(Photo from Goal.com)
Manchester United are in a state of disarray. That is an understatement on my part, but the direction of the club seems to have nosedived into a comical farce from the perspective of all rival fans. Following an expected 3-0 home defeat to noisy neighbours Manchester City, tension and unease cloud the air at the Theatre of Dreams, especially after the news that a potential takeover from Sheik Jassim has been squashed by the Glazer family’s unwillingness to concede full control of the club to the Qatari. The fans are furious with the ongoings both on and off the pitch, but nothing seems to be changing. As I try not to smash my head against the table, we will walk through the many controversies that have been plaguing United over these last couple of years to see where the ultimate problems lie.
The Glazers
The main source is frustration from Manchester United fans right now is rightly aimed at the Glazer family and their horrible ownership over the club. After 18 years of murmuring and hatred festering from the fans towards their American owners, the Glazer family last year announced that they were looking at opportunities for exploring strategic alternatives for the club. A statement from Manchester United’s official website stated that:
“As part of this process, the Board will consider all strategic alternatives, including new investment into the club, a sale, or other transactions involving the Company. This will include an assessment of several initiatives to strengthen the club, including stadium and infrastructure redevelopment, and expansion of the club’s commercial operations on a global scale, each in the context of enhancing the long-term success of the club’s men’s, women’s and academy teams, and bringing benefits to fans and other stakeholders.”
Fans were clamouring for a full sale, with a vast array of excited investors all chomping at the bit to have the opportunity to own arguably the biggest commercial club in the world. Months and months went by and the investors started dropping like flies at the jaw-dropping asking price that the Glazer’s had set for the club. This left only one runner in the race, Sheik Jassim, the former prime minister of Qatar. He is a big supporter of Manchester United and was planning for a 100% sale that came with the wiping of the substantial debt accumulated by the Glazers, as well as investment not only into the club, but the surrounding Greater Manchester area. Fans were dreaming about new stadiums, new players, an investor that loves the club and has the capability to bring it back to where it should be. But alas, all dreams must come to an abrupt awakening eventually. After a reported record £5 billion offer for 100% of the club, the Glazer’s rejected the Sheik’s final offer as he walked away from the saga. It seems as if the Glazer family got cold feet about a full sale, with it seemingly cemented that Sir Jim Ratcliffe will take a 25% stake of the club in the near future. The Glazers are going nowhere. On top of this, Sir Jim is having to take out a loan in order to acquire this share, making me wonder where any actual investment is coming from? We are just going to see more dividends coming out of the club and into those rich men’s pockets.
On the Pitch
On the pitch I see no identity, no style of play, no passion. Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson were a team truly feared, Manchester United now are a team that you can get an easy 3 points from. Long gone is the dominant and free flowing attacking football, instead we are plagued with watching 11 individuals that for the most part have no real interest or desire in working together. No pressing, no passion, no patience. Teams are turning up to Old Trafford and are allowed to play free flowing and expansive football whilst Old Trafford sits in silence, the fans with their heads in their hands looking at the state of their team. I cannot sit here and tell you the last time I watched United and thought we outplayed a team. In the last few weeks we’ve scraped wins against Copenhagen, Sheffield United, and Brentford. Injured players or not I cannot see for the life of me what half of these players are still doing in a Manchester United shirt. The clear-out in the summer simply wasn’t enough. Players are strolling back on defence, misplacing passes more frequently than successful passes, moaning and sulking when things don’t go their way. As a United fan I am embarrassed.
As much as I want to give Erik Ten Hag the benefit of the doubt following a successful season last year, I cannot understand what style of football he is trying to implement at Old Trafford. We were teased with seeing a high intensity pressing style of play, electric on the counter attack and merciless with our chances. What I am seeing now is everyone running away when we are in possession, offering no attacking link up and simply waiting for a long ball from Onana most of the time. His signings as of late have baffled me as well, I was willing to trust him in his first season after seeing the immediate impact that Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro had on the team. But Antony? Mason Mount? Getting rid of De Gea like he was a piece of trash? I cannot understand these decisions and they certainly are not paying out on the pitch right now. A set of back to back 3-0 defeats at home has really put the pressure on Ten Hag, to which he has rolled out the usual spiel about sticking together and that these dark times won’t last forever, but reports are starting to come out that he has lost the changing room. Once that comes out its’s only a matter of time before the manager’s time is up these days.
