Would you sack or keep Ole? (Poll reopened)

[K Stand Knut]

I'd assume most of the Ole out crowd (of which I am one) wouldn't want him sacked now, as it won't produce anything positive. If he were to distance himself from the owners in this fashion, I also assume a lot of the people who doubt him would feel more positive about him. I understand his position. I don't think he's good enough to manage the club, and therein lies the lack of leverage he's got. The only shield to being sacked is it would expose the decision makers and ownership even more and deepen the hatred felt by supporters.

You can realise that the ownership and the running of the club is orders of magnitude the biggest problem at the club, whilst also thinking Ole is simply nowhere near good enough.

This is where I find the debate interesting! You say you’re ‘Ole out’ but don’t want him sacked now? That doesn’t make sense to me. What are you Ole out for now then??

I agree that I do not think Ole will be here long term (longer than 5 years) but presently, I think he’s earned the right to remain in charge. Yes, I wavered in January after the Burnley result because of the poor run of form but he brought it back again by adding players that we urgently needed, and still.

He has spent an amount of money but I genuinely think he needs to double it to really, really contend. That is all not his fault. I’d argue that he has bought well and has improved us.

I might have gone off our chat a little but you got me thinking. He could be pretty clever about it and undermine the board etc., but he would have to get the results absolutely spot on, therefore keeping the fans on his side. I could genuinely see a strong movement against the Glazers if it was ’coordinated’ like that but ultimately, the board could just cut off his blood supply, i.e. transfer funds and we’d be goosed

 

[Foxbatt]

I hope he at least uses Cavani if he comes.

 

[Anustart89]

How do you explain our record against the big 6 since he arrived? Its extremely good. Is it luck?

No, it's because we have good players (contrary to popular belief) in the team who are good at playing a counter-attacking style, which we have used to good effect in teams at or above our level. These games do not make up the majority of a league season, unfortunately, which is why this style isn't very effective against Crystal Palace (and the likes).

 

[Red00012]

Was it 3rd he managed to get us (all those ) 6 weeks ago ? Asking for a friend.

Looks like Ed has his hands full trying to get us a squad to get us 3rd this season.

 

[roonster09]

Meh, it's the manager's job to fecking coach the team at his disposal.

If after 2.5 years and 200M spending he can't show a system where players can pass the ball against crystal palace then it matters not who's the DOF / Owner / Board

You really believe a new board would somehow made this team ticking? Or they'll somehow play Tiki - Taka?

The board is a problem, Ole is a problem, both can be a problem.

What do you think a manager job description is? Do you honestly think we need 120M sancho to beat Crystal Palace? AWB/Bruno/James/Maguire all looks like a dud purchase after 1 season...

What a difference manager makes in assessing the situation

Spoiler: Posts from 2018-19 season under Jose

The real reason?

Young herrera fellaini smailing valencia jones rashford lukaku lingard bailly lindelof are midtable quality players. Theyre bought from midtable teams for midtable price. Hell some of them arent even midtable qualities when we bought them.

When half your squad is midtable qualities you finish midtable. A good manager can push abit more and create a sum better than the parts. But theyre not magician

We scream at jose, ed, glazer while neglecting the very obvious, our squad are midtable.

No top 4 would want our players bar pogba and de gea, martial would get into 2 out of top 4 teams at best. The rest are bench materials at top 4.

Now why do you expect differently?

Baily was bought for 30m. Which is peanuts.

Why do we expect him to suddenly becomes a first teamer quality worhty of barca, juve, city, chelsea?

Pogba is the only outfield player that stand a chance to enter top 3 teams.

The rest is duds. Young and valencia would be bench warmer at best due to their experience.

Matic bought for 30m. Again peanuts in today's standard. He functions as 30m stop gap.

Lukaku was dud, could have been a purple patch but his previous records means he's done a better job before.

Lindelof at 35m? Again midtable quality price wise.

When we bought players for midtable value yet we expect them to beat city? And if they dont we blame the manager?

On the contrary i think jose has worked wonders with these bunch of midtable players. Any lesser manager we'd ended up midtable

With the existing midtable players, we signed Maguire from midtable team, AWB from bottom half team, James from championship and Bruno from Portuguese league.

Anyways, I don't agree with any of the posts, we have good enough squad and we had good enough squad under Jose too. It's hilarious how Jose fans have changed their opinions completely from "it's the players who are fecking shit" to "Players are good, it's manager's fault, he had 18 months" when we have almost same players and even lost players like Lukaku, Herrera

Btw I don't think Ole will be good enough to take us to next level, we should be looking at managers who are capable of that. Not this season but we shouldn't be thinking too much long term with Ole.

