What the pundits & media are saying about us

[Trix]

Exactly I can remember when he referred to Tim Sherwood as a "proper football man". What does that even mean???!!!

It means he's friends with him off camera. You'll find all his ex player friends are proper football men.

Basically it's an ex pro with very little inteligence, that has managed to memorise a high number of footballing cliche's. The very best proper football men, are able to put 2 sometimes 3 of these into one sentence whilst on camera.

 

[Dov67]

It means he's friends with him off camera. You'll find all his ex player friends are proper football men.

Basically it's an ex pro with very little inteligence, that has managed to memorise a high number of footballing cliche's. The very best proper football men, are able to put 2 sometimes 3 of these into one sentence whilst on camera.

worked for Charlie Nicholas, Phil Thomson, Chris Sutton, Merson etc etc for years. Don't understand why people listen to their drivel.

There are very few pundits and journalists worth listening too. I would include Gary Neville in that category sometimes (except when he goes full on Man U, in which case i have to mute him), and as a journalist, I like Henry Winter - don't always agree, but very measured and doesn't use the same ol tired cliches. Gab Marcotti is another one - he's the anti-cliche journalist.

 

[spursfan77]

As others have accurately stated, would he be given the players he wants?

The problem at United is that their scouts are so firmly planted in the club that they have their own ideas of what players they should be signing.

Van Gaal seemed to just go along with it but did complain about things once he'd left.

Jose clearly wasnt getting the players he really wanted. He wanted Perisic, Thiago and a number of other established players yet their scouts gave him different options and the board refused to sell Martial and Pogba as they were seen as too high profile/rated.

OGS, said that he needed a big clear out and wanted to add some serious depth. First summer they got rid of a couple and brought in Fernandes and Maguire. This year they've completely failed to back him, whether it's cause they couldn't or wouldn't, it doesnt matter cause they still showed that they are unable to.

If Poch goes there, it won't just be Woodward and the board he'll have to wrestle with when it comes to signings, it's the scouts. We all know that Poch wanted complete control over all of that in the latter years of the club. Who's to say he won't waltz in there and do exactly the same thing? If he thought it was hard under Levy and working with Mitchell/Hitchens or whoever then hes got another thing coming.

Secondly, Poch needs selfless players, players willing to press like demons and train like madmen. Can you see Pogba, Shaw and Martial following that?? He needs players to sacrifice for the team. Will they do that?

Hed need another rebuild, certainly. The beautiful thing he had with us was less pressure which bought him a bit of time. Imagine if he goes to Untied, and it still hasn't clicked by second season. The voices will be calling for his head.

Poch would only need to make one phone all to Mourinho or Solskjaer to find out what it is like to manage there. If that over rides the prestige, money or his need to take a new job then he won’t take it. If he thinks it isnt a problem he will.

I was saying when Mourinho was manager he wasn’t the whole problem, it was the hierarchy but the media’s power is strong over people’s thoughts.

I can’t see Poch turning it down though. There is a lot in that squad he could work with and sort out. But do they and their fans have the patience to wait the 1/2 seasons Poch would need to get them back to challenging for the title.

 

[sausage]

But do they and their fans have the patience to wait the 1/2 seasons Poch would need to get them back to challenging for the title.

I think they'd need the patience to wait 3 or 4. There would need to be a LOT in his favour for it to be 1 or 2 seasons. Miracles even.

 

[Ionman34]

Not hugely dissimilar looking lads tbf.

View attachment 75601 View attachment 75602

Maguire's mouth is on upside down, but if someone said they were related you'd see it

Is it me or does Maguire look like the Dad from the Croods?

 

[Maxtremist]

I think the ESPN crew are generally awful, but Mark Ogden seems to have a decent head on his shoulders
Also agreeing with Stewart Robson here, Chelsea bought some really really great players. So on talent they had a fantastic transfer window... but you can't and don't judge purely on talent. You need to judge by what your team needs and what works on the pitch and it very much feels like Lampard bought players that looked and seemed good but without any real thought about what his team shape looks like and what his best 11 or style of play would be.

I know it's early in the season and they've had injuries but I just cannot see a style of play to this team or where he wants people to play.

