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Let's all laugh at Man Utd: Amrabad

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
I think what they did with Rangnick was just pure arrogance and a waste of everybody's time, they should have made the most of that period and listened to him but their problem.

Bang on. I know there are a lot of detractors of him on here, and admittedly he himself isn't that great of a coach - arguably down to his character - but exactly that character and his deep knowledge of football made him such a great appointment longterm. The guy built and established the whole RB franchise, they churn out players and managers at Liefering, New York, Salzburg and Leipzig on the trot. Before that he turned a ****ing village club into a Bundesliga mainstay in Hoffenheim - they even ended up in the CL once iirc. His and Helmut Groß school of football has influenced endless managers, even if they don't hail from the RB school.

His rant about how **** that club is was absolutely spot on in hindsight. I'm also pretty sure it wasn't just Utd who let him go, but that it was very mutual. Apparently he even told Sasa Kalajdzic to not go there at any cost. I rate Ten Hag but his statements about him not needing Rangnick seem like arrogant bullshit in context of their ridiculous recruitment this summer.

Right before and for some time during the Ole era their squad looked very close to competing with a bit of binning and proper signings. Now it just looks bleak. Their only CF is a 37 year old Ronaldo who wants to leave and is way beyond it, Sancho seemingly can't cope with the pressure and physicality, Rashford is a worse Walcott, their CM is beyond diabolical, no quality fullbacks, Maguire as their marquee CB and a GK who can't kick a ball. In Rangick they had the right guy to get them on track but they ****ed it up.
 

UnitedBeard

An annoying Manc
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You'll know the truth once I give an interview in a few weeks. Media only says lies. I have a notebook and in the last few months of the 100 news that they did only 5 are right, imagine how it is. Take the hint.

Hugs everyone 👍. I came here real quick. Haven't been here in some time.
I’m 100% sure he posted this after reading @drippin post. :lol:
 

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
United are still going to be trying to roll Fergie out on the sidelines 20 years from now Weekend at Bernie's style. They're so lost that it's hard to imagine a turn around any time soon but maybe they will admit it sooner than later.

Imo this looming presence of SAF at Utd is doing massive damage to them. They've got him on their board or something, he's in the stadium all the time, he gets a say on managers and all the time they run to him for advice. Sure, he's one of the best of all time and a club legend, but you need to cut ties. The man's retired but somehow still running the club sorts.
 

DJ_Markstar

Based and Artetapilled

Player:Martinelli
They legit remind me of Arsenal of 2/3 years ago. Just battered, burdened by the expectations that come with the badge and riddled with PTSD.

McTominay, Fred, Xhaka, Martial, Lacazette, Shaw, Kolasinac - it's literally the same dons honestly. Everybody involved just needs a fresh start elsewhere.

@BergMan

:popcorn:
 

DJ_Markstar

Based and Artetapilled

Player:Martinelli
Did you see the salaries I posted some pages back? Purging that makes Edu's job look like child play! That is the job of a proper magician. **** me will that be some heavy lifting purging that squad!

I was watching a video where one of the fans was asked what signings would make them compete again, he thought replacing Dalot with Lamptey, Ronaldo with Abraham and Fernandes with Valverde was the answer :lol: He also kept Eriksen at CM and Martinez at CB :lol::lol:

Tbf what do you do, they're so poor that imo you can only keep 2-3 of the younger ones with the most promise and bin literally everyone else over 3-4 seasons. I'd keep the likes of Sancho simply because there's still potential there.
 

boonthegoon

Arteta In by November

Country: USA

Player:Smith-Rowe
26vq65dk25i91.jpg


You'll know the truth once I give an interview in a few weeks. Media only says lies. I have a notebook and in the last few months of the 100 news that they did only 5 are right, imagine how it is. Take the hint.

Hugs everyone 👍. I came here real quick. Haven't been here in some time.
If he stays he'll come out and say despite getting multiple offers, he decides to stay because he loves the club.

Most utd fans will buy that as well and still keep going siuuuu
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England

Manchester United fallout: Running, strained relations and Ten Hag changing mind on Ronaldo​


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By Adam Crafton and more
Aug 15, 2022

On Wednesday morning, Manchester United’s players reported for training and began work on a tactical plan devised by manager Erik ten Hag for the weekend trip to Brentford. Ten Hag’s first fixture in charge, a 2-1 home defeat by Brighton the previous Sunday, had constituted a major setback and he informed his players of two substantial tweaks to his line-up.

