23 Jul 2018 19:06:28
I know this is highly controversial, but I’d like to simply pose the question and field your opinions.
Not sure either what the correct answer is:

Is it time to part with Jose?

He is his miserable self already in pre-season. He talks about pre season being the time to motivate the players and instead he moans about everything, especially the quality of his players, hardly motivating, is it?
He is not being backed by the board apparently.
Mostly due to the fact he is looking to sign 29 year olds at the height of their value.

But this is, at least partially, due to the fact he was told it‘s last chance saloon now.
Why would he build for the future instead of looking for the immediate need if your job is on the line.
Seems like he is backed into a corner here.

Just to name a few of the issues there seem to exist:
Martial: Jose wants him gone - the board doesn’t trust his judgement
Toby and Sandro: Jose wants them in - the board feels they are too old
Ribalta: Scouts leaves die to not feeling taken serious, apparently. No clue whether by the board or Jose
Shaw: Jose wants him gone - the board still hope he turns out a shrewd signing
Style: Jose is pragmatic - Clubs heritage is different - certain players would rather fit the heritage then the current style, either back the manager and embrace his style or change now while the playing staff somehow fits the old style?

I don’t see how this can work out positively in the end, but it is a stupid moment to change managers as well.

Thanks for your opinions.

1.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 19:29:51
Spurs are wanting 80 mil for a 29 year old cb .
He is a good player but that's ridiculous.
Especially after we have just bought lindelof and bailly

Maybe Jose is the wrong man for the club, most United fans want to see good attacking footy a team that is built for the future where talents like pogba martial can flourish .

It's Jose 3rd season just look how that has ended in the past.

2.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 19:36:33
Can’t stand the man. He’s well past his sell by date. All I want is some attacking football, not much to ask.

3.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 19:40:28
Evening guys, I only joined the site a few months back but from reading all the posts it's obvious to me that we're a deeply divided bunch. Mourinho polarises opinion but I fear our problems run deeper than just a manager.

In this post Fergi vacuum the Club has lacked real courage and leadership at board level and demonstrated a clear lack of vision and naivety.

From reading all the posts on this site it appears to me that most fans share the same ideology and philosophy. These are the foundations which we're laid bare well over 60 years ago by the great Busby babes. The philosophy that transformed the Club from a Northern powerhouse to the envy of Europe. The courage and bravery of a man with daring ambition and vision to take the Club further than just the shores of this country. He laid the foundations for everything we are today.

What we all crave is a commitment to attractive, entertaining, attacking football filled with drama and excitement. An emphasis on developing our own players and giving youth a chance. We might not always succeed, there may be periods of frustration and failure but this philosophy should remain constant and consistent. Undiminished by time and circumstance.

This brings me back full circle to our current owners, board and manager! Who actually runs our Club? What vision do the owners have? What is their plan?

From the Glazers perspective I can't imagine that they're to concerned with the playing side of things but they aren't stupid enough to realise how this may impact on the Club. Woodward now appears to be the custodian, the man in charge, but what's his vision and philosophy?

Then we have Mourinho, a giant manager with an even bigger ego. He only wants to win and he doesn't care how. He doesn't care about entertainment or excitement. He's not concerned about age or giving chances. He doesn't care about how much it costs or the future of the Club only securing his own legacy before he inevitably moves onto his next challenge. Is this philosophy shared by our owners or Mr Woodward?

Well here's the rub. Should the Club ship out young, exciting, promising players, ones which they have invested heavily to bring to the Club in the first place so the manager can replace them with yet more expensive, experienced, players with little possibility of sell on value and no guarantee of success? My suspicion all along has been the Glazers are prepared to invest just enough to keep us in their panacea of the top 4. Winning would be nice but does it make sense to re invest millions chasing success with little guarantee whilst risking the finances of the Club and trimming profit margins? If this is the case then they have gravely underestimated Mourinho.

I think Mourinho may just be finding himself embroiled in the politics of a Club without a clear vision or recognised leader. In some respects he may find himself a victim of his own success and now some modicum of stability has been restored the purse strings predictably tightened. Do they really want to challenge City and return us to the pinnacle of European football?

Mourinho is not the type of manager to maintain the status quo putting the Club at risk of a power struggle between an ambitious manager and a regime seemingly more interested in profit margins, sponsorship and turnover rather than success on the pitch. If the books look good does it matter what happens on the pitch?

Mourinho will not settle for second best and whatever you think about him I think we can all take some comfort from that. Maybe his legacy might just be to show the Glazers for what they truly are? It's no coincidence to me that this window might represent the lowest investment in the team for a number of years just as we've established ourselves back into the top 4. I guess this will all unravel sooner rather than later and we'll have our answer.

Of course this could just be a load of bull**** supposition but thanks for those that took the time to read I appreciate it was a long one!

4.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 19:47:06
short answer, Yes.

5.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 20:13:48
Great post dlib.
I agree with lots of that.