 

[Sky1981]

No coach in the world can make a player go up 3 odd levels. Great coaches can make a good player look great but not a BdO talent.

If we are to win the league we don't need to sign just good players, they need to be excellent players and via coaching these excellent players can go up a level or two up to help us win the title. Now, I genuinely don't recall any excellent player being available for cheap. Maguire was expensive, but he is pretty much the best defender that was available who fit into the criteria that we were looking for.

You don't need to go odd 3 levels up to beat crystal Palace. As a matter of fact event all of Ole's signing seems to go down 1 level.

Load of excuses after excuses, it's always the player's not good enough. How bout the coach is not good enough? Teams like Brighton, Everton, Leicester City might never win the league (Ops... Leicester did) but they've shown a very well coached team, with instruction, with a plan, and it's actually executable plan.

I don't expect United to win the league, I don't blame Ole if he never does under this owner. But I blame him if he can't coach a system into us.

 

[Verminator]

What a difference manager makes in assessing the situation

With the existing midtable players, we signed Maguire from midtable team, AWB from bottom half team, James from championship and Bruno from Portuguese league.

Anyways, I don't agree with any of the posts, we have good enough squad and we had good enough squad under Jose too. It's hilarious how Jose fans have changed their opinions completely from "it's the players who are fecking shit" to "Players are good, it's manager's fault, he had 18 months" when we have almost same players and even lost players like Lukaku, Herrera

Btw I don't think Ole will be good enough to take us to next level, we should be looking at managers who are capable of that. Not this season but we shouldn't be thinking too much long term with Ole.

 

[Escobar]

I wouldnt be surprised if he does not start the 2021 season

 

[red4ever 79]

The Cavani deal has switched my vote. Zero sympathy for Ole now. If Ed is meddling in transfer as we all suspect that Ole should have had the balls to call him out or walk away.

 

[Matriac]

What a difference manager makes in assessing the situation

With the existing midtable players, we signed Maguire from midtable team, AWB from bottom half team, James from championship and Bruno from Portuguese league.

Anyways, I don't agree with any of the posts, we have good enough squad and we had good enough squad under Jose too. It's hilarious how Jose fans have changed their opinions completely from "it's the players who are fecking shit" to "Players are good, it's manager's fault, he had 18 months" when we have almost same players and even lost players like Lukaku, Herrera

Btw I don't think Ole will be good enough to take us to next level, we should be looking at managers who are capable of that. Not this season but we shouldn't be thinking too much long term with Ole.

Always lovely when someone brings out the receipts.

As for your last point, personally I think we can return to glory under Ole, maybe that's wishful thinking on my end, I just feel like there's always been progress and we can't know for sure if we don't try.

But of course, any good club will be keeping tabs on other managers to potentially swap to if we see the need. Same as we are always monitoring players that can replace and improve upon the ones we have.

 

[Matriac]

The Cavani deal has switched my vote. Zero sympathy for Ole now. If Ed is meddling in transfer as we all suspect that Ole should have had the balls to call him out or walk away.

I'm not especially enthused about the prospect of Cavani either, but what if it's Sancho AND Cavani as a stop-gap option until we can get Haaland or other down the line?
Many have said we should get RW and a striker but that we can't afford to buy both at the same time. Maybe this is what's happening?

 

[georgipep]

The Cavani deal has switched my vote. Zero sympathy for Ole now. If Ed is meddling in transfer as we all suspect that Ole should have had the balls to call him out or walk away.

Yeah, cause that (manager to speak out publicly about his bosses) works out great usually...

 

[Amir]

I'm not especially enthused about the prospect of Cavani either, but what if it's Sancho AND Cavani as a stop-gap option until we can get Haaland or other down the line?
Many have said we should get RW and a striker but that we can't afford to buy both at the same time. Maybe this is what's happening?

You might as well say Cavani, Sancho and Messi - because for me there's as much evidence we'll get Sancho this summer as there is we'll get Messi. It's just not happening.

 

[TheGame]

Loving the fact some want him to go full moaning in public at the board like they would that in their job. What do you think would happen if you did that in your job? I’m sure the ones saying it will be the first to do that in their job

 

[Russky14]

You might as well say Cavani, Sancho and Messi - because for me there's as much evidence we'll get Sancho this summer as there is we'll get Messi. It's just not happening.

