Utd now just another big club | All "United losing identity" stuff here

LvG was meant to be a genius at getting the most out of players who were already at the clubs he'd been appointed to. Dismantling Fergie's legacy brick by brick wasn't what I was expecting.
 
We are still promoting youth and filling the gaps (big ones at that) with quality players. Obviously a much bigger scale to what we are use to but it was inevitable.
 
I bet Januzaj willl have more minutes under Moyes than Van Gaal. Our defenders are their by technicality due to our current system and shortage in that position. Wilson? I hope he gets sufficient gametime. He should of started ahead of Hernandez versus Mk dons, but now his opportunity to ease his way into the first team will be limited on the basis that we do not have any long term injury.
 
Forgetting we are promoting Wilson though...
I image the people complain about United turning into just another big team,haven't even heard of James Wilson. On the youth side there's being big positives so this season(Tyler Blackett being the biggest positive but also recently Pereira and Wilson got given game time last week)

So I'm not worried about the youth system, this window has been about getting rid of players who aren't good enough. Sadly Welbeck falls into that list.
 
Needs must. We need to get back to the top or the bubble bursts. SAF could do it without the investment but was a one off. He and the board obviously felt best bet was to save up and hand war chest to new manager. May have been better to maintain investment but we are where we are.
Yeah, people forget why we're in this position. Last season it was clear the squad needed a massive overhaul - everyone mentioned 5-7 players and now that we've gone out and done it - there's still people complaining.

Simple truth was - half he squad last season shouldn't be anywhere near United. Even Welbecks been here long enough to have forced his way into the first XI by now.

It's unfortunate for most of us fans, as there's no greater joy then a local lad "making it" but we still have quite a few academy products involved, so it's not the end of the world.
 
The fans make the club special. Not the players, owners or Chief Executive. The supporters who never turned of Dave Moyes, even though he was abysmal. The fans who cheered the way home when we couldn't get a shot on goal against Burnley. The fans haven't been spoiled by the success, which amazes me. Our supporters last year were brilliant. We are not just another club. We are the most supported team in the world for a reason. There's only us, Barca and Real who get such support (and to an extent Liverpool). We finished 7th last year, but we're still Man United to everyone who isn't a bitter clown with memories of us rolling into town and destroying them every season for the past 20 year. You cant buy that. City and Chelsea can spend as much as they like, they will never attract the attention both commercial and internationally as we do. We'll never be just another big club.
 
fecking hell. Talk about a bunch of tarts.

These players were given a chance, they have failed. I don't like the Welbeck transfer myself, but ffs when were we any less of a 'big' club? Do people not remember when we first strung a few league wins together and spent more than anyone and were slagged off left right and centre for it?

Yes, let's reverse everything we've done and go back to last season again. Let's not move forward and stick to the same old shite we've been playing for a few seasons now - including under Saf. I'm not such a fan of the huge fees and all that, but we desperately needed quality and now we have it. We also have a batch of impressive youngsters.

Has that much really changed then?
 
Promoting him where, even one of the main 3 strikers need to be dropped, do you honestly think we will be giving him a chance?

Yeah considering we've just promoted him in the squad and happily let go of two other strikers.
 
That's been evident since the second SAF left and this spending spree should have started last summer. The 7th place finish backs that theory up, along with the terrible appointment. We're also not going to stop promoting youth but not all of them will make it. The club can't afford to keep bang average youth prospects around into their mid twenties. As we all found out tonight.
 
We are being forced to spend big money because the stakes are so high to return to the top four and other clubs know it - this is the first season we have been out of European football and this window has been a reflection of that. Welbeck wants to start games and Cleverley isn't going to be good enough at this point. It was much easier to accommodate these players when Champions League football was never in doubt.
 
We modernise or fall behind. We decided to modernise.
 
Overreaction, we still have home-grown talents, with more coming through the ranks. all we've done is bridges the gap and saved ourselves from the wilderness of liverpool.
 
If Danny Welbeck was content to play out wide/be a squad player then he'd still be here.

