So Mourhino sacked, Man Utd in complete disarray and the press and media go into overdrive.
Points..
1. Why do the press fawn all over them ffs? They polarise football fans across the land in a way no other club does. They possess lots of supporters both the genuine ones but also the hordes of plastics across the land who'd need a sat nav to find Manchester let alone Old Trafford. Plain truth of the matter is that even more football supporters detest them than like them don't they? When will the media circus cotton on?
2. No one that I have heard or read commentating on the issue has laid any blame on Alex Ferguson to date but their woeful state today definitely began under his tenure imo. He left David Moyes a squad whose best players were well over the hill. Fergy is the best man manager that I have seen in my lifetime but not necessarily the best overall manager. Lucky to still be in a job and owing his position to two successful strikes on goal, one by Mark Robins and one by Mark Hughes he was fortunate to see the class of 92 emerge. "Nobody wins anything with kids" were the now immortal words uttered by Alan Hansen and a few months later rammed down his throat by those 'kids'. A golden once in a lifetime generation who came through the ranks together, stayed together and were only sold on when Fergy and man Utd decided or had no further use for them. BRFC once had our own 'one off' youth squad just like that in 58 which won the FA Youth Cup and featured the likes of Fred Pickering, Mike England, Keith Newton. Unfortunately football's political events of the 60's saw them all spirited away by bigger and richer clubs. Man Utd didn't have just 3 future internationals though did they? They had 6! Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Butt, Neville 1 and Neville 2 formed the foundation stone of Man Utd's success for a decade and a half and in belonging to mega rich Man Utd meant they were never going to be tempted away until Ferguson had no further use for them. Fergie to his credit added well to the squad for a number of years and almost until his retirement. The likes of Kean, Tevez, Ferdinand, Cole and the incomparable Ronaldo more than filling in the gaps. That last season though saw the return of recently retired veterans Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs being drafted back into the squad in a case of necessity, zimmer frames and all to see them over the line in 2012 and 2014.
It had however all started to go wrong long long before then. There is an age old saying amongst football managers "get rid of bad players or they'll get rid of you"! The new players coming in toward the end of Fergusons reign were a million miles away in quality and ATTITUDE to the players in that golden era who were signing off. A look at the ins and outs from 2010 to 2014 confirms this. http://www.mufcinfo.com/manupag/transfers/transfers_pages/2010-2019_manchester_united_transfers.htm
The dressing room influence of the class of 92 which kept imports in line was gone! Fact of the matter is that only de Gea of the current squad would get anywhere near one of Fergy's Premier League winning squads of the past. In fact I'd wager only de Gea would interest any of the current top four should the entire squad be suddenly transfer listed this next window.
Of the current squad ...
Pogba is an abomination, talented but a real sulker and spoiled brat to boot. A player who only plays for himself. Fergy binned him off for a good reason 1st time around didn't he and his performances since have verified this?
Lukaku the first choice centre forward is massively overweight and unfit.
Sanchez has lost it big time. He is a shadow of the player that he was under Wenger.
All appear from distance to be rotten apples and totally spoiled by the fame and fortune of playing for the world's supposed 'biggest' team. The rest of the squad are just poor / bit part / 2nd rate players compared to previous squads or more tellingly to their contemporaries in other top 4 clubs. None would have played in the past and all would have had to submit to the influence, dedication and professionalism of the class of 92 or they would have been shown the door! I rem even Ronaldo who was famously described as a prancing pony by Ryan Giggs was humbled and forced to buckle down and accept the United 'way' of playing and conducting oneself. Arguably that professionalism instilled by the senior members of the squad is what made Ronaldo in many experts opinion, the best player that the world has ever seen (as well as saving a young Rooney from an early departure to football's gutter which claimed the likes of Best, Bowles and Gascoigne).
Most of us in advanced years HAVE seen all this before on a few occasions.
Man Utd themselves went from European Champions to a relegation outfit in half a dozen years after Matt Busby had retired. Charlton, Law along with a number of senior players were finished whilst Best had disappeared into his own alcohol fuelled haze. Replacement players brought in back then could come anywhere near to them in quality and application.
