Manchester United still need to solve their ‘biggest problem’: Bruno Fernandes

Manchester United have sacked Erik ten Hag but ‘the biggest problem’ still needs solving; Bruno Fernandes remains the ‘big test’ for INEOS and friends.

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INEOS doing things differently
Lots of emails, deservedly, from rival fans of United claiming that this time won’t be any different from the past 15-odd years of post SAF mis-steps. It might end up being optimism, but we do have new people running the football side of things, and for the first time, they’re football people. Who’ve only been in place for a few months, by the way.

Unable to find a great solution after the FA Cup, INEOS decide to stick with ETH and see what happens, I’d imagine in lieu of the ridiculous injury situation last season (it’s almost been a year since United were able to field a LB). Let’s see what happens. They’ve now seen what happens. They met over the break, and have moved to the ‘it didn’t work out’ plan, and presumably did all the behind the scenes stuff ahead of sacking him this week. There’s no world where the WHU match made any difference.

To the signings this summer. The Serie A young player of the year, and a potentially world class 18 year old from Ligue Un. Those two are very much not Ed Woodward signings. Admittedly two Bayern cast-offs, but at the prices and given how much squad trimming has been done, I for one have no issue with them, and they’ve looked decent so far. And then Ugarte – a specialist that everyone seems to agree that United need bought against the will of ETH.

And here we are, with it looking like Amorim coming in – the same manager that got a great tune out of Ugarte – with a squad refreshed, younger and at the very least ready for something different. Mainoo, Hojland, Garnacho and maybe Yoro – that’s a very young spine.

So we’ll see. I have to hope this time is different, because the people in charge know something about football. The big test for me will be if they look to a post-Bruno world. He’s the biggest problem that needs solving.
Ryan, Bermuda (can we please not forget the Oliver decision? Worse than the Caroll across the line goal given VAR guidelines imo)

MORE ON THE MAN UTD MESS FROM F365
👉 Man Utd bungled every aspect of Ten Hag’s drawn-out exit, up to and including the sacking itself
👉 Man Utd’s ‘hell of a brains trust’ praised for ‘intelligent’ gamble which will cost another £25m
👉 The ten worst signings Erik ten Hag made at Manchester United sum up incredible waste

Sympathy for Ten Hag
As a Leeds fan I know how the churn of managers feels (especially post-Bielsa). The feeling of rash appointments or lack of better options stacked on top of each other.

Over the years i’ve also worked with a few people who objectively could be said to have downed tools or not cared as much as me. That’s life but why I feel sorry for Ten Hag as there’s a distinct feeling that a lot of that man utd squad didnt are as much as him (notwithstanding his mistakes).

Micah Richards says no player doesn’t try but who apart from Fernandes and Garnacho (from my view) can say they are giving 100%? Ferguson got 100% out of every player and they all gave a toss, hate the man and his teams or not.

I look forward to the new manager bounce, rio Ferdinand spouting nonsense about “man utd being back” and then reverting to type when RVN realises his squad are charlatans.
Tom

…The whole Ten Hag saga/appointment/sacking is a great example of certain things in life that just don’t seem to make sense to me – that I feel is obvious but clearly a vast amount of more qualified individuals than myself seem to see differently.

To me the number one most important attribute required for the head coach/manager/leader –  whatever they are called is a motivational inspirational personality in whatever form that takes. More important than tactical or coaching eptitude – there are plenty of staff for that. This for me goes for any organisation really – CEO’s, leaders of political parties etc.

The man/woman at the top needs to have something about them that is different/better than the rest when it comes to bringing the whole thing together and getting everyone ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’ as they say. And getting everyone to want to sing from that proverbial page. So can anybody say with any conviction whatsoever that Ten Hag was ever that, or was ever going to be that? It was so bloody obvious from the start that he wasn’t.

To come across as he did in all aspects publicly he’d have had to be an absolute genius/magician behind the scenes for it to have worked. And he clearly wasn’t. So why employ someone like him in the first place? At Man Utd for gods sake!? Its total madness and incompetence on a grand scale – one of the grandest scales there is.

Was Alex Ferguson, Wenger, Klopp, Harry Redknapp and even maybe Pep the greatest tacticians around? No – they had a vision and just knew how to delegate all the numerous duties that come with running a football team – to create the right end result. And I expect the most valuable quality they had was making everyone around them want to do their bidding. Is there anything about Ten Hag that suggests he created anything like that at Utd? Of course not. So why did Utd (and tbf certain other clubs have been guilty of it plenty of times) make that decision in the first place?

You assumed there must be something we didn’t know – something special about this guy (or whichever guy we wish to mention at whatever club you want to mention) – but oh no wait – there isn’t.  He is just an unassuming bloke who probably has some good qualifications on paper.  Which is absolutely fine if you are Colin from accounts – but absolutely not ok if you need to run Manchester Utd.
Shunt – LFC 

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Oliver!
Now that the dust has settled I would like to broach the subject of one Michael Oliver, this is a man who should be sanctioned by the PGMOL for blatant corruption, a Newcastle fan who took money from City’s owners to ref a match abroad, a man who countless times has made game changing decisions against City and Newcastle’s rivals. United, Arsenal and Liverpool fans can all point to moments where Oliver has made quite frankly awful decisions against their side which always benefited either City or Newcastle, it is out and out corruption the guy is bent as they come yet is still given matches in which he can alter the outcomes in favour of either the team he supports or his City pay masters.

