31 Oct 2024 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - Shappy has posted a new article entitled, Ruben Amorim and Manchester United Players
1.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 08:46:08
Oh look, Shappy’s reviewing United’s squad again. It’s a bit like Einstein’s (I think) definition of stupidity - do the same thing over and over again but expect a different result.
2.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 11:43:38
Pretty much. Horrendously run club that has somehow avoided the kind of financial ruin that would have buried nearly other club. I’m projecting a bit, but when I look at how much they spend while we’re delaying contracts to three of our greatest ever players, it just winds me up. Can’t stand them.
3.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 12:10:56
It must be so frustrating if you're a United fan watching these players prove once again their effort can be turned on and off like a tap.
The dressing room is rotten and when the going gets tough they will throw the next manager under the bus.
4.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 16:15:00
I am I the only one that thinks if they get Amorim utd will be back with a bang?
It appears utd still have a big spending budget compared to us and other teams.
The potential could be there for them to be challenging for trophies at the same time as Mr Slot has his chance to win the league next season.
5.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 16:15:39
Agree aari91 there’s to much player power, for me rashford would be the first out of the door.
6.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 16:57:57
Walter I do enjoy your posts mate.
However I would never take a betting tip off you my friend.
7.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 17:23:10
Summary : All your players are Gash. Your new manager is Garbage. Your owners are a disgrace. And your fanbase is shocking. See you at Anfield.
8.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 17:23:18
@jk23 only the bookies win I don't bet at all.
9.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 17:34:13
Too much of a basket case club for me Wally. They'll have a new manager bounce from Amorim until about Christmas and then they'll drop off again. He might cajole a good season out of them next year (as in, top 4 and a cup) before the overpaid primadonnas in the squad decide they're done working hard. I'll only believe "United are back" when I see it.
Unless INEOS back him and their DoF / Sporting Director to gut the squad in one clean sweep in the summer. But they're probably too hamstrung by PSR to take the losses doing that properly would involve.
10.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 20:10:03
What I will say is that plenty on this forum were clamouring for Amorin in the Summer.
11.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 20:43:07
maybe if the set-up at manU from ownership down to the club and academy are set up like we are, then Amorim has a good chance.
12.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 20:57:49
We got top four and a trophy last season and many said it was a great result after rebuilding the midfield?
13.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 20:59:58
Irish - I think Amorim's a very good coach and I'd have been happy if we'd got him.
Man U don't a coach, though. They need a priest to perform an excorcism.
14.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 21:10:09
@TIR, Amorim may very well be an excellent coach but there have been a number of coaches / managers who have managed them since Red Nose retired (obviously there have been exceptions like Ole) who have failed. The main problem isn’t the coach of the day. The core of the club is rotten. The culture, from an outsiders perspective, is, at best ‘me, me, me’.
The ground is a striking symbol - hasn’t been updated in an age and is crumbling away. The owners saw (maybe still see it) as a money making venture - which will probably be realised when they think it’s sale value has maxed out. The thing that makes them different from other mega clubs is that there is very, very little evidence of investment in infrastructure or anything else except approval for overpriced signing of cosmetic players who are either over the hill or the latest ‘next Messi, Ronaldo, Giggs’.
They don’t know how to run a football club and they haven’t got the capability apparently to find advisors who could help them. The onboarding of Ineos to run the operations side of the club may well have been prompted, in my opinion, largely by Ratcliffe waving the biggest wedge of moolah about . I think I saw that Sir Jim and Sir Dave reckon it’s an even longer plan that Chelsea’s 2030 epic, so that should be interesting to watch. It will also be interesting to see, if the Glazers reckon the time is right to sell their majority share, who they sell it to. If it isn’t to Ineos it could well be the time to draw up a chair get the beers and popcorn and watch the soap opera.
In the shorty term it seems Amorim has (allegedly) started on his list of deadwood to get rid of. The thing is nobody is going to pay much to actually buy the players and that means they are practically stuffed in trying to replace them without either break financial rules or else running a fleet of buses to get the squad to training (like our friends down the Kings Road) .
Anyway, apart from a good run in the FA Cup / League Cup I don’t see much changing at Old (should it be changed to Decrepit - or perhaps the pit) Trafford.
15.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 21:57:57
I’m not interested in Utd whatsoever.
16.) 31 Oct 2024
31 Oct 2024 23:09:32
I don’t care about utd but shappy only talking about his own team.
17.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 06:56:44
Who cares about the Salford mob. They’re nothing but an institution, a number on the stock exchange - Manchester United PLC.
18.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 07:54:01
He is a very good coach and surely he will do a lot better with the press, the players and the fans than ten hag did, which is already pretty significant in itself. He speaks well and seems to communicate well.
The problem is that tactically he’s so wedded to three at the back and has played that way throughout his time that he probably won’t be changing anytime soon, and besides de ligt, who wasn’t exactly great playing three at the back in Bayern, nobody at United really seems up to the job at playing that way. You have yoro coming back from injury who could be an absolute superstar for them given his athletic attributes but it’s too early to tell what he can achieve given there as so many unknown factors and contingencies. Then you have the question of whether Dalot and mazraoui can cut it as flying wingbacks-wingers providing the width and attacking drive in Amorim’s system while also doing a lot of defending in transition. Then you have amorim’s high line and press which united’s squad of mobility-challenged misfits will struggle with. The one advantage they have is that Onana is probably the right sort of keeper they need to play the way he wants.
