Manchester United Banter Archive August 11 2018

11 Aug 2018 20:15:28
Our club has been at the forefront of the money pursuit ever since it went public back in 1991. And while its true the once primary relationship between the gate and the club's financial well being has been superseded by commercial revenue and TV rights, can it really be said that our club is any more of a commercial whore (as someone below described us) than those who have been less successful at the sponsorship game and are trying to emulate it? And isn't a commercial whore a somewhat redundant concept anyway?

That same person, a fan for 54 years (one less than me) is disgusted at us? It's the worst he's ever known. Really? How about the side that went down to the division 2? Or indeed any of the sides that didn't win the league between 1967 and 1992.

Does our failure to win the league last year, coming second with 80 points, make us a laughing stock? Only if you believe the press. As we all know our success has made us the most hated team in English football, and because of that the pundits just love to take the opportunity to stick the oar in when things aren't going right. You can choose to buy into, or you can choose to ignore it and just support the club, which means supporting the players and the manager not just on the field but off it.

11 Aug 2018 20:25:29
Superb post mate.

11 Aug 2018 20:34:00
Great post shawthing some of the posts really have been embarrassing.

11 Aug 2018 20:47:53
Spot on mate. You can understand why fans of other teams say we are spoilt. If we feel the team owes us entertainment then we owe them unconditional support through thick and thin.

11 Aug 2018 22:58:04
Spot on Shaw,

Been utterly embarrassed by some of our fans the last few days, people saying I’m ‘deluded’ for having a different opinion, finally a little bit of sanity, I really hope this team proves people wrong.

12 Aug 2018 01:09:20
Not when Pogba has just reignited the flame. What are you doing Paul?

12 Aug 2018 01:29:39
But some people will still not appreciate the club ans the manager.

There is an old saying "The grass is greener on the other side".

12 Aug 2018 06:36:49
Yeah, that's all well and good but the main thing you're failing to recognise is utd have been playing sh*t boring football for a long time now and I'm not prepared to bother with it anymore. I'll come back when the club have a better product to offer me.

12 Aug 2018 07:13:57
Shawthing

You asked whether we were any more of a commercial whore than others. The commerciality was to be expected but under the Plc we were debt free, now we have to pay for loans taken out for the owners to buy the club. The remaining £300m of CLUB debt did not one bit of good to the club. A loan like that could he rebuilt the Soith stand three times over. Other clubs may be commercial but the money will go towards making them successful. Our commercial ventures have come at a huge price of hundreds of millions lost in interest and loans. I support the club but not owners who did that.

12 Aug 2018 07:27:22
Redman, I hear what you are saying. But arrant the owners the same people who put in place a solid marketing model that made it match easier to pay the loans? Moreover once the loans are manageable the money generated will go towards the club and line their pockets - like all businesses. But without the infrastructure to rake in so much income we won’t be able to spend all this money we have been spending. Would you rather not have much money to spend and be debt free?

12 Aug 2018 09:15:02
Ryan’s left foot

I should be grateful the owners put in a marketing plan to enable the club to pay loans for years which enabled them to buy the club. Seriously. All praise their marketing but a leveraged buyout has cost the club hundreds of millions. “Like all businesses”, borrowing can be good for a business but the capital in this case did nothing for the good of the club at all, it didn’t buy a player or renovate a stand. All this commercial acumen is for one thing, improve the asset value of the club and to the benefit of the owners. Believe otherwise if you wish.
With that I feel like I have taken on the mantle of Kloot in the old days except he was far more aggressive about them.
We will never know what might have been if instead of the owners we have, we picked up City type owners who have massively elevated that club.

12 Aug 2018 09:34:16
ManMan and RedMan. Thank God for a bit of reality check. We can say it 1000 times that the club is in a good place, but the reality is that it isn't. The Glazers saddled us with crippling debts that have done nothing to helo the club on the pitch. It has however, put an eyewatering amount of money into their pockets, and built up the brand so that they can sell it for the ultimate pay day. And that is the difference between the Glazers and the City owners. Unfortunately, we have got the horrible lot, and they managed to get the owners who genuinely care.
So people can twist any tale the way they want, but the truth is, until these greedy lot have had enough and until we get someone rich and passionate about our club, then we're going to be stuck in this never ending cycle.