Mourinho, Arteta... they've both come into their clubs with an idea of what they wanted and how they wanted to play. Klopp and Pep did that too and got the players in.
Even Ole had an idea of what he wanted... board poorly backed him and he's a bad coach but there was at least some kind of an idea.
Lampard... I don't see it. Other than youth. But even then... he's not playing the youth much and seems more like he played the youth last season cause he had too.

 

[Ionman34]

Poch would only need to make one phone all to Mourinho or Solskjaer to find out what it is like to manage there. If that over rides the prestige, money or his need to take a new job then he won’t take it. If he thinks it isnt a problem he will.

I was saying when Mourinho was manager he wasn’t the whole problem, it was the hierarchy but the media’s power is strong over people’s thoughts.

I can’t see Poch turning it down though. There is a lot in that squad he could work with and sort out. But do they and their fans have the patience to wait the 1/2 seasons Poch would need to get them back to challenging for the title.

I personally think Poch would be on a major loser there.
Remember back to when he started with us and the house cleaning he had to do with many in the squad?
It seems to me that there are quite a number of that current Utd squad that he would see as detrimental to his "vision," one or two being extremely expensive players with high commercial profiles. Would the board be willing to part with them? They weren't when JM was in charge.

Under Poch, they'd effectively have to go back to where they were when Ferguson first joined, rebuilding from the ground up. That was fine for Fergie as times were different and Utd had nowhere near the profile they have now, nor the recent legacy of success. Fergie needed 5 years to get everything right, had a board that were willing to give him that time and a far less entitled fan base.

Now? I think Smalling's recent tweet sums them up, they don't "desire" success, they "need" it.

You also have to take into account their commercial needs. I'm not sure if it is still the case, but previously their sponsorship monies were dependant on CL qualification. If they're out of CL for more than 2 consecutive seasons then they take a hefty hit on sponsorship monies. A rebuild could have severe financial implications, which I highly doubt their board would tolerate. Not to mention the amount of international "fans" they'd lose if they aren't competing in CL or for domestic honours for a while.

Expecting Poch to cure their ills in what they would see as an acceptable timeframe is, I believe, tantamount to them expecting that throwing £300 M at the squad will make everything right. They've already proven that isn't the case multiple times. We also know ourselves that Poch isn't the greatest at sporting talent. JM is showing that he is and it still didn't happen for him in that toxic environment.

IMO, Pich would fail spectacularly there, much as others post Fergie have. The current setup is a poisoned chalice. They'd need to fall further before he'd get the time to do what he needs.

 

[SpartanSpur]

I personally think Poch would be on a major loser there.
Remember back to when he started with us and the house cleaning he had to do with many in the squad?
It seems to me that there are quite a number of that current Utd squad that he would see as detrimental to his "vision," one or two being extremely expensive players with high commercial profiles. Would the board be willing to part with them? They weren't when JM was in charge.

Under Poch, they'd effectively have to go back to where they were when Ferguson first joined, rebuilding from the ground up. That was fine for Fergie as times were different and Utd had nowhere near the profile they have now, nor the recent legacy of success. Fergie needed 5 years to get everything right, had a board that were willing to give him that time and a far less entitled fan base.

Now? I think Smalling's recent tweet sums them up, they don't "desire" success, they "need" it.

You also have to take into account their commercial needs. I'm not sure if it is still the case, but previously their sponsorship monies were dependant on CL qualification. If they're out of CL for more than 2 consecutive seasons then they take a hefty hit on sponsorship monies. A rebuild could have severe financial implications, which I highly doubt their board would tolerate. Not to mention the amount of international "fans" they'd lose if they aren't competing in CL or for domestic honours for a while.

Expecting Poch to cure their ills in what they would see as an acceptable timeframe is, I believe, tantamount to them expecting that throwing £300 M at the squad will make everything right. They've already proven that isn't the case multiple times. We also know ourselves that Poch isn't the greatest at sporting talent. JM is showing that he is and it still didn't happen for him in that toxic environment.

IMO, Pich would fail spectacularly there, much as others post Fergie have. The current setup is a poisoned chalice. They'd need to fall further before he'd get the time to do what he needs.

