17 Oct 2021 12:43:16
Empires fall, the slide is always visible for all to see, except, it seems, to those too close or in our case also blinded by sentiment. It all started to falter when the Glazers bought the club, yet the Empire kept the enemies at bay due to a genius leader, even if stuck in his old outdated ways. The slide really started in earnest because the board, being nothing short of incompetent, started by appointing Moyes, it could only be surmised, driven by some sentimental ideal that a dour Scottish manager would just carry on, likely not demanding too much money.

The latest appointment of Solskjaer permanently, perplexed me. I was not one who was taken in by sentiment. I looked at the credentials and they just were not there. The Cardiff experience frightened me quite honestly. Manchester United handed the future of the club, the rebuild to someone with no relevant experience at all, horrifying. Then last season we were told multiple times that by finishing second, it was improvement, that we were seeing a manager over achieving. It was all the Emperor's new clothes. The thing is that the club have insulated the manager, appointed his mates above and below him, the perfect storm exacerbated further because press, media are full of those who he would call a mate. The media who crucified previous managers even when they were holding up trophies have done the club down by failing to judge and treat their mate in the same way. It all contributes to this mess.

Tactically we are a mess, in game management, strategically, successful patterns, direction all a mess. Looks to me that the only thing that will wake this clueless Board up is if Liverpool put five unanswered goals past us next week. They won't, we will raise our game and probably scrape a draw, Ole will carry on, the pain continuing. We are now also rans, sentimental clueless also rans, that our rivals laugh at.


1.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 13:22:06
Stay positive RedMan, we won’t scrape a draw and hopefully we can be put out of our misery…We have been cruelly exposed and the house of cards is about to fall.


2.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 13:44:02
If we were now a real football club he would have been sacked the day after the cowardly spineless disorganised inept showing at the Europa final. I can't get that Ole, Fletcher and Carrick can't see that any United team they played in would be sticking 4or 5 past our current team each week.

No one fears us, we don't win anything, we don't look like winning anything we are the Spurs of the 1990s early 2000s!


3.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 13:49:03
Yeah. It still blows my mind how Ole ended up with the job. He should never have been given it on a temporary basis, nor should his appointment have been made permanent before the end of that first season. It almost feels like the decision makers at the club have now backed themselves into a corner and are at this point damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

Personally, I do think we’re in a better position now than we were when Ole first took the reigns, but also that he has taken us as far as he can (as evidenced by the fact that we’re now starting to slide backwards) . The perfect time to get rid of Ole was at the end of last season after the Europa League final loss, but if we wait much longer to do so, we’ll likely be doing so at the expense of any chance of winning anything this season.

I really would respect Ole if he made the decision for them and just stepped down. He has to know that he is in over his head and that he is damaging the club by staying in the role. Of course, he won’t do that (and I can’t say I’d blame him as he’d be missing out on a fairly decent pay out, not to mention will never get another decent management job again after this), but that would certainly be the ideal solution to the mess that we’re currently in.


4.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 13:49:17
He'll be gone very soon mate. This is different to all his previous Houdini escapes. He's lost the dressing room, the majority of the fans and the sharks are circling. Even his friends in the media are talking in riddles.

He has the demeanour of every manager you see when the pressure is too much. His interviews are embarrassing. When asked yesterday what the issues were he said "maybe we need more legs in there, do we? " I don't know whether he was asking the interviewer, asking the fans, asking the cosmos? He's done, it's just the dithering above him who will want to make sure the time is right in case they upset the fans. But reading the pulse of the fans, the vast majority want him out.


There will be no more last second magic. There will be no stay of execution. It's always sad when a United manager loses their job because it means we are failing, but I honestly wait on this news with great anticipation so I can finally have some hope and excitement back while watching my team.


5.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 13:54:05
Red Man - I think any sensible Utd fan will realise the problems at the Club run much deeper than just the manager.

Most will argue he needs to be replaced immediately but that will be a last resort when every ounce of respectability has been drained from the team and the season lies in tatters.