Spot on. Sancho was dead in the water when BD slapped price tag & deadline for mid Aug. The rest has been media babble. Looks like net spend was c70m how ever that was made up but will include salaries of exiting/ loaners saved + the odd sale.

What a desperate sad state we are.l in. Biggest club in the world. More like fecking Poundland who are probably run better by their hierarchy.

 

[lysglimt]

It's always anyone's elses fault but ole.

For the record i give him this year. But it still doesnt look good if we dont even have a solid system after 2 years under ole

What do you mean you give him this year ? First of all - you can't give him anything, and second of all - you have been whining about him for 12 months or something now - so what you are saying is just crap

 

[BR7]

Heh, this kind of illustrates...something, doesn't it?

In the last hundred years or so, we've had exactly TWO managers who've won the (two) biggest prizes whilst at United. Namely those two you mention as examples of "dominance".

Does anyone think Ole will ever compare to Busby or SAF? Er...no? But what the feck is that supposed to prove?

The normal state for most clubs isn't to hire a man and then sit back and enjoy (mostly) for a quarter of a century.

So Ole is doing what here exactly? The whole point is to find that next manager that will get us to that promise land again and he ain’t it so what’s the actual point? He should never have been appointed permanently. Agreed? To many excuses he just won’t

Players get appointed managers for massive clubs without much of a managerial history ALL the time. If they didn't we'd be recycling the same handful of managers in all big clubs, which was the case for many years before promoting more dilligently from within became a thing.

You think Zidane or Pep gets anywhere close to managing the first team in Barca or Real Madrid if they hadn't been players of the club? Both of them were put into managing the B sides before being given the first team jobs, exactly like Ole was in his day.

Hell man, Andrea Pirlo was manager for the Juventus U23 for 1 week before suddenly getting promoted to the manager spot at Juventus.

The thing about SAF's period is that he got VERY close to getting the sack as well when he started here. It took 3 years before he won anything, and even then the league performance was poor. Of course football was different then and the level of professionalism isn't really comparable anymore.

But all that being said, this willingness to not give people a chance after delivering above expectation in their first full season is honestly fecking weird. Why is this your opinion?

maybe you need to raise your expectations as a Man Utd fan were not Burnley and he did not over deliver. Love the comparisons, to suit your argument. He isn’t a third rate manager who won’t take us anywhere stop bringing excuses for him. Comparing ole to Zidane, pep, Klopp next it will be SAF, stop ruining our club with your personal love of ole there is nothing there he is massively out of his depth but hey hundreds of pundits don’t know what they’re talking about only you and the ole rose tinted glasses brigade do and only you’re right.

 

[red4ever 79]

What do you mean you give him this year ? First of all - you can't give him anything, and second of all - you have been whining about him for 12 months or something now - so what you are saying is just crap

He wont be here start of next sesson. I think that is a given.

 

[BR7]

Do you think United would have hired Pep straight from Barca B? Do you think Liverpool would have hired Pirlo, had Klopp announced he would step down after last season?

My opinions have no bearing on the quality of your posts, so I don't really see how they're relevant.

Stop defending the indefensible the quality of my posts are better than the quality of our uselessness overrated over privileged manager. No one rates him in the football world realistically everyone thinks he’s out f his depth apart from you and the rest of your crew who all wear ole shirts to bed probably. GIVE IT UP he is useless

 

[BR7]

I also love the it took SAF 3 years to win anything. Wake up and stop insulting SAF enough is enough. SAFs record at Aberdeen was exceptional, ole is a toilet cleaner compared to SAF so please let’s not start hearing how you think he’s better than sAF as well. There are some shameless sham of posts on this thread by the ole inners and the caf has to stop this nonsense. Ole relegated Cardiff don’t ever compare him and his little boy record to SAF. How how how can you even have him in the same sentence. It took SAF 3 years ..... so give a chump a chance

 

[Zen86]

Stop defending the indefensible the quality of my posts are better than the quality of our uselessness overrated over privileged manager. No one rates him in the football world realistically everyone thinks he’s out f his depth apart from you and the rest of your crew who all wear ole shirts to bed probably. GIVE IT UP he is useless

I don’t think anyone rates you on this forum.

 

[BR7]

I don’t think anyone rates you on this forum.

No one cares what a bunch of ole inners think you guys are ruining this club with your all out blind support or him.

 

[Zen86]

No one cares what a bunch of ole inners think you guys are running this club

You’re a troll.

 

[BR7]

I don’t think anyone rates you on this forum.