The first was to restore ageing superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to the starting line-up after only being on the bench against Brighton, which in turn facilitated the second alteration, which would see new signing Christian Eriksen end his brief, befuddling spell as a false nine and instead operate far deeper as a defensive midfielder.

As such, two positions were tweaked but only one player dropped out of the side beaten at Old Trafford — midfielder Scott McTominay.


Though the tactical plan was laid out on Wednesday, only 10 positions in the line-up were clear to the players at that stage. It was not until the following day that Ten Hag settled on club captain Harry Maguire, rather than 2018 World Cup winner Raphael Varane, as the partner for Lisandro Martinez, another newcomer.

In short, United worked for three full days on how they would overcome one of the few sides in the Premier League they defeated both home and away last season.

It was all pretty extraordinary, therefore, that United ended up 4-0 down inside 35 minutes in a performance their underperforming goalkeeper David de Gea later described as “horrible” and “unacceptable”.

The 45-cap Spain international, who has been at the club for 11 years, insisted on speaking afterwards both to broadcasters and the written media to issue a flurry of apologies. He declared himself culpable for Brentford’s first two goals.

De Gea has again apologised for United’s display (Photo: Getty Images)


Ten Hag believes De Gea can play out from the back despite his errors (Photo: Getty Images)

Ten Hag, however, viewed Saturday’s humiliation as a collective affront. He said the United performance offered confirmation of his conclusion last week that he had “a hell of a job” on his hands following a summer switch from serial Dutch champions Ajax.

He admitted in a post-match press conference: “Brentford were more hungry for one, and two, we conceded goals with individual mistakes. You can have a good plan but then you put the plan in the bin.”

He had previously told one international broadcaster his team’s performance had been “rubbish”.

The aftershocks began there in west London on Saturday night and culminated in an aborted day off for the players, a fresh frenzy around Ronaldo’s future, renewed question marks about dressing-room unity, and even more pressure on the club going into the final two weeks of the summer transfer market.



Ten Hag made his feelings known to the players, at half-time and then again at full-time, before informing them that yesterday’s scheduled day off was cancelled.

Instead, the squad, who arrived back home in the Manchester area around 11pm after the trip up from London, were ordered to report to the club’s Carrington training base for 9am Sunday, where Ten Hag’s retribution continued.



The coaching team were embarrassed by statistics that showed United’s players ran a total distance of 95.6km in the match, compared to Brentford’s 109.4km. As such, Ten Hag’s staff set up a session — solely a running session — that required each player, even those who did not start on Saturday, to run near enough the difference of 13.8km between the two teams’ combined distances during this additional training session.

Although many supporters disgruntled by the application of their players may cheer on this hard-line approach, one sports scientist with experience working at rival Premier League clubs described it as old-school and said it is unusual to put players through so rigorous a workout the morning after a late afternoon fixture.

United sources insist their medical and sports science staff would not approve any workout that carried a high risk of injuries, and it is understood a couple of players, owing to the way injuries are managed, were excused.

United’s players had turned out in baking-hot temperatures exceeding 34°C for the game kicking off at 5:30pm on Saturday and yesterday was another warm day in Manchester, although only in the mid-20s in the morning.

Ten Hag clearly wanted to make an emphatic point to his players that there is a way to lose in United colours and he will not tolerate his players being outworked by modest opponents such as Brentford, who finished 13th last season in their first year ever as a Premier League club.

Sources close to the new United manager say his determination has only been enhanced by these early setbacks and that he will challenge the players to improve. Ten Hag also made his feelings clear to his players during several meetings at Carrington following the running session.

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Ten Hag ordered his players to undergo a running session after defeat by Brentford (Photo: Getty Images)

Though the mood on Sunday was sombre, multiple sources who represent United players said they had been impressed by the manager’s discipline, attention to detail and methodology since he arrived at the club. The reality, however, is these traits have not translated into performances.

The Athletic asked Brentford head coach Thomas Frank how he instils this elusive hunger in his team.

He said: “We spoke about it before the game but you can’t just say, ‘Oh, can you do it?’. It’s a long strategy and communication. In general, my teams run a lot. We enforce the message that we need to do it. It is also about passing, but if you run more than the opponent, you have a very good chance to win.”

