He's just a Scottish Sam Allardyce.
Man Utd
Man City
Chelsea
Some other team
He's just a Scottish Sam Allardyce.
Well that's our World Cup over. Did I mention I hate Suarez?
gg michel platini
there was a picture here
To be fair, Newcastle need to be beating wee clubs like Manchester United.
there was a picture here
Seven now. This should not even be the goal of the defending Premier League champions. To be blunt, if Man United had acquired a manager along the lines of Mourinho, Guardiola, Ancelotti, Pellegrini, Klopp, even Rafa god damn Benitez the goal would be to win, or at the very least challenge for the title. I'm not saying all of those names were available (some certainly were) but that's the calibre of manager a club like United should've aimed for, not a clogger like Moyes.Originally Posted by Loony BoB
It doesn't matter if Ferguson picked David Moyes. He may have picked Cantona, Keane and Ronaldo but he also picked Bebe, Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson. It took him ten, TEN goalkeeper signings (Bosnich, van der Gouw, Culkin, Taibi, Rachubka, Barthez, Goram, Carroll, Ricardo, Howard) before United finally had a solid keeper in Van der Sar. He's not infallible. He picked Moyes because he's his mate, not because he's any good.
United have to qualify for the Champions League. They have to, because the loss of revenue and status would be highly damaging. Once you're out, it's very, VERY hard to get back in... and as a Liverpool fan, I know all too well it's not as simple as you might think. I don't think you can flippantly say "It's only X points" when you consider the teams you need to chase down. Arsenal, Chelsea and City are all nailed-on, and that leaves one spot. You've got to beat Liverpool, Everton, Spurs, Newcastle and Southampton to get there. You need each one of them to smurf up. Given that most of these teams have actually beaten United, it isn't looking good.
Now is the time to gamble. If they don't hit 4th this season, the title will not be at Old Trafford for a long time. They need a smurfing huge transfer window. I mean a Chelsea or Man City level transfer window. Get 3 first team quality players and make a post Christmas charge. No decent players will want to touch them with a bargepole once they're out of the CL - again, as a Liverpool fan I know all too well. See Diego Costa and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Even Moyes shouldn't be able to smurf it up if United spend £50m+ in January. Right now he is doing things like rushing back a half-fit Van Persie and he looks desperate. I think his players know it.
Keep in mind that United are also one of the only teams to barely scratch past 50% of their revenue going towards player wages. We have a lot of room for use in case of emergencies, and I genuinely believe we will be okay in the long run, because we can afford to "do a City" and swamp our team with players with wages far higher than they should be if we want to get back into the CL spots should we fall shy of them. I will be very disappointed if Moyes did not get a CL spot, absolutely, but I don't believe in the panicstations fire-the-manager reactions that many go along with. Never have agreed with it, ever.
Keep in mind that while we have indeed struggled in the PL, we've also beaten Arsenal and recently got a record away victory in the CL against a team that sat (sit?) second in the Bundesliga, which is apparently the best league in Europe these days. We lack consistency, and that should come with time, as one would expect. Yes, we're getting disappointing results, but again, I don't agree with the panic that has come as a result.
Personally, my main point of disgust regarding the staff of Manchester United lies with the chairman, who didn't get any of the targets that actually sounded pretty great, and got the least appealing one of the lot for far more than we should have. Awful, awful chairmanship.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Ex-Preston and Everton manager Moyes will surely make use of his worldwide-reaching network of ex-colleagues and connections to make this happen.
there was a picture here
I do wish you wouldn't be so cynical, Manus. You make Moyes sound like the sort of bloke who'd have his dad doing scouting for him.Ex-Preston and Everton manager Moyes will surely make use of his worldwide-reaching network of ex-colleagues and connections to make this happen.
To be fair to Moyes, I agree with BoB that people don't need to be hitting panic stations yet. But I think people might at least want to figure out what the best route to them is if they don't have a better January transfer window than their summer one.
To be fair, SAF had his family scouting for him, too.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Yes, the fact I used the 'ę' might show I had to double-check that spelling...
4 points out of away trips to Utd and Arsenal? Yeah, I'll take that. Thought we were comfortably in control for large portions of that match (especially the first 40 minutes), though would have liked to have seen us challenge Szczęsny a bit more.
Sir Chesney.
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Manchester United's problems solved.
>cue DK posting that picture of Souness
EDIT: Anyway, here's my dau penneth on the Man Utd 'crisis' at the moment:
Firstly, it isn't a crisis. This time last season, Arsenal were in the same boat, except slightly worse off on 21 points in 10th place (United are on 22 points in 9th) and ended up comfortably making 4th place and the Champions League. I think that on paper, United this season are as good as (if not better) than Arsenal last season.
Secondly, I don't buy the "all the other top teams have improved but United haven't" argument. It might apply if United had been losing to all the top teams, but they haven't.
Manchester Utd losses so far:
Liverpool away
City away
West Brom home
Everton home
Newcastle home
Is it really a huge upset that United are losing to Liverpool and Man City away? Their other 'poor' results were draws against Southampton and Cardiff. The aforementioned argument would have to imply that West Brom, Southampton et al have improved beyond what United were last season, which is rubbish. I just think you can attribute United's form to a combination of them simply not playing very well, and Moyes. 'A transition period'? Look at what Martinez is already doing at Everton with a bunch of lads who were playing kick-and-rush hoofball 6 months ago and have lost their best player!
Thirdly, I meant it when I made the quip about Moyes' lack of clout in the transfer market. Managers primarily rely on players they have worked with in the past when making their first transfers. You can see it with Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, and the same thing has happened here, except unfortunately, sorry HeathEverton FC isn't exactly a free-for-all of experienced quality European footballers. The Swans have had a few changes of management in the last few years, and one of the biggest benefits of bringing in Laudrup is that he seems to know everybody involved in football on the continent. Hence we end up with bargains like Michu. I just can't see Moyes ringing up one of his Serie A chums and asking them about their next big thing.
So in conclusion, it's not a crisis, but it's a crisis.
Last edited by Old Manus; 12-09-2013 at 04:55 PM.
there was a picture here
United have a run of relatively easy and winnable fixtures coming up (whereas Liverpool have Spurs, Chelsea and City away in 3 of our next four games) so I actually genuinely expect United to be ahead of Liverpool and a few others when Christmas hits... hence why I have been taking advantage of this situation for as long as I can, as it's not often I see Liverpool 7 places ahead of United in the league table.
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