It's an interesting view and I agree on some points but I would still be worried if he went there.

They already have a lot of players he would like at the club. I think he tried to sign Fernandes, Martial, Van De Beek, Maguire and Wan Bissaka when he was with us. McTominay, Greenwood and Rashford are perfect for him. Shaw he had a great relationship with at Soton.

He has two great GKs there although I don't think either has played in a high line side.

Assuming the club would be willing to sacrifice Pogba then I think he would do well there. No way he turns down the job IMO. That said he could come into similar transfer issues there even with the extra money they have. They have missed out on De Ligt, Sancho, Haaland to name a few in recent windows, they are losing some of that major draw they once had. He may still not get his top picks.

It would all come down to how far Utd would be willing to back him compared to LVG, Jose and Ole. If they treated him the same way I could see him having similar problems, but like I said I'd still be worried if he went there.

 

[rez9000]

I personally think Poch would be on a major loser there.
Remember back to when he started with us and the house cleaning he had to do with many in the squad?
It seems to me that there are quite a number of that current Utd squad that he would see as detrimental to his "vision," one or two being extremely expensive players with high commercial profiles. Would the board be willing to part with them? They weren't when JM was in charge.

Under Poch, they'd effectively have to go back to where they were when Ferguson first joined, rebuilding from the ground up. That was fine for Fergie as times were different and Utd had nowhere near the profile they have now, nor the recent legacy of success. Fergie needed 5 years to get everything right, had a board that were willing to give him that time and a far less entitled fan base.

Now? I think Smalling's recent tweet sums them up, they don't "desire" success, they "need" it.

You also have to take into account their commercial needs. I'm not sure if it is still the case, but previously their sponsorship monies were dependant on CL qualification. If they're out of CL for more than 2 consecutive seasons then they take a hefty hit on sponsorship monies. A rebuild could have severe financial implications, which I highly doubt their board would tolerate. Not to mention the amount of international "fans" they'd lose if they aren't competing in CL or for domestic honours for a while.

Expecting Poch to cure their ills in what they would see as an acceptable timeframe is, I believe, tantamount to them expecting that throwing £300 M at the squad will make everything right. They've already proven that isn't the case multiple times. We also know ourselves that Poch isn't the greatest at sporting talent. JM is showing that he is and it still didn't happen for him in that toxic environment.

IMO, Pich would fail spectacularly there, much as others post Fergie have. The current setup is a poisoned chalice. They'd need to fall further before he'd get the time to do what he needs.

This is right on the money.

Funnily enough, if you look to the mid-80s, Man U and Spurs were remarkably similar - both big clubs, with occasional successes (us more than them during that period), but still in the shadow of other big clubs (Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton at the time, and with a young pretender in the form of Nottingham Forest also having fairly sustained success) and with their respective golden ages some time in the past.

Enter Alex Ferguson. I'm not sure how many know this, but Spurs were also courting him in the run up to him leaving Aberdeen for Manchester. He could have been our manager. But, he went to United and, after a few years of transition (not an unusual thing in those days), the rest is history. We didn't climb out of the doldrums of the late 80s (87 being probably the closest we came to winning the league during that time). United did.

And then times, and football, changed.

After the advent of Sky Football, there was simply no scope for us to be able to undergo the same manner of transformation as Ferguson brought about at Old Trafford. We needed something different, which we never got. Years went by and we suffered through the 90s and early Noughties, before the Santini/Jol/Ramos/Redknapp/AVB period with it's ups and down, but seeing Spurs make small, incremental progress.

Enter Pochettino. His was the closest to the equivalent of a Ferguson-effect that any club in our situation could reasonably expect, given the way in which football had changed in the intervening years. Through design, accident, or a combination of the two, the Poch years represented that shift from being an old name in the dusty halls of football history to a club with a vibrant potential, a real potential, rather than the 'if Spurs did this, they might win that' kind of way we were used to.

And now, we have Jose to channel that potentiality that was developed during Poch's time (I say during Poch's time, because he wasn't solely responsible for it. He played a massive part, but other factors also played an important role - the development of the training ground and stadium the most obvious amongst them).