For Ten Hag, the rubble of Saturday’s devastation required further unpacking and he sat down with his inner circle of assistants to ruminate on the best way forward.

Foremost among Ten Hag’s current concerns is the situation around Ronaldo, who missed United’s pre-season tour to Thailand and Australia due to a “family issue”.

Reports emerged to say the 37-year-old forward wished to leave a club he only rejoined last summer after 12 years playing in Spain and Italy due to fears United are unable to meet his ambitions outside of the Champions League — they will play in the Europa League this season after finishing sixth in May — and the sluggish pace of their work in the summer transfer market.

Ronaldo, however, is yet to receive a serious proposal from a Champions League-qualified club, despite attempts by his representatives to seduce Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Napoli, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.

Ten Hag, meanwhile, initially wanted United to dig in and keep one of the game’s greatest ever players on their books. He took the view that even at such an age, Ronaldo remains a world-class goalscorer they could not afford to lose — he led United with 24 all-competitions goals last season, 14 clear of their next most prolific player.

Ten Hag preferred to devote the bulk of his transfer kitty to reinforcing their defence with the £47million ($57m) signing of Martinez from previous employers Ajax and the £14.4million signing of full-back Tyrell Malacia from Dutch rivals Feyenoord. The club also still have an agreement worth up to £71.9million in place with Barcelona for their Netherlands international ex-Ajax midfielder Frenkie de Jong, if they can persuade the player to reunite with Ten Hag in England.

Yet since returning from United’s tour, which saw good performances and a strong unity develop among the travelling group, Ronaldo’s reintegration into the squad has proven challenging.

The Athletic has been told of days when he eats lunch alone in the canteen at Carrington, and he has been seen flapping his arms about in training and attempting to argue against the high-pressing approach favoured by the new manager. The club and Ronaldo’s representatives were approached for comment.

Several sources close to United, who wished not to be named to protect their business relationships, argued that Ronaldo has been afforded greater leeway than his peers and indulged beyond the contribution he is providing to the club.

United are still to receive any formal interest for Ronaldo but it is now thought Ten Hag would be open to allowing the 189-cap Portugal captain to leave — as long as United recruit in the forward position, where they are painfully short of options.

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Ten Hag is open to Ronaldo leaving if United can sign a replacement (Photo: Getty Images)
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Ronaldo had further exasperated coaches and supporters when he did not acknowledge United’s travelling fans after the full-time whistle, despite assistant coach Steve McClaren appearing to urge him over to them.

It should be said that Ronaldo did participate in the running drills yesterday morning.

It is not only Ronaldo who has raised eyebrows, with sources close to other players surprised to see reports that Dwaine Rashford, the brother and agent of United forward Marcus Rashford, had met serial French champions Paris Saint-Germain for talks in recent weeks. Rashford’s contract at Old Trafford runs out at the end of this season, although United have an option to extend it a further year.

One ray of light, however, is that striker Anthony Martial, who has missed the opening two matches of the season with a hamstring injury, is now back training with the first team.

As United continue to scour the market for options up front, Atletico Madrid’s Spain international Alvaro Morata, 29, has been presented as an option. They are also considering a move for Jamie Vardy, but Leicester are reluctant to let the 36-year-old former England striker go. United have been linked with Espanyol’s Raul de Tomas, who has scored 45 goals in 89 appearances for the Barcelona club.

Ten Hag’s problems, of course, stretch far beyond Ronaldo’s future, and attention on Saturday turned towards his tactical setup for Brentford, which, as stated earlier, had been three days in the making on the training fields at Carrington.

The most notable individual criticism was directed towards his former Ajax centre-back Martinez, whose 5ft 9in (175cm) height came under scrutiny. Martinez was substituted, along with left-back Luke Shaw and midfielder Fred, at half-time with United already four goals down.

The Argentinian was the one central defender Ten Hag had been sure would start on Wednesday, with Varane and Maguire vying to partner him. By the time the second half began against Brentford, it was Maguire and Varane alongside one another. Ten Hag said he would have had cause to substitute any of his 11 starting players had the option been available.

Brentford goalkeeper David Raya said his team had planned to target a long ball to their powerful striker Ivan Toney, who went up against Martinez.

