Lots of similarities to Rodgers first couple of weeks as manager here; shot down the DoF model in his first press conference as took everyone at the Club completely by surprise when doing so, looking at players that he managed… as long as they don’t find a Suarez in their ranks somewhere I reckon they’re fucked.
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Ralf got little out of United, had dressing room issues, and formed his personal opinion all on his own.
Erik doesn’t want the opinions of a man that fell out with the giant ego’s in that squad. He’ll fall out with them on his own and form his own opinion that way.
Looking forward to Erik asking Ronaldo to start on a Thursday night away to some cold ass place in the middle of winter.
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He and that Ltd were shite.
I would have thought that if even one piece of useful information could come from Ralf it would have made a discussion worth while.
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Knowing my own personal tendencies, I see a lot of value in that approach IF it was a group he was expected to move forward with. But it’s not. This is a group of players that is expected to see considerable overhaul this summer. But who? Who needs to move on and what do they need to bring in? If they’re waiting for Ten Hag to make his own decisions he wont have time left to do anything meaningful and targeted this summer. The value of Ralf’s input is in passing on hard won information early enough that the crew he passes the baton to can do something about it. The refusal to even talk to him is mind blowing arrogance, and long may it continue.
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Can also be Ten Hag wanting to gauge the players on his own.
But him not wanting someone like Ralf’s advice over players does come as arrogant. I like the signs, How long before the scale of the job and the impatience of the fans gets him down to earth ?
My post was in jest, essentially having a pop at the United players and their giant Egos, and suggesting Erik will have a similar fate as Ralf.
I agree with your point though - Erik being daft (again…)
But Ralf’s insight can apply to other areas, not just that of the playing squad.
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They bottled a semi final against Spurs.
That’s right: Spurs.
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Can you guys shut-up?!?!?
They might be reading!!!
Sorry. It was pretty clear from your post that was what you were saying. I didn’t mean to imply in my response you were being serious about that line.
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I love reading about all the strife at Man Utd. It is incredibly difficult to change direction when you are sliding. There comes a point at which you are just riding it out. Here’s hoping their decade long slide keeps going, and that they haven’t found the bottom yet.
I have had my moments where I thought they weren’t that far off being a force again. Get a top manager in. Strengthen the team with the money they always seem to have, sort the recruitment, improve the coaching, and keep taking steps like that… and before long they will be top four, and then looking to go higher and challenge for the big titles.
But on second thoughts, they seem like such a shambles. The owners are leeches. Beyond them there doesn’t appear to be any real footballing leadership in an administrative sense, and the manager is a newbie who is inheriting a poisoned chalice.
Arguably, if they back him through the coming storm, he will lead them out on the other side to a better place. But it will take a while, and there’s still an entitlement around the place about where they feel they belong, so patience with Ten Hag might not extend to Ole levels, and maybe they will sack him before he turns it around.
Then again, the Dutch aren’t exactly a nation of shrinking violets. They are a confident people, and Ten Hag will come in and say what he wants! He will confront anyone in that club he feels he needs to, so I predict plenty of discord to come. Will he be too confrontational for them, and it might get him sacked?
There might also be question marks over Ten Hag’s ability. Presumably they have brought him in for the long haul, but if they don’t make enough progress soon enough, and they suffer from some in-fighting, they might give him the sack.
As I look at the Premier League, the quality keeps improving. The bar for Man Utd to get back to the top is now higher than ever. Even getting into the top four will be harder than ever before.
There is some distance between Man City/Liverpool and Man Utd. It looks like the new Chelsea owner is going to back Tuchel as well, so I don’t see Man Utd overhauling them any time soon.
Spurs have blown a bit hot and cold, but now that Conte is staying, and strengthening his team, I don’t see Man Utd getting past them either.
Arsenal are an interesting one. They got to the cusp of top four and then spewed it at the last second, showing themselves to be the most Spursy team in North London. Still, they have some good players and are a young, growing side. If they learn from their experience, they might go one better next time. All I’m saying is Man Utd might not even be able to get past Arsenal next season.
And what of Newcastle? Can’t stand how it all came about, but they are going places, and their recruitment seems thought out and designed to take them the next step, and the next, until, presumably they are ensconced at the top of the pile, or at least in the conversation. Man Utd will have to get past them too. They might be better than Newcastle next season, but there won’t be too many more seasons before Newcastle are a massive hurdle for them.
And all this is to say nothing of other tidy teams, who, on the day, can give anyone problems. Leicester, Wolves, Weat Ham, maybe even Stevie’s Villa side will rise up to the edges of the European spots.
Man Utd have been on the slide for a decade. They have a lot of work to do, and a lot of teams to get past, before they become relevant at the top end again. 5th seems the highest they will get to for now, and it could just as easily be 8th. If they implode some more, who knows how far they will slide?
Love it!
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Jose is not the man to bring stability, but they honestly werent far off reestablishing themselves with him. I think it was 6th in his first season, then backed in the market that second summer and got them up to 2nd. He was primed with one more year of good spending to make a challenge and then it stopped. It was like Glazers said thank you for getting the CL revenue and then fucked him off, and that was Jose started burning the house down.
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Serious question, has any footballer come out a production like this and not made themself look like a massive twat? In fact, they all seem to be taking cues from Lebron and his “Decision”, which is funny because that was universally panned as being gross.
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Pogba is also one of the most over-hyped, over-rated footballers of the last decade.
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He had a few good days as a youngster, did the hair, did the dab, created a brand and a buzz around himself… and somewhere along the way forgot to become a top level midfielder.
Charitably, he can be one on occasion. But the body of work is just not there, and he hasn’t influenced nearly enough games to be regarded any better than “What might have been.”
It remains a mystery to me why he has been so highly paid.
And as for the fella himself, he has no self awareness. He has commented here and there about wanting to win stuff, but Man Utd are falling short of his standards, that sort of whiff. What he fails to appreciate is that they brought him in, at great expense, and paid him a fortune along the way, to deliver the sort of success he says he craves.
Man Utd are crap, but they extended themselves for Pogba and he shat on his own doorstep there.
Off yer pop lad, ya big fraud. Maybe a couple of clips more to add to the highlight real if he spends more time in Italy, but we all know the score. Preening cock.
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FIFY.
The level of self-delusion that Pogba and to a lesser extent Lingard operate in is epic. And these two are probably the closest to each other in Man Utd dressing room.
What United lacked was a dressing room leader like Hendo/Milly who are both vocal and set the example as to how a football player is supposed to behave and conduct himself in public. I think the last that United had who was close to being that were the likes of Ashley Young & probably Anthony Valencia (not nearly to the same extent though). They did have the quiet reserved guys like Mata/De Gea but those do not seem to be the types who can assert themselves and run the rule over the youngsters… That’s where I suppose Mourinho lost it (He never had any senior players who could assert themselves at Man Utd at his side (Zlatan was there but everyone knew he was just passing by)
It doesn’t or shouldn’t matter at a football club whether Pogba is on 300k a week and your captain is on 120k. The captain is still supposed to run and enforce the rules when behaviours and attitudes start dropping. That didn’t happen enough for Man Utd.
Any corporate company or anyone for that matter who bought into Pogba the brand is probably due a long hard look at themselves on how they decided to waste time on this self obsessed wanker.
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