I don’t see what will change if United get rid of Ten Hag, we will just be in the same cycle that keeps repeating itself since Ferguson left. A new manager will come in, things will look alright for the first season and then these same issues will happen. The money will dry up for signings, the players we bring in won’t be good enough, the manager loses the changing room and gets sacked, rinse and repeat. That being said, I’m really struggling to pinpoint what style of play Ten Hag is bringing. One thing that makes me want to stick with Ten Hag is the fact that even if United do get rid, who would they bring in to replace him? The papers are already talking about Graham Potter coming in once Sir Jim Ratcliffe has his 25%, which makes me really sad thinking about it. My worst nightmare would be for Gareth Southgate to eventually become United manager. Before I get myself too worked up, the players need to show some grit and determination in order to try and turn things around. A lot of them seem satisfied with the failings of this once illustrious club and as long as they pick up their hefty pay slips they won’t mind. It seems that certain players are waiting for Ten Hag to leave which unfortunately shows the power that the players hold in the modern game, I couldn’t even begin to imagine this sort of thing happening under Ferguson. Another shoddy performance against Fulham somehow resulted in a 1-0 win in the 90th minute, perhaps giving Ten Hag another few weeks. But as we saw against City, these sorts of performances are going to get us nowhere in the end.
Footballing Decisions
I am honesty impressed with how many footballing decisions Manchester United get wrong, it starts to get really funny seeing how out of touch and behind the times we are in our business. It seems for every 10 decisions we make, 9 of them will be absolutely catastrophic, whilst the other one will be just a slight blunder that we can get away with due to how awful the other decisions are. When you look at the footballing decisions that teams like City, Liverpool, and even Arsenal are making, it is abundantly clear that our decision makers are so far behind the times, resulting in terrible decisions that happen more and more frequently. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer and Ralf Rangnick both identified key players that they needed in order to build a strong core for the club to lead them through the next era, to which the decision makers upstairs said no and got them terrible alternatives. Some of these players include Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice, Julian Alvarez, Luis Diaz, Harry Kane, all of which are absolutely smashing it at the clubs they eventually went to. Meanwhile, we brought in players like Daniel James, Harry Maguire (for £80 million no less), Donny Van De Beek, Jason Sancho, Antony, Wout Weghorst, and Mason Mount. I still cannot believe we let James Maddison go to Spurs for £35 million unchallenged, whilst we decide to spend £55 million on Mason Mount in the final year of his contract. It keeps me up at night.
These other teams with competent decision makers very rarely make a mistake, especially compared to the shambles at United. For every Mason Mount, there is a Jeremy Doku. For every Antony there is a Luis Diaz. For every Harry Maguire there is a Ruben Dias. For every Dan James there is a Julian Alvarez. I could go on for quite frankly an alarming amount of time and I could tell you perhaps one instance where we signed either a good player or got a good deal. There have been very few success stories during these turbulent times, such as the signing of Bruno Fernandes, but I am really struggling to find another success story after that. I don’t even necessarily believe that it is a result of a complete lack of funds from the Glazers either. Believe me, I love bashing the Glazers as much as the next man, the stadium is rotting, the training ground is nowhere near Premier League standard, but the fact is that there has been significant money spent on players in these last few years. Around £200 million has been spent this window alone, all on players that are not up to standard. I believe that Rasmus Hoijlund has the potential to be a top player eventually, his movement as a striker and his ability to hold the ball up are something we haven’t had in a centre forward in a while, but he is rather raw at this current stage and will certainly not be firing us to any titles anytime soon. But £55 million on Mason Mount. £50 million on Andre Onana who has had a very shaky start to his Old Trafford career, especially considering he is following perhaps the greatest goalkeeper to have ever played for Manchester United in David De Gea. Replacing a keeper is a monumental task, which we saw during De Gea’s first season at the club, I feel it wasn’t a position that needed addressing as urgently as another winger, a holding midfielder, or a centre half. But again, people are getting paid a stupid amount of money to make these stupid decisions. I have had to watch my club line up with a centre half partnership of Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans in 2023. It doesn’t get much more depressing than that.