Murtough and Fletcher were appointed as key decision makers supposedly providing the Club with the expertise and footballing knowledge to make sensible decisions and set the blue print and philosophy for the Club moving forward however they are also Ole’s BFF’s and were in all likelihood appointed to support him rather than oversee his demise. What we have is football by committee. A group of friends plotting the future of Manchester United, one of the most famous and sporting institutions in the world. It is as frightening as it is laughable.

The Ole debate is merely the tip of the ice berg at a Club besieged by incompetence and apathy.

We mustn’t forget that Manchester United is a business more preoccupied in increasing revenue, sponsorship and driving its social media interactions than winning trophies.

It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out. The Club will be absolutely desperate not to sack Ole. He defended them in the face of severe criticism following the European Super League fiasco and all his friends have been appointed key decision makers in spite of their inexperience and lack of a proven track record.

The owners don’t care beyond another top 4 finish and my expectation is Ole will survive this period by the skin of his teeth. I think he’ll scrape through the champions league group stage and if he can somehow navigate a win, draw and defeat from Liverpool, City and Chelsea beating Watford and maybe Spurs I think he’ll survive. We then have a run of very favourable fixtures in December, January and February.

I don’t expect a title challenge and I think we’ll finish along way behind the eventual winners but if Ole gets top 4 again I think that will be enough to save his job.

The key component maybe fan dissatisfaction but no matter how bad things get I’m not convinced the match going supporters will become so toxic as to force the Club to make a decision. In many ways Ole protects the Glazers and their pursuit of top 4 finishes. At the moment he’s given them exactly what they want and they know it’s very hard for the fans to turn toxic against a former player and especially one that scored such an iconic goal.


6.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 14:11:58
Let's remember why he was given the job, after Jose we went on an extraordinary run, we started playing good football, you have to put thst down to Ole.
The board reacted, I remember thinking at the time maybe we should wait till the end of the season, but the decision was made and you could see why it was. Since then the squad has improved, the football has been better as times, however he hasn't won a trophy when the opportunities have been there.
This year we were looking for progression, maybe being in the mix for a title challenge and a cup. The League Cup is gone, the Premier League looks as distant as ever, the CL we are struggling to get out of a weak group so that leaves the FA Cup maybe to save his job.
I would be surprised at a mid season change unless things completely collapse.


7.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 18:38:14
Glazers, Murtough, Woodward. We keep blaming people we have no emotion with. Nothing prevent us from blaming them.
What about Sir Alex Ferguson? His ghost is above Old Trafford and every manager is compared to him. His football is compared to Sir Alex. Do Glazers choose managers? Or SAF (and co) chooce manages the direction of the club etc? Didn't SAF choosed Moyes? Didn't he supposedly said "locked him in a room and let him leave only after he signs" for Maguire? Didn't he likes and supports Ole?
Who would be our manager IF at 22 July (before Ole signs off his new contract) SAF accepted he was wrong and they must cancel this deal? Surely we would have a new manager.
Our owners don't and can not make football desicions. They trust their football people and of them is SAF. So instead of blaming every people who you not even know his face-and that makes them the easy target-lets start see the truth. But i know you don't want to go there because you must start blaming beloved person of our past.


8.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 19:29:34
Herrera - If you want to blame one of the most successful managers of all the time ahead of a regimen that has presided over nearly a decade of abject failure, taken billions out of the Club in debt, interest repayments and to line their own pockets, who care more about revenue, sponsorship and social media interactions than winning trophies then knock yourself out pal.


9.) 17 Oct 2021
17 Oct 2021 22:12:01
Not if DLIB, i simply do it. I blame SAF too. And i ask a simple question. SAF (alongside Woody or Murtough or both) walk in the Glazers room and says "i am sorry we made a mistake with Ole, as we did with Moyes". Do you think things would change?
How much Glazers took out of the club is irrelevant in this conversation. So all are the same, the same circumstances, the only thing change is SAF accepting his mistakes. Do you think we would had Ole as coach or we would fire him and go for another one? If the answer is the later then you know i blame him.