It’s sad to see them in this state though.

Have a word with yourself yossers. It’s **** hilarious. 😀

Fergie papered over the cracks for a while, but once he’d gone it’s just been steady, rudderless decline on the pitch

But you’ve still had plenty of decent money thrown at the team since Fergie left. Moyes wasn’t exactly picking from bargain basements, neither was Jose…. They both just spent really poorly. So whilst the owners are as you say, money grabbing &%$^^%$ they’ve still put money in the pot.. It’s just been used really badly.

Fellaini
Mata
Herrera
Shaw
Falcao
Rojo
di Maria
Blind
Depay
Darmian
Schweinsteiger
Schneiderlin
Martial
Bailley
Zlatan
Mykhitarian
pogba
Lindelof
Lukaku
Matic
Sanchez

I’m sure the list continues after that, but DAMN that’s a chunk of players and a chunk of money. So you can’t completely blame the owners… Just look at how many of them are first teamers now… how many are still there and how many have been shipped out. The problem is the manager/managers i’m afraid. You’ve not found the right one yet…

I for one am a LONG way from being convinced your current manager is going to give you anything more than what you have about now. There comes a time i agree for young managers to prove themselves, but he wasn’t it, isn’t it and will never be it…

It’s an interesting question. Fergie was struggling to maintain the quality towards the end of his run. Bringing players back out of retirement to plug the gaps doesn’t speak well for the succession planning. That part seems like a direct consequence of the owners siphoning money out and dumping their debt in.
Since then they’ve been afflicted by short term-ism. It’s been about staying in the Champions league long enough to cover the rent (remember the rumour that if they’d lost that champions league game they’d have been bankrupt), finishing high enough in the league to keep the fans and bean counters happy. Staying in the cups long enough to maintain the reputation of the club, to maintain marketing value.
The transfer moves have been poor, badly planned (if they’d waited 3 months, they could have had Fellaini for free.) Bringing in top players when they are definitely on the downside of their career speaks to the patch over the cracks quick thinking. Throwing kids in at the deep end if they show a bit of promise at the cost of their long term development (think how slowly Everton brought Rooney on, contrast that with United’s young players)
It is really tough for a top club to maintain the level they are used to. It is damn near impossible to get back to it once they’ve been slid down the ranks, it’s too competitive, there is too much money gone to other clubs, in the meantime.
Patience, a 5 year plan (on the field, not in the marketing department) and some heavy investment by the owners – who have no experience of a sport where you have to win to be invited back and where you make and spend money outside buying and selling the teams.
Never had a lot of respect for Fergie or the ownership – who used their financial clout to force the creation of the premier league, which as been good for certain rich clubs but bad for football in general – so theres a temptation towards a bit if schadenfreude at the hoisted by their own petard bit but it is sad to see what the current players and fans are dealing with.

But you’ve still had plenty of decent money thrown at the team since Fergie left. Moyes wasn’t exactly picking from bargain basements, neither was Jose…. They both just spent really poorly

Absolutely agree with that. Fred came on in the second half last night. Unbelievably, we paid 60 million for him. Why, is anybodies guess? What does he actually do? nobody seems to know. Least of all him.

If you look at the squads at Liverpool and City (who’ve spent the same or less) you can see that certain players have been brought in because of the way they play, to fit a certain role in a certain system. There’s a definite plan. And it works.

United’s spending has been totally scattergun and unfocussed. Most of the time when we sign a player, it just raises the question why? To do what? To play how? With who?

Seems to have more to do with shirt sales than any actual ability or filling a specific role.

Getting away from United, Arsenal seem to be just as toothless and defensively shonky as us. We’re not alone in our rudderless buying. Last night looked like what it was. 2 mediocre uninspiring mid-table sides, playing out a dull draw

Can’t argue with that.

So last night Utd played the mighty AZ Alkmaar, scraped a 0-0 draw & didn’t manage a single shot on target.

Ole is starting to sound like he’s lost the team & the club.

Yes & the spurs fans are very quiet this week too. Harrumph.

I bet they’re even quieter now. Been out walking all day and just got back and seen the result. 3-0 to Brighton? Ten goals shipped in 2 games? WTF is going on there? Somethings not right there. 😳

I’m going to have a bet on Liverpool and city finishing 25+ points clear of everyone else this season.

And Leicester look like favourites for third. Then maybe West Ham for the final champions league place

3-0 to Brighton?

I said to people at work that we were going to give someone a pasting at some point as the 3 draws we’ve had we’d totally dominated but just didn’t take our chances. I didn’t think it would be Spurs that we would batter though. We really were bloody good, but Spurs were woeful. Lloris injury looked horrible but he set the tone for their display by cocking up for our first goal and injured himself as he landed. Connolly’s 2nd goal was a corker. Looking forward to MOTD tonight, but I’ll switch off when they discuss Spurs for 10 mins afterwards and not even mention how well we played.

