Manchester United Banter 4

21 Apr 2026 22:00:20
With Chelsea's loss to Brighton, we now only need 2 wins/6 points out of Brentford, Liverpool, Sunderland, Forest and Brighton. With three of those being at home. And assuming the 6th and below sides win all their games. I think we are pretty much guaranteed that Champions League football is back at Old Trafford next season. Massive credit to Carrick.

22 Apr 2026 08:55:32
Rosenior has to be the strangest appointment of this season. He looks way out of his depth, makes some very bizarre statements, and their current run is horrendous.

They gave him a six and a half year contract, which looks misguided now. Chelsea clearly have a plan, but it seems quite an odd one.

22 Apr 2026 09:27:05
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

22 Apr 2026 12:30:16
6 and a half year contract is short for Chelsea!

22 Apr 2026 13:16:23
His salary is rumoured to be £3.5 - £4 M a year, if they sack him, that is one expensive mistake.

22 Apr 2026 14:00:52
He lost me after that, 'respecting the ball' stuff. 🤦

22 Apr 2026 17:31:25
Very odd stuff he comes out with. The huddle around the ref was pathetic and they shouldn't all have been booked.

22 Apr 2026 18:26:53
The severance fee is supposedly not linked to the length that his contract was. There is a pre-determined 'break' clause, ie 'lose 5 successive games without scoring, and we can bin you for £20'.

23 Apr 2026 01:22:41
Bit like at Utd previously, the Chelsea players are mainly culpable. They are virtually all international players, but just didn't put the effort in and never gave Rosenor a fair crack of the whip. The most damning stat is that they were always second in distances run.

They should have their wages cut, if not stopped, or given to charity. I feel sorry for Rosenor, like I did Amorim. Maybe they were out of their depth, but top footballers should be able to try properly to adapt to new coaching.

23 Apr 2026 09:29:47
Player power ruins clubs.

21 Apr 2026 15:19:34
I just want to say I thought Michael Oliver had a really good game Saturday night. Not often you can say that about referee's nowadays.

22 Apr 2026 07:25:35
That's his job!

22 Apr 2026 19:30:32
Ports, channeling your inner Roy Keane?

21 Apr 2026 08:03:34
Revisiting Bruno getting to the line for the cross to Cunha made me think how rarely Amad takes on the fullback on the outside, which makes him easy to play. As far as expectations compared to output are concerned, I think he's been this season's most disappointing player.

21 Apr 2026 08:38:03
Especially since the change of manager, Newname.

21 Apr 2026 10:15:57
Both Amad and Mbeumo have struggled since the managerial/formation change. Both are quite predictable with their runs. They both need a good overlapping RB to give the defenders they are up against something to think about. Unfortunately, we don't have any of those.

21 Apr 2026 10:53:38
Overlapping full backs, wide players taking a player on; they seem like dying arts. The fashion nowadays is to cut back in and shoot, so we have players playing on the 'wrong' side.

Oh for the days of Lee Sharpe, Steve Coppell, Andrei Kanchelskis. I think Sesko would love it too.

Bruno showed the impact on Saturday. I think we should do it more often.

21 Apr 2026 10:59:28
It's a dying art, not specifically an Amad problem. But Amad has struggled this season tbh.

21 Apr 2026 17:34:02
It is an Amad problem. He is not creative enough, and is too predictable. If he continues this way, he will not last at the top level. He should be watching tapes of Mo Salah constantly, as I think his size, trickiness, and ability to run with and not lose the ball is similar. Salah was always a little gready in certain circumstances (and successful at it!), but he would look for an assist far more.



From a squad perspective, Salah played most of his career with Trent or Sabozlai putting in crosses from his layoffs, perhaps we need to learn from that, because our strikers are being starved by our wide players and we definitely need to improve our creativity.

21 Apr 2026 18:48:18
Not enough balls into the 'corridor of uncertainty' these days.

21 Apr 2026 23:22:56
Love that, PG.
Corridor of uncertainty. 👍

23 Apr 2026 01:24:13
Doku seems to do it pretty much every week.

21 Apr 2026 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Everton v Liverpool - A Quick Liverpool Perspective

20 Apr 2026 19:09:19
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Everton v Liverpool - A Quick Liverpool Perspective

20 Apr 2026 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - Greenaway has posted a new article entitled, Chelsea's Bigger Problem Behind the Scenes

19 Apr 2026 23:59:15
Ollie Watkins would be a good striker for us. Always puts a shift in. Usually scores a decent amount of goals each season and would not cost a fortune.