But Man United don't need a Ferguson-effect manager. They shouldn't believe that they need to rekindle or try to resurrect what Ferguson did and was for them at the time. Because football is different, and Man United are different.

When I look at it from a distance and try to view the club as a whole, defining their problems and offering the hypothetical solution is actually very simple. Unfortunately, in practice, those solutions are not just difficult, I'd say they were impossible. The problem is that their hierarchy is rotten and rather than working in the best interests of the club, are working to further the interests of the club's ownership. For Man U to be successful again, the hierarchy must be replaced.

And that is the key problem. It's a simple solution ... that is impossible to implement. The Glazer family don't care about Man United, they don't care about Man United fans, entitled or otherwise (the latter does exist, but is difficult to find). They only care about generating income. And everything they do is catered towards the short-termism that infects all aspects of corporate operation these days - make the money this year, make the money this quarter. And in Woodward, they have the perfect channel to do that, so his position is sacrosanct. Even if he displeases the Glazers and is replaced, they will only replace him with Woodward Mk II.

Where am I going with all this?

Ultimately, any manger who goes to Man United will either know, or very soon come to realise, that his job is not to win titles, but to keep the money-spinning machine going. Let the hierarchy sign big-name players who the manager doesn't need, because that draws in neutral viewers on television, which is where the money is. The true, devoted, long-term Man United fan is now such a small part of the Old Trafford money-machine that the Glazers are safe in the knowledge that they can ignore them - a lesson they learnt early on with the complete failure of FC United of Manchester to elicit any serious obstacle to their takeover of the club. Even with the largest club stadium in the country, ticket revenue is still a lot smaller than television money and the Glazers know that.

Will Poch rock up in Carrington soon? Possibly. It's not outside the realms of possibility, because Man United are still a big name, regardless of how much their reputation may have been tarnished since Ferguson left. That will always be an attractive proposition for a manager - to have the opportunity to manage Man United. Will he be allowed to implement the same changes as helped bring about the putative transformation at Spurs? I highly doubt it.

If he's wise (and I like to think he is) he'll consider that aspect of the job far more than any bump to his profile taking the job might bring him.

 

[buckley]

From what I have heard and read of the pundits views it was all about the fault of united and nothing to do with the ability of spurs and I must say its what I expected just par for the course .
You cannot beat Arsenal / Man Unt / Liverpool / and be brilliant it will always be how bad they were / bad day at the office etc

 

[Timberwolf]

Red Cafe has a thread on Poch and fuck me, a lot of their fans have some very, very warped views on him.

Apparently:

- He plays unexciting football akin to early Mourinho at Chelsea. "Workmanlike and boring".
- His ability to work on a budget is overrated as he did actually buy lots of players (they conveniently ignore his tiny net spend until his final window).
- He lacks the character to really win over their squad and wouldn't work at a club the size of Utd.
- Doesn't know how to break down deep teams as 'no teams sit deep against Spurs'. (does this guy think Utd are the only team that exists in the world? Teams sat deep against us and parked the bus about 70% of the time under the Poch era)

Fucking mental. It's like opposite-world over there. I bet half of them think none of their failure is Ole's fault either and only Woodward and the Glazers are to blame. Incredible how utterly wrong you can be about so many things.

A lot of them want Nagelsmann and some mentioned the Atalanta manager. Frankly the whole thing reeks of recency bias as all they can remember is the final year of Poch when things went a bit shit and our football wasn't very pretty. They've managed to completely overlook the incredible work he did prior to that on a shoestring budget and the scintillating footall we played for long periods.

They honestly don't deserve him.

A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino

The truth is football moves so fast nowadays and is even more cyclical than it used to be. You just won’t get a team dominating for 10-15 years like we did before because of the nature of how cut throat the game has become. A run of defeats in one season gets a manager sacked now. Not a single...

www.redcafe.net

 

[yiddopaul]

No way leicester drop that much. Think liverpool and arsenal will be bang in the top 4 race, id have them above chelsea as it currently stands.

