14 Jan 2022 22:31:59
Does anyone else feel that Conte has always fancied OT and is stirring the pot at Spurs to give him an out when RR moves upstairs?
If he jacks it in early at Spurs because of 'reasons'I think its a dead giveaway. Conte. serial winner
Pochettino. yet to become a serial winner.
Thoughts?
14 Jan 2022 22:37:37
Wouldn’t surprise me.
14 Jan 2022 22:48:22
Conte is a slightly newer version of Mourinho. Not for me.
15 Jan 2022 03:54:25
Conte is a serial winner.
He is ambitious and demands the best.
15 Jan 2022 08:38:11
Him or D. simione would be my choice, people question their brand of football. but they are seriel winners and I can guarantee that they both set up teams to attack much more than you think . Have a bad felling about potch, think if we got him straight after his fantastic run with spurs it would have worked, but not after this mediocre spell at psg.
15 Jan 2022 08:43:54
United need to sort out their mess once and for all and not put another sticking plaster on it.
Prune the squad to get rid of toxics, bring young hungry players in, develop youngsters etc
Will take a few seasons to build up to something substantial and lasting but with the right manager it can be do e.
Just look at what happened with Klopp and Liverpool and where they were when he took over.
15 Jan 2022 08:58:06
I think its Poch we are after and he is really liked by the "board". I won't be surprised to see him in the dugout next season.
15 Jan 2022 09:32:34
That's one theory, although it does seem more like forcing the facts to fit the narrative to be honest.
I'd imagine it's far more likely that Conte is just a combustible character who regularly stirs the pot and picks fights where they aren't needed.
He has done it with Juventus, Chelsea, Inter, the Italian national team, in fact at every job he had had. He only last a shade over 4 months at Atalanta.
So it should come as no surprise that he is starting to display the same behaviours at Spurs that he has displayed throughout his entire managerial career.
With the mess our club is behind the scenes I doubt Conte would last a season before it all exploded in everyone's face.
Great manager when he has a great group of players who need a kick up the backside and a shift in the right direction. It's a short term fix to a team that needs a quick turn around.
We aren't a team full of great players who have lost motivation or focus. We are a team that needs totally rebuilding top to bottom, probably 18-20 players heading out of the club over a 2-3 year period with around 15 or so coming in and several academy players moulded into first team quality players to plug the gaps.
It's a medium to long term project, that will take patience and understanding.
Conte is about as poor a choice as you could possibly pick out for what we have and what we need.
15 Jan 2022 10:05:10
I think the best option for us is ten Haag, he built an Ajax team that deserved to get to the final over spurs and they almost got there. His team then got cherry picked so he had to build again, which he has done and once again his team is thriving. He’s a great tactician, plays attacking football, bloods youngsters, turns mediocre players from other teams into high performing players and is ruthless when it comes to transfers in and out.
Think it would be worth bring van der sar as Cheif executive and overmars in as DoF so that you have the three from Ajax working together.
That’s my take on it.
15 Jan 2022 11:22:44
Rangnick's name has been forever linked with every top managerial vacancy, without having done anything in terms of silverware to merit it and his name mysteriously loiters like a damp turd without sign of the man himself. Until his appointment he was the stuff of legend, like Tonton Zola Moukoko in Championship Manager; the 'go to' name without really knowing how or why.
So while us fans struggle to see his on-field exploits, off-field seems to be a different matter to his peers and the bigwigs at these clubs, who see what he has implemented from the ground up and the dividends they have brought long-term.
It's frightening that in the nigh-on decade since SAF's retirement Utd find themselves needing a complete reboot. It should have been done post-Moyes. Arguably Ole's reign was a reboot in itself, where, for the first time in years players of a certain profile were being targeted. A more astute managerial appointment over anything we've had would maybe have avoided all of this. Yet all the managers have struggled for the same reason - they've inherited a complete mish-mash of other managers' 4-5th choice transfer targets, all appointing vastly different tactics. No wonder it's a mess. It's an amalgamation of 4 failed managers' rejects and wildly conflicting styles.
RR is here and I like everything he says. He isn't stumbling over his words and still has credibility. I don't much like what I'm seeing on the pitch, it's an awkward watch even when we win. He doesn't have 3-4 players in key positions he needs for this formation, and there is a stack of players in the process of leaving, wanting to leave, or just not cut out for it. But we need to stick to the plan until the end of the season. I'm not convinced we are going to make CL but am certain we can still attract the best players (wasn't Pogba signed in a CL-less season? ) . Maybe an 'off' season next time will help us sort things out, even if it means those crappy thursday nights in the Europa.