Controversies
Oh boy it hasn’t been easy being a United fan over these last few years. The image of the club has been constantly tarnished through the post-Ferguson era, with players primarily being at the centre of any controversies. What springs to mind most recently is the falling out between Erik Ten Hag and Jadon Sancho, with the England winger being completely frozen out of Ten Hag’s plans, to the point where he is training separately and has been kicked out of the United WhatsApp group (ouch). Videos surfaced of Sancho’s lacklustre efforts in training, along with substandard performances in games, prompting Ten Hag to drop the player from his team. Ten Hag had told the press that Sancho hadn't been performing in training, with the England international taking to social media to hit back at the allegations - a move that went down badly with his boss. The £73million signing from Dortmund is now being forced to train with academy players. Sancho is said to be unhappy with the way he is being treated at United but is refusing to apologise to Ten Hag, despite having deleted the controversial social media post. Man United sources, meanwhile, have confirmed the situation between Sancho and Ten Hag has reached an "impasse", with no way back for the player until he decides to apologise to his boss. Again, my mind goes back to Ferguson and I imagine if this sort of incident was to happen under his watch, what would happen? The simple answer is, this wouldn’t happen. We have gotten to an era in Football where the players hold too much power, via social media they are able to quickly rebuttal any claims and they are challenging the boss’ decisions. There is no way that a player would come out on social media and blast Ferguson’s decision making, and if they for some reason did, they would be out of the club as soon as possible. This looks to be the case for Sancho, with reports suggesting a move back to Borrusia Dortmund in the January transfer window. I for one am sad at how this has all played out, Sancho was a player with the world at his feet following his incredible stint in the Bundesliga, but it seems to me that his attitude and commitment hasn’t been up to the incredibly lofty standards that Manchester United hold in their players. It would be best for all parties for a split, but some reports are suggesting that Sancho is waiting for Ten Hag to get sacked so that he can be phased back into the team. Now, call me old fashioned, but I am always inclined to side with the manager over the players as the manager is often the one who gets the brunt of all the bad results and underperforming from the team, so I would welcome a move away for Sancho as soon as possible.
The return of club idol Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the most euphoric moments I can recall in recent memory as a Manchester United fan. I remember the fear of watching the legendary Portuguese marksman nearly sign for Manchester City, a thought that prompted United to move fast and secure the signing of one of the club’s greatest ever players. Watching him walk out of the tunnel on his return against Newcastle gave me goosebumps, the once tricky little winger that originally made his mark at the club, before transforming into one of the greatest players to ever lace a pair of boots. Seeing him score on his return at Old Trafford was electric, with a full capacity Old Trafford all celebrating with his signature celebration. Whilst his signing was absolutely not what Ole Gunnar Solksjaer planned for his side, Ronaldo’s return was the most talked about moment in sports for a long time. That being said, issues started to slowly set in during his stint back in the club. There were reports of rifts in the changing room, battle lines being drawn, especially after Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was sacked and replaced with Ralf Rangnick and ultimately Erik Ten Hag, who both dropped Ronaldo very quickly into their reigns. Ronaldo was frozen out of plans, despite the fact that we desperately needed a goalscorer, resulting in Ronaldo asking to leave the club. Ronaldo then appeared on an interview with Piers Morgan to blast the way that the club had treated him, with United even considering taking legal action against Ronaldo at the time. Ronaldo spoke about the lack of progress that the club had made between his first stint and his return, around 11 years apart. He said:
“At United, the progress was zero, in my opinion,"
"To compare with Real Madrid and even Juventus, that they follow the rest of the world, so the technology, especially in terms of training, nutrition and conditioning, eat properly and to recover better than before - surprised me.
"Manchester right now to compare with that club, I think it's behind in my opinion, which is something that surprised me. A club with this dimension should be the top of the tree in my opinion and they are not, unfortunately. They are not in that level. But I hope the next years they can reach to be in a top level.
“I don't know what's going on but since Sir Alex Ferguson left I saw no evolution in the club, the progress was zero.”
He spoke about having a lack of respect for Erik Ten Hag, siting that the Dutchman had no respect for him with his suspension from the squad and also from when his family were struck with tragedy following the loss of one of his children at birth.
"The coach didn't have respect for me. So this is why the relationship, it's in that way," Ronaldo said.
