I mean if they want to maintain a Manchester derby, then both need to be in the championship next season - maybe it’s all by design.
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Plus Sky have the rights for the Championship and football league.
I don’t think that is a terrible decision. He isn’t brilliant, but he isn’t the core problem either. He is overpaid, but one season won’t kill them. They cannot replace every single player in a single season, and getting him out would not make the priority list.
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Offer him a new deal on reduced terms then. He wouldn’t get that kind of money anywhere else, so you could probably have him sign a new 3-year deal on say 120 or 125k per week. All they’ve done here is kick the can for more money.
I think signing him on 3 years would be a mistake. He turns 32 in March. The option sees next season as his last under the contract, deferring a major transfer one more year. A 3-year contract would see him playing (or sitting) until 2028. Sure, you save 60k per next season, but you have less flexibility down the road.
In their situation, they have no choice but to kick some cans down the road.
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This from the Guardian is downright poetic
Amorim turned up at Old Trafford looking like a handsome pirate: the jawline, the seigneurial smile, the elite Euro-cardigan styling, the sense that here is someone who smells at all times of high-spec automobile upholstery.
Seven weeks in he has the air of a doomed royal hostage, shuttled joylessly from corridor to touchline by unseen handlers. The smile has fractured, the shoulders have drooped. Most recently United’s head coach has developed a habit of dropping down on to his haunches mid-match and staring deep into the Old Trafford turf, as though searching for a) a contact lens; and b) the remaining fragments of his own shredded and tender soul.
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You should post the entire article… It is quite scathing in a smiley way :0)
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Have to imagine that once Amorim is sacked off (inevitable, IMO), that no young European manager will want the job for a long time. They’ll have to look at the likes of Southgate, or the older lads like Nagelsmann/Tuchel/Conte etc.
Was it @Arminius who said that they would have been better served bringing in a guy like Southgate to steady the ship, clear out the deadwood and install a more modern pipeline/system in the playing squad, THEN go for a guy like Amorim in a couple of years when the situation is better and they’re poised to take the next step.
The reality for them now is that the “next step” looks further away than ever. At least with a pragmatic style they would have been putting some points on the board and might have scrounged their way up to 6th or 7th this season, looking to push on for top 4/5 next season. Absolutely zero chance of that now.
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Southgate would have been a good choice for them, but their fans are far too proud and entitled to accept him
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Yes - though in the same post I admitted a Southgate would not work because the fan base would explode. The basic thought was that for England, Southgate was the first manager to make realistic improvements and though he did not win anything, his teams actually advanced further on average than most of his predecessors of the last 25 years. A big part of that was looking what he had, looking at what was available in up-and-coming players, and just trying to use a limited group as best as possible.
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A big part of that was the quality of opposition he faced was much lower than that faced by his predecessors too though…
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Some of his predecessors were shit though but saying that some managers are good at one level and poor at another.
Ultimately I don’t think he is that great especially in his club level roles.
Though I wonder if he knows that.
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It’s almost like they hired a DoF to oversee that exact project……wait a second
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Maybe in the structure of the tournaments, particularly the Euros. Perhaps Southgate was not England manager during an era of a dominant team, but it is not as if England had a remarkable run of bad luck drawing the eventual winner early on. In 2016 England got knocked out by Iceland having finished 2nd in a group to Wales. In 2012, they at least lost to a finalist. In 2008, well, I guess no need to talk about that one. In 2004, out to a semifinalist, but hardly a world-beating one. In 2000, out in the group round. I am not sure I see a ‘much easier opposition’, Southgate’s teams may have regressed to the mean, but after 30 years of not reaching it, that is something.
I don’t think he is a great manager, but I do think he is a realist who won’t ramble about about perfecting systems when no one is emptying the waste bins and the whole place smells bad. He is a manager who will at least do the obvious to address big problems.
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He isn’t nearly that good to be 190k per week.
But on the face of it , this is a reasonable decision. Getting another defender with their buying record means that they’ll have to spend 50-60m and then the salary.They have other pressing problems to address
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That slabheaded gobshite isn’t worth 190k a year.
The issue with United is that they’re tree planting, but they’re doing it on toxic soil. They plant a new tree, shout “yaaay!” but then watch in dismay as the tree wilts and dies. So they get mad at the tree, rip it out, bin it, plant a new tree and shout “yaaay!”. And then watch in dismay as it wilts and dies.
So they rip it out and… well, you get the idea.
They’re an utterly poisoned club, and its from the top down. Signing a deal with the devil with Radlcliffe has only made it worse. And of course, as a football fan, it’s breaking my heart seeing them in such a state.
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Lukaku scored too.
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It also helped that he had the piss easiest draws imaginable in three consecutive tournaments.