While it’s almost inconceivable that they could fail, you could see a set of circumstances where they could be impacted significantly. They’ve never been out of the CL for 2 or more consecutive seasons so let’s say they don’t qualify the next 2 seasons. Their revenue will almost certainly decrease while they have to spend more & more on players in their desperation to regain a top 4 place. Declining revenue & increasing outgoings could hit them quite hard eventually.
Or more likely the owners decide that there’s little financial benefit to spending the money necessary to be a top 4 club. Their revenue is around 600m with wages of 300m but they could do just as well if those figures were 500m and 200m or even 475m revenue with much less of that cash being eaten up by wages and fees.
Exactly. I've been saying this to my rag mates for the last couple of months (and have absolutely loved the looks on their faces as it slowly dawns on them that I'm 100% right).
United's ongoing malaise stems from their complete delusion about where they currently stand. In the last 6 seasons, the gap between them and the eventual champions has been 32 points, 19 points, 24 points, 15 points, 17 points, and 22 points. They have been nowhere near challenging for a title in all that time, yet they enter each transfer window thinking they're just one big signing away from turning things round.
The likes of Pogba and Sanchez are the final touches you add to an already successful team; they're not the characters you build things around from the start. This is where players like Gareth Barry, Nigel De Jong and Craig Bellamy are worth their weight in gold.
As much as their egos won't allow them to do this, United need to forget about the title for now. They're a million miles away from that and need to adjust their targets accordingly. Like us in 2008, their focus should be squarely on getting into the top 4 and then building from there to get up to 2nd/3rd, and so on. That challenge requires a certain type of player/mindset, and they seem completely incapable of identifying what that is.
The first stage is accepting where you stand. Once they do that, they shouldn't find it too difficult to build that functional if not spectacular team you talk about.
But as long as they continue thinking they can just take one giant step back to the top, they will remain a footballing irrelevance. Long may it last.
United thread = 75 pages
Liverpool thread = 48 pages.
The planet has righted itself, all is well in the world & normal business has resumed.
he doesn't even know where to park his car in the morningI will actually disagree with you here because selling off the big egos and rebuilding only works if you have the right structure in place.
To get a group of younger kids and small egos and build that into a title challenging squad you need a world class manager, a world class scouting department who makes sure the right kids for the manager are bought and a DoF who will go and get them. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer doesn't even know what he wants to do as a manager, there is zero chance he has the ability to form a top 4 team out of smaller pieces. The scouting department hasn't come up with an original idea for 5 years so either they are shite or they are ignored.
Pogba is Uniteds best player. Hes the top goalscorer, top assist provider, wins the ball back kroes than anyone else, touches the ball more than anyone else and of you look at any good bit of United play in the last 3 years, theres a 90% chance that Pogba was involved in it.
They do not have the necessary pieces at management level to replace Pogba and get a net positive result. More likely is they sell him and lose the half a dozen games a season where hes done something to pull a result out of thin air for them.
I really hope they sell him. If they do, 8th or 9th is on the horizon.
If United really want to fix themselves, they need to stop looking at the players entirely and fix the backroom.
Don't think you're disagreeing with me so much, just touching on an aspect I didn't cover in my post. I agree with a lot of what you've said. A big part of accepting where they currently stand is realising what a shambles they are in, not just on the pitch but at all levels of the club.I will actually disagree with you here because selling off the big egos and rebuilding only works if you have the right structure in place.
To get a group of younger kids and small egos and build that into a title challenging squad you need a world class manager, a world class scouting department who makes sure the right kids for the manager are bought and a DoF who will go and get them. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer doesn't even know what he wants to do as a manager, there is zero chance he has the ability to form a top 4 team out of smaller pieces. The scouting department hasn't come up with an original idea for 5 years so either they are shite or they are ignored.
Pogba is Uniteds best player. Hes the top goalscorer, top assist provider, wins the ball back kroes than anyone else, touches the ball more than anyone else and of you look at any good bit of United play in the last 3 years, theres a 90% chance that Pogba was involved in it.
They do not have the necessary pieces at management level to replace Pogba and get a net positive result. More likely is they sell him and lose the half a dozen games a season where hes done something to pull a result out of thin air for them.
I really hope they sell him. If they do, 8th or 9th is on the horizon.
If United really want to fix themselves, they need to stop looking at the players entirely and fix the backroom.
I think Pep influenced our transfer policy even before he officially came and we bought young players with enormous potential that Pep could bring on, Sterling being the obvious one. The Rags seem to be copying this policy but trying to do it on the cheap AND with the paperboy as the coach, he hasn't got the experience, knowledge or ability to do this and they are recruiting players that I do not think are good enough to develop.
Fun times ahead.