Raya said: “That was the game plan today — kicking it long, to utilise Ivan’s strengths in the air. We used it the whole game and it paid off.”

Toney himself added: “My qualities in the air is something we worked on. I’m obviously up against a smaller centre-back. It was a good game plan.

“I was just trying to put my body about and get the better of him. To be fair to him, he was doing well. He was very aggressive for a centre-back. Sometimes he gets beat in the air but he was aggressive on the floor. I felt like it was 50-50. Like you said, it’s a compliment to me, him getting subbed off at half-time, whether it was because of me or if it was the style of play they wanted to go for.”

Martinez was a specific target of Ten Hag in this summer’s window, having played the previous three seasons for the Dutch coach at Ajax.

Interestingly, The Athletic has learned United’s scouting network watched numerous Ajax games in recent seasons and despite Martinez often featuring, he was not a player flagged as worthy of closer examination for Ten Hag’s predecessors Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.

Some scouts were said to be concerned Martinez was a player who could become trapped at set pieces.

One defender the recruitment team did admire, along with Solskjaer, is Spanish side Villarreal’s Pau Torres.

None of this is to say United have definitely erred in signing Martinez, and club sources also insist that once Ten Hag made clear he wanted the 24-year-old South American, a consensus developed on the decision before it was signed off.

Time will tell whether Ten Hag’s judgment is correct.



Similarly, although Malacia impressed for United during pre-season, The Athletic has also heard he was a player Wales specifically sought to target in their game plan — due to his 5ft 7in height and their estimation of his abilities — during two Nations League fixtures against the Netherlands in June.

Brentford also appeared to quickly close down Eriksen, who played for them in the second half of last season as he made his comeback after suffering a cardiac arrest playing for Denmark at the European Championship 14 months ago. Eriksen was pounced upon by the Brentford press ahead of their second goal, and central defender Ben Mee said they targeted United’s attempts to play out from the back.

“Man for man, closing them down,” Mee said of Brentford’s approach. “We knew they would be a bit unsure from the weekend (against Brighton) and maybe lack confidence. With the determination, pace and power we’ve got up front, pressing them, getting in their faces, they didn’t enjoy it all. We made the most of it. When we got those opportunities we scored a couple of goals from it.”

While Ten Hag is applying the stick, there is also a need to imbue this grossly underwhelming team with confidence via a bit of carrot, too.

United conceded four goals in the space of 25 minutes on Saturday and have now lost seven consecutive Premier League away matches stretching back to last season — their worst run since the 1930s. They have not won after going 1-0 down since Michael Carrick was in caretaker charge for a 3-2 victory over Arsenal in early December.

De Gea said: “When something goes wrong, people get panicky. It’s difficult. There is no pressure in pre-season, you play for nothing. Then you play Premier League games, everything is different, teams put everything on the pitch. The teams are good, it’s not easy.”

It reinforces the perception, suggested to The Athletic by multiple sources close to the players, that the atmosphere in the United dressing room lacks both the harmony and accountability of teams such as Liverpool and Manchester City.

Relations between goalkeeper De Gea and centre-back Maguire have appeared strained to some observers, although other training ground sources insist the pair do get along reasonably well during training. There are also elements of the squad who expected Ten Hag to change captain this summer after Maguire’s authority in the dressing room was felt to diminish amid his poor form last season.

de gea maguire


Maguire and De Gea are struggling for form (Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
There is also a feeling United are psychologically scarred by their collective experiences as a team.

Rangnick’s decision to appoint sports psychologist Sascha Lense was immediate when he took interim charge for the rest of last season after Solskjaer was sacked in November but United’s ordeal only intensified and Lense has since departed.

For Ten Hag, therefore, the challenge is evident.

One source close to the new United manager said he is attempting to “build an aeroplane as he flies.”

More turbulence is on the way — the next game is home against arch-rivals Liverpool a week today.

United are still attempting to recruit De Jong and working on adding competition for De Gea and much-needed reinforcements up front.

One player highly unlikely to join this summer is Declan Rice. The England midfielder has been repeatedly scouted but West Ham are not prepared to do business this year for an asking price considered reasonable either to United or any other suitor at this stage.

Ten Hag’s preferred focus in midfield has always been De Jong but Rice may yet return to the agenda next summer.