20 Apr 2026 07:31:04
Amorim wanted him.....

20 Apr 2026 11:15:29
It's an interesting conundrum. I think Watkins would have scored more goals than Sesko this year, but he would only have been a short-term solution. Sesko has been an impact sub who hasn't found his groove yet, but he clearly has huge potential.

20 Apr 2026 14:25:51
Before Villa's game yesterday, Watkins had a season total of 8 league goals. Sesko has 9 league goals. On the basis of him having one good game and scoring a hat trick, should we go and spend many millions on him? Villa would ask for a fortune. They did last summer.



This would seem to scream Match of the Day fever. He would be far too expensive, and is he really the right age profile for the club? Also, some think his performance levels have started to decline.

Should we buy him? Just my view, but no, no, indeed thrice no.

20 Apr 2026 16:18:18
I agree with IWOTB.

20 Apr 2026 16:33:45
Lol, now I just feel silly.

20 Apr 2026 17:24:16
It's only when you look at the details you see that perception is often miles off reality.
People are entitled to their perception, thoughts and ideas, but lots of the time the detail and facts show that the perception some have flies in the face of reality.
If you have any opinion the earth is flat, then that's your opinion, but the facts show something very different.
Who knows, AJH, Watkins might have scored more playing for United than he did for Villa this season, but we simply don't know that.


One thing is for sure, he is a better cf than Mbeumo is and he has been playing there recently out of position.
I think there are very few sure things when you sign anybody. Even if we sign Haaland, for example, there is no guarantee he would do as well for United as he has for City.
Picking someone like Watkins up on a free would be good business imo, but I don't think they will pay a significant fee for him nor do I think they should.

20 Apr 2026 18:58:53
If he was available for say £20m, it's a no brainer for me. This is not MOTD fever. He has been a consistent scorer of goals, and in a Villa team which, until the present manager came, was not a very good team. He works hard. Stretches defences and would be a good figure for Sesko and other younger strikers to learn from.

20 Apr 2026 22:11:06
Ken, clearly there are no guarantees that any player will perform at a predetermined level when they move clubs. There will always be an element of lottery about it.

Decisions about buying or selling a player are made by people based upon what the player is actually doing. You cannot second guess what may or may not happen, so you cannot base decisions on imponderables.

Watkins has previously performed at a high level, but this season not quite so. Indeed, seemingly Villa are looking to sell him this summer and are looking for between £30-£40m. I would certainly prefer this amount of money to be invested elsewhere.

To support the assertion his performances have not been quite as good, his 11 goals this season have taken 2472 minutes playing time.

Take away yesterday, and his stats would be 8 goals, each taking 297 minutes to score. Even with yesterday, it is a goal every 224 minutes.

If you look at Sesko, in his first season in a new league he has by no means been playing regularly; in fact, he has played 1502 minutes, but he has scored 9 goals, thus one every 166 minutes. Clearly superior to Watkins, I fully expect these figures to improve next season with improved playing time.

I still think I would prefer other options to Watkins, although if it had been a few years ago it may well have been different, and the hope of getting him on a free transfer will not happen.

21 Apr 2026 00:57:53
So you and I agree on Watkins iwotb. Please read my post. He would be a good free, but I would not like us to invest in any significant fee. i'm not hoping to sign him on a free but it would be a nice bit of experience to add to support sesko if it were the case. He has a good contract so if he moves they will get decent money probably more than we will get for rashford.
Where i disagree is that players are bought solely on what they are doing.
If that was the case clubs wouldn't be buying young players like yoro or heaven. They are bought for their potential not on what they are doing more a case of what they might be able to do.
Players doing poorly at a club will find a move and the buying clubs are hopeful that they will play better and return to form at their club.
So when someone buys garnacho and they will at some point. They will not be buying him for what he is doing at Chelsea.
Its not as black and white as you make out.
Ill bet sanco finds a club even weggy found one.
I agree there is research and a lot of homework done like i'm sure there was before we signed sancho di Maria sanchez but sometimes it just doesn't work for any amount of reasons.
By your reckoning nobody would try to sign a player that's flopped elsewhere.
Coaches believe they can be the manager to rekindle players, and they often do despite their manky previous stats.
So many reasons why some signings work and why ones that look nailed on don't work and fail. Miki or pogba for example.
Humans by our very nature are not robotic so often one man's rubbish is another man's gold.
Twist seskos stats a different way and they will look worse than Watkins. Read them another way and they look better.
In many ways the stats of goals per min are totally irrelevant with both players playing in different teams so they are not comparable in any way. All they tell you is how they are both doing in their respective teams it tells you very little of how they would do in the other team playing with different players doing different roles etc.

