday) plus it would be good to get an experienced head in there to guide the young defenders we have.
I understand the point, I am in the minority who thinks Blackett and Keane can do a job as backups to the first team. We are playing fewer games this season so shouldn't need as much squad depth as in previous years.
Also when Carrick is back I wouldn't be surprised if LVG used him at CB. Shaw has played CB as well hasn't he?
Another one today. I think LVG has indeed handed in transfer targets and they include several world class players and Woodward has been too useless to pull any of the deals off.
I agree with everything. I stated many times, (experienced) CB would be a good addition to the squad but I think we can manage. CM is a must though.
This one is weird, we’ve heard many times that LVG wants a thinner squad, yet we haven’t seen any departures so far. The “valuation” process by LVG is surely over now.
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