Manchester United's Headliners, Articles and Rumours

[Tai_zi21]

Some of our fav old guards playing...

[asiancigar]

Neil Humphreys: Put football first or be left behind, Man United
Red Devils must listen to Ferguson, not accountants

Manchester United's greatest success is also their biggest problem. Sir Alex Ferguson is still around. He's the ghost that keeps on giving grief to everyone in the boardroom.

He was in the dugout yesterday, as the Red Devils' Treble-winning stars played a charity match against Bayern Munich, reminding everyone inside Old Trafford of what United once were.

With Ferguson, the Red Devils were used to winning - collecting the superior Treble of the Champions League, English Premier League and FA Cup in 1999 - and 35 other titles.

Under vice-chairman Ed Woodward, United win lucrative sponsorship deals with official noodle partners in Asia.

And that interminable struggle between football men and finance men appears to be at a tipping point. Someone, somewhere, has clearly had enough.

On the day that Fergie's Treble winners took hopeless romantics on a giddy trip down memory lane, a story popped up in the Daily Mail (and later picked up in other British media

Fergie wanted Mauricio Pochettino to succeed Jose Mourinho, according to the report. Fergie didn't fancy Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as full-time manager. Fergie wasn't consulted on football matters any more.

Fergie was out of the picture.

Woodward ran the club from top to bottom, a point underlined by those noodle, tyre and paint sponsors, along with the £52 million (S$90m) lavished on Fred.

The football men had lost. The financiers had won and Fergie's frustrations found their way into the newspapers on the very day that a nostalgic Old Trafford remembered the most successful side in the club's history.

As clandestine operations go, the revelations rivalled a classic CIA "black op", planting a story through a high-ranking "source" to influence the masses.

At the time of writing, the story hadn't been confirmed or denied, but still managed to say out loud what everyone else was thinking.

The Red Devils are a mess, an unmitigated disaster, reduced to tabloid tittle-tattle to get their longstanding grievances aired in public.

FARCE

If Ferguson genuinely feels neglected by the fading empire that he once created, then it's a tragedy. If Woodward really has ignored the counsel of Ferguson and anyone else who has been in the dressing room in anything other than a business suit, then it's a comedy.

If both sides are leaking stories, then it's a farce.

Even at the height of his managerial powers, Ferguson was known to play favourites in the media, relying on a chosen few to get any desired messages across to his various foes.

And the Red Devils still find themselves in the invidious position of dealing with an abdicated king. Managers are often considered football royalty with one obvious difference. Royals die, but coaches retire. The awkwardness lingers.

Liverpool didn't know what to do with Bill Shankly after he retired, choosing to give him almost no power - a grudge he bore to the very end.

United sought to learn from their rivals' mistake by giving Sir Matt Busby his own office, a say in recruitment and an omnipresent shadow that overwhelmed almost every successor until Ferguson.

So a compromise was attempted with Ferguson. He was more than a club ambassador, but less than a director of football. His advice was always there, if wanted, but he had no influence in day-to-day matters.

Ferguson was, in essence, neither here nor there.

And now, at the age of 77, Ferguson looms over Woodward like the Grim Reaper, reminding the vice-chairman of his failure to maintain a fading empire.

No wonder Woodward reportedly doesn't want Ferguson around and avoids discussing football matters with a manager who lifted 38 trophies.

It's no surprise they are rarely photographed together either. The symbolism would be too hard to miss. The football man represents the club's past. The finance man represents the club today.

Ferguson certainly isn't infallible. He saw a younger incarnation of himself in David Moyes and ended up damaging the credibility of both himself and the club.

But equally, he had a private lunch with Pochettino in 2016 and publicly expressed his admiration for the coach. His suggestion that United delay hiring Solskjaer, in the hope of tempting Pochettino, allegedly went ignored.

Ironically, it appears that Solskjaer's appointment wasn't a return to Ferguson's philosophy, but a rejection of it.

Woodward isn't obligated to listen to a 77-year-old retiree, but the banker's insistence on overseeing managerial appointments and player transfers clearly isn't working either.

United's inner circle of accountants aren't qualified to make the right decision on a manager any more than Ferguson is qualified to secure a lucrative deal with the club's official mattress and pillow provider.

At some point, Manchester United must decide what kind of football people they want to listen to, if they want to remain a serious football club.

[Tai_zi21]

[PaulMerson]

Signing Daniel James for £15m will not help Man Utd.

Not sure ever get to play first team.

[TwinTowers]

Originally Posted by PaulMerson

Signing Daniel James for £15m will not help Man Utd.

He's a speedy player . Practically outruns defenders.

[PaulMerson]

Rio Ferdinand admits he is interested in becoming Manchester United's first technical director but says the role has not yet been defined by the club.

https://www.skysports.com/football/n...ard-at-chelsea

Any comment?

What about Ed Woodward?

[Tai_zi21]

Originally Posted by PaulMerson

Rio Ferdinand admits he is interested in becoming Manchester United's first technical director but says the role has not yet been defined by the club.

https://www.skysports.com/football/n...ard-at-chelsea

Any comment?