12 Aug 2018 12:11:15
AAA, I don't think City's oweners care a jot about the club and the city. What they do care about is having a vehicle for good PR of UAE to try and gloss over their horrible human rights record. I actually prefer the Glazers because at least they don't indulge in slavery. If we had an owener like that I would have nothing to do with the club at all.

So, if we want to talk about football in purely commercial terms then we have to see it as a product. Man utd's product is not fit for purpose and should be subject to a recall. No one in their right mind would keep going back to the cinema time and time again to see a sh*t, boring film so I have no idea why Old Trafford is full every week.

12 Aug 2018 14:58:13
No part of my post was related to the style of football we are playing or whether it is entertaining enough. I acknowledge we're frustratingly behind Liverpool and City at the moment, but that's a separate discussion and has nothing to do with the "commercial whore" and "laughing stock" comments. Nor is the Glazers LBO and its long term impact on the club, something I've been extremely vocal about. Had SAF not been able to maintain the success on the field, who knows we might have ended up in bankruptcy.

12 Aug 2018 20:42:56
Shawthing, but in your OP you advocate we "just support the club, which means supporting the players and the manager" and I'm saying no to that because the football is so bad which is partly because of the club, partly because of the manager and partly because of the players.

Support is not unconditional, it's a two way contract and it's earned. For my support (which comes in the forms of both time and money), I demand decent football.

Also, you can't seperate the club from the business, they are one and the same.

I agree that we are not commercial whores, nor are we a laughing stock. Also, Jose is an improvement on LVG which is the worse I've seen Utd. Sheffield Utd at home in the FA Cup was the lowest point of following Utd.

11 Aug 2018 19:16:15
How on earth is Michael Keane still a premier league player? He's absolutely awful.

11 Aug 2018 20:41:08
Same question for Theo Walcott. He doesn’t look anywhere near as quick and that was his only asset.

11 Aug 2018 18:27:48
Chong and Gomes both scored last night for the 23s and by all accounts both looked very sharp. The 23s drew 2-2 with Fulham.

12 Aug 2018 11:11:59
Hopefully being in and around the first team has a positive effect on them. I’m hoping so.
It would be great to see a couple of strong cameos from these two during the season.
Fingers crossed for these two talented lads.

{Ed0333's Note - I like Chong he has something about him. Swag and ability. Look forward to seeing him play more. And I even like his hair!

11 Aug 2018 13:07:33
First game of the season and we won an got 3 points.
Some posters have already judged the team.
Wait until the end of the season.
It will take a few more games for the team to get mstch sharp.
The transfer window is shut.
Get behind the team. We forget how lucky we are.
We finished second last season. At times the football was boring.
We all hoped we would sign A, B C etc.
No point in moping, get behind the team and support them.
Who knows what the season will bring.

11 Aug 2018 12:37:56
So, it seems like when Arsenal gave us Sanchez they were genuinely taking the Miki.

{Ed025's Note - nice..

11 Aug 2018 12:44:40
But he doesn't have flash haircut like pogba or do ridiculous dances like lingard or not smile like tony martial.

Thought that was meant to be a guarantee of good performances. I guess he didn't get the memo.

11 Aug 2018 12:59:05
1. Who said it was a guarantee?
2. When 1997 called demanding their memo line back, I hope you warned them about 9/ 11.

11 Aug 2018 13:12:22
1.) Whenever pogba and martial underperform like sanchez does they come in for huge amounts of stick invariably leading to criticisms of their hair, dress and attitude. Why the double standard for sanchez?

2.) that's a good joke rwwd i also warned them of the Y2K problem lol.

11 Aug 2018 15:04:44
Haha! Cheers.

Where’s the double standard? Sanchez has been copping pelters for his performances. I genuinely don’t understand your point.