Plus how many pundits need to come out and slaughter him before you open your eyes? Love the club more than ole. You don’t

 

[BR7]

You’re a troll.

Good argument ole sure has some top support

 

[Litch]

There is an old saying..."if you run with gun men, be prepared to get shot". Ole knew what these were about but the opportunity to manage Utd was greater than the consequence of if it went wrong, and who wouldn't. Ole problem is like Moyes, he was so grateful for the job, he was willing to hand his balls to the Glazers for it. He shouldn't worry, they'll hand them back along with his P45 in December.

 

[BR7]

The biggest joke of the decade, SAF needed three years. Lunacy, you actually think this little lad has the same ability as SAF? Are you guys really that desperate to keep him that you’d make such a comment.

 

[BR7]

There is an old saying..."if you run with gun men, be prepared to get shot". Ole knew what these were about but the opportunity to manage Utd was greater than the consequence of if it went wrong, and who wouldn't. Ole problem is like Moyes, he was so grateful for the job, he was willing to hand his balls to the Glazers for it. He shouldn't worry, they'll hand them back along with his P45 in December.

True

 

[90 + 5min]

Stop defending the indefensible the quality of my posts are better than the quality of our uselessness overrated over privileged manager. No one rates him in the football world realistically everyone thinks he’s out f his depth apart from you and the rest of your crew who all wear ole shirts to bed probably. GIVE IT UP he is useless

And so we go again. Another one of those football manager kids thinking football is easy. Another one going at Solskjaer without (what it seems) knowing how football world actually works. Another one without patience and who thinks that solution is always a button away.

I like how you haters love to write in anger.

 

[Mainoldo]

And so we go again. Another one of those football manager kids thinking football is easy. Another one going at Solskjaer without (what it seems) knowing how football world actually works. Another one without patience and who thinks that solution is always a button away.

I like how you haters love to write in anger.

I wish Liverpool kept Darglish for longer on his second stint. So your right... patience.

 

[90 + 5min]

I wish Liverpool kept Darglish for longer on his second stint. So your right... patience.

They kept Klopp for four years without winning anything despite buying and buying. And suddenly he is the best out there. People in here would be demanding Pochettino or Nagelsmann after first year.

 

[Thunder.kz]

Let's be honest here. Ole is out of his depth. Compare him to Arteta, Nagelsman. These young up-and-coming managers were able to apply their pattern of play. They were able to improve their teams and players. Under Ole, players mostly only get worse. Look at Maguire, Bruno, Pogba, Wan-Bissaka, Rashford. They all regressed after some time under his coaching.

 

[Swearing Budgie]

Can't Jeff Amazon buy us just for fun? He could pretty much buy us for what he makes in a week.

Or Elon Musk? Tesla would look pretty skill as the shirt sponsor.

 

[Yagami]

They kept Klopp for four years without winning anything despite buying and buying. And suddenly he is the best out there. People in here would be demanding Pochettino or Nagelsmann after first year.

Not if we saw a clear sign of improvement in how we play as a team. Something Pochettino showed ASAP for his previous clubs and something Klopp showed with Liverpool very early, too. Something Ole hasn't done. We're still a team that relies on parking the bus and countering in big games, and relying on individual brilliance and penalties in games where we have more of the possession.

 

[Anustart89]

They kept Klopp for four years without winning anything despite buying and buying. And suddenly he is the best out there. People in here would be demanding Pochettino or Nagelsmann after first year.

Nice simplification. Might as well have written "Klopp was born, managed some teams and then he was the best out there" In his first (half) season he got to two finals (lost both), then he got 4th, making this equivalent to where Ole is in time right now.

The difference is that everyone could see a style of play in Liverpool which they kept building upon. We have no style of play beyond counter-attacking when a team is stupid enough to attack us, and we've got a board who aren't willing to invest to take the next step. Those are two pretty big differences, right?

Also, the biggest thing for me is that Ole hasn't done much to address two major weaknesses that he identified before he'd been here two seconds; squad depth and fitness issues (which are intertwined). Instead of going for cheaper players to fill out the squad, he keeps going for the most expensive player in every position. This will inevitably lead to fatigue in first XI players just like we've seen for the past two seasons, since he has shown two seasons in a row that he can't manage their fitness. Instead of anyone wondering "hey, why is fatigue still such a big issue when Ole complained about the squad's fitness when he arrived?" everyone's going "It's not Ole's fault! It's fatigue!".

