THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

As much as the PL is a never-ending soap opera, I think there's a reason why certain big teams are struggling and certain ones aren't.

Man City, Liverpool and now Arsenal have clear philosophies in what they're doing, in terms of style of play, types of players and overall approach - running through the boardroom, transfer strategy, manager and players. Mikel Arteta might be an annoying reanimated Action Man, but it's remarkable what he's done to make Arsenal a young team without any superstar names that's more than the sum of its parts. Especially given how close the media were at one point to getting him sacked.

At the other end of the scale, Manchester United and Chelsea are rudderless ships. There doesn't seem to be any clear strategy: just throwing good money after bad at players and managers in the hope that they stumble upon a winning formula. There might be green shoots of a revival at Man Utd with Ratcliffe: if they can have a clear-out and start building a team around young players like Amad, Mainoo and Hojlund, then they could become a force again, but that will take a few years and a lot of patience. Chelsea, despite their good run of form at the end of this season, are a basket case IMO.

Spurs are kind of stuck in the middle. Ange is a good manager and clearly wants to build a long-term team, but his comments after the Man City game suggest he's being held back by the usual Spursy/Levy constraints.

All just my opinion of course: Chelsea will probably win the league next season now I've said all that.

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"You bought a bank out of social embarrassment? I sometimes buy the Big Issue out of social embarrassment. I don't buy a fucking bank!"

I agree with all of that.
Though I think it's also important to add that in order to get to the position they're in as quickly as possible, Man City of course did an awful lot of dodgy financial dealings as their 115 FA charges, and previous UEFA ones (scuppered by time lapse and expensive lawyers / loopholes), highlight.

Arsenal and Liverpool have done it in a more legal way (as much as I hate to praise Liverpool). But, as you say, all three very successfully run from top to bottom. As were United pre-Glazers. But, yeah, United under the Glazers, and Chelsea post-Abramovich, are the complete opposite.

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.

Yanited got just about everything right today. Fantastic defending and great attacking on the breaks.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

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.

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For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.

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.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

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.

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For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.

If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not...

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

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.

Not surprised they've opted to keep ETH for now. With the underwhelming alternatives out there, I think it's probably the right decision for now. There's already plenty of changes in other roles to try and get concluded over the summer, which all make the transfer dealings more awkward until they're employed in those roles (as does a summer tournament), so probably best just to keep some stability with the same manager and continue with the transfer planning that's in place rather than have another major change taking place at the same time.

I'm a little doubtful about the suggested 'new contract' part. I can understand taking up the existing extra year option on the current contract, just so that he's got a bit more security and assurance going into next season (which would be his last year otherwise). But as his reign could still go either way (hence the review), I still think that how next year goes is pretty much a decider as to whether more is weighted towards the two good cup wins and a 3rd placed finish or towards the 8th placed finish and poor CL campaign.