03 Oct 2018 13:00:44
So there is a good chance that we will be looking for a new manager before the season is out. This saddens me, I am no fan of Mourinho at our club (although I do appreciate what he has achieved in football) . What saddens me is it highlights just how far away we are from the club I fell in love with. It would be our forth manager in six years, that isn't the approach that has brought us so much success in the past.

Our club is different and we need to embrace that if we are to move forward. I think many of us have fallen into the trap of believing our club is something its not. We have never had success by buying the best players in the world. It doesn't matter if we can afford them or not. Under Sir Alex the big name stars often flattered to deceive. Veron anyone?

We have seen it even more so since Sir Alex has retired. Di Maria, Schweinsteiger, Falcao, Zlatan, Pogba and Sanchez. These players do not succeed at our club. The best signings we make are the young lads who we work closely with to help them become great players. We are a club that creates greatness rather than one that rides on the coattails of other greats.

This is the same with managers, both LvG and Mourinho have arguably the best CV's in world football. Both had achieved so much in football before coming to United. Both continued to achieve at our club, an FA cup, league cup and Europa League cup show this. However, neither are considered successes at our club.

We need to avoid looking for this great white knight to come in and save our club. We need to find the right person with the right mentality, the right focus and the right philosophy that aligns with our club.

Going for manager such as Zidane and Conte is making the same mistake as going for players like Sanchez and Pogba. Sure they have a big name, but that comes a big ego. And our club rarely is able to exist successfully alongside such egos for long.

If we are to be successful then it has to be the United way.

1.) 03 Oct 2018
03 Oct 2018 13:16:45
We have hired three bad managers on the bounce, (bad for a club built on attacking principles and needing a refresh) . Top players are failing because of the way they are being asked to play compared to the way they played before we signed them.

Be optimistic Shappy not sad. The club is in trouble, but we have the resources and base to get out of it. We just need to be decisive. Rio worked, RVN worked, Rooney worked, Keane worked, Cole worked. The big money flops under SAF were few and far between because we played in a way that suited the way they wanted to play.

We need a refresh, I'm just happy that almost everybody accepts this now so the change won't take long to occur. I have a feeling that the next guy we hire will be a breath of fresh air and bring back the joy in watching our team play. I'm very happy that the toxics are back because without things turning toxic people won't bother to clean up the mess!

2.) 03 Oct 2018
03 Oct 2018 13:19:51
If I remember rightly shappy it took Alex 5/ 6 years before he won his first trophy and they also had a press conference ready for the game against forest to fire Ferguson but robbins came to his rescue and the rest is history. The point I'm making is being utd doesn't give you the right to win trophy automatically you have to earn the right to win them, and buying the best player doesn't mean it's going to work with your team, examples pogba and Sanchez. It comes down to hard work and building from the ground up like utd use to do and it's what liverpool is trying to do now.

3.) 03 Oct 2018
03 Oct 2018 13:27:04
Our club isn't different. The club needs bug name, media friendly, money making machines. Football isn't about football anymore and it is clubs like ours who are responsible for that.

All that is achieved by nostalgia is disappointment.

4.) 03 Oct 2018
03 Oct 2018 14:06:38
Shappy I understand the sentiment I really do but hasn't our success been built on two great managers? Apart from that we've been perennial underachievers, sleeping giants and perhaps that's what scares me the most about our current predicament.

Red Man wrote a brilliant post the other day basically saying a similar thing but in a more detailed and eloquent way.

Do we really have a footballing philosophy, a commitment to developing our own players, a real desire to be the very best or was that just the vision of two brilliant managers?

Until we find the next genius do we just sleepwalk into mediocrity, continually making the wrong choices and being too afraid to admit when it's not working.

The vision for our Club comes from the owners. They appoint the managers, assign the budget, sign the players, set the agenda. They remain deafly silent as we jump from one crisis to the next. There is only one place we're heading at the moment and that's into hibernation.