Leeds in the 70's when Don Revie suddenly upped sticks and left. An ageing over the hill squad, living on former glories whose individual quality was never replaced had become managed by their very own arch enemy, the 70's equivalent of Mourhino today.... one Brian Clough! Revie (like Ferguson decades later) had seen the writing on the wall.
Liverpool too suffered a significant decline when the Shanks/ Paisley era came to an end and poorer players came in in the vain hope that they could replace the genuine stars. Twenty one years now since they ended top of the pile that they had dominated so comprehensively by winning 10 first Division titles in the previous two decades!
History tells us that all those clubs were set back by 20 years or so. I cling to the hope that history will again prove reliable in constantly repeating itself!
All the big names are being bandied about as MU's next manager (along with many stupid suggestions) but surely any top manager will run a mile from a squad and a club on such an obvious decline. They are football's current equivalent of a poisoned chalice and have already destroyed three good reputations in Mourhino, Van Gaal and Moyes . fact remains that even the best motivators in the world can never turn a pigs ear into a silk purse no matter what they do. Cheque book manager Mourhino (one great season at Porto, a pretty boy face and a personality to match resulted in big money clubs affording him the resources required to virtually ensure success at every change of his career), has spent 400 million on poor or unsuitable players. Obviously one of the reasons that he was never going o be given another transfer window with the keys to the till in his hand. Surely also the bean counters will be wary of giving similar money to the next manager? I rem when Jack Walker passed away we had an under performing but valuable (on paper) squad and it was obvious that David Brown's orders were for Souness not to ask for more money but rather to trade from money within the squad. The Glasers will certainly not be able to chuck Mansour type money at the club that is for certain sure. As I say with second rate players and a second rate manager (1st choice would be across the City or down the East Lancs road ) it's going to be an awfully long way back!
So what have we? Absent owners of limited financial clout, a poor board management structure, poor players on long contracts and massive remuneration! It's a top manager's bloody graveyard!
Forgive me but...........
All in all it's a time for celebration for the vast majority of football fans. Lets bloody well enjoy it to the full whilst it lasts!
If I've missed anything relevant please add below. Just like Dennis Law back heeling the ball into the net for City and confirming Man Utd's relegation in 1974 if you'll pardon the pun these are opportunities for us abu's that only happen once every blue moon!
Points..
1. Why do the press fawn all over them ffs? They polarise football fans across the land in a way no other club does. They possess lots of supporters both the genuine ones but also the hordes of plastics across the land who'd need a sat nav to find Manchester let alone Old Trafford. Plain truth of the matter is that even more football supporters detest them than like them don't they? When will the media circus cotton on?
2. No one that I have heard or read commentating on the issue has laid any blame on Alex Ferguson to date but their woeful state today definitely began under his tenure imo. He left David Moyes a squad whose best players were well over the hill. Fergy is the best man manager that I have seen in my lifetime but not necessarily the best overall manager. Lucky to still be in a job and owing his position to two successful strikes on goal, one by Mark Robins and one by Mark Hughes he was fortunate to see the class of 92 emerge. "Nobody wins anything with kids" were the now immortal words uttered by Alan Hansen and a few months later rammed down his throat by those 'kids'. A golden once in a lifetime generation who came through the ranks together, stayed together and were only sold on when Fergy and man Utd decided or had no further use for them. BRFC once had our own 'one off' youth squad just like that in 58 which won the FA Youth Cup and featured the likes of Fred Pickering, Mike England, Keith Newton. Unfortunately football's political events of the 60's saw them all spirited away by bigger and richer clubs. Man Utd didn't have just 3 future internationals though did they? They had 6! Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Butt, Neville 1 and Neville 2 formed the foundation stone of Man Utd's success for a decade and a half and in belonging to mega rich Man Utd meant they were never going to be tempted away until Ferguson had no further use for them. Fergie to his credit added well to the squad for a number of years and almost until his retirement. The likes of Kean, Tevez, Ferdinand, Cole and the incomparable Ronaldo more than filling in the gaps. That last season though saw the return of recently retired veterans Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs being drafted back into the squad in a case of necessity, zimmer frames and all to see them over the line in 2012 and 2014.