He wants to start up front and, youth product or not, that's simply not going to happen when there's two much better players at the club.

We've (seemingly) replaced him with one of the best players in the world and added a highly regarded youth player to the first team squad in place of Hernandez. We're doing just fine.
 
United will continue to produce it's own talent and continue to give them chances because it is a philosophy of the club which is shared by Van Gaal and Giggs.

However, we must also remember that if we are to reach our ambitions then we must maintain a level of quality in the squad. This means we have to be willing to use our resources when needs must.

These big transfer trends can change very quickly anyway. Next season our behaviour in the transfer market could be very different.
 
This over sentimentalised whining is boring me now. Welbeck wanted out before today. The rumours came out last week. In fact it's a fair bet it's one of the reasons we went in for Falcao in the first place. Not to mention that everyone's been slagging the shit out of Tom Cleverley without caring about how we treat our academy prospects. But everyone loves Danny - for the right reasons it must be said - so they're retrofitting some bullshit notion of identity betrayal to give their moaning more poignance. Lets not forget the person this will benefit the most will be Wilson, who's now promoted instantly to our 3rd choice No 9.

Welbeck was given a very fair crack of the whip, was already down the pecking order and wanted out himself. What would you rather? We build the team around him to fulfil some kind of romantic obligation? We've still got Blackett, Januzaj, Wilson, James, Perierra, Keane, Lingard etc vying for minutes this season from practically out of nowhere, and LVG has a long and illustrious reputation for having faith in youth. Stop fretting.
 
Tonight we are selling Danny Welbeck to Arsenal while we spend a huge chunk of that transfer fee on a player who spent much of last season injured and unless we pay another huge chunk of money will not be our player thereafter.

This to me signifies the dawn of a new era of Real Madrid esq dealings at Manchester Utd. I was hoping LVG would have been a superb tactician and man manager who could life our players with a few additions to be a top 4 team again, but after a tough start it seems he too has simultaneously hit the panic button with Ed Woodward and we are now spending Monopoly money in the hope it does not bite us on the bum and we come 5th or worse again.

We were ripped of by Real Madrid on the fee of 60m for a player worth circa 40m.

We sanctioned the purchase of a mop for 27m and a talented Chelsea off cast who could now be a bench warmer here for 37m.

What has happened to the soul of the club Fergie built, not to mention the scouting network. We dont panic buy we invest (as Arsenal have done yet again tonight).

Wenger like him or hate him is from the SAF school of thought, he would not panic buy and has never finished outside the top 4. We do it once and all of a sudden were playing a real life version of the PC game of football manager in the boardroom.

LVG for me (yes even now) was the wrong man for the job, he is too old and clearly with his signings has short term ambitions for his CV and Utd. We sadly in 3-4 years will pay for transfer windows gambles like this especially if were outside the top 4.

How I miss what Fergie could achieve with British players with heart who cared for Man Utd rather than
the types on huge money and if the truth were told would rather be somewhere else

Wenger can afford to spend his time on youth at the expense of success. he's pretty much got a job for life.
Sir Alex was the same, but he isn't here any more. The unique continuity that allowed us to run differently to other top clubs is gone.

We're like other clubs now. That's just how it is.
Like other top clubs we'll have young players coming through, some will be amazing, some wont. But at regular top clubs (without the same manager for 15-20 years) managerswill be judged on what they do right now. Plus the class of 92 was a freak situation. People shouldn't expect anything like that again.
 
It's either moaning we are not buying world class players or moaning when we do.

You're saying a club of our status should be satisfied with having 3 world class attacking players and then purely average/ below average players everywhere else save for De Gea?RVP and Rooney won't be great for long either, and IMO both are on the decline. The spending was needed and it's not like it will be something that happens every window. The squad needed an injection of quality and we got one. From now on, windows will be more about strengthening in particular areas or replacing a player who leaves rather than strengthening all over the pitch, which was needed.

Besides, would you prefer us spending money on quality players or letting the Glazers' continue to line their pockets, which they had been doing for a while.

