FA Carling Premiership and Milk Cup thread 2024/25

[garynysmon]

Jesus wept....

[SuperBacon]

Liverpool obviously gonna win it but that battle between 2nd and 5th is heating up!

[Gooner]

Nice win for us in the end. Nwaneri was really good. Unlucky not to score a goal but he done so well with creating the opening goal. Sterling looks bad,  his confidence is completely shot. Merino was superb when he came on and took his goals very well. Will have to mix up the who plays up top with Havertz now being ruled out of the remainder of the season, but will have to figure that out as we go along with different players, who are not used to playing in that position, having to adapt and play there. Hopefully Saka and Martinelli will be back at the beginning of March to help us. 

[tiger_rick]

How on earth do you solve a problem like Man United? Things have got so bad that I don't even enjoy them losing anymore!

Seriously, for every ten million pounds spent, every world class manager hired, every bad egg fucked off on loan, they just keep getting worse. I'm not even sure how that's possible.

Ever since the last title win, which will be 12 years in May, they've been on a downhill slide (obviously, duh) but even the moments of enjoyment have come with failure. They won two trophies under Mourinho, while finishing 6th. Both 2nd place finishes have been followed up by finishing 6th. They won the league cup and finished 3rd under ETH, which felt like progress, then won the FA Cup, but finished 8th - which is unacceptable. 

They look a complete mess at the moment. That squad can't hold a candle to great United teams, obviously, but surely it's not 15th place bad. Every single one of their team from Sunday gets in all but the top 3/4 teams in the country, right? 

What do you need to do to fix this? Change half the squad? Change the manager again? Change the name to Manchester & Hove Albion and hope the weight of expectation stops killing players? I'm only half joking there, that does seem to be the biggest issue. The weight of the shirt on their back.

Being completely flippant, I'd bloody love them to put Roy Keane in charge and make a documentary. I just think that would be the greatest experiment in the history of English football. He'd either finish 1st or 20th and it would be absolutely box office.

What do we think then? Much like on-topic, leave the tribal nonsense for the "hilarious" Football Twitter and Football Facebook pages.

[SuperBacon]

Well like Spurs, I'd start off by appointing a manager and keeping them more than a couple of seasons.

And I know this'll be countered with "Well what about Ten Hag?" but he was clearly a disaster (not all his own fault) dispute the cup wins.

There needs to be a painful clear out (again like Spurs) and the owners need to ride out the pain that brings (again like Spurs) but I am absolutely convinced they don't have the bollocks for it, and will panic.

On second thoughts, just rename them Manchester Hotspur.

[Carbomb]

38 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

They won two trophies under Mourinho, while finishing 6th.

Everything else you're right, but correction: under Mourinho, United won a sort-of treble.

EDIT: BTW, @tiger_rick, I blame you! You may remember back when the Glazers first took over, I was ribbing you about Hull, and you sent me a message saying "You bloody wind-up merchant. I hope Glazer ruins you".

But seriously, it's the fucking Glazers. FC United of Manchester may have been a ridiculous thing to happen, but they've sort of been borne out in terms of what they foresaw. 

And it looks like "Lucky" Jim is continuing the trend - not by being a cynical parasite, but by being a self-inflated chancer; all the stuff that sounded good when he first got in is now starting to look like smoke and mirrors, especially after the Ashworth debacle. Certainly now, now that it turns out he doesn't have the available resources he claimed he did, and the other sports projects he embarked on haven't been all that successful.

Edited February 18, 2025 by Carbomb
Gennaro Gattuso

[gmoney]

7 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Everything else you're right, but correction: under Mourinho, United won a sort-of treble.

Only if you count the Community Shield, which absolutely no one does. 

[SuperBacon]

1 minute ago, gmoney said:

Only if you count the Community Shield, which absolutely no one does. 

Well for the "spreadsheet" I have. Only because other countries versions of Super Cups took too long to identify and I just lumped them all in as it was easier* rather than taking half an hour to realise Tomas Pekhart HAS won the Czech version of the charity shield.

 

*Well easier would be just not doing it obviously.

[JLM]

They’re Man United, they’ll do what they want, so I have to assume this is what they want. It wouldn’t be my first choice but I’m not a United fan and don’t pretend to understand their wants. I will never, ever tire of them losing. I reckon after Amorim they should appoint a club legend with little or no managerial experience, also maybe see if Ronaldo fancies another season. 