It had however all started to go wrong long long before then. There is an age old saying amongst football managers "get rid of bad players or they'll get rid of you"! The new players coming in toward the end of Fergusons reign were a million miles away in quality and ATTITUDE to the players in that golden era who were signing off. A look at the ins and outs from 2010 to 2014 confirms this. http://www.mufcinfo.com/manupag/transfers/transfers_pages/2010-2019_manchester_united_transfers.htm
The dressing room influence of the class of 92 which kept imports in line was gone! Fact of the matter is that only de Gea of the current squad would get anywhere near one of Fergy's Premier League winning squads of the past. In fact I'd wager only de Gea would interest any of the current top four should the entire squad be suddenly transfer listed this next window.
Of the current squad ...
Pogba is an abomination, talented but a real sulker and spoiled brat to boot. A player who only plays for himself. Fergy binned him off for a good reason 1st time around didn't he and his performances since have verified this?
Lukaku the first choice centre forward is massively overweight and unfit.
Sanchez has lost it big time. He is a shadow of the player that he was under Wenger.
All appear from distance to be rotten apples and totally spoiled by the fame and fortune of playing for the world's supposed 'biggest' team. The rest of the squad are just poor / bit part / 2nd rate players compared to previous squads or more tellingly to their contemporaries in other top 4 clubs. None would have played in the past and all would have had to submit to the influence, dedication and professionalism of the class of 92 or they would have been shown the door! I rem even Ronaldo who was famously described as a prancing pony by Ryan Giggs was humbled and forced to buckle down and accept the United 'way' of playing and conducting oneself. Arguably that professionalism instilled by the senior members of the squad is what made Ronaldo in many experts opinion, the best player that the world has ever seen (as well as saving a young Rooney from an early departure to football's gutter which claimed the likes of Best, Bowles and Gascoigne).
Most of us in advanced years HAVE seen all this before on a few occasions.
Man Utd themselves went from European Champions to a relegation outfit in half a dozen years after Matt Busby had retired. Charlton, Law along with a number of senior players were finished whilst Best had disappeared into his own alcohol fuelled haze. Replacement players brought in back then could come anywhere near to them in quality and application.
Leeds in the 70's when Don Revie suddenly upped sticks and left. An ageing over the hill squad, living on former glories whose individual quality was never replaced had become managed by their very own arch enemy, the 70's equivalent of Mourhino today.... one Brian Clough! Revie (like Ferguson decades later) had seen the writing on the wall.
Liverpool too suffered a significant decline when the Shanks/ Paisley era came to an end and poorer players came in in the vain hope that they could replace the genuine stars. Twenty one years now since they ended top of the pile that they had dominated so comprehensively by winning 10 first Division titles in the previous two decades!
History tells us that all those clubs were set back by 20 years or so. I cling to the hope that history will again prove reliable in constantly repeating itself!
All the big names are being bandied about as MU's next manager (along with many stupid suggestions) but surely any top manager will run a mile from a squad and a club on such an obvious decline. They are football's current equivalent of a poisoned chalice and have already destroyed three good reputations in Mourhino, Van Gaal and Moyes . fact remains that even the best motivators in the world can never turn a pigs ear into a silk purse no matter what they do. Cheque book manager Mourhino (one great season at Porto, a pretty boy face and a personality to match resulted in big money clubs affording him the resources required to virtually ensure success at every change of his career), has spent 400 million on poor or unsuitable players. Obviously one of the reasons that he was never going o be given another transfer window with the keys to the till in his hand. Surely also the bean counters will be wary of giving similar money to the next manager? I rem when Jack Walker passed away we had an under performing but valuable (on paper) squad and it was obvious that David Brown's orders were for Souness not to ask for more money but rather to trade from money within the squad. The Glasers will certainly not be able to chuck Mansour type money at the club that is for certain sure. As I say with second rate players and a second rate manager (1st choice would be across the City or down the East Lancs road ) it's going to be an awfully long way back!
So what have we? Absent owners of limited financial clout, a poor board management structure, poor players on long contracts and massive remuneration! It's a top manager's bloody graveyard!
Forgive me but...........
All in all it's a time for celebration for the vast majority of football fans. Lets bloody well enjoy it to the full whilst it lasts!
If I've missed anything relevant please add below. Just like Dennis Law back heeling the ball into the net for City and confirming Man Utd's relegation in 1974 if you'll pardon the pun these are opportunities for us abu's that only happen once every blue moon!
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