What about Ed Woodward?

Ed Woodward should just fuck off... what the fuck does he know about signing of player?

[asiancigar]

Originally Posted by Tai_zi21

Ed Woodward should just fuck off... what the fuck does he know about signing of player?

As long as the blood-sucking Glazers and fucking moron Woodward are running the club, we will end up year in year out fighting for 6th to 8th place, never to hope for any silverware and losing out on good players.

CCB.....

[PaulMerson]

Originally Posted by asiancigar

As long as the blood-sucking Glazers and fucking moron Woodward are running the club, we will end up year in year out fighting for 6th to 8th place, never to hope for any silverware and losing out on good players.

CCB.....

Lukaku wants to leave.

[PaulMerson]

Who the hell is Wan-Bissaka worth £50mil?

[asiancigar]

Manchester United fans take to Twitter to vent frustrations in new #GlazerOut protest

Manchester United fans haven’t had it easy of late, and in the last 24 hours, it seems like their army of worldwide fans have had enough!

Aside from Manchester United‘s own on-field struggles, United fans have seen rivals Man City win three of the last six Premier League titles, while also watching Liverpool’s resurgence which has culminated in two successive Champions League finals.

The club have had plenty of struggles on the field, but there have also been plenty of issues off of it too, with Gary Neville famously going on an epic rant in which he described the club as ‘rotten to the core‘, as well as consistently aiming thinly veiled attacks on executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.

The former investment banker has come in for plenty of flak in his six years in charge at Old Trafford, consistently failing to deliver transfer targets, as well as seemingly flip-flopping from one idea to another, such as the type of managers that he has hired.

Reports emerged last year that he wanted to appoint a Director of Football, yet months later, nobody has taken the role, with Rio Ferdinand revealing that the exact role hasn’t even been fully defined, with Woodward seemingly reluctant to give up power.

Then, with the club handing new contracts to the likes of Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Ashley Young and now Juan Mata, the United faithful have seemingly had enough, and have taken to Twitter to resurrect a campaign against their owners, the Glazer family.

At 20:05 on Wednesday – to correspond with the Glazers 2005 takeover on the same date – there was a coordinated campaign to get #GlazersOut trending on twitter, and the response was nothing short of incredible, with the hashtag trending worldwide.

Twitter:

14 years.
Over £1bn drained from the club.
Still in debt.
Club in ruins.
Team full of deadwood.
Boardroom full of clueless clowns.
6 year title drought.
No sign of improvement.

Our history wasn’t theirs to buy, our future isn’t theirs to gamble.

Time to go. #GlazersOut.

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Enough is Enough - Manchester Utd is a football club not a cash cow to be Milked #GlazersOut

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In the last 19 months, Manchester United have turned over circa 1.1 billion

In the same time we have a net spend of 60m. 5.4% of the clubs turnover.

If you don't think this is a problem, you are part of the problem#GlazersOut

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Old Trafford decaying

Deadwood squad

No recruitment strategy

Woodward in charge of recruitment for 6 years

£1billion + drained from the club

£496m in debt

£768m paid in interest

£80m paid in dividends since 2012

£75m paid in directors fees since 2011

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If you don't support the #GlazersOut campaign then in my opinion you are part of the problem. Stop thinking it won't work and join us in trying to make it work. The more that join the campaign the more chance we have of getting the leeches out. Unite to fight for United.

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Please... JUST GO NOW! #glazersout

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We've all had enough #GlazersOut

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Read more = https://twitter.com/hashtag/GlazersO...ing-twitter%2F

[PaulMerson]

So far the transfer had been disappointing.

Not sure how they can challenge for title?

Sanchez worth £500k per week and that's a humongous sum.

[Tai_zi21]

Originally Posted by PaulMerson

So far the transfer had been disappointing.

Not sure how they can challenge for title?

Sanchez worth £500k per week and that's a humongous sum.

Let be realistic here

They won’t be challenging for the title next year... as much as I wish it will... it won’t be happening

In fact I do think our baby face manager won’t even last through the whole season and will get sack mid way...

[imom]

Originally Posted by Tai_zi21

Let be realistic here

They won’t be challenging for the title next year... as much as I wish it will... it won’t be happening

In fact I do think our baby face manager won’t even last through the whole season and will get sack mid way...

Next season? Not for another 3 seasons at least. Still much trouble behind the scenes. Solskjaer given only 100M for transfers (he needs to sell to raise funds), the tech director job still not defined, Woodward's piss poor transfer dealings, etc, etc.

https://global.espn.com/football/blo...et-this-summer

All the details above.

And yes, they are already putting the nails in Solskjaer's managerial coffin with their current shenanigans.

[Shiofukis]

Originally Posted by PaulMerson

Who the hell is Wan-Bissaka worth £50mil?

Woohoo... going to sign the dotted line soon! Baby faced manager 2nd signing