Personally I would say we need a 5YR plan and another cultural reset - but this time no more half-measures!
If I was appointed United manager tomorrow, my first action would be to get rid of Ronaldo, Cavani, Martial, Pogba, Matic, Mata and De Gea. Not because I think they are all bad players. Not because I don't think we're not better with some of them. Solely because, in my opinion, they earn too much money for their relative contribution.
By my calculation, that is about £2,000,000 worth of wages every single week, or £104,000,000 per annum. Do we get £104,000,000 per annum worth of value out of these players? Personally, I would say "no". In my opinion, it's absolutely ludicrous to be paying these wages to players who currently sit 7th in the table.
I would then basically stick with what remains for three years, without spending anything on the squad. I would also sell some of the real fringe players, such as van de Beek, Tuanzebe, Williams and Pereira, who are always unlikely to get minutes.
I imagine it would be pretty tough at times, but would still have the core of a side good enough to challenge for top four/top six, if we played fairly simple counter-attacking football. We arguably had a worse squad for a period of time under Ole and still managed to finish 3rd and 2nd, plus you never know who might step up from the Youth team if we get rid of the big ego's and overpaid senior players.
This would be a great opportunity to bring in some young lads, so I would focus on blooding some of the lads from the Academy, and would bring in the likes of Laird, Menghi, Mejbri, Hugill, Igbal, Elanga, Shoretire, Garner etc...to see what they could bring to the 1st team squad. Plus, there is always likely to be one star each year that comes through that is worth a few games.
When City and Chelsea built their title-winning sides, they did so by throwing huge sums of cash at players over a two/three year period, so that the squad peaked together. Not by buying one or two players every year for ten seasons. We have a thread titled "What do we still need? AKA - The Neverending Story" because we keep trying to build a side one or two pieces at a time. By the time five or six pieces are right, another five or six pieces need replacing with this approach.
With my cultural-reset, money-saving approach, after 3YRs, I would basically have saved £300m in wages and (you would expect) about £200m net in transfer fees, plus whatever I made in sales, giving me £600m or so to go out into the market and address all of the failing areas in the current squad. Personally, I think £600m over two/three windows would be worth far more than £100m over 12 windows, which is the approach we have taken since SAF due to the budgets we have to adhere to. Even in three years, £600m would mean we could make some genuinely world-class signings and fix several positions all at once.
It would be painful, I don't doubt it - but imagine if we had thought like this in 2014....by 2018/2019, we could have been winning titles again. Short term pain for long-term gain is needed at this club right now.
If I was appointed United manager tomorrow, my first action would be to get rid of Ronaldo, Cavani, Martial, Pogba, Matic, Mata and De Gea. Not because I think they are all bad players. Not because I don't think we're not better with some of them. Solely because, in my opinion, they earn too much money for their relative contribution.
By my calculation, that is about £2,000,000 worth of wages every single week, or £104,000,000 per annum. Do we get £104,000,000 per annum worth of value out of these players? Personally, I would say "no". In my opinion, it's absolutely ludicrous to be paying these wages to players who currently sit 7th in the table.
I would then basically stick with what remains for three years, without spending anything on the squad. I would also sell some of the real fringe players, such as van de Beek, Tuanzebe, Williams and Pereira, who are always unlikely to get minutes.
I imagine it would be pretty tough at times, but would still have the core of a side good enough to challenge for top four/top six, if we played fairly simple counter-attacking football. We arguably had a worse squad for a period of time under Ole and still managed to finish 3rd and 2nd, plus you never know who might step up from the Youth team if we get rid of the big ego's and overpaid senior players.
This would be a great opportunity to bring in some young lads, so I would focus on blooding some of the lads from the Academy, and would bring in the likes of Laird, Menghi, Mejbri, Hugill, Igbal, Elanga, Shoretire, Garner etc...to see what they could bring to the 1st team squad. Plus, there is always likely to be one star each year that comes through that is worth a few games.
When City and Chelsea built their title-winning sides, they did so by throwing huge sums of cash at players over a two/three year period, so that the squad peaked together. Not by buying one or two players every year for ten seasons. We have a thread titled "What do we still need? AKA - The Neverending Story" because we keep trying to build a side one or two pieces at a time. By the time five or six pieces are right, another five or six pieces need replacing with this approach.
With my cultural-reset, money-saving approach, after 3YRs, I would basically have saved £300m in wages and (you would expect) about £200m net in transfer fees, plus whatever I made in sales, giving me £600m or so to go out into the market and address all of the failing areas in the current squad. Personally, I think £600m over two/three windows would be worth far more than £100m over 12 windows, which is the approach we have taken since SAF due to the budgets we have to adhere to. Even in three years, £600m would mean we could make some genuinely world-class signings and fix several positions all at once.
It would be painful, I don't doubt it - but imagine if we had thought like this in 2014....by 2018/2019, we could have been winning titles again. Short term pain for long-term gain is needed at this club right now.