I would imagine that their would be dozens of other and much more indepth and comparable statistics and data they would be referencing in their analysis to determine any players suitability.
Even then if they get all that right, if a player doesn't settle, doesn't bond in the dressing room, if his wife doesn't settle, if his kids don't like school, and the list goes on, all the above and dozens more reasons why signings often don't replicate what they were doing elsewhere.
So imo they are very few sure things.
Ive done zero analysis on this @shappy for next school holiday. But it would be very interesting to see a list of all 50m plus signings in the epl and see them rated hit or miss. But I bet my bottom dollar there is more flops and i'd also bet every chairman and every coach and lots of stats said they would all be hits. These days there seems to be many more misses than hits despite all the analysis in the world never mind incomparable ones.
Personally I think 95%of signings are 100% gamble. I sort of consider any guess as a gamble even educated guesses. Facts and figures are used to mitigate risk but when it comes to humans then most of it goes out the window.
Would di Maria have been a success at city? Would sancez? Would gazza have a better life now if he signed for fergie. All maybe cases of wrong place at the right time. All down to how they felt.
But we do agree on not investing in a significant fee for Watkins despite him being a very good player. His goals per min don't tell how many games he has played in front of a villa midfield without their 2 1st choices its no coincidence his stats dropped without them. You gave context of sesko being young and in a new league but offered no reasoning or context as to why Watkins has had a dip in productivity. Its not the most objective insight 😂😂 I think both midfielders played yesterday and he got a couple.
Its not black and white and all about what they are doing this season a lot more is tremendous into consideration.

21 Apr 2026 07:39:28
Holy cr@p, Ken! Have you borrowed Shappy's keyboard?

{Ed025's Note - love it Keefy..

21 Apr 2026 07:55:00
Beat me to it, Keefy. 😂😂

21 Apr 2026 08:43:55
Good post, Ken. Glad that it was the abridged version. 😉 I can see Watkins being like Dwight Yorke in that he was undervalued by some Utd fans until he moved to Utd.

21 Apr 2026 10:55:14
If you watched Watkins keenly, you'd notice he misses quite a number of very good chances, last season, especially. Very decent CF though.

21 Apr 2026 12:40:34
Personally, taking into account our priorities elsewhere in the team, I would love to see us sign Lewandowski. Could work for both parties. Barca have him on massive wages and he's out of contract in the summer. He's world class, and could be fantastic to show Sesko the ropes for a year, maybe even 2.

A real Zlatan-type signing. Alternatively, I would also love Ivan Toney for the same reason. Very capable and Premiership-proven. A transition striker, whilst we sort out the left and right FBs and our midfield, would be a great move either way.

21 Apr 2026 17:50:51
I agree, CO.

19 Apr 2026 18:19:42
So var only intervenes when anyone but Arsenal and city are playing

How Var was not in the ref ear shouting possible red possible red hear or sending the ref to the camera proves its a farce.

LM pulled a bobbin from DCL hair and the ref got sent to the screen

Absolutely a joke I hope grabrielle gets the draw now.

19 Apr 2026 21:05:39
They literally make it up as they go from game to game, sometimes even in the same game. Little point trying to work them out, and they'll never admit a f up either.

20 Apr 2026 09:15:07
There was a thread the other day about the standard of refereeing and VAR, and I commented that it is really difficult to believe there isn't an agenda against United when you look at the list of incidents that have gone against United, and similar ones involving others have been dismissed or ignored. The worst thing about the incidents this weekend was that it was the same individuals involved. John Brooks was on VAR when Martinez was sent off for violent conduct, and he was VAR for the Gabriel incident.

Paul Tierney, who sent Martinez off, didn't send off Outtarra for his hair pull on Bassey.

They've also sent out a rubbish message that players won't get sent off now unless they go down, and this is the reason we see diving in the game. I honestly believe that the standard of refereeing has never been this low.

