Tag Archives: premier league

Running on the Spot

Looking at the current form table, you’d be forgiven for thinking that United’s season has started to turnaround in recent weeks. 4 wins from the last 5 league games is perfectly agreeable as long as you don’t dwell on the quality of opposition faced or the state of the performances. Current league form aside, the European campaign has been a complete disaster and Newcastle ensured that they’ll be no repeat of last season’s Energy Drink Cup “triumph.”

The worst performance was saved for last month’s Manchester derby – an excruciating afternoon which once again highlighted the gaping chasm that exists between ourselves and our blue brethren. Back when we reigned supreme and City were a national laughing stock they at least used to turn up for this fixture more often than not. Watching United unleash their laboured half-press against the best team in Europe led to an entirely predictable outcome. Yet again, it wasn’t the defeat that stung, it was the sheer ease of it.

The run up to the game was dominated by the sad news of Sir Bobby Charlton’s passing. The term “legend” is bandied about so casually these days that the true meaning of the word can be diminished, but Sir Bobby was a genuine legend in the world of sport. I was lucky enough to meet him on a couple of occasions and each time found him to be a total gentleman, the opposite of the cold and brusque figure I’d heard others describe him as previously. An incredible man who lived an incredible life and who’ll never be forgotten.

As mentioned above, the team’s performances in Europe have done nothing to dampen the sense that United are out of their depth at CL level and the Europa would present a more realistic target. (Granted, Thursday nights are a pain in the arse as would be the absence of Saturday daytime kick offs). Bayern were always going to be tough opposition but Copenhagen and Galatasaray should be canon fodder for any team likely to reach the later stages.

Galatasaray were there for the taking at OT had the team maintained even a minimum level of composure after taking the lead – but we seem hellbent on conceding each time we score at present. The Copenhagen away game was United’s season encapsulated in 90 minutes. Only this team could be 2-0 up and coasting 5 mins before HT then contrive to get a man sent off and concede 2 goals prior to heading down the tunnel. I can’t even get mad at them as it’s just so bleakly comic.

Thanks to a brittle defence, crap refereeing, VAR punishing us at every opportunity and some inexplicably inept goalkeeping we could be classed as fortunate to have not been knocked out already. All we need to do now is win in Turkey (no biggie with our mentality monsters) then beat Bayern at home and we should be sorted. The likelihood is, sadly, that we’ve already been rolled over in Istanbul by the time you’re reading this.

I detest using injuries, referees or VAR as excuses but we seem utterly cursed at the moment. VAR results in at least double the amount of questionable decisions the technology was proposed to eradicate and in practice, proves no less subjective than a referee making an instant decision without back up. There’s no doubt it’s made the match day experience significantly worse and instead of highlighting goals incorrectly ruled out, seems far more focused on penalising players for minuscule offside transgressions or unavoidable handballs.

Sadly, there’s zero chance of common sense taking hold to put an end to the madness. There’s too much invested in VAR for it to be removed and I’d argue those in charge of the game actively welcome the constant debate around the subject. The never-ending controversy drives social media engagement and that’s how these organisations measure success. If Sky didn’t have it, how on earth would they fill the 25 hours of airtime spent droning on about the subject every single week? Not to mention the fact it now merits its own dedicated programme.

No team does seethe quite like Everton, so it was heartening to discover that United’s (probable) final visit to Goodison Park would see their perma-outraged support even more unhappy than usual – this of course, due to the PL handing them a 10 point deduction for PSR rule breaches between 2019 and 2022. Naturally, they aren’t happy with the decision at all, which has led to predictable cries of “corruption!” and plans for protest at forthcoming games.

Whilst I can sympathise and understand Everton fans’ frustrations, I don’t think the penalty they’ve received is all that egregious. Whilst the club were reportedly transparent with the numbers posted and worked hard to find a resolution with the PL, the fact is they broke the rules and they’ve been handed an appropriate punishment. As for the PL being corrupt, I’m not convinced about that either. They aren’t corrupt, they’re just inept and incapable of controlling the cesspit of billionaires they’ve collated over the last couple of decades.