We are also likely to see all of Pereira, Wilson, Blackett and perhaps Keane promoted. I think that amounts to the same amount of youth players Fergie has promoted in the last three years of his reign. It's all about having a good mixture of Youth and Quality. We lacked the quality and now we are almost there.

Why the constant need to find something to moan about? Because feck logic.
 
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This over sentimentalised whining is boring me now. Welbeck wanted out before today. The rumours came out last week. In fact it's a fair bet it's one of the reasons we went in for Falcao. Not to mention everyone's been slagging the shit out of Tom Cleverley without caring about how we treat our academy prospects. But everyone loves Danny - for the right reasons - so they're retrofitting some bullshit notion of betrayal to give their moaning more poignance. Lets not forget the person this will benefit the most will be Wilson, who's now promoted instantly to our 3rd choice No 9.

Welbeck was given a very fair crack of the whip, was already down the pecking order and wanted out himself. What would you rather? We build the team around him to fulfil some kind of romantic obligation? We've still got Blackett, Januzaj, Wilson, Perierra, Keane, Lingard and LVG has a long and illustrious reputation for having faith in youth. Stop it folks..

Yep. Like I said above, we were slagged off a lot in the 90's for outspending everyone, yet we always had a great batch of youngsters. This silly notion of being 'just another big club' is fake moral crap.

Nothing has changed, if anything we are closer to what made us great under Saf again. Youth and class. Welbeck, Cleverley and all that have had a chance now we need to push on and get with the times.
 
Its not even just about wanting homegrown or local lads at the club, I'm realistic enough to realise that that group of 92 was a once off. Its the signing(seemingly) of ready-made stars with only a few years left at the top that concerns me, especially when we dump out a young player to make room for him.

Thankfully, we have still signed players like Shaw, Hererra, Blind, etc that are young and can only improve, which are the type of signings I prefer, so there's still hope that we're not going down the Madrid galacticos road just yet.
 
If Danny Welbeck was content to play out wide/be a squad player then he'd still be here.

He wants to start up front and, youth product or not, that's simply not going to happen when there's two much better players at the club.

We've (seemingly) replaced him with one of the best players in the world and added a highly regarded youth player to the first team squad in place of Hernandez. We're doing just fine.

So Falcao will be warming the bench I presume or will RVP or Rooney?
 
Arsenal have more of a British core than us at the moment, ffs. And most of those are waiting to be pushed out of the club. I'm not sure what our identity is anymore.
 
Fergie damaged the soul of the club by keeping players at this club who were clearly not good enough and by changing our playing style to one of the worst in the EPL. His leniency in his latter years is to blame for the way we're having to spend now.
fergie damaged the soul of the club? are you serious mate?
 
Think I'm going to go support Arsenal, who's with me?
 
So, if RVP does have a knee operation, that leaves us with Rooney, Falcao and Wilson for a while. You think Rooney and Falcao play every game, the full 90 minutes?

Then why not keep Welbeck instead of wasting money to sign someone on loan, he would have got his chance. We are only in the PL and FA Cup, on occasionally will we have 2 games a week so if there is no knee operation then someone aint going to be playing.
 
Erm no, he's no more of a donkey than Rooney (who seems to dictate where he can play), Give him a fair chance in his proper position and he will do well, he has all the attributes and talent. Just see at Arsenal.

Agreed. I would have rather had Rooney offloaded than Welbeck who is essentially the anti- Rooney. Has all the qualities Rooney lacks but doesn't have that natural goal-scoring instict, which is one of the few qualities that has remained with Rooney along with his set piece taking. In a couple of years and with him improving that aspect of his game, I can definitely see Welbeck as being the superior player but in no way would I rather have kept Welbeck over having Falcao in the team.
 
Arsenal have more of a British core than us at the moment, ffs. And most of those are waiting to be pushed out of the club. I'm not sure what our identity is anymore.

What's so great about British players?
 
Arsenal have more of a British core than us at the moment, ffs. And most of those are waiting to be pushed out of the club. I'm not sure what our identity is anymore.
It pretty much left with Sir Alex. It would have left long before that, had we not been so lucky to have him for so long.