It's the manager's job to use his squad (or prioritise signing squad players in the four transfer windows he has had) or to manage the fitness of his starting players if not possible to fill out the squad with cheaper players. But he's completely absolved of that responsibility, as if fatigue is some external thing that just happens if you're unlucky or something. How is buying Sancho going to bump Lingard, Fosu-Mensah, McTominay and players like that (that Ole evidently doesn't trust) off the bench?

 

[KalleKlovn]

Klopp received support from the board to bring in 26 players in his first two years. Ole came in and changed the football to United way. Ole has not received any support from the board. He has brought in 5 new players after getting rid of many and got a couple of old strikers who are over the top on loan. The game becomes predictable as we do not have players other than the 11 starters who can come in and change the game. If anyone thinks I'm wrong then you can think back on the changes when Bruno came in. Bruno gave the same effect as Ole gave when he came in as manager. as long as we do not get players in we will make the first 11 exhausted and no one can come in from the bench and create unpredictability.

Ole is not the problem.
Ed and the owners are the problem.

No manager had raised this team. Anything above 6th place is an overachievement of the manager.

 

[anant]

You don't need to go odd 3 levels up to beat crystal Palace. As a matter of fact event all of Ole's signing seems to go down 1 level.

Load of excuses after excuses, it's always the player's not good enough. How bout the coach is not good enough? Teams like Brighton, Everton, Leicester City might never win the league (Ops... Leicester did) but they've shown a very well coached team, with instruction, with a plan, and it's actually executable plan.

I don't expect United to win the league, I don't blame Ole if he never does under this owner. But I blame him if he can't coach a system into us.

Have we gone a level down since Ole came in? How many players have regressed under Ole? I honestly can't recall a single player who's gone down except those who were on the decline due to age, and even among those, Matic has somewhat rediscovered himself.

Maguire and AWB- like it or not, we conceded 70 goals in 53 games in 18/19. Last season we conceded 51 from 61 games. If that's not an improvement then you really need to consult a doctor as you've lost it. No one expected, AWB especially, to be this good
Bruno - I'm not sure how one can even say that he's gone down a level here
Ighalo and James - they were punts and while they haven't set the league alight, they'd go down as indifferent signings. Performed exactly as expected.

If the team is losing to Palace, where every player looked lethargic and lacklustre, that's on the players. I've pretty much always maintained that for a top club, it's the players who are responsible for getting results against the bottom sides, and the manager who is responsible for getting results against the top sides, unless of course, there is a pattern in the results, like us losing the lead to bottom sides consistently or something like that.

And I'm quite sick and tired of your moaning. The minimum expectation from him was get us in top 4 last season, that's it. He finished 3rd - exceeded expectations - and now we're going well the points total don't justify that. Well, it's not on Ole that other sides were more shit, is it? We've lost one game in PL in last 16! ONE

As far as you guys harping about Bruno's signing is concerned, Ole identified a problem in the side and addressed it. And I see you guys (maybe not you specifically, but others of your ilk) go on that he saved his job. It's like saying VDS saved Fergie's job. It's a manager's job to identify issues within the side and address them using the personnel he has, or ones he can buy. If anything, Ole should be hailed for that signing.

We've blown teams out in that period. We lose game after 14, and that's all everyone is going on about. It's football, not a computer simulation that is run 10,000 times where the stronger team will prevail more often.

/rant

 

[Mainoldo]

They kept Klopp for four years without winning anything despite buying and buying. And suddenly he is the best out there. People in here would be demanding Pochettino or Nagelsmann after first year.

There you go. Two different managers... different results. Why? Was it time or just the simple fact one was shite and one was world class?

 

[90 + 5min]

Let's be honest here. Ole is out of his depth. Compare him to Arteta, Nagelsman. These young up-and-coming managers were able to apply their pattern of play. They were able to improve their teams and players. Under Ole, players mostly only get worse. Look at Maguire, Bruno, Pogba, Wan-Bissaka, Rashford. They all regressed after some time under his coaching.

Where do you see that regression? Fernandes playing football of his life and Rashford coming from his best season ever for us? WB being very good in defence. Pogba and Maguire are pricely overrated but still we had 3rd best defence last season and Pogba played better then under Mourinho. If you talk about this season, look at our preseason and when players came back. Take a book and read about anatomy. Today, if no miricales happen, we will se the same as previous games. It takes weeks before you get fitness and sharpness back.

Not if we saw a clear sign of improvement in how we play as a team. Something Pochettino showed ASAP for his previous clubs and something Klopp showed with Liverpool very early, too. Something Ole hasn't done. We're still a team that relies on parking the bus and countering in big games, and relying on individual brilliance and penalties in games where we have more of the possession.