What must rankle most from an Evertonian perspective is the fact they’ve been charged once and found guilty, whereas a certain other club have been charged 115 times yet continue to deny all culpability whilst claiming to possess reams of evidence proving their innocence. This evidence, presumably, the same as what was presented to the PL during the 4 year investigation which resulted in the 115 charges in the first place.

Clearly, it’s easier to rule on a single charge than a total of 115, but the fallout from this isn’t going away until the PL reach a conclusion and administer some kind of justice for what appears to be multiple breaches of their own rules. It might take another couple of years of stalling tactics and further appeals, but we all know what’s coming eventually. City fans can continue to deny it whilst their Abu Dhabi paymeisters spend another billion on the greatest collection of lawyers ever assembled but it’s inevitable. I honestly cannot wait.

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Deja vu

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United is a soap opera at the best of times, but this last month played out as if there’s a team of behind-the-scenes scriptwriters devising the scarcely credible stream of calamities occurring on an almost daily basis. It’s been absolutely relentless. So much so that you’d be forgiven for thinking the much vaunted “cultural reset” that occurred during ETH’s first year in charge was somewhat overstated. One might even go as far to suggest that it could be time for another.

Firstly (and predictably) Mason Greenwood got shunted off to Getafe once the realisation hit that Arnold & Co weren’t going to be able to re-integrate him into the squad without causing a major PR stink. Quite how it took an internal investigation lasting several months to reach this conclusion I’ve no idea, given it was patently obvious from the moment that video started circulating he would never play for the club again. Naturally in taking an excruciatingly long time to make the decision (not to mention performing a u-turn en-route) United managed (also predictably) to score a PR own goal anyway. Absolutely brilliant work all round lads, well done.

Greenwood’s new employers wasted no time in confirming how they would handle any potential fallout caused by their new acquisition. Now you might think given his notoriety, a carefully worded statement exuding calm and sensitivity might be in order. Nope, scrub that. Instead, their socials manager demonstrated the composure of a 15 year old boy fresh off a 48 hour Fortnite bender, amped up on Prime and Strawberry Elf Bars. “Our guy Mase” was heralded in a stream of training ground pics as they revelled in the attention and hoovered up new followers on twitter. Still, if a few thousand “Starboy” apologists have now switched allegiances to Getafe this could turn out to be a positive thing.

During the post-mortem that followed defeat at the Emirates, it was revealed that Jadon Sancho had been omitted from the squad following sub-par performances in training that week. It comes as no surprise to learn he isn’t cutting it during practice sessions given his underwhelming contribution to the vast majority of games he’s appeared in over the last 2 years. Indeed, such is the player’s complete lack of impact at United, Ten Hag’s interview was the first time it occurred to me that he hadn’t featured that day. Normally you’d expect a player to take a public dressing down on the chin and vow to improve. Unfortunately not, as nothing emitting from the confines of Carrington can be described as normal at present.

In his infinite wisdom, Sancho took to twitter to refute the allegations, claiming “I have been a scapegoat for a long time.” I’m not certain if this broadside was aimed solely at Ten Hag, given that he’s only the latest in a number of managers and coaches to question the player’s discipline and take umbrage at his timekeeping. One can only assume being granted a 3 month leave of absence last season to work on his fitness levels was a part of this scapegoating process as well? Poor misunderstood Jadon.