As for Conte (sorry, went off-piste a bit), I would have moved for him personally, but obviously the people at the top had heard/ seen enough to not fancy him. Maybe even SFA had a view. I think he'd have been more effective on the pitch than Mourinho but yet I can see the comparisons to him also. I can see why he left Inter tbf. No money for next season, and you've got to sell your best players too. Who'd stand for that?
'Conte will NOT go to Spurs. ' Shappy, 2021. Just teasing.
15 Jan 2022 11:05:10
Your points on Conte are fair Shappy. We don’t need more volatility in the dressing room - Mr Mourinho proved that. The point on the squad though is pure hyperbole.
4-5 good players in and 5-6 out and you’d see a huge improvement - the midfield needs serious work - once that’s done you’ll find the attackers have more freedom and the defence has more cover. Right now teams are easily cutting through exposing the major flaws in Maguire’s game - lack of pace and mobility. Everyone else is so injury prone - we can rarely
Play the same back 2.
15 Jan 2022 11:38:04
There's only one long term manager we should aim for, Ten Hag. Agree with Gazza's post above.
If TH doesn't want to come, then Rúben Amorim from Sporting will be brilliant, plays very aggressive, attacking football.
{Ed077's Note - what is everyone's opinion on Christoph Galtier?
15 Jan 2022 11:46:19
Spenno, in fairness Conte did reject Spurs previously. I'm guess he was made promises to join this time round. Whether they were hollow ones remains to be seen.
Eric, I'm not sure it's hyperbole at all to suggest we have 18-20 players who need to be moved on over the next 1-3 season's.
Grant, Dalot, Jones, Bailly, Tuanzebe, Matic, Pogba, Andreas Pereira, Lingard, Mata and Martial are all simply not good enough.
So there's 11 of 18-20 I'm suggesting straight off the bat. You can then add Heaton, Cavani and Ronaldo due to age will ALL have to move on over the next few years.
Now we are up to 14 players. So let's look at who is left, Henderson, AWB, Maguire, Lindelof, McTominay, Fred and Donny are another 7 players who most have questioned as not being good enough at one point or another. Which brings us up to 21 players.
That is without questioning whether Shaw, Telles, Rashford, Greenwood, Sancho, Amad and Pellistri will either make it or suit the next managers style of play.
Even if they all do make it and suit the next manager and even if a few of Henderson, AWB, Maguire, Lindelof, McTominay, Fred and Donny prove to be good enough then that is still 18 players who aren't or age to a point they need replacing and be moved on.
If you want to genuinely challenge for the title you need a comparable strength team to your main rivals. We have a few players who if they develop as we hope then they will be good enough to be in our title rivals teams, but we have very few who would regularly get a game at City, Liverpool or Chelsea.
4 or 5 top signings would move us in the right direction, but we need 10-15 to build a squad that works together with the right amount of talent, attitude and mentality to challenge the top sides for the top honours.
Currently we are like Liverpool of the 90's and 00's, where we have 2 or 3 players capable of playing for a title winning side, but the rest of the squad is lacking in either talent or mentality. Until that changes we will continue to drift.
15 Jan 2022 12:19:14
Shappy, i think you are spot on with that assessment. What a rubbishshow.
15 Jan 2022 11:48:27
Is that a perfume Ed077? Sorry not familiar with the name.
I do like ETH. He inherited a side depleted of its big name stars, none of whom who've really been as good since, and put together a new side made up of everyone else's cast-offs that is tearing it up atm. As opposed to Poch who has just inherited a team of stars and is still to win anything. I like both but Erik's achievements in making a bunch of very good players fit into a system in a very quick space of time is impressive.
{Ed077's Note - do you know who pipped Poch at PSG last season? Christophe Galtier's Lille.
I like Eric Ten Hag too. He has done an impressive job at Ajax.
(P.S Roger Schimdt's PSV are top of the Eredivisie ahead of Ajax.)
16 Jan 2022 00:10:01
I don't think the manager is the start if this. Firstly Utd need to decide on a playing style, a system, they need to find s coach to fit that system they need to gear the academy to produce graduates able to play in that system and fit seamlessly into the first team.
The scouts need to be finding players to fit that system.
The decision makers need to be buying players to fit that system.
Then you pick a manager and coaches who plays and has success in that system.
Everything in the club has to be geared to achieving success amd with everything pulling in different direction it doesn't matter who the manager is, you are never maximising your teams potential and will fail.