THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

After a rubbish day, that has properly cheered me up.

Same as Liverpool bottling the league again has cheered me up over the last few weeks.

Oh come on. Aston Villa, Chelsea and Newcastle have all been hammered by injuries too

Bottled the league? Liverpool are nowhere near the level of Manchester City or Arsenal and haven't been at any point this season. The fact they stayed in the hunt so long is overachieving, if anything.

Well, for a start, two of those are within a couple of points of United, or have the same points, and have only just gone above them and are equally as far from the CL race. So the injuries have probably scuppered the hopes of all 3.

I don't know about Villa's injuries, but I highly doubt they've spent much of the season with one department decimated. Amount of injuries is one thinking. If spread OK they're manageable. Getting so many at the same time in the same position is the most debilitating for any club.

Obviously there's a lot more problems at United over the last decade that's the reasons we've not challenged for PL / CL post-Fergie. But the decline from top 3 and both domestic finals to what's happened this season has mostly been the huge amount of injuries. There's no doubt about that. We wouldn't have been challenging the likes of City or Arsenal, obviously. Because of those other problems. But no way would we be down at 8th.

Because the manager and fans just get on with it a no excuse culture there. Down to their 5th choice centre back earlier this season, playing wide men in central midfield, full backs on the wing as 5 wingers out injured, 3 ACL injuries this season the list goes on.

Every single team has been depleted by injuries this year some (Spurs, Newcastle and Man Utd) like to make the most noise about it

It's those pesky Glazers I tells ya

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"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

Man C, Liverpool and Arsenal are the top three for a reason: clear philosophies that runs through boardroom recruitment manager and players.

Man U and Chelsea are fucking basket cases: throwing good money after bad at players and managers with no coherent plan. That's why they're as shit as they are.

I'm interested to see how Ratcliffe instils a new ethos within Man U. Chelsea, on the other hand, will remain a team full of ladybits, run by ladybits for ladybits.

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

"Shut the fuck up, you sausage!"

Chelsea have players like Mudryk and Enzo, they're onto bigger tingz

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"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

Completely agree.
United have been terribly run since the Glazers took over, and only the genius of Fergie kept them winning major titles / reaching CL finals and delayed the decline until his retirement.

That's certainly why United are so far behind the top two (that and the 115 charges from the cheats!) But the nightmare injuries are the reason we've dropped as low as we have this season. But for those, it would have been the usual battle for CL spots with the teams in 3rd-5th.

Definitely interesting to see how Ratcliffe / INEOS goes about rebuilding. They're making some good appointments to address the off field footballing side such as recruitment. And the youth sides have been getting strong again for the last few years now all the way down the age groups. But it's going to take some time to rebuild the first team squad capable of getting back to challenging for the PL / CL.