11 Aug 2018 17:50:35
1st game of the season chill out.

11 Aug 2018 20:51:24
Sanchez was at the middle of all our brightest moments. If that's him when at 5/ 10 let's just see him go at 9/ 10 10/ 10.

11 Aug 2018 09:32:40
{Ed's Note - Reid the Red has posted a new article entitled, Premier League Games Preview for 11 August 2018

11 Aug 2018 08:30:37
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 11th August 2018

11 Aug 2018 06:32:21
Ok game. Bailly, lindelof, shaw, pereira and ddg were brilliant. Fred looks like a better version of Herrera just needs time to settle, pogba was decent. Rashford was rubbish and Sanchez is just a grossly overpaid ji sung park.

11 Aug 2018 07:55:59
Agree with that assessment. Thought Sanchez was very poor but played some nice balls. Obviously he is a world class player though CSM and I expect him to have a very good season. We need to shift him to the right and use his ability to cross the ball. The biggest bonus for me was the togetherness of the team after shaw scored. Clearly he is a popular member of the squad and there is a good team spirit within the squad. Great to see Jose celebrating his goal today and praising him near the end and before the match. Me thinks that all this negativity from Jose has been a way to create a siege mentality, them against us. The players and manager are clearly on the same page and with a few tweaks and consistency and I think we will have a good season. Just need to go for the kill when we have gone a goal up as opposed to inviting pressure on ourselves. I love the look of the midfield combinations and they all compliment each other very well. Pogba is a die a big season and I can see him having a huge season. Great to see united back playing, even if the football is not always entertaining.

11 Aug 2018 08:57:13
Yeah I agree as well.

Got to wonder why Martial wasn't starting up top if Rashford was meant to be so unfit?

Agreed with Jose's press conference. From the looks of Martial's face when Pogba came off and how many times Jose kept bringing it back to wishing he could bring Martial on in the interview, makes me think he promised him a game and reneged - won't be going down well I'm sure.

One key thing. He kept saying the lads were not ready etc, but the majority had a full pre-season, we need to knock these International trips on the head and get back to focusing on pre-season being about getting ready, not handicapping it. Delighted for Shaw, Pereira played well, loved Fred's energy and passion, something we desperately lack (the football part will come) . Darmian is a waste of space, can't believe the regression in him since signing.

11 Aug 2018 09:23:47
Beast

Not often I agree with you but generally I did there. The owners are never going to stop raking money in from foreign trips, if there was a winter break I wouldn’t put it past them to organise a money spinning friendly.

I thought Lindelof had a very calm effective game and prefer the combo of Baily and him than Smalling and Jones.

People may not agree but I think the owners lack of support seemed to have fired Mourinho up a bit, I may be wrong but I sense a determination to show them. We shall see, what I saw of him last night was not third season syndrome.

Very pleased for Shaw who was so excited when interviewed post match.

We will know more when we play away but our right side looked cumbersome Darmian and Mata, but Fred looks a good addition.

11 Aug 2018 10:17:00
I think the owners have got it 100% right by sticking to there guns and looking to buy players that can be developed .
Best way to build a team.

11 Aug 2018 11:00:32
I agree jred. Gary Neville said the same. However, like many of us, we question who is making the footballing decisions upstairs.

And i also feel we did the right thing in not paying over odds. Rod off his own back ed Woodward but at least now it looks as though he will not pay over the odds especially for a player in their late 20s/ 30s.

11 Aug 2018 11:06:29
Maybe but I still think we lack on the right side.

11 Aug 2018 11:48:34
Jred - I agree with the logic but then why employ Jose when everybody knows that is not how he manages. A few bad results and we could find ourselves in the middle of a meltdown between Jose and the board.
It seems an odd decision to give Jose a new contract and then not support him in the transfer window when there had clearly been a discussion about what Jose's plans were.

11 Aug 2018 12:50:56
Keanooh
It doesn't mean he can't manage like that .
He will of had little say in transfers at both Madrid and inter .