20 Apr 2026 14:26:43
Agreed. VAR has made the standard of refereeing worse. It's easier for refs to let things go because they think VAR will intervene if their mistake is obvious, but the people operating VAR are reluctant to overturn their pals' decisions unless they absolutely have to.

Is there an agenda? I want to believe that it's just incompetence, but the complete lack of consistency, and the fact that clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal are forever getting favorable decisions, while we're repeatedly getting shafted, does make me wonder sometimes.



Either way, VAR and the inconsistency of refereeing decisions in general are ruining the Premier League. Something needs to be done.

20 Apr 2026 17:28:57
I think all sides have had bad ones against them, and have got away with a few also.
I do not like VAR at all.
But, if you were to ask me, what has more of a negative impact, VAR or players behaviour/cheating, Id say player behaviour is a bigger problem than referees and VAR.

Just my opinion as a viewer.
Players attempt cheating pretty much every min of every game. Coaches are also not exempt, as they are as bad as the players most of the time.

{Ed025's Note - i agree Ken..

20 Apr 2026 19:19:24
I don't disagree with you, Ken, but players cheat because refs and VAR allow them to get away with it. All the talk today has been about if Haaland had gone down, Gabriel would have got sent off. That surely can't be right? Players don't get penalties when they stay on their feet, so they are being encouraged to go down.

There is a box managers have to stay in. Some managers are up and down the touch line all game. They step out of it, book them.

Refs, VAR, 4th officials have all the technology now to support them and prevent all this behaviour, but they fail to apply the rules or discipline. Yes, players and managers have a responsibility, but the stakes of winning now are so high, naturally, you will try to gain any advantage you can, which is where officials need to manage and control the game. If the technology wasn't there then you could accept what a difficult job they have, but it is there now.

20 Apr 2026 19:34:34
While some look at the obvious inconsistencies with VAR (sometimes even during the same game) and see that as potential corruption, I don't think it's intentional cheating or fixing of results (although you can't rule it out).

Nor do I think referees can really be that bad or stupid, to make such contrasting decisions and genuinely believe they are right on both occasions.



However, they were adamantly against VAR when it was first proposed, and they have pretty much been forced to use it against their will. So, with that in mind, do I believe the referees would, in good faith, try their best to make it work? Or would they, even subconsciously, want it to fail?

21 Apr 2026 23:50:27
Are you in a rush to be somewhere, Shaps? 😉

19 Apr 2026 16:57:18.
Gibbs White puts in another good performance today. I have mentioned him before as a good prospective signing.

Despite a late failed move to Spurs in the summer, he has not downed tools but instead driven his team forward.

19 Apr 2026 17:48:08
I like him. I think he is a good player. Comes across as a good pro, as you said. If Bruno stays, there is no room for him, really.

19 Apr 2026 18:59:47
I think you can use Gibbs White alongside Bruno.

Speaking of Bruno, so many pundits talking him up. Cherki as player of the season.

He is an excellent player, but he has been playing well only these past two or three months. Bruno has been consistently good for nearly a whole season.



Cherki is playing under one of the greatest ever managers. Bruno has been under two, learning their trade.

Cherki has top top class players around him, and Bruno is not the same quality.

Bruno has therefore been by far the most important and best player.

19 Apr 2026 14:12:54
So, 5 games to go. 10 pts clear of Chelsea. 5th place virtually guaranteed. But this is United. Remaining fixtures: Brentford H, Liverpool H, Sunderland A, Forest H, Brighton A. How many points do people think we'll get?

19 Apr 2026 14:42:00
I'd seen 10 points as achievable. We've struggled at Brighton for years, I don't think that will change, and, with Champions League sorted and the World Cup looming, that will be a damp squib.

Pick a draw from the other games, but I'd say Brentford.

20 Apr 2026 00:40:58
Brentford, Sunderland and Brighton are all going for Europe places. None of those will be easy as they will likely put up a greater fight than we expect. Of course it depends on other results.

Forest will, depending on the next couple of weeks, be desperate for points.

No easy games there and they will want to pull our pants down, and probably will.

7 points and I hope to be proven very wrong!

20 Apr 2026 08:13:44
For those long in the tooth; remember when Ron Atkinson had us 10 points clear?. 😂

20 Apr 2026 16:24:26
15/15 pts. :D