Re Spurs … Brighton were actually really good ….

West Ham top four Binners? What have you been smoking today?!

Who’s gonna get sacked first? Silva, Ole or Poch?

Word on the inside at WH lane, there is a “domestic” issue in the dressing room.
Lfc = the new Man U!
🙂

Interesting stat re 90th minute winners in the Premier League era – Liverpool have scored 9 more such winners than any other club. Maybe surprising given the ‘Fergie time’ thing. Depends on the game context I guess.

Well they look better than Chelski, Spurs, Arsenal or United. Mind you… so do Burnley.

What’s worse than all that though, is that the scousers seem to be displaying the kind of form that wins premierships. 3 points last weekend against Sheffield, only through a goalkeeping howler, then 3 points today it they didn’t really warrant either (and before anyone has a go, that was from the lips of my scouse season-ticket holding mate).

That’s how you win titles

I can’t ****ing cope with Liverpool winning titles again. The 80’s were bad enough, as a united fan. I can’t cope with it all again

C’mon man, you’ve had 30yrs off!

I think Chelsea and Arsenal will complete the top four.

I don’t think you fully appreciate how traumatic it was? 😉

Anyway… Leicester will be in the top four. Arsenal can’t finish in the top four no matter how Kevin Keegan they get. Not with that defence

Prediction:

Liverpool
City
Leicester
Chelski

good job that isn’t Arsenal’s strongest defence then Binners .

It’s the way Arsenal play that’s the problem. Trying to be clever and playing it out from the back looks absolutely suicidal against teams like Liverpool. And there’s always a potential howler waiting to happen, like against Watford, where they passed the ball straight to Cleverley, in front of goal, who side-footed it straight back in. It’s mental! But they do it every game.

Anyway… everyone looking forward to open expansive display of fast-paced, creative attacking football that United v Newcastle promises to be? 😉

Oh… and having just watched MOTD Brighton were indeed brilliant yesterday. A well deserved win

Juventus and Milan game will be a good to watch!

I’m a united fan and know the players are good but don’t play well in a team.

I expect them to draw or lose today. It was like that in the late 80’s but they were always a good cup team until it was turned around by Ferguson.

I was so happy when Big (Racist) Ron won the FA cup. Good old Sparky.

Real Madrid and Barcelona had to adapt. Utd haven’t.

Liverpool as much as hate them, are a great team.

Var needs to be tweaked, the “clear and obvious mistake” wording really needs to be tidied up. It seams to be interpreted as “ok I can see why he gave it even though it was wrong so it will stand”, it should be either right or wrong, and if it really can’t be decided after a few viewings then let refs first decision stand.

Whereas the offside decisions are being sold as 100% accurate to within a few mm, but they showed on espn the other week, you can’t tell which frame captured closest to when the ball leaves the foot. The runner is often moving quicker then the ball at that point, and if you then have defenders stepping up, within 3 frames you can have a player a foot onside, the next frame a mm offside and the next over a foot offside without knowing which should really be the right one. This is where they actually need to go back to giving the advantage to the attacking team where it isn’t 100% clear.

Three wins in a week for Wolves!! So much for second season syndrome and Europa league fatigue. Now looking forward to watching The Toon and United, could be a great game?

Wolves played really well, defended fantastically and got the tactics just right, hard to see why they were where they were in the league from that performance. I expect to see them rise towards the upper positions. There problem long term might be keeping hold of the players, Connor Cody among others has got to be being looked at by champions league teams. I would have him at city in the next window.

City didn’t play badly, some sloppy passing in the first half, but they need another tactic now to break down teams that defend deep in numbers, either they need to give the opposition the ball a bit more so they aren’t all just camped in the box, or they need a striker who can score headed goals.

I know it sounds absurd, but i think the owners at Wolves have high hopes and big ambitions for the club longterm. The current players feel part of the project and I believe and truly hope that the likes of Coady, Boly, Neves and Jota and the rest are hoping to reach the Champions league with Wolves.

I’m now getting really, really bored with saying ‘that’s the worst United performance I’ve ever seen’ every week.

Still… Mrs Binners says she’s going to take me out for a beer with her winnings from betting on a Newcastle win

Fair play to Longstaff. He had a great game and a cracking finish. Good luck to him.

He looked absolutely made up in the post-match interview. His premiership debut, scoring the winner against United at St Janes’s, his mum and dad up in the stands and being given man of the match by his brother, all Newcastle through and through. Absolutely brilliant!