Now bottom of the Premier League table, Ten Hag may glance across the city at his former Bayern colleague and mentor Pep Guardiola with a sense of envy.

Guardiola’s Manchester City team are top of the league, having scored six goals and conceded none to begin their bid to win a third straight Premier League title and fifth in six years under him. His Sunday, fresh from a 4-0 Saturday stroll past promoted Bournemouth, was so relaxed he could afford to spend his lunchtime in the city’s Catalan restaurant Tast, in which he is an investor.

For Ten Hag, such serenity must feel a lifetime away.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England

Arsenal made many of Manchester United’s mistakes. This is how they fixed them​


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By James McNicholas
Aug 16, 2022

The primary sensation for any Arsenal fans watching Manchester United’s 4-0 defeat at Brentford would have been one of schadenfreude. Supporters still carry the scars of the intense rivalry of the 1990s and early 2000s and there are few teams they enjoy seeing suffer more.

But there will have been another feeling accompanying that delight: relief. Relief it is now United, rather than Arsenal, who are currently the butt of the Premier League’s jokes.

Watching United at the Gtech Community Stadium, there would have been some familiar sights for Arsenal fans: overpaid yet under-performing players; a muddled squad-building strategy; a disgruntled fanbase; a goalkeeper incapable of playing the passing game the coach demands. Not so long ago, this was Arsenal.

Arsenal have been where United are now. The parallels are clear: the success may have faded, but the stories of these two clubs still appear somewhat intertwined.

It’s important to state that Arsenal are still not where they want to be. They have, as Mikel Arteta has regularly stated, achieved “nothing yet”. But it does appear that thanks to a clear, coherent strategy, and backing their manager to the hilt — not just in terms of finances, but with regards to his authority — Arsenal are a couple of rungs higher up the ladder of recovery. United are stumbling through a dark alleyway; Arsenal have at least turned the corner.



So what can United learn from Arsenal’s hard reset? The most obvious thing is the importance of establishing (and enforcing) a cultural shift. Arteta and Steve Round (who was assistant under David Moyes at Old Trafford during the 2013-14 season), were almost obsessed upon arrival with rebooting the London Colney culture. They arrived into a club that felt broken.

“The first thing was that I got everyone together, the staff and the players, and I told them what I thought about them and why this wasn’t working,” Arteta says. “If we were going to continue like this, it was never going to work.

“We had to create the right culture for our club and it has to be an environment that first of all everybody has to respect each other, that we have to work together and we have to express the passion and how we lucky we are to be where we are … Without that unity, we cannot drive this massive ship that we have to manage with Arsenal, and the expectations that are involved with the club.”

Those changes have not been easy. There have been some expensive casualties of Arteta’s infamous “non-negotiables” along the way — Mesut Özil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang perhaps most notably. It has required the club’s technical director (Edu Gaspar), board and ownership to back Arteta every time, sometimes in cases that incur significant financial costs and plenty of unflattering headlines. That was the only way to ensure the dressing room was run by the manager, and not by the players.

If United want Erik ten Hag to be that figurehead, then they cannot waver in their support — and if the presence of any individual player threatens that authority, then they may have to go. The cost of terminating Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract might appear prohibitive, but it may be the only way to extricate themselves from an increasingly problematic situation.

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Getting rid of Ronaldo could be a short-term cost for a long-term gain (Getty Images)

One of the big shifts for Arsenal came with the adoption of a clear policy around squad building. In 2021, Arsenal made five summer signings, all aged 23 or younger. The intention was to rejuvenate the squad, build for the future, and create value among their playing staff. It was expensive — no Premier League club spent more on transfer fees — but it was an investment.

What’s more, they used the opportunity to create a more balanced wage bill. Arsenal were mocked for spending £50million ($60.4m) on Ben White when United signed Raphael Varane for £34m. Over the course of their contracts, however, White will be considerably cheaper — and retain greater residual value.

The signings of Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez and Christian Eriksen offer United a mix of promising younger players alongside an experienced veteran. It calls to mind some of the business Arsenal did in 2018, when Sven Mislintat recruited favourites from his former club Borussia Dortmund, as well as a number of youthful prospects. It felt more scattergun than strategic.

