23 Jul 2018 16:22:38
It is a really strange feeling being a united fan at the moment. I almost feel a bit numb at present with the whole situation, players and manager. This apparent lack of energy or positivity at the moment is really beginning to infiltrate even the most positive members of our fan base. I consider myself as someone who generally is a bit more positive but even I am really struggling.

The whole club is a mess. From top to bottom it is riddled with lack of planning and lack of clarity. Clearly ed was correct that sacking lvg when we had allegri would have potentially been more fruitful than hiring Jose. I’m not going to pretend that the football was not dire under lvg because it was the worst I’ve ever seen. Add gee Moyes debacle and it has simply been utterly embarrassing the way the club has been run in the aftermath of Fergie’s exit.

Who is to blame? Depends which side of the fence you stand on. I think Fergie knew that the glazer’s were unlikely to spend the money and he packed it in at the right time. It seems that we are becoming the new arsenal. Top 4 is the minimum and as long as the money keeps coming in then it doesn’t matter about winning. I am not disputing that we have not spent money, but the outlay has been so grossly miss spent that we have struggled to recover.

My question is if the board are not going to fully back Jose, then why on earth have they given him a new contract? He wants to win, he demands nothing but first place. How can he achieve this when he is not given all the tools to achieve it? There is a lack of ambition from the board of the richest club in the world and I’m unsure why people cannot see that this is no longer an issue with the manager. There is an inherent institutional problem within the club, and no new manager is going to fix this.

I’m not saying Jose is blameless, far from it. The football is so dire. There are still players such as smalling, Jones, young, shaw (sick of hearing about potential) and fellaini who needed to be moved on years ago. And yet he has still relied on 4 out of the 5. He has had plenty of time to address the full back areas which are so severely lacking in quality that we are relying on two converted wingers. Jose’s stubbornness has contributed to the issues we have today. But if he is backed properly and we stop penny pinching, then I do believe he can build a sustained title challenge.

These days I wish had a board more akin to city’s who back their manager fully, who have ambition and an insatiable desire to win. At least then we would know what Jose is capable of. Right now I cannot judge him fully or fairly because he is not completely at fault. He is working with one hand tied behind his back, and yet some fans cannot see that. It’s always jose’s Fault, but the problem is far bigger and serious. At least if the board were like city’s, Jose would be left with no excuses.

It is worrying times currently being a united fan. Usually by this stage of the summer I am buzzing for the season to start. To be honest I’m dreading it. But we still have time left and I do hope we sign a few players. The problems lie with Woodward, glazers and the board. As the Eds have mentioned, we should have appointed a director of football. We need to start running this club properly as a FOOTBALL CLUB. Yeh the commercial side is important, but for too long we have not done the business of the pitch. If we don’t address the areas that Jose wants, I can see it getting very ugly very quickly. Give him the tools and he will challenge because he is a very good manager.

1.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 17:34:30
Really good post park.
I agree with an awful lot of that.
Apparently we are trying to appoint a DoF. Until that happens all football decisions will be inconsistent unless the manager has full control imo.
The strategy three club are working to is not obvious to me or to many i suspect in terms of football strategy from recruitment and development through to 1st team style and sustainability.

Im not over concerned by our window so far. If we have to go with the squad we have i think the manager can keep us competitive but it will be a tough slog because he will be unhappy and Several players will be unhappy it will be more of the same and i'm pretty sure nobody wants that.
Back in 2008 we won the league scoring 68 goals. That won't cut it anymore.

2.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 17:37:31
Glazers and Woodward don't care.

3.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 18:42:54
Over the last 2 year we have spent absolutely millions and listen to the spoilt fans .
No wonder United fans get a bad name at times.
Over the last couple of years we have spent more than 99% of the teams in the world .
Jose needed a cb we bought 2 . He doesn't pick them .
He wanted a star cm we broke the transfer record for pogba .
He wanted a striker we spent 90 mil on lukaku
He wanted a winger we made Sanchez the highest paid player in EPL history . Blew city out the water

Never mind the city board its there manager we need .

4.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 19:34:46
Pep bought 2 50m cb's and didn't play them either. Bought a 40m right winger hardly played him now bought another right winger this summer because he wants to sell sterling who scored 20 plus goals last season. Had 2 rbs with 4 or 5 epl titles but wanted a different one so spend 50m on him and 40m on yet another rb 2 weeks later and didn't play him
Not sure he would be interested in working under our board as they don't want to spend that sort of money.

5.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 19:41:07
Loll jred you need to get over yourself with Guardiola. You still think he's the best in the world? .

6.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 20:18:59
Singh i think its fair to say pep is no 1 at the moment. But he has has great backing to the fullest. Some get full backing and don't smash records like city did. But he didn't want to work at united becauae he was sounded out about the job. I don't know his reasons but i'd imagine he was offered better funds by city.

7.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 20:46:14
Singh, whether Pep is the best in the world can be debated, but his team did ok last season just scraping home in the title race. They played a brand of football that most on here want to see and complain when our manager can't deliver the same.

8.) 24 Jul 2018
24 Jul 2018 04:33:01
Ken
Lol it's the board fault now not Jose.
It's Jose fault it's Jose fault.

9.) 24 Jul 2018
24 Jul 2018 08:22:15
Excellent analyis, Park. If only more posters on here thoughts that deeply before reacting and posting. Well done.