[Mr_Danger]

You either buy the very best of everything or you take the long way round and create an infrastructure for long term success both financially and on the pitch. If people with far less money can do this at clubs like Bournemouth and Brighton (success is relative) then there’s no reason why United can’t. The problem they have is they’re stuck between the two. They want to be at the top table with Real Madrid and City when it comes to recruitment but they’ve been so shit the ‘draw’ of United has diminished for serious players. When they do try youth recruitment the players don’t seem to kick on. I think there’s hope for the current crop like Mainoo, Garnacho and Diallo but there’s also a fair chance they get caught up in the next turmoil and stagnate.

I think financially they still trump Liverpool in the transfer market but there’s not one player we’ve both been linked to that I’d want from them. Meanwhile players like Gakpo and Mane who were sold the dream and came to us have been successes but I don’t think they would if they went to United because they’re not a platform for players to be successful.

It seems like United have put a plan in place and they’ve recruited a manager with a very particular style that won’t be fully implemented until he has a summer to get the personnel in but already you can see holes in his system. They were really good against Liverpool at Anfield before Christmas but they’ll only have a few teams play like that against them and they have absolutely no hope of breaking down low block teams. You wonder how married to his system Amorim is.

[hallicks]

36 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Things have got so bad that I don't even enjoy them losing anymore!

It's perhaps not the great thrill it once was, but it still leaves me feeling warm inside.

I would say the rot started in SAF's last year or two. There were big name players who at the tail end of their careers, or at least past their prime (Ferdinand, Scholes, Giggs), others for whom age was starting to be more of an issue (Vidic, Evra), and then a lot of filler players who weren't good enough to be able to step up once the old guard left. When they won the league in 2012-13, I would put that down to two things: one, thieving RVP from Arsenal and getting one of only two seasons in his entire career where he didn't crock himself, and two, the sheer force of will and winning mentality created by SAF. I'm sure there's United fans out there that remember them as a "great" side, but for me, the immediate dropoff was too steep to make that true. 

Anyone following SAF would have found it hard, but for a tactically limited manager like Moyes, whose teams have never been known for dominating matches, it was especially so, with a crop of players who just weren't up to it. And really, SAF choosing Moyes as his successor is still incredibly mystifying to me. Great for his level, but so obviously the wrong man for the job.

I kind of hope they do appoint Roy Keane at some point, because I will hugely enjoy watching him fail. If getting angry and shouting at players was all it took to be a successful manager, he'd have won the Champions League multiple times as a coach.

[Carbomb]

1 hour ago, gmoney said:

Only if you count the Community Shield, which absolutely no one does. 

Well, no. I would've called it a Shit Treble, but I just remember the grief I got from Houchen when I referred to United's "wilderness years" in the 70s and 80s, which apparently never were because we at least won some cups. Didn't want to offend by downplaying any silverware.

As regards Mr Danger's point about doing the long-term thing and building an infrastructure, that's probably the thing that angers me the most about the Glazers. Ferguson did build it, it took him some years to do so, and he famously almost got sacked. The shitcunt Glazers have rendered it all for nothing, they've destroyed it. Someone will have to rebuild, and it won't happen while the Glazers and, apparently, SJR are in charge. Only thing United have going for them any more in terms of the modern business is history and name value, and I'm not sure that cuts it any more.

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, hallicks said:

one, thieving RVP from Arsenal and getting one of only two seasons in his entire career where he didn't crock himself,

The bitterness that Arsenal fans still have over this is brilliant. I get it, and I'm not necessarily saying it's untrue, but it rankles so hard and really that's what being a fan is all about isn't it? That hatred.

RVP was fantastic that season wasn't he?

[Rossman]

It is worrying the amount of money Utd have spent and have little to show for it. On Sunday, they only had Lindelof on the bench who was over 21. They've been crying out for a left footed left back, so they bought Patrick Dorgu from Lecce in January. Amorim has started him both games at right wing back. I read today Casameiro wants to see out the final 16 months of his £300,000 a week contract. He played on Sunday, hasn't really played since December, and didn't have match fitness to make an impact.

[JLM]

There’s a promising winger at Real Betis they could look at. Man of the match on his debut, scored three goals in his last three games. Might be something there.