"He keep saying in the press that he come to me, he like me blah, blah, blah, but that is only for the press, 100 per cent. If you don’t have respect for me, I'm never going to have respect for you."
Another thing Ronaldo talked about was the work ethic and attitude of some of his teammates, suggesting that players weren’t open to criticism or advice like they should be. I for one know that if I was lucky enough to be a young player playing alongside one of the greatest players of all time, I would be soaking up as much information and advice as possible. Diogo Dalot was one player Ronaldo showered praise upon for his work ethic.
Ronaldo’s explosive departure from the club should have opened a lot more eyes into the problems that were plaguing the club, but the issues of the club being stuck in the past are still obvious to the untrained eye. Whilst the whole circus revolving around the club’s potential sale is still going on, it will be impossible for this club to make any progress at all, especially if the Glazer family stick around in the end.
Another more daunting controversy that fell upon the club was the removal of Mason Greenwood following clips surfacing of him sexually and physically assaulting his girlfriend. Obviously this issue is a lot more serious than a player falling out with a manager, or a player saying that the club is stuck in the past, this is a very serious matter that has been handled with a lot of thought from United’s hierarchy. The youngster was completely dropped from the team when the claims became public, with trials and court hearings to follow. United and Greenwood both released a statement after the case was thrown out, ultimately deciding that Greenwood’s career would be better suited away from Old Trafford, resulting in a loan move to Getafe towards the end of the transfer window. It is currently unclear whether Mason Greenwood would return to play for Manchester United following his loan move, but it would certainly be a distraction towards first team activities at the club.
The Problem with a Global Fanbase and a Lack of a Clear Future
As decorated and celebrated Manchester United are in terms of their status in world football, it is clear as day that the global following has become immense to the point where no change is needed in the eyes of the Glazers. Even if results on the pitch aren’t going their way, the Glazers still see United as the cash cow they always have seen it as. All they care about is stock market prices, merchandise sales, and investors that would do anything to get Manchester United on their side. The change will not come from them as quite simply they do not care about Manchester United as a football club. The power to demand change in football should always come from the fans, those who turn up or tune in week in and out to see their club compete. However, this becomes a significant problem when change is actually needed. The only way for the Glazers to take any notice of discontent within the club is through their pockets, that is the only time where change will happen. However, it is not as easy to demand change when fans will still be paying to show up to games, when fans are buying shirts at the Megastore, when fans are complying with the horrible direction that the club is going.
In times where change is needed, I look to teams in Europe, teams with truly passionate fans that will demand change and will follow through with their intent to show their club’s owners that they will not accept mediocrity. I look at Lyon, with a clip circulating of the ‘ultras’ condemning the attitudes and performances of their players, before boycotting games towards the end of last season. A statement from the Lyon fans following a Europa League defeat to West Ham towards the end of last season summarises beautifully the problems that are plaguing the modern game:
‘At certain levels of the club, those who have a love for football and OL have been replaced by financial analysts, legal advisors, apparatchiks who don’t have the love for the club that is necessary to carry it out its functions with respect to the institution.
How can we demand that our players have a winning culture when the management pardons, excuses and explains every disillusion and professional fault? It’s time for this to end! There are still a number of sincere people in this club who, we know, share our worries. It is as such that the love of OL, the football club, not the pleasure business listed on the stock exchange, undertake the following and that we find our soul and identity once again!’
I currently see no soul and identity in Manchester United. A club that I have adored my entire life, a club that has always bred history, class, a winning mentality and an unwillingness to accept mediocrity. Mediocrity would be putting it nicely, what I have seen over these last few years is nothing short of shambolic. With the Glazers looking at selling a minor 25% stake to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the reality that Manchester United are going to maintain their position as world football’s sleeping giant is only going to continue. A team full of players that don’t understand the mentality or philosophy behind that glorious red shirt, a stadium that is falling apart, a training ground stuck in time. Cristiano Ronaldo said it best during his exit from the club, that the club has not progressed since Sir Alex Ferguson left it. The club saw the success that we had and instead of changing with the times like Manchester City did, like Liverpool did, like Newcastle did, they rested on their laurels and that is how mediocrity was allowed to fester and grow.
A lack of a clear direction is going to send this club straight into the ground. Dead and buried.
Where will United finish in the league this season?
Champions
2nd-4th
5th-8th
9th-10th
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