St Janes’s? Bloody auto-correct. I meant the two-trackies-for-a-tenner stadium, obviously 😉

Steve Bruce’s first win against Manchester United as a manager. Tonight was his 23rd attempt.

I. was hoping for Manchester United win, so OGS could say they have turned the corner and he gets say 5 -10 more games before the board vote of confidence . He is a dead man walking Shirley?

United are now so flailing and rudderless it’s difficult to see where we go from here

I can’t see sacking the manager or not sacking the manager making the slightest bit of difference.

The club is absolutely ****ed! This has been in the post since the Glazers took over.

Maybe it’ll take us finishing in 16th to get rid of the parasites and allow the club to get back to where it should be – concentrating on what’s going on on the pitch rather than a new washing machine partnership in Papua New Guinea

Whats the situation with the youngsters at United? I had Frank out by Christmas before the season started but it seems that putting his faith into the kids has paid off. This can only be seen as a bonus for Chelsea because I doubt that without this current transfer ban they would have been given their chance.

Matty Matty Matty Matty Matty Matty Matty Longstaff
Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Sean Longstaff
( sung to the There’s no Limits tune)
Still interested Man U …you probably can’t afford either of them now !
Great result and what a prem debut from the boy !
I saw him on his first team debut in pre-season at Hibernian and thought even in that friendly that he was a player ..and they hopefully can become our centre midfield pairing for years to come ..if fat bastard doesn’t cash in on them ..

This guy nailed it re United

I can think of nine people called Fred I’d rather see in United’s midfield and two of them are serial killers. #fred #thefootball

— Justin Moorhouse (@justinmoorhouse) October 6, 2019

Very pleased with Chelsea, we just need to tighten up the defence and we are sorted.

West Ham have never won the league but the sheer elation of avoiding relegation on the last day of the season is hard to beat.

Forget winning the champions league Man U fans , the real drama is in the relegation battle ,as you will soon find out.

Yes & the spurs fans are very quiet this week too. Harrumph.

I have nothing to say, and besides, it’s very hard to type with your head in your hands! 🤣🤣🤣

It does look like Pochettino no longer wants to be there, almost doing a Mourinho and trying to engineer an exit. I wonder if Utd or Madrid made an approach towards the end of last season or in the summer that was just dismissed by Levy.

the real drama is in the relegation battle ,as you will soon find out.

Years ago at the height of the Fergie reign I remember talking to friends who were mocking the plight of Leeds United at the time (after the downfall of the O’Leary / Ridsdale era) and I said it’ll happen to them too at some point but, although I might inwardly smile a little, I would hate to see them be relegated.

And another thing (now directly comparing to the overspending Ridsdale era Leeds United), what on earth will happen to Manchester United should they actually be relegated (or even just have a really bad season). Much of that much-needed sponsorship revenue will dry up, the prawn sandwich-eating fans will lose interest, gate receipts and tv sales will drop. And with them having the levels of debt that they have, they could implode under the burden.

*Ipswich Town fan sticks head over parapet*

😉

And another thing (now directly comparing to the overspending Ridsdale era Leeds United), what on earth will happen to Manchester United should they actually be relegated (or even just have a really bad season). Much of that much-needed sponsorship revenue will dry up, the prawn sandwich-eating fans will lose interest, gate receipts and tv sales will drop. And with them having the levels of debt that they have, they could implode under the burden.

Wouldn’t happen, MUFC are a massive worldwide brand with no shortage of people who’d get their money out, whether it would be the right people is another point though.

Look at Rangers and Juve crowds when they were relegated, Rangers consistently had over 40,000 in the 4th tier of the backwater that is scottish football….

The January transfer window is going to be mental. Any striker who’s managed to find the back of the net within the last twelve months, or any old donkey who can get through 90 minutes without putting one in their own net, is now going to have a price tag of seventy-hundred-squillion pounds. Countless clubs will be sat back awaiting the call from Ed Woodward, as they inhale the pungent aroma of desperation

We’re no doubt about to pay hundreds of millions for players that will make Fred look like Messi. I predict that January will deliver our own ‘Liverpool buying Andy Carrol’ moment. And I have to confess that I didn’t stop laughing for weeks when they did that

Wouldn’t happen, MUFC are a massive worldwide brand with no shortage of people who’d get their money out, whether it would be the right people is another point though.

Possibly not but certainly not impossible and I would hate for it to happen – despite being a lifelong Leeds fan, I am not a Manchester United hater but they do have massive debts that they could struggle to service without wholesale change should their ‘top four’ rank disappear for a prolonged period.

Shearer knows it

https://twitter.com/CentralFootie/status/1180952693692604416?s=19