With all the money being spent by the sky 5, if we did finish 3rd, it would be absolutely fantastic

How much you spend has got nothing to do with where you finish (within reason). We 'only' spent $65m, yet have probably had the best or one of the best windows in Europe. Filled in the gaps we needed to fill (similar to Liverpool a few season ago).

 

[Trix]

Red Cafe has a thread on Poch and fuck me, a lot of their fans have some very, very warped views on him.

Apparently:

- He plays unexciting football akin to early Mourinho at Chelsea. "Workmanlike and boring".
- His ability to work on a budget is overrated as he did actually buy lots of players (they conveniently ignore his tiny net spend until his final window).
- He lacks the character to really win over their squad and wouldn't work at a club the size of Utd.
- Doesn't know how to break down deep teams as 'no teams sit deep against Spurs'. (does this guy think Utd are the only team that exists in the world? Teams sat deep against us and parked the bus about 70% of the time under the Poch era)

Fucking mental. It's like opposite-world over there. I bet half of them think none of their failure is Ole's fault either and only Woodward and the Glazers are to blame. Incredible how utterly wrong you can be about so many things.

A lot of them want Nagelsmann and some mentioned the Atalanta manager. Frankly the whole thing reeks of recency bias as all they can remember is the final year of Poch when things went a bit shit and our football wasn't very pretty. They've managed to completely overlook the incredible work he did prior to that on a shoestring budget and the scintillating footall we played for long periods.

They honestly don't deserve him.

A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino

The truth is football moves so fast nowadays and is even more cyclical than it used to be. You just won’t get a team dominating for 10-15 years like we did before because of the nature of how cut throat the game has become. A run of defeats in one season gets a manager sacked now. Not a single...

www.redcafe.net

To be fair the last 12-18 months of Poch was pretty much how they describe.

You are looking at peak Poch to disprove their views. The back end of Pochs reign was boring, turgid and uninspiring.

 

[Ickle73]

This is right on the money.

Funnily enough, if you look to the mid-80s, Man U and Spurs were remarkably similar - both big clubs, with occasional successes (us more than them during that period), but still in the shadow of other big clubs (Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton at the time, and with a young pretender in the form of Nottingham Forest also having fairly sustained success) and with their respective golden ages some time in the past.

Enter Alex Ferguson. I'm not sure how many know this, but Spurs were also courting him in the run up to him leaving Aberdeen for Manchester. He could have been our manager. But, he went to United and, after a few years of transition (not an unusual thing in those days), the rest is history. We didn't climb out of the doldrums of the late 80s (87 being probably the closest we came to winning the league during that time). United did.

I remember a number of years ago there was a lengthy BBC Radio 5 Live interview with Ferguson on some anniversary of his time as manager of United. He was talking about this at length and said that the Tottenham job at the time was the much bigger job (much to the chortling of the presenter) but he was quite adamant about it.

I only remember because I immediately saved the audio of this and sent it to my boss who is a Man U fan, he was not impressed

 

[Timberwolf]

This is right on the money.

Funnily enough, if you look to the mid-80s, Man U and Spurs were remarkably similar - both big clubs, with occasional successes (us more than them during that period), but still in the shadow of other big clubs (Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton at the time, and with a young pretender in the form of Nottingham Forest also having fairly sustained success) and with their respective golden ages some time in the past.

Enter Alex Ferguson. I'm not sure how many know this, but Spurs were also courting him in the run up to him leaving Aberdeen for Manchester. He could have been our manager. But, he went to United and, after a few years of transition (not an unusual thing in those days), the rest is history. We didn't climb out of the doldrums of the late 80s (87 being probably the closest we came to winning the league during that time). United did.

And then times, and football, changed.

After the advent of Sky Football, there was simply no scope for us to be able to undergo the same manner of transformation as Ferguson brought about at Old Trafford. We needed something different, which we never got. Years went by and we suffered through the 90s and early Noughties.

The Santini/Jol/Ramos/Redknapp/AVB era: up and down, but making small, incremental progress.

Enter Pochettino. His was the closest to the equivalent of a Ferguson-effect that any club in our situation could reasonably expect, given the way in which football had changed in the intervening years. Through design, accident, or a combination of the two, the Poch years represented that shift from being an old name in the dusty halls of football history to a club with a vibrant potential, a real potential, rather than the 'if Spurs did this, they might win that' kind of way we were used to.