Until this turd is flushed from the league this will keep happening and people will just shake their heads and mutter about Oliver making yet another game changing bollock. Lastly I do know ETH was on borrowed time but Oliver gleefully put the final nail in his coffin and if I was ETH I would make it my life’s work to take that corrupt bastard down.
Paul Murphy, Manchester

Real Madrid man babies
Football has changed in many ways since I started watching it. Some good and some bad. Towards the top of the bad list, sits the Ballon d’Or and how it is now perceived.

For years we had the tedium of the Messi v Ronaldo debate. Who was better? All the man babies on the internet boohooing because their chosen favowite (deliberate spelling) didn’t win. And tweets like: “Messi beats Penaldo. 8!!! Cry more.”

And now actual football teams are joining the ranks of the cry babies, as Real Madrid boycott an award because (Boo hoo) their player didn’t win. Totally disrespecting Rodri, a key member of the  team that won the Euros for Spain (where Madrid is, in case you forgot).

Honestly, it’s just pathetic. You could argue till the cows come home about who deserves the award, but you shouldn’t because a) it doesn’t matter and b) it’s totally subjective.

Rodri was a key member of the Man City team that won the league, the World Club cup and a few other trinkets. Every time he was out the team, they struggled. He was also a key cog in the Spain team that won the Euros. He is a worthy winner.

Vinicius Junior won the league and Champions League. He scored 21 goals in 36 games in those competitions, which is good. He would also be a worthy winner, but it’s not exactly a crime that he didn’t win.

Embarrassing by Madrid and another reason not to like them.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

…Look, I confess I’ve never liked Real Madrid. I’ve always preferred Barcelona. I feel like Ronaldo and Messi perfectly encapsulated the difference between them without necessarily knowing it. Relentless pursuit of peak performance vs innate talent harnessed almost to perfection.

When I question why it’s apparently impossible to turn down Real Madrid (it 100% isn’t!) people look at me like I’m certified insane. I try to explain that the Real hype train/PR machine that talks of Galacticos is sort of self perpetuating, because footballers (who aren’t always the brightest) believe it and thus head there. If they stayed at their already very decent club, be that Liverpool, Man Utd, Juventus, Bayern Munich… then maybe that club becomes superior to Real Madrid? But no, no, you can’t turn down Real.

All that is said just to justify, not that I need to, finding their behaviour last night genuinely hilarious – and of course extremely childish. ‘We don’t want to come if we’re not going to win’. Maybe Vinicius Jnr did deserve it, but really, boycotting the ceremony claiming ‘UEFA doesn’t respect Real Madrid’?! Do you need a hand removing your head from your own arsehole there? Just p*ss off you arrogant narcissistic stain of a football club. Where was your respect to the Madrid-born Spain captain last night?

Oh, and something about Erik ten Hag so this gets published.

Ta,
Gary AVFC, Oxford 

…The most obnoxious team in the world dominates the headlines again.

No, not ManU, they’re just the funniest, but Real Madrid.  Their re-action to one of their players NOT winning the Balon D’or is disgusting, how arrogant must you be to claim you are disrespected having had a player from your club win a third of all awards since 2000 and another third having been won by arguably the greatest player of all time.  Your winners include Cannavaro, Modric and Benzema (!). Clearly having 3 players as nominees is an absolute insult and for them to lose to a player who has not played for a losing team in his last 427 games an even bigger one.

A club who’s finances and dirty dealings puts FC115 to shame does not deserve this awful treatment and no doubt F365.es is also up in arms, although there may be a lot of comments by WMU’s.

Hopefully TAA will have seen this and realise his “I want to win the Balon D’or” ambition could never be achieved playing for them.  He might be wise to also consider what happens if you have a couple of bad games.
Howard (it means FA anyway) Jones 

…I’m a Liverpool and have an intense dislike of Real Madrid, due to:

a) the mere pettiness of simply losing a couple of Champs League Finals to them,
b) falling in love with Barcelona whilst playing CM 97/98 (Guardiola, Ivan de la Pẽna etc.),
c) IIRC the Spanish Royal family bailing them out and buying their training ground for like quarter of a billion pounds back around the turn of the millennium,
d) The whole ties with Franco

But now, what really grips my shit is the sheer arrogance of refusing to turn up to the Ballon d’or because one or or another of their players didn’t win it!

As stated, I’m a Liverpool fan, but even I can can understand Rodri is probably the best midfielder in the world right now and appreciate just how good/important he is to his team

The lack of media denouncement over this baffles me.
Bodych (and he’s Spanish too – you think they’d be relatively happy with that at least – LFC)

What will he do?
This is not really relevant to any ongoing football story (or the only football story, seemingly) but what will Adidasmufc do if Man Utd get a different kit supplier?

Will he take the most “corporate” choice and become Nikemufc or whatever?
A, LFC, Montreal

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