Gers wrote:
keyser soze wrote:
Gers wrote:
Plum wrote:
Gers wrote:
Why would anyone want to go to Man United? Who'd want to work at a club that finished mid-table, and were on towards the end of MOTD. In actual fact, MOTD spent longer on Ian Wright leaving the programme than they did on United. Why would anyone want to work in a stadium that's falling apart, and under someone who thinks Brexit is a good idea?
Today is just one of the many reasons why.
Even at a time when we're apparently a joke and a basket case of a club, etc, for finishing 8th - we also reached three of the 4 domestic finals, winning 2 of them, and finished 3rd the previous season.
They were good today, but it'd be churlish of you not to accept that they're on a downward spiral. No matter how many times they're on the telly, there's multiple shots of Ferguson. He's been gone for 11 years, yet it's still all about him. To contrast United with Arsenal. There's no ghost at the feast there. Wenger is almost never mentioned, they play in a state of the art stadium, a stadium that doesn't flood when it rains, and have an exciting young manager who's been given time to develop. In contrast to ten Hag who pre match was being widely reported to have been already sacked. I've no doubt they'll come good again. But they'll never be the dominant force in domestic and international football they once were. They're a spent force.
Never is a long time. They will be a force again. But maybe not in my lifetime.
As a boy, I was the only Man U fan in my school the year we got relegated to the then L2. Busby was then the ghost at the feast (you really do love Macbeth don't you?
). They went through lots of managers, over 20 years, without threatening the league title (but with the occasional cup win). Then the stars aligned with SAF.
That will happen again. Sometime.
These days, Ferguson would have been sacked before things turned around for both him and the club. So no, I genuinely believe that they're done. As someone has already said elsewhere, the press had decided that Arteta had to go. Arsenal ignored that, and look where they are now. In all honesty, I don't know why I'm referencing Arsenal here. I have no allegiance to them one way or the other.
And yes, I do love Macbeth, and have quoted it to The Current Mrs Gers today, as I do most days, when we were in B&M. '
Fair is foul and foul is fair'. An apt quote for that place if ever there was one.
Re: Arsenal. What's made it easier for them post-Wenger is that they weren't winning PL's or European titles in his final 15 years there anyway. They just won some FA Cups and competed for the 'Top 4 trophy'. So there wasn't a tough high standard of recent success to continue. Which I assume is why they get portrayed positively despite only winning one trophy - the FA Cup - post Wenger and continuing the 'Top 4 Trophy'.
Whereas United have won the FA Cup twice, League Cup twice, and Europa League post Fergie but that's mocked because he established such a high level of PL and CL success and continued doing so right up to his retirement.
Success is cyclical so, yeah, United have had the expected decline after the Fergie era. More competent owners would have managed that expected tricky period better and so, yeah, it's been worse than feared in terms of the PL and CL for the last decade.
But the INEOS involvement look like they're going to get things back on track off the field - some good appointments and dealing with the training ground and the main stadium (either redevelopment or a new one). And the youth development is still in a good place - winning things at all age groups, while two of the latest Academy products scored the goals today in the FA Cup final victory. All showing that the 4200+ consecutive games with an Academy player in the matchday squad, going back all the way to 1937, is showing no signs of ending any time soon!
It'll take time to get back to winning the two biggest competitions - PL and CL. But winning all the rest of the competitions during the 'bad' years (FA Cup, League Cup, Europa League) is still a trophy haul that 99% of clubs would love to achieve. So the 'negative" interpretation of that points to the fact that United are still in that top 1% and far from a spent force.