Worst United I’ve Ever Seen

Banana Republic said:
I watched us go down in 1974 (we were bad).
Witnessed the drab Dave Sexton period (it was awful).
Thrilled and despaired through the ups and downs of Big Ron’s tenure.
That’s before this last, almost 12 years, since SAF stepped down.
Where we are is down there with the final season with Ole and then Ralf in charge.
It’s almost impossible to drum up some wild, blinkered optimism at this stage.

Utd were always big enough to come back.
A sleeping giant in our years of drought.
Now I really fear our time at the top table is drawing to a close.


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Would love to have had first hand experiences of those periods to really get the full effect.

Read too good to go down, a fantastic book that followed Matt Busbys resignation until the relegation and then subsequent promotion. There were a lot of similarities post 1968 to post Fergie years.

When we went down the book almost romanticised Tommy Docs style of freeflowing football despite the relegation, and how the year in Divison 2 was the club re-finding itself.

with were we are now, i wish i knew more of Fergie’s first few years in the late 80s, other than generally knowing he had to break the rotten culture cultivated by Big Ron etc, id like to know if there are any other similarities to what Amorim is dealing with.
 
The biggest problem isn't just the players or the manager, it's the culture. It's like the club is running on dial-up while everyone else is on fiber. The ideas, the approach, everything feels outdated. We need a complete overhaul, from top to bottom. Realistically, the only way we're going to see real change is by constantly refreshing the staff and the squad until we find the right mix. It's a painful process, but what other choice do we have?"
 
That whole 'looking to win the league by 2028' thing is looking pretty silly at this point, isn't it?

I could see us finishing around 12th this season, somewhere between 8th and 10th next season, and somewhere between 6th and 8th the season after that.

How many managers will we go through from this point forward before we legitimately compete for the league? Probably at least two or three.

How many players? I'd say 75% of the squad needs to be replaced, and that'll take three summers at least.
 
Todd said:
That whole 'looking to win the league by 2028' thing is looking pretty silly at this point, isn't it?

I could see us finishing around 12th this season, somewhere between 8th and 10th next season, and somewhere between 6th and 8th the season after that.

How many managers will we go through from this point forward before we legitimately compete for the league? Probably at least two or three.

How many players? I'd say 75% of the squad needs to be replaced, and that'll take three summers at least.
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12th is very optimistic. I wouldn't be surprised finishing 16th. I think only the championship clubs and probably Wolves are worse than us this season (though even they might go on a half decent run and beat us comfortably at that). West Ham and Everton will quickly overtake us. We're really not far from being relegation standard.
 
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Imagine Spurs and Everton leaping above us and watching them pull away. This season is a tragedy.
 
Redasaredthing said:
I've been following United for 60+ years and it is painful at the moment. However, I followed the team through relegation before they rose to the heights of the Ferguson era.

Amorim himself said there would be pain. Patience is required.

Keep the faith. :+1:
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I’ll keep supporting, definitely. Know I’ve been fortunate with how my support started during the Fergie era..and there would be more difficult times.

Just tough to watch right now, will make the rise that much better in the long run!
 
We’ve only just done what we should have done when Moyes left. Made a proper structure appointed qualified people and hired an up and coming manager to try and get us back onto the curve in terms of how we play and our recruitment etc.

Sadly we’ve done it at our weakest time on and off the pitch. Our big advantage of having deep pockets is gone and we are now in fact handicapped by debt and terrible decisions. It’s also hard to get right managed, DOF etc so even that takes multiple tries a lot of the time.

Unfortunately our real problems may only just be starting, it can be turned around by some really good player recruitment but it’s very difficult to be improving the squad, whilst cost cutting and under such huge pressure. I have kind of accepted that you can’t get annoyed or upset as it’s not worth it anymore, this may have not get better for years and years.
 
Wilt said:
Yep, blows all that money and then Utd had to pay him off to get rid.

Utd should have sued the fecker for gross negligence
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The only gross negligence was from the higher ups who allowed a manager to have such control over our transfer budget

“but he demanded transfer control…!!” right, then you tell him to feck off and find someone else

The whole Glazers era has been one massive deferral of responsibility which has resulted in us going round in circles and spunking billions of cash up the wall, it’s absurd how much of todays problems are still blamed solely on Ten Hag.