Given this occurred at the start of the international break, Sancho had ample opportunity to sort this out quietly but you figured something was amiss when he was pictured at some event in NYC a couple of days later. Nothing was resolved at a Carrington summit meeting scheduled for the following Monday, so the club then issued a statement announcing the player would be training alone for the foreseeable, “pending resolution of a squad discipline issue.” Cool. Quite honestly, I don’t require any further updates to this story as I’ve heard enough already. See you later, sunshine – don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

The next bombshell to drop concerned Antony and allegations of domestic abuse that first surfaced in South America a few months back. The story gained traction after a couple more women presented evidence to the media, leading to him being dropped from the Brazilian national squad. United responded by granting him an indefinite leave of absence, so in the space of 4 days we were now £150M-worth of highly erratic wingers down. Ten Hag must have felt some relief at his own baldness at this point, otherwise I’m certain he would’ve been pulling his hair out.

Away from all the off-the-pitch shenanigans, match days have provided little respite. Numerous mitigating factors have conspired against us so far. A full blown injury crisis, key players out of form and some refereeing shockers haven’t helped, but it’s not overly critical to state that it’s been a fairly abysmal start to the season. A fortuitous win over Wolves (masking the fact that we were outplayed for long stretches) and a stirring comeback after being 0-2 down to Forest after 4 minutes being the only highlights. Aside from that, it’s been grim viewing for the most part.

The point has been made before, but it’s pretty clear that prioritising lucrative exhibition games and racking up thousands of air miles ahead of proper pre-season training is terrible preparation for a fresh campaign. Every opponent faced so far has looked fit, fresh and hungry whereas United have struggled to maintain focus and intensity for 90 minutes. We start brightly enough, miss a couple of sitters, concede and then capitulate completely. It’s all becoming a bit predictable. Rinse and repeat.

I’m duty-bound to give a nod to the Glazers for their role in this mess, so shoutout to them too for ensuring new faces rock up at the last possible moment leaving no time to integrate them into the squad. The fact that a club of United’s size has to rely on loan signings at all is quite ridiculous, yet here we are again with Sergio Reguilon arriving on deadline day to go straight in as first choice left-back. Don’t even get me started on the options available at right-back, where you’ve got the equally abysmal Wan Bissaka and Dalot competing in their weekly “who’s looking the least shit to ensure selection” duel.

There’s little doubt that once we get some players back and things settle down, results will start to improve. Unfortunately, that’s going to take some time and until then the noise surrounding the club and pressure is only going to intensify. Plugging the omnipresent leaks and driving out malignant dressing room influences remains an ongoing process and there’s no quick fix. As I’m sure the manager is quite aware by now, this is just how it is at Manchester United. Clearly, the quickest way to end this current “crisis” is to start winning football matches again. Turning this around in the next few weeks is Ten Hag’s biggest test so far.

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How Was It For You?

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Having dreaded it for years, City winning the European Cup and completing the treble didn’t turn out to be the end of days scenario I’d anticipated. Like the FA Cup final that preceded it, I can’t say I enjoyed it much and it’s not something l’d like to repeat, but a week-long news blackout ensured I missed the worst and it was easy enough to swerve the blues I encounter going about my daily business. If anything, at least I’ll never again experience on that January-onwards fear that this might be their year and spend the next 4 months willing them to fuck it up. It’s happened now, it’s done. Nothing that bad can ever happen again, at least until next May.

I can’t be alone in thinking that the expected barrage of media coverage was a tad muted compared to when United completed the same feat back in ‘99. I’m not trying to belittle their achievement or claim some sort of moral victory, it’s genuinely how I perceived it. Whether they care to admit to it or not, there was a palpable indifference from the wider football community probably because… well, to put it extremely politely, some of some of the methods used in attaining their current level of footballing immortality have been somewhat questionable. To borrow a couple of cliches, whilst their success proves that cheats do prosper, it also appears true that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

Closer to home, the shortened summer break has seen all eyes focused on the club’s continued attempts at piecing together a squad capable of usurping our blue brethren and challenging them for the title. It’s an exhaustive process fraught with difficulty at the best of times, made even more difficult this time out by FFP requirements and the lack of financial certainty due to the ongoing takeover. At least the objectives were clear enough, we needed a goalkeeper, a striker and midfield options minimum.

