Have you seen this thread? The amount of vitriol and pure bile after each dropped point, what other could it be than dislike? The reason so many want him out is simple, we have been spoiled silly by experiencing Fergie and fans cant (or wont) accept that it was not always going to be that way. Lets be real here, Ole did not exactly have a splendid CV before the job fell into his lap, but that in turn have convinced his most outspoken critics that he literally can do no good and whenever things do go our way its either luck or something/someone else doing the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, every single thing that goes badly is his fault. Like why is this thread constantly bumped during live matches where people are howling for blood if we go under? Hes not on the pitch, so unless hes put out some utterly daft line up, i dont see how a thread about a manager would be that relevant during a match
The "Fernandes was an obvious signing" is one of the latest hits. Like the feck he was, judging by
this thread about half the Caf knew who he was an about half of those thought he was average. That speaks volumes about the lens hes viewed through though. If they cant even bring themselves to praise him for the best signing we've done in a decade they wont praise him for anything
When he took over the club was in a sorry state and pretty much everyone agreed that the rebuild was still ongoing. This was due to LvG and Jose failing in that regard despite spending about 700 million between them and obviously not being helped by the absolute idiots at the top of the club hierarchy. When he took over we lacked a established CB pairing, we had an ageing winger playing RB, no creative midfielder and loads of unanswered questions about who was supposed to play up top. His main task was therefore making us competitive again AND securing the long term health of the club. This is in stark contrast to Jose, whos modus operandi is come in and win silverware at any cost and despite having a net spend of 360 million euros, left the club in a worse state than it was when he arrived
Gone are much of the deadwood and all of the players we've bought under Ole (bar Cavani) have been somewhere between 21-26 so they have plenty of years left in them and many of them has not reached their best years even. This means that even if Ole was replaced tomorrow, much of the groundwork has already been done and the next guy will inherit a much healthier side than the one Ole got.
Then comes the results and performances. Before last season, there was about a 50/50 split among fans and pundits alike whether or not we would make CL qualification. We did, so most reasonable fans should be content with that. Since we signed Bruno we are also one of the (the?) best team in the PL in terms of PPG and GPG. People will laugh at this and say its a completely arbitrary starting point (the very same people had no problems leaving out his caretaker period when discussing win% last year) but i'd argue its not. Last year between Aug-Jan we could not score in a brothel because a massive lack of creativity. No creative fullbacks, no creative wingers, with Pogba injured no creative midfielders besides an ageing Mata. With Martial out for about two months as well it meant that the entire creative burden was put on Rashford and some kid fresh from the academy. Of course you will struggle for goals under those conditions. Its also a perfect illustration of what a truly good player can do with a football team and this ridiculous practice of judging managers in a vacuum of results only needs to stop because at the end of the day, they live or die based on the players available to them. All in all last season was acceptable in my opinion. We got third place and the ins and outs were good, both long term and short term
This year has been a bit of a rollecoaster, but 4 points from the top is hardly a reason to have a meltdown imo. Also consider this: We have played 11 games and so far we have faced Palace, Brighton, Spurs, Newcastle, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, West Brom, Soton, WHU and City. 7/11 of those teams either are in the top 8 right now or you reasonably expect them to be there (counting Arsenal here). We've not exactly had an easy start with the addition of a tough CL group as well. People point to our poor home form this year, but with no fans in there its a moot point. We are currently on a record breaking away streak, but thats a moot point as well.
When it comes to fan expectations, or rather demands, the goal posts seems to constantly move. Of course we need to improve, because we are not where we want to be yet, but in a process like this its not like you always will be on an upward trajectory and we cant view this in a vaccum. City and Liverpool set points records the past two seasons and the latter won the CL. Spurs and Chelsea have finished above us 4 times since Fergie retired and even bloody Leichester has won the league. The league is ridiculously competitive, yet the narrative among some of our fans is that everyone else is shit/overrated/past it, we have the best squad in the league and a half decent manager would have walked the league with us. Case in point: Our ex manager currently sits at the top of the table with Spurs, so maybe, just maybe, they are not a bunch of cloggers like some would have us think.
For example, Chelsea who we were neck and neck with last season have added 200 million worth of talent. Meanwhile, we fecked around all summer with Sancho and ended up with some panic buys on the last day of the window. It was obvious at the end of last season that the squad was not the finished product. Now though people claim that Ole has to make do with what we got, despite the fact that we are still a couple of key signing away from where we want to be.
Is it perfect? Far from it, but its not as bad as a lot of people would have it. Ole is far from the best manager out there and if we fail to improve from last season, i'd want him gone to, but the hysterical doom mongering and downright disrespectful way hes being treated by some fans is just baffling. Judging by this thread, these are not "glass half full" types, but rather "this glass is full of cat vomit and i am going to yell about it all day".
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