The case of Martinez is particularly interesting. Arsenal followed him closely and bid to sign him this summer. Their intention, however, was to field him as a left-back. They had concerns over whether a relatively small player could thrive in the middle of a Premier League defence. On the early evidence, their misgivings might have been well-founded.

At Brentford, Eriksen played at the base of the midfield. He was often the first pass out for the central defenders, but struggled to cope with the Brentford press. Arsenal have experienced similar issues with Granit Xhaka, but have since repurposed him as a more advanced midfielder. When something doesn’t work, it’s paramount you learn from it. Ten Hag needs to react quickly to buy more time.

As Ten Hag’s team evolves, it will be interesting to see how the role of the goalkeeper changes. At Brentford, David de Gea was asked to play out from the back — an area where he rarely looks comfortable. Although regarded as an excellent shot-stopper, he is a relatively passive goalkeeper and not a strong passer.

Arsenal experienced that with Petr Cech, and to a lesser extent with Bernd Leno. That’s why the club backed Arteta in his desire to add Aaron Ramsdale. He is still a young goalkeeper with room for improvement, but crucially he fits Arteta’s system and style of play. That is another area where Arsenal have benefited: the manager has a clear vision of how he wants his team to set up, and subsequently it is easier for the technical director and wider recruitment team to identify appropriate signings.


One of Arteta’s most repeated words is “unity”. United, at the moment, feel like a fractured club. We are seeing clips of supporter unrest and occasional infighting. It’s all very familiar to Arsenal fans — the frustration, the fan cams, the feeling of being embattled by the media.

Things can change quickly. It was only a year ago that Arsenal were subject to a 2-0 humbling of their own at Brentford — after which Gary Neville’s post-match demeanour on Sky was altogether different to what it was on Saturday. A strong finish to the transfer window, signing Martin Ødegaard, Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu, improved Arsenal’s fortunes substantially. United can turn this around. It is too early in the season, too early in Ten Hag’s reign to guess even how this season might finish.

But the difference in the mood around the two clubs right now is clear. Arsenal are not above making the mistakes that are currently ailing United. They have made many of them before. The difference appears to be the speed at which they have learned from them.
 

TornadoTed

Established Member
Did you see the salaries I posted some pages back? Purging that makes Edu's job look like child play! That is the job of a proper magician. **** me will that be some heavy lifting purging that squad!
This is what I was thinking. It's a whole different level to what we have done. If we are having difficulty shifting the likes of Mari on £85k and Torreira on £70k how are they going to get rid of players like,

Ronaldo on £515k
de Gea on £375k
Varane £340k
Martial on £250k
Rashford on £200k
Maguire £190k
Shaw on £150k
Fred, Lindelof and van de Beek on £120k

Even if by some miracle they could get those players to leave for free without massive pay offs which is unlikely I can't see the Glazers sanctioning letting £300m worth of players (Transfermarkt values) go for nothing. I wouldn't be surprised if just purging that squad would cost in the region of £500m alone and that is before you start building a new squad.

The more I think about it, the more ****ed Man United are. When you consider the poor state of the stadium, training facilities and the infrastructure you could probably need to sink £2bn into United to get them to Man City levels.
 

CaseUteinberger

Established Member

Country: Sweden
This is what I was thinking. It's a whole different level to what we have done. If we are having difficulty shifting the likes of Mari on £85k and Torreira on £70k how are they going to get rid of players like,

Ronaldo on £515k
de Gea on £375k
Varane £340k
Martial on £250k
Rashford on £200k
Maguire £190k
Shaw on £150k
Fred, Lindelof and van de Beek on £120k

Even if by some miracle they could get those players to leave for free without massive pay offs which is unlikely I can't see the Glazers sanctioning letting £300m worth of players (Transfermarkt values) go for nothing. I wouldn't be surprised if just purging that squad would cost in the region of £500m alone and that is before you start building a new squad.

The more I think about it, the more ****ed Man United are. When you consider the poor state of the stadium, training facilities and the infrastructure you could probably need to sink £2bn into United to get them to Man City levels.
100%

I so hope they are in as deep **** as it seems! Would love to see them suffer decades of decline and mediocrity. I started watching English football in the 70s and 80s through the Swedish state TV and during that time it was Liverpool that ruled. ManU were a total non-factor. Not even sure they were in the top division that whole time. Anyhow, to me they are a small club! Back where they belong! :drool:
 

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