After a slow start during which the club’s media team had nothing to report whatsoever for a few weeks… ok lads, we get there’s a new kit, you might have mentioned it several hundred times… De Gea was the first to make a move when he announced he was leaving. No complaints here as his departure was long-overdue, but you have to say the manner in which it was handled wasn’t the best. For a club obsessed with social media optics, it’s not the best of looks when a player with 500-odd appearances departs having had a long-standing contract offer withdrawn. I suppose we should just be thankful that common sense is back in the building because I don’t think I could’ve handled watching his attempts at playing out from the back for another 3 years.

I’ve seen nothing of his replacement previously but going off several YouTube clips floating about, Onana looks to be the complete opposite of his predecessor. Having watched a keeper rooted to his goal line for the last dozen or so years, it looks like the Cameroonian is a full-on Barthez-esque lunatic with a penchant for sprinting out to the halfway line at regular intervals. Honestly? This new development probably won’t end well but I’m trying to focus on the positives for now. He can’t be any more detrimental to the team’s progress than De Gea was throughout the duration of last season.

As usual, the ridiculous wages offered by United mean we struggle to offload faces deemed surplus to requirements. Ideally, the likes of Fred, Martial, McTominay and Maguire should have been moved on by now, but it’s difficult to achieve this when they’re earning double what anyone else is prepared to pay them. On a positive note, it’s an encouraging sign that the manager can at least see where upgrades are needed if we’re going to compete at the very top level again. As things stand, all remain up for sale and a couple might be shifted by the end of the window if we’re lucky.

The Mason Mount signing was a strange one in that I figured it might signal game over for Sancho, but it looks like we’re persisting there for another year at least. Presumably Mount has been bought to play deeper than he has done previously because his natural position is Bruno’s domain. We need more discipline in there to counteract Bruno’s waywardness and Mount has never stood out as that sort of player to me. I’d argue we’ve overpaid for a position we already had covered and we’re still short of a quality holding midfielder to complement Casemiro and improve on the consistency Fred and McTominay offer.

As regards a striker, the obvious preferred choice was Kane but that was always unlikely given the numbers involved – though there’s still a part of me thinking United could be biding their time for a surprise move as the end of the window draws nearer. Let’s face it, he doesn’t strike me as the kind of bloke who’d be entirely comfortable living abroad and I’m convinced Manchester would be his preferred destination if it were entirely up to him. Hojlund is exactly the profile of player the club should be looking to sign but it’s a huge ask for him to come in, settle and adapt to English football whilst taking on the main goalscoring burden at such a young age.

All doubts aside, it’s nice to see the club operating with a degree of efficiency again as opposed to the haphazard nature of our transfer dealings in recent years. We’re still overpaying for players but that’s not surprising since we’ve become notorious for doing precisely that. Selling clubs can probably sense the desperation. Despite certain improvements, United remain hamstrung by the Glazer ownership model and will continue to struggle as long as they have a stranglehold over the club’s finances.

Whilst I’m not surprised the potential sale is dragging on as long as it has – the assumption it would be boxed off in a period of weeks was always wide of the mark – I’m genuinely mystified as to why we’re still awaiting a decision on the future of Mason Greenwood. To me it’s an absolute no brainer what should happen and anything other than moving him on would be absolutely catastrophic in PR terms. It honestly defies belief that the club haven’t already reached this conclusion, but the longer it drags on I fear they’re going to do something really stupid and offer him the opportunity to resurrect his career at OT.

I understand that although his current value is diminished, Greenwood remains an asset who is potentially worth a lot of money. As a consequence, the club might be unwilling to write this off knowing his value could increase dramatically if he moves elsewhere and scores a load of goals. Honestly though, I couldn’t care less if that happens because his future shouldn’t be at Manchester United. His army of supporters on twitter will be up in arms at the mere suggestion, but some things are bigger than football and the club should send out a message about what it considers acceptable conduct for United players. They need to do the right thing here, despite the possibility of losing out financially.

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