It seems to me that he’s an excellent coach and he has managed to get instant results before in the Portuguese league at braga and at sporting, but with PSR, no preseason, having to make up a large point deficit already chasing the European spots, lots of players on long contracts and big wages that don’t fit, it might be a huge ask for him to get decent results. Clearly we chose slot over him because slot is pragmatic and has managed to implement a style that isn’t a million miles away from what Juergen already built (interestingly Maresca also is making small but clearly discernible changes from the plan that was beginning to bring Chelsea success last year) . With Amorim it seems like he’ll have to make sweeping changes across the board.
19.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 08:29:29
@PB, agree with most of what you say but it’s perhaps worth a footnote that Maresca had / has a first team squad of nearly 60 players. United’s resources are a bit less and a few of them are getting on a bit.
20.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 10:26:41
They'll win nothing, I think that much is almost guaranteed. The players are a bunch of divvies. You could put Guardiola or Klopp there, they'd still win nothing with that lot.
I find it brilliant, it's good to see just how messed up they are. From top to bottom they are a real mess. It's going to take a hell of a lot more then a new manager to get them back to winning ways - new squad is needed.
21.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 10:44:10
I've been reading the usual refrain of "well, he's coming from a lower league" (Klopp came to us from a supposed lower league, right? ) and "he's not capable" (I think there was nothing wrong with Moyes, Solskjaer or Ten Haag) . All came with a decent or better record. So I'd advise some prudence in writing Amorim off.
My opinion is that ManU's issues or problems are mostly off-field and structural within the club. If that's not set right, I don't see the club ever rising to it's previous position. I have no idea what those internal problems may be, I have no access to internal workings like most people. But all I know is that FSG's "hands off" approach to dealing with its subsidiary (LFC) may have been partially responsible for Klopp's leadership and subsequent success. If Amorim is able to rise to that kind of status within the their club, I wouldn't be surprised to see considerable success follow.
22.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 10:58:44
People are being far too disparaging of what could easily become a massive rival for us again in the league at some point in the near future.
I appreciate Utd have mainly been a joke under ten hag and glazers. But they have football people running the football side now, a very good sporting director in Ashworth and have now hired one of the most exciting young coaches in Europe.
To say they’ll win nothing Salah is daft, Ten Hag despite being rubbish still managed to land 2 trophies in his 2 seasons.
All I’m saying is let’s hope the joke continues, but don’t as far as to completely write them off because you’ll only look like a dick if they do re-emerge.
23.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 11:19:38
I Agree, Can never write them off even when they or us are crap still our biggest rivals.
24.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 12:16:21
Daft or not Shaq, I stand by it mate. I don't think it'll make me look like a duck if they go ahead and win something that just makes me simply wrong (which is often :) lol but I stand by what I said whether I look like a duck or not, when you watch that team it's kind of obvious it's full of fools with no passion to win anything. I honestly don't see a new manager changing that, I believe they're overpaid and don't care about the team or the game at all.
25.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 12:53:21
Spot on Shaq
While United are still playing catch up with well-run clubs like Liverpool and City after years of neglect, the new professional management structure and new coach will ignite some fire into them and they’ll be challenging again in a few years. Clear structures and tactics will be a world away from the previous chaos.
Plus, their youth players are dominating their leagues and Amorim will use the best ones as soon as he can.
26.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 13:23:36
These awful United players are as transient as Liverpool's good ones.
27.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 21:03:54
Serious question, if you had raw choice to bring in 3 of the current United first team squad, who would you choose.
When the question popped into my head I thought Mainoo and then couldn’t think of anybody else.
@Shaq, @Wallace, I think your point about the coach and, perhaps, the DoF is fair enough and they are probably better or at least as good as anything they’ve had in the last decade but it’s going to take at least three windows (and 2 of those will be January windows when top notch players tend not to move) and it also means shipping out the dead wood which won’t bring in a lot of money. On a basic level they seem to be in a situation where they will need to spend an awful lot more than they will recoup. So from a sporting perspective it is reasonable to suggest that they may have ambitions but that economically they may be thwarted.
All that said, their issue is still primarily off field with the owners and recent junior partners not having the clubs interest at heart (former) to know how of how to run a football club (latter) .
Anyway, enough from me. I’m just amused that they are in such a mess.
28.) 01 Nov 2024
01 Nov 2024 21:42:24
Scoring 5 and more importantly conceding 2 to a second string team who’s first string is relegation threatened side that has two eyes quite correctly on a six pointer game this weekend is hardly the taps hot water gushing out?!
I’m thinking even ten Hag would have got that result but glad for Man U fans to be otherwise deceived into thinking different.
29.) 02 Nov 2024
02 Nov 2024 09:41:28
Mainoo and Fernandes but I'm struggling for a third.