United thread 2013/14 (continued)

[Prestwich_Blue]

Regarding the current crop of players or as they are still known Champions, the squad is as good as any in the Prem inc City,first eleven no,squad yes.
It's obvious the change of management hasn't gone down well with the experience players ,and it's looks like most of them will be off ski sooner than expected , but I,m sure they will purchase suitable replacements ,they have done in the past,so I can't see why that should change.

Let me tell you about this squad that is as good as any in the PL. Around Christmas time I was talking to a journalist who covers the Manchester clubs for one of the big papers. I've known this guy for some time and our families go back even further. Him (and some other journalists) had been briefed by club insiders about Moyes' plans for the squad. Of that established squad, there were 6 names considered not good enough.

Obviously Anderson was one, along with Valencia, Young & Nani. At the back Smalling and Jones were considered too limited and hadn't developed sufficiently. Moyes and Ferdinand don't speak after Rio lost his rag with Moyes, who told him he should aspire to be Phil Jagielka. Camelgob reeled off what he'd won and said to Moyes "Now - what the fuck have you & Phil Jagielka won?" In addition, Cleverley has been given another season to prove himself or he's out the door as well.

Of the new players Zaha simply didn't train well enough so they fucked him off and then there's Fellaini. When they train, they have two 'keep ball' circles with the technically better players in one and the others in the second. Fellaini apparently can't even reach the standard of the latter circle he is so poor technically. And that's what they paid £27.5m for (which is more than we paid for Silva, Nasri or Yaya). Evra would like to stay but there's no word one way or the other from the club.

So this squad now seems to consist of Rafael, Evans, Buttner, possibly Evra, Varela (who hasn't played), Carrick, Fletcher, Fellaini, Cleverley (who's on a last chance), Kagawa, Mata, Rooney, Januzaj, Welbeck, Hernadez and RVP.

And of those, Kagawa, Hernandez and van Persie are very unhappy, particularly the latter. That's your squad of "champions".

This just shows the lack of class and professionalism that Moyes has. A manager should not be briefing journalist information like that and either should the club. It should all be kept in house.

That's not the way things work though in practice. For years, politicians have leaked stuff and briefed journalists to ensure various outcomes, be that trailing policy announcements, talking themselves up or sticking the knife in their enemies.

From a football club's point of view, they manage the media for various reasons. In this case, it sets the agenda for a clear-out and prepares the fans so that they expect it when it actually happens. It also protects Moyes' back to a degree as it tries to imply that he's inherited a squad that isn't good enough and that's why it's underperforming. And mostly people have bought that, with very few questioning the fact it's the same squad that won the title last season. And the media tend to run this stuff because they know that if they play ball, they'll get more good stuff. No one actually reported it like that. some names were mentioned, such as Nani and Young but they weren't exactly surprises.

I know that, at City for example, we had to sell SWP in 2005 as he was the only saleable asset we had and we were skint. Almost as soon as the 2004/5 season drew to a close, the stories started about Chelsea's interest. These came from the club, in order to prepare the ground for his sale so by the time it happened, most fans were expecting it. I believe they were also briefing that he'd been advised to move by his dad. I'm no fan of Ian Wright but he was actaully telling him to stay another season so he's be sure of getting in the World Cup squad.

Something else they used to do was that any story involving the then CEO, had the words "...highly regarded Chief Executive...". This was to build uop his image in the press as he knew Thaksin wanted rid of him. This also led to loads of stories disparaging Thaksin.

 

[manimanc]

Utd don't buy success don't forget. ..
They tell us and everybody that they bring youth through...
The utd way is homegrown players coming through the system. ...
So could our resident armchair rag explain why utd are willing to spend between £100-£200 million on players?
I'm all ears as you lot have slagged us and chelsea off for doing it the "wrong way"

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

If they lose to Arsenal, he's gone.

If they beat Arsenal, he's helped City in our title push.

He's fucked eitherway :-)

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

If they lose to Arsenal, he's gone.

I very much doubt it.
They will give him the rest of the season and then see who is up for the gig once they have guaranteed a Europa League place.
And then realise most decent managers would rather flog the Big Issue, or sell their arse on Sackville Street, and end up with Tony Pulis.

 

[inchy14]

Just been sent this by a rag collegue

To the tune of Old McDonald.


With a cross cross here
And a cross cross there
Here a cross
There a cross
Everywhere a cross cross
Old McGollum has no clue
E I E I GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

 

[Zin 'messiah' Zimmer]

I can see gollum throwing in his chips

 

[moomba]

Janet jazz jazz jam has a certain ring to it.

 

[ewok]

Regarding the current crop of players or as they are still known Champions, the squad is as good as any in the Prem inc City,first eleven no,squad yes.
It's obvious the change of management hasn't gone down well with the experience players ,and it's looks like most of them will be off ski sooner than expected , but I,m sure they will purchase suitable replacements ,they have done in the past,so I can't see why that should change.

Let me tell you about this squad that is as good as any in the PL. Around Christmas time I was talking to a journalist who covers the Manchester clubs for one of the big papers. I've known this guy for some time and our families go back even further. Him (and some other journalists) had been briefed by club insiders about Moyes' plans for the squad. Of that established squad, there were 6 names considered not good enough.

Obviously Anderson was one, along with Valencia, Young & Nani. At the back Smalling and Jones were considered too limited and hadn't developed sufficiently. Moyes and Ferdinand don't speak after Rio lost his rag with Moyes, who told him he should aspire to be Phil Jagielka. Camelgob reeled off what he'd won and said to Moyes "Now - what the fuck have you & Phil Jagielka won?" In addition, Cleverley has been given another season to prove himself or he's out the door as well.

Of the new players Zaha simply didn't train well enough so they fucked him off and then there's Fellaini. When they train, they have two 'keep ball' circles with the technically better players in one and the others in the second. Fellaini apparently can't even reach the standard of the latter circle he is so poor technically. And that's what they paid £27.5m for (which is more than we paid for Silva, Nasri or Yaya). Evra would like to stay but there's no word one way or the other from the club.

So this squad now seems to consist of Rafael, Evans, Buttner, possibly Evra, Varela (who hasn't played), Carrick, Fletcher, Fellaini, Cleverley (who's on a last chance), Kagawa, Mata, Rooney, Januzaj, Welbeck, Hernadez and RVP.

And of those, Kagawa, Hernandez and van Persie are very unhappy, particularly the latter. That's your squad of "champions".

Nice post, very informative as per usual.

I'm curious to hear what you think will happen to Moyes? Do you think he'll get these two years a majority seem to think he's guaranteed? Struggle to see it myself as I can't see the Glazers being all sentimental and allowing him to continue to do the job as bad as he has so far.

 

[mc_red23]

Makes me piss that should United sack him that they will have to pay him for the remaining 4 years of his contract which I highly doubt will come cheap. He certainly won't be looking to quit the job that's for sure. The media's second darling won't want to be seen as a quitter, especially when he's looking at a potential huge kitty come the summer.

I will have to question the sanity of the execs at United should they fail to even consider replacing Gollum. They certainly won't be able to afford to blow their kitty on players likes Fellaini. Can't imagine what world class players could be persuaded to join a team that isn't in the Champions League or at least a team that has such a boring style of play under Moyes.

 

[jimharri]

None the less the same squad are current champions,only Anderson has left as yet.Most of them would get into City's squad,some of them in the City's first eleven ARGUABLY depending ,RVP ,Rooney,Evans ,Jones,Nani ( on form) De Gea,Kagawa,Fellani,Mata ,Evra even Smalling Welbeck and Carrick.