Im all for improving players but imo the board have got to make up their mind either back the manager completely or if they believe in the players such as pogba shaw jones rojo mata valencia young fellaini and martial among others and want to keep them then sack the manager now. That way it will be less messy and there is less risk.
They backed some of these players and got rid of moyes they backed more of these players and got rid of lvg is it time to back these players and get rid of jose?
That's what they have to decide.
Option 3 is just do nothing and see what happens. That's the biggest risk of all imo.
It is joses job to get the best from the players to keep them happy and motivated. To give them confidence to show them he believes in them etc etc.
But it is the boards job to motivate jose to give him backing to show their belief in him to give him the tools he says needs to do his job.

As a result of the board failing to to all the above for the manager he is shiwing his obvious displeasure in his demeanour and that transe ds in his interviews and to some of the players. If the club can't keep tje manager relatively happy you won't have a happy team below him.

6.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 20:15:25
Dlib, i read your post and it is excellent. I'm not a Mourinho fan. I think his demeanour and his actions have been arrogant in some instances. In other instances, his stubborness, is putting players United careers at risk to the detriment of our great club.
Once he picks a fight with a player, that's the end of the road for the player.
I'm particularly worried that the likes of Martial, Pogba, Bailly will be pushed out of the door. This will be an absolute disaster for the club.
But i also inderstand and agree on your reservations towards the Glazers and Woodward, and the obvious lack of leadership on the footballing side of things. Like you, i have mentioned the problem we have with the Glazers and their lack of interest to all things football. There seems to be an attitude that as long as the money is rolling in, then the status quo can be maintained. But their business model is flawed, as the fans the club are trying to attract in America, India, China, far east countries, have no affiliation to the club at the start. They are attracted to the style of football and to the on field success, and then they will swear their allegiance to the cause. If we continue playing dull football and under investing in the footballing side, then the new fans will opt to support Real, Barca, Liverpool, City instead. You only need to walk the streets of Beijing, Bangkok, Mumbai to see this is already happening. Fergie brought us success and coupled it with exciting football which brought us hundereds of thousands of new followers. Unfortunately, the opposite can easily materialize if we don't show ambition and excitement on the playing field.
The Glazers can ignore this at theor peril, but the world is a funny place these days, and like you, i can see trouble ahead, not only for Mourinho but for our money loving owners.
Great post and i enjoyed reading it.

7.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 20:26:45
I'm a Liverpool fan but I enjoyed that read DLIB.

I'm hoping for utd to be competitive this season along with us and city to make it an exciting finish.

8.) 23 Jul 2018
23 Jul 2018 20:28:59
DLIB fantastic post that mate.

9.) 24 Jul 2018
24 Jul 2018 08:14:37
DLIB, great post, made a lot of sense.

AAA - I don't understand your point about the Club wanting to expand its fanbase to other countries. That's how they build one and each and every club is doing it. A lot of these Clubs run their football academies in countries like India, Middle-Eastern Countries and other South-East Asian countries as well. What do you think the purpose of that is? Is it really to teach the youth how to play the way these clubs play? or is to expand its market and reach newer audiences. My answer is the latter, solely because I work closely with a Club and now an association that has grassroots football development academies. They earn tonnes of money from these deals and while that money might not directly impact any transfers, that does add up to the revenue generation and in turn, leads to a more larger fanbase creation.

You can never force any person to support any club, he / she can support Madrid, Barcelona even Liverpool (although they have won nothing in the recent past) and City. But is your concern genuinely about the number of people not supporting United? and do you think this is because of the owners investing in the business side of the club and not the footballing side? I'd rather have fans and followers who love the club because of what the club is, rather than what is the club is winning (that's typical fanboy behaviour) .

The bigger question, perhaps, is that what are the owners doing? And what is Mou doing? Is it really that shambolic that we can't get our transfer in order? We want three players who are on our immediate shortlist - Bale, Alderwerield and Sandro. Do these players want to move? In Toby's case, does Levy really want to sell him to a rival? Even if Spurs don't compare to us, in his mind we are still his rivals? Maybe that's why the inflated price? Even if the Glazers or Woodward only care about the business side of things, I'm sure they won't be held ransom by Levy who always seems to demand over-the-top prices for his players? Coming to Bale, we are all divided on whether we want him or not, another question is, with the new manager coming in, and Ronaldo obviously going out, does he want to move now? Or does he want to stay one more year and see what he can do? Even if we give RM 200 Million pounds for Bale and he doesn't want to leave, we can't do much about it. Now that is not the fault of the owners or the manager. Sandro is a difficult one, I thought by now we would have had him, considering it was during the end of last season of after the end of the season that we were heavily linked with him? Have the owners got cold feet and now they don't want to spend the money? Or has Mou changed his mind? No one knows, maybe the Eds know and they can share what they know.

Of course, I'm not defending the owners and neither am I defending Mou, I'm just trying to be a little more optimistic about the new season, because that's what we want and that's what we should do. If Mou goes, then Mou goes. His 3rd season syndrome might hit us, and might not. We can't say much. All we can hope is that the damage can be limited and the guy who ends up replacing him is a well-thought of replacement. Not a stop-gap one.

Thanks.