When the next manager is doing shite I guarantee there will be lots of people defending him and blaming Amorim for ripping up our squad for a system which didn’t work and we’ve had to abandon - and they will be wrong because they need to be looking up at one half of the ownership who don’t give a feck and the other half who don’t have a clue.

And for anyone who thinks it’s different under Ineos then you just have to look at the recent briefs about them leaving the Rashford decision to Amorim. Cowardice and negligence.
 
shaggy said:
12th is very optimistic. I wouldn't be surprised finishing 16th. I think only the championship clubs and probably Wolves are worse than us this season (though even they might go on a half decent run and beat us comfortably at that). West Ham and Everton will quickly overtake us. We're really not far from being relegation standard.
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I agree. Our season is worse than Chelsea’s in 2022-23. It’s really upsetting. Opposition fans must be wanking themselves silly.
 
Hammondo said:
I think we have amongst the worst central midfield and striker.
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Højlund scored 10 goals in 16-17 games at the end of last season - but yeah both him and Zirkzee have been awful

But are you telling me that Ugarte, Bruno and Mainoo should be among the worst midfields in the P.L ?
 
lysglimt said:
Højlund scored 10 goals in 16-17 games at the end of last season - but yeah both him and Zirkzee have been awful

But are you telling me that Ugarte, Bruno and Mainoo should be among the worst midfields in the P.L ?
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It's a midtable midfield and utter crap attack
 
lysglimt said:
Højlund scored 10 goals in 16-17 games at the end of last season - but yeah both him and Zirkzee have been awful

But are you telling me that Ugarte, Bruno and Mainoo should be among the worst midfields in the P.L ?
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Yes I am. Very poor athletic ability, poor passing.
 
We won't go down this season, there are other teams who've already secured their places in the Championship. It's entirely possible that we will next season though unless things dramatically improve. If that happens United as an institution are in huge trouble. The scale of the debt along with greatly dimished revenue could put the club in a tailspin.
 
Godfather said:
These young guys we are signing right now won't change anything either. We need proper wc players in their prime to put us out of this misery
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Indeed.
Buying youngsters means they might come good in 3-4 years, but by then, if we keep playing like we are now, Rubin will be long gone.
I do hope that we spend big in the Summer and buy plenty of Amorim-type players, but I just don't see it.
 
Wilt said:
Yep, blows all that money and then Utd had to pay him off to get rid.

Utd should have sued the fecker for gross negligence
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ETH was just an abysmal manager.
Ole was bad, but at least he somehow did well for a couple of years.

To spend so much money and by the end of it all, to have a team of players who struggle to make a 5 yard pass is extraordinary.
The crazy thing was that he managed Ajax who pride themselves on elite level technical ability, so ETH knew the standards that players should be achieving, yet he could not see the poor standards at MUFC.

BTW, is ETH going to get another job or is he finished?
 
We have one of the worst, starting GK

We have 2 wing backs who aren't wing backs, and one of them is too thick to be a footballer

We dont have a single striker who looks a threat against lower level defences.

We have Bruno, who is inconsistent in everything he does, magical at times, erratic and wasteful other times.

Only Amad goes forward with the ball at any speed and can beat a player

We have no skilful players, our most intelligent player is 33yr old eriksen
 
I don't understand how for a good decade now, that the club can keep signing the most technically inept and unathletic players possible.

Why are we always so far behind the times?
 
sunama said:
ETH was just an abysmal manager.
Ole was bad, but at least he somehow did well for a couple of years.

To spend so much money and by the end of it all, to have a team of players who struggle to make a 5 yard pass is extraordinary.
The crazy thing was that he managed Ajax who pride themselves on elite level technical ability, so ETH knew the standards that players should be achieving, yet he could not see the poor standards at MUFC.

BTW, is ETH going to get another job or is he finished?
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My guess he’ll return to Eredivisie
 
Wilt said:
My guess he’ll return to Eredivisie
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I'm interested in how it will work with ETH. I want to know much much of his contract we paid out for him to leave.

If we paid out the full value of his contract then by all rights he is now on gardening leave and he would need to negotiate with United if he wanted to take another job.
 
Paul778 said:
I'm interested in how it will work with ETH. I want to know much much of his contract we paid out for him to leave.