And now, we have Jose to channel that potentiality that was developed during Poch's time (I say during Poch's time, because he wasn't solely responsible for it. He played a massive part, but other factors also played an important role - the development of the training ground and stadium the most obvious amongst them).

But Man United don't need a Ferguson-effect manager. They shouldn't believe that they need to rekindle or try to resurrect what Ferguson did and was for them at the time. Because football is different, and Man United are different.

When I look at it from a distance and try to view the club as a whole, defining their problems and offering the hypothetical solution is actually very simple. Unfortunately, in practice, those solutions are not just difficult, I'd say they were impossible. The problem is that their hierarchy is rotten and is not working in the best interests of the club. They are working in the best interests of the club's ownership. For Man U to be successful again, the hierarchy must be replaced.

And that is the key problem. It's a simple solution ... that is impossible to implement. The Glazer family don't care about Man United, they don't care about Man United fans, entitled or otherwise (the latter does exist, but is difficult to find). They only care about generating income. And everything they do is catered towards the short-termism that infects all aspects of corporate operation these days - make the money this year, make the money this quarter. And in Woodward, they have the perfect channel to do that, so his position is sacrosanct. Even if he displeases the Glazers and is replaced, they will only replace him with Woodward Mk II.

Where am I going with all this?

Ultimately, any manger who goes to Man United will either know, or very soon come to realise, that his job is not to win titles, but to keep the money-spinning machine going. Let the hierarchy sign big-name players who the manager doesn't need, because that draws in neutral viewers on television, which is where the money is. The true, devoted, long-term Man United fan is now such a small part of the Old Trafford money-machine that the Glazers are safe in the knowledge that they can ignore them - a lesson they learnt early on with the complete failure of FC United of Manchester to elicit any serious obstacle to their takeover of the club. Even with the largest club stadium in the country, ticket revenue is still a lot smaller than television money and the Glazers know that.

Will Poch rock up in Carrington soon? Possibly. It's not outside the realms of possibility, because Man United are still a big name, regardless of how much their reputation may have been tarnished since Ferguson left. That will always be an attractive proposition for a manager - to have the opportunity to manage Man United. Will he be allowed to implement the same changes as helped bring about the putative transformation at Spurs? I highly doubt it.

If he's wise (and I like to think he is) he'll consider that aspect of the job far more than any bump to his profile taking the job might bring him.

Really good post. I'm not sure I fully agree with this part, though. You're dead on about the Glazers and the fact that money and corporate interests > success, but I do think that, Utd's brand will gradually erode if they continuously don't challenge for titles or, at the very least, cups. They do want those big, stupid signings, but they do ultimately still want those big stupid signings to be symbols of success and victory rather than abject failure.

The longer this goes and the further we get from the Fergie era, the more the Utd brand becomes synonymous with incompetence and failure. And then the next generation don't want to support United because...they're losers. Glory fans and casuals are the most fickle fans of all, and they won't want to be supporting a team that can barely get into the top 4 and gets dicked on by Spurs 6-1.

 

[rez9000]

Really good post. I'm not sure I fully agree with this part, though. You're dead on about the Glazers and the fact that money and corporate interests > success, but I do think that, Utd's brand will gradually erode if they continuously don't challenge for titles or, at the very least, cups. They do want those big, stupid signings, but they do ultimately still want those big stupid signings to be symbols of success and victory rather than abject failure.

The longer this goes and the further we get from the Fergie era, the more the Utd brand becomes synonymous with incompetence and failure. And then the next generation don't want to support United because...they're losers. Glory fans and casuals are the most fickle fans of all, and they won't want to be supporting a team that can barely get into the top 4 and gets dicked on by Spurs 6-1.

Yeah, I didn't word it quite right.

It's not so much they don't want titles, more that their short-termist thinking means they don't see beyond what income they can generate in the short-term, to keep the machine running - which the cultural shift that Man United need is totally outside the scope of.

Coupled with the fact that they're not really football people, any romance and sense of achievement that comes from winning a title is secondary to whether they can make some cash off it.

