Give me arguments as to why we can challenge under Ole, then.
Has he shown he can do it before? Has he improved upon the results of our previous managers? Has he performed well enough with the squad he has? Has he ever gotten us playing consistently well? Seriously, what has he done in his career so far, or here, to suggest he can challenge for the title in the supposed world's most difficult league?
I don't want to criticize him after a few good results, because it was a noticeable improvement on what we saw before, and I'd love if he could challenge, I just don't think he ever will, he's not a good enough manager. He's shown over his 10+ year career so far that he isn't. He wouldn't have been languishing in the Norwegian league all this time if he was. A few good results in a row doesn't suddenly change that.
No that isn't the case - I have never said he is good enough. I am saying he might be. I have said he deserves more time so we can find out. You are the one who says he isn't good enough. I am saying he might be good enough. And here are my main arguments
1) He signs the right players - and there seems to be a plan about who we sign...which we never seemed to have before. He has signed 2 captains in their former club - and we are after Grealish who is the third. He is signing leaders.
2) He makes the group happy - he doesn't criticize players openly like Mourinho did. And he never randomly kicks them out like LvG did. Despite what some reporters claiming to have ITK says - there aren't many players begging to leave the club
3) He gets rid of the players who arent good enough - there are some left, but within 12 months they will be gone as well
4) He seems to a lot smarter tactically than what people claims - his resuts against the big clubs indicate that
5) He gives youngsters chances - that will save us lots of Money, and will make it a lot easier to attract other talent. I know which club I would join as a 16 year old if the choice was United and City (who never give youth a chance)
6) The results haven't been good enough granted- but we are clearly moving in the right direction. I think we won 18 or so of the last 32 matches. That's not good enough to match Liverpool and City of course, but it's proof that it was the first 9 matches of the P.L season that ruined it for us - afterwards we have done quite well.
7) He is getting most of the players to sign new contracts - which was the opposite of what Mourinho did
8) Most of the players are performing better - you could always argue that there are other reasons for that - maybe Fred magically has adjusted, maybe Rashford magically has learned to score goals etc - but the fact is only a few players have deteriorated under OGS - and a lot more have improved.
So you are right about what you say - have the results improved no - has he improved well enough with the squad ? No we probably should have had 4-5 Points more - but with the squad that started the season, and with the injuries we have had . we aren't better. But you also have to be blind to see that things are starting to fall into place. We have a team that is lot stronger than when he started and we will only get better.