And Pochettinho won? I thnk you are very unfair to Solskjaer and ManUtd team when you write that. Because if we were that "bad" we wouldn't have come 3rd in the league and got to semifinal in every other compatition we were in. And that is 1,5 years after we were impolding. Because nobody thought that we could tkae Liverpool and ManCity.

Nice simplification. Might as well have written "Klopp was born, managed some teams and then he was the best out there" In his first (half) season he got to two finals (lost both), then he got 4th, making this equivalent to where Ole is in time right now.

The difference is that everyone could see a style of play in Liverpool which they kept building upon. We have no style of play beyond counter-attacking when a team is stupid enough to attack us, and we've got a board who aren't willing to invest to take the next step. Those are two pretty big differences, right?

Also, the biggest thing for me is that Ole hasn't done much to address two major weaknesses that he identified before he'd been here two seconds; squad depth and fitness issues (which are intertwined). Instead of going for cheaper players to fill out the squad, he keeps going for the most expensive player in every position. This will inevitably lead to fatigue in first XI players just like we've seen for the past two seasons, since he has shown two seasons in a row that he can't manage their fitness. Instead of anyone wondering "hey, why is fatigue still such a big issue when Ole complained about the squad's fitness when he arrived?" everyone's going "It's not Ole's fault! It's fatigue!".

It's the manager's job to use his squad (or prioritise signing squad players in the four transfer windows he has had) or to manage the fitness of his starting players if not possible to fill out the squad with cheaper players. But he's completely absolved of that responsibility, as if fatigue is some external thing that just happens if you're unlucky or something.

And I can see what Solskjaer want and where we are heading towards. In the same way I could see where Klopp where heading towards. I am not saying Solskjaer will be Klopp but he don't need to be him. He can be better. He can be worse. I see what we want to do and I see progress.

Squad depth is not just about Solskjaer. First you need to fix your starting XI. Then you need to work on squad. We are not that good in terms of quality in the squad but as you can see it is hard to get out some players. You can't buy and buy but not sell. It doesn't work that way. Giving big contratcs to players with injury problems or lack of quality means less buyers. We can't have a squad that is 35 players. One other aspect is changing managers all the time meaning buying those who current manager wants. And when you change manager you need to please the other manager by buying more for the way he wants to play.

Fitness issue is about what kind of game you want to play. When Solskjaer took over we were playing different fotball with less running. If you want to run more you need to work on that. I don't think there is any problem looking at our team now (and under Mourinho/VanGaal) and see that we are better and fitter in that department. That is not saying we are better as a team, but talking just about fitness, we are lot better.

 

[diarm]

Have we gone a level down since Ole came in? How many players have regressed under Ole? I honestly can't recall a single player who's gone down except those who were on the decline due to age, and even among those, Matic has somewhat rediscovered himself.

Maguire and AWB- like it or not, we conceded 70 goals in 53 games in 18/19. Last season we conceded 51 from 61 games. If that's not an improvement then you really need to consult a doctor as you've lost it. No one expected, AWB especially, to be this good
Bruno - I'm not sure how one can even say that he's gone down a level here
Ighalo and James - they were punts and while they haven't set the league alight, they'd go down as indifferent signings. Performed exactly as expected.

If the team is losing to Palace, where every player looked lethargic and lacklustre, that's on the players. I've pretty much always maintained that for a top club, it's the players who are responsible for getting results against the bottom sides, and the manager who is responsible for getting results against the top sides, unless of course, there is a pattern in the results, like us losing the lead to bottom sides consistently or something like that.

And I'm quite sick and tired of your moaning. The minimum expectation from him was get us in top 4 last season, that's it. He finished 3rd - exceeded expectations - and now we're going well the points total don't justify that. Well, it's not on Ole that other sides were more shit, is it? We've lost one game in PL in last 16! ONE

As far as you guys harping about Bruno's signing is concerned, Ole identified a problem in the side and addressed it. And I see you guys (maybe not you specifically, but others of your ilk) go on that he saved his job. It's like saying VDS saved Fergie's job. It's a manager's job to identify issues within the side and address them using the personnel he has, or ones he can buy. If anything, Ole should be hailed for that signing.

We've blown teams out in that period. We lose game after 14, and that's all everyone is going on about. It's football, not a computer simulation that is run 10,000 times where the stronger team will prevail more often.

/rant

An island of sense in an ocean of insanity.