I reckon if someone told them that winning the title would bring them more revenue than any of Woodward's marketing activities, then they'd be bang up for it.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Red Cafe has a thread on Poch and fuck me, a lot of their fans have some very, very warped views on him.

Apparently:

- He plays unexciting football akin to early Mourinho at Chelsea. "Workmanlike and boring".
- His ability to work on a budget is overrated as he did actually buy lots of players (they conveniently ignore his tiny net spend until his final window).
- He lacks the character to really win over their squad and wouldn't work at a club the size of Utd.
- Doesn't know how to break down deep teams as 'no teams sit deep against Spurs'. (does this guy think Utd are the only team that exists in the world? Teams sat deep against us and parked the bus about 70% of the time under the Poch era)

Fucking mental. It's like opposite-world over there. I bet half of them think none of their failure is Ole's fault either and only Woodward and the Glazers are to blame. Incredible how utterly wrong you can be about so many things.

A lot of them want Nagelsmann and some mentioned the Atalanta manager. Frankly the whole thing reeks of recency bias as all they can remember is the final year of Poch when things went a bit shit and our football wasn't very pretty. They've managed to completely overlook the incredible work he did prior to that on a shoestring budget and the scintillating footall we played for long periods.

They honestly don't deserve him.

A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino

The truth is football moves so fast nowadays and is even more cyclical than it used to be. You just won’t get a team dominating for 10-15 years like we did before because of the nature of how cut throat the game has become. A run of defeats in one season gets a manager sacked now. Not a single...

www.redcafe.net

I found this bit interesting:

Problem is, I think Poch is a bit too good to ever be as bad as the likes of Ole, Moyes and Van Gaal and not enough of a twat to sabotage the club like Mourinho.

I find it so fucking hilarious that they seem to think the situation under Mourinho turned sour because of Mourinho and not the board. That tells you most of their fans don't have two brain cells to rub together and anything they say will be complete bullshit.

 

[rez9000]

I found this bit interesting:



I find it so fucking hilarious that they seem to think the situation under Mourinho turned sour because of Mourinho and not the board. That tells you most of their fans don't have two brain cells to rub together and anything they say will be complete bullshit.

Lack of perspective, I think. We find it easy to proffer a diagnosis as to what's wrong at Man U, but their lack of objectivity (understandable, of course) doesn't allow for that.

It's such a ridiculous thing to say - and as time goes on it appears more and more likely that, in fact, Mourinho overachieved at Man U - but sometimes it's hard to look at one's football club objectively. That's why I still have a bit of respect for Gary Neville, because he said it on Sunday when Sky cut to his post-game post-mortem. He specifically mentioned that it looks more and more that Mourinho was in the right all along.

 

[Timberwolf]

To be fair the last 12-18 months of Poch was pretty much how they describe.

You are looking at peak Poch to disprove their views. The back end of Pochs reign was boring, turgid and uninspiring.

Thing is they're acting as if he's always played ugly football when in reality we played some glorious stuff for 3 years and I doubt any fans on here would consider Poch a negative manager or one synonymous with a boring, turgid style of play.

I completely agree that Poch lost his way, and I think he definitely shares a fair chunk of the blame for that, but I think an awful lot of it was due to a lack of squad investment and general entropy/malaise as the natural cycle of the squad came to an end.

To judge Poch on those last 12-18 months is akin to judging Mourinho solely on his latter seasons at clubs - it really doesn't paint the whole picture.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Lack of perspective, I think. We find it easy to proffer a diagnosis as to what's wrong at Man U, but they're lack of objectivity (understandable, of course) doesn't allow for that.

It's such a ridiculous thing to say - and as time goes on it appears more and more likely that, in fact, Mourinho overachieved at Man U - but sometimes it's hard to look at one's football club objectively. That's why I still have a bit of respect for Gary Neville, because he said it on Sunday when Sky cut to his post-game post-mortem. He specifically mentioned that it looks more and more that Mourinho was in the right all along.

I have never liked or agreed with Gary but I will say this weekend he was bang on the money and I like the fact that he can admit when he was wrong because he was very anti-Jose when he departed and is slowly coming to his senses. I can respect that.