If we paid out the full value of his contract then by all rights he is now on gardening leave and he would need to negotiate with United if he wanted to take another job.
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Yep, may be on gardening leave

No Dutch club would pay him anywhere near what he was getting at Utd ….be lucky if he got 40% of Utd pay
 
Offside said:
This is true but that’s why we have to be patient. He’s not going to abandon his system for these crap players. We have to wait 2-3 years for him to overhaul this squad. Who cares about the second half of this season. There’s no quick fix for 12 years of shite.
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No fecking way. Forrest went from the Championship to 3rd in the Premier in less time than that.
Why do we always have to take 3 years to rebuild. Barcelona build one team after the other without falling off the map like us. No. We need to see massive improvement from Amorim once he gets a transfer window, if he can't he should go and so should bloody INEOS. Sell to someone who is willing to wipe the debt and spend money on our squad.
 
UnofficialDevil said:
No fecking way. Forrest went from the Championship to 3rd in the Premier in less time than that.
Why do we always have to take 3 years to rebuild. Barcelona build one team after the other without falling off the map like us. No. We need to see massive improvement from Amorim once he gets a transfer window, if he can't he should go and so should bloody INEOS. Sell to someone who is willing to wipe the debt and spend money on our squad.
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Are we trying to finish 3rd? The forest example is absurd. They could easily be back in a relegation scrap next year. We should be aiming to be the top dogs again. After 12 years of crap and our lowest ebb currently, 2-3 years to rebuild an actual team ready to challenge is actually ambitious.
 
Todd said:
That whole 'looking to win the league by 2028' thing is looking pretty silly at this point, isn't it?

I could see us finishing around 12th this season, somewhere between 8th and 10th next season, and somewhere between 6th and 8th the season after that.

How many managers will we go through from this point forward before we legitimately compete for the league? Probably at least two or three.

How many players? I'd say 75% of the squad needs to be replaced, and that'll take three summers at least.
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Its not even replacing the squad in 3 summers. We spent 6or7 hundred mil on Mazroui, De Ligt, Ugarte, Yoro, Hojlund, Zirkzee, Mount, Onana, Antony, Casemiro, Martinez, Malacia. Over 3 summers.

How many have been a success? none. Absolutely none. Our hit rate on transfers of late even this summer with Ineos and their ‘structure’ is absolutely 0%. Nada.

We can argue about potential, or kid ourselves that De Ligt, Martinez and Mazroui have been highly successful signings - they haven’t. They play okay for professional premier league players most weeks, that doesn't make them good enough, look where we are in the table. They wouldnt get into the sides at the business end of the table. We tend to overplay their ability/performances as a fanbase because of the perspective of them against the likes of antony, who is a £10m player at best, or the £54m Massimo Taibi in goal, or the ETH muse we paid £60m for to sit in the physio room because he once scored a freekick against Ajax on loan at Vitesse.

Unless something changes, which it didn’t appear to this summer, replacing 75% of these players just brings us back to this point in 3 years. We are currently in an infinity loop on this.
 
lysglimt said:
Everyone saying do not blame Amorim - but player for player we are not a worse team than many of the teams who are well above us (and no I am not talking Liverpool, City and Arsenal now) - but they have found a way to play that works. And I am not saying all of the blame is Amorim's - of course not. Not even the majority of the blame - but regardless of how you look at it, he has turned a really bad team into an awful team. Worse than we were under ETH - and of course he has to take some of the blame for that.

When he constantly tries different combination and none of them works - when he only can get the players to fight against top-teams. Of course he has to take a lot of the blame as well. A really good manager adapts - a really good manager doesn't operate in just one system. Amorim's stubbornness to only play 3-4-3 which doesn't work iwth the players we have - might pay off in the long run - but it could also hurt us so much in the short run that he could get fired.

And I for one - do not understand how we could run over Everton in one of the first games, never to see that kind of performance ever again. Many of the games against weaker teams - we might as well go all-in attack and push them all over the pitch - at least then I could excuse him if we lost. But for games like this - nope
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Agree. Amorim is getting too much credit, far too much money in the bank. He isn't the God of managers. He didn't go and win a European trophy with Sporting.
He isn't a young Mourinho. He is an inexperienced manager, only been in the job for 5 years in a league against low quality managers and players, he is up against the best here. I don't see why he is untouchable.
This might be too much of a step up for him, so far he has been awful, worse then Ragnick. Looks like he only knows one formation, too.
I was super excited when we signed him, but I did say that there is a chance he might be too inexperienced for such a huge job. We don't know that yet, he might be the one, but he shouldn't be exempt from criticism, he is under review here just like all of our players and INEOS.
 
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