More mails on why United are so back and Matthijs de Ligt will/might be absolutely fine, further Chelsea shenanigans and thoughts on the new Champions League format here. Send your thoughts to [email protected].
Glaze over As we’ve already seen in the Mailbox this week, it’s very hard to quantify to non-United fans exactly why United fans are so chirpy about the new ownership. The Glazers are still technically around, but for all intents and purposes, INEOS are now running Manchester United Football Club. It’s the F.
C. part that fans ultimately care about, and literally just not being the Glazers is the first step to success for Sir Jim and his Avengers lineup. Sure, “Manchester United” should be challenging for the league and Champions League every year, but for most of the last decade this has been Manchester United in name only.
Swap the jerseys and the badges and those teams wouldn’t look out of place in the Championship most weeks. We’re realistic enough to know that a 30-point gap to Man City can’t be bridged in one summer. There was simply too much deadwood to ship out and gaping holes to fill to be challenging for the top trophies immediately.
The four signings to date (hopefully at least one midfielder to come and desperately need a left back) have all improved the strength in depth of the squad and that’s a huge start. Also, do not underestimate the difference that a fit squad will make. Cup final notwithstanding, there were very encouraging signs against both Newcastle and Brighton at the tail end of last season once the majority of the first XI returned.
Lisandro Martinez started 8 Premier League games last season. We will have Kobbie Mainoo for the full season too. Mason Mount is another player who “will be like a new signing”.
Not totally sure where or if he will play every week, or if he’ll just be a Bruno back-up, but he’s another quality player. Actually astonished how many pundits have written him off saying this season is “make or break for him” or United need to look to sell him. He only played 756 minutes last season (about 8 1/2 games).
Mason Mount won’t single-handedly turn United into title challengers, of course not, but it’s more strength in depth. More than anything else, everything just feels better around the club though. We should all remember the bounce that Newcastle got simply by getting rid of Mike Ashley.
They went from near relegation certainties under Steve Bruce to finishing in the Top 4 in about 18 months (manager change probably helped too in fairness!). Sure they spent some money that January, but their early signings were the likes of Dan Burns and Harvey Barnes. Hardly world-class, game-changing additions.
Even Chris Wood came in. Some absolutely beautiful sh*thousery if I may say so. Bought mostly to weaken relegation rivals Burnley.
Him banging a hat-trick at St. James’ for Forest probably not quite as funny for the Geordies mind..
. The feel good factor shouldn’t be underestimated. Alexis Sanchez wanted to leave United after one training session.
Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t believe that the facilities were almost the exact same as twenty years prior when he joined the first time. Who knows what madness was happening at the training ground last year. Erik ten Hag was probably coming into work every day and just laying his head on the table as another injury memo came in, or another “Club Statement” had to be released.
.. Everything coming out of the club just feels better these days.
Players and coaches actually enjoying going into work every day and feeling they are moving towards something positive will have a huge effect on the output I’m sure. Injuries are part and parcel of the game, but if we avoid the catastrophic / hilarious number and frequency of last season, I would be very confident of returning to the Top 4, which at this moment in time, is our measure for success. James (cut to a 0-1 loss to Fulham on Friday now!), MUFC There is De Ligt that never goes out The talk around the signing of De Ligt is not at all surprising and as Mr Chicken rightly pointed out , we should treat every Man United transfer sceptically given their record.
However, the main arguments made against De Ligt appear to be just plain wrong, or at least ill informed. Firstly we have ‘He couldn’t even get in the Bayern team, Eric Dier was ahead of him!’ argument. An exhaustive 30 seconds of Googling tells me that De Ligt played 73 competitive matches for Bayern over two seasons so at the very least he’s played a major role in the starting 11 and if considering a few periods missed through injury he seemingly played the majority of matches for which he was available.
Next there is ‘He’s not even better than Harry Maguire’. Whilst this argument is more a dig at old Slabhead (being the yard stick for shit players isn’t a compliment), its relevant in that De Ligt is actually a better version of the former England Captain. Both are what I’d call proactive defenders, pushing out to meet attackers, physical and dominant in the air.
They are fond of carrying the ball into midfield for attacks and whilst not amazing passers they are proficient enough. Where they diverge is thankfully where Harry is weakest. Matthijs is better in possession and considerably faster.
Im pretty sure Maguire in now entering the last year of his contract so United have in effect already replaced him in profile with a younger player. Lastly we come to ‘Bayern wouldn’t sell him unless he was bad’. Now there have certainly been instances in the past where United have signed high profile players who are in decline and the fact that De Ligt is now at his 4th big club at the age of 25 is reason to be cautious.
However, the willingness of Bayern to sell him on has more to do with money than anything. With Kompany in place the club have been spending, about €150m so far including a new CB and possibly another in Tah arriving this summer. That would have meant a squad with 6-7 possible starting CBs which isn’t viable and a lot of money out the door.
De Ligt was by far the highest paid of the CBs and would easily command the biggest fee given his age, profile, and the struggles that both Upamecano and Kim have endured this season. Outside of the their untouchables such as Musiala, Sane, and Kane he was probably their most saleable asset and plays in a position where they are well stocked. Its sensible from Bayern and an opportunity for United.
Obviously I want him to be a success at United but ultimately if it doesnt work out they could move him on in two years for a fee as little as £24m and still make a profit. Dave, Manchester Red alert Interesting email from Jim on how the Premier League created a structure where Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool must succeed. It echoes the concept that Manchester City fans like to parrot when they claim to be the Robin Hood club of the people, sticking it to the man.
Like them, I’m sure you’ll find it difficult to articulate just what structures were put in place by the PL to make this happen. (As an aside, Liverpool finished an average of 5th in the first 10 years of the PL. How bad do you have to be to finish as low as 8th when the league’s remit is to keep you in the top 3? Incredible player that he was, Souness can go fuck himself for that.
) I’m going to assume that your explanations are all financial (unless you’ve got some game management petrol with which to spray the fire) so you’ll struggle to make any of your arguments work without bringing in CL revenue which means that UEFA were also part of this dastardly scheme to keep the red shirts at the top of the PL. Quite why UEFA a)wanted to do this and b)waited till 1997 to allow 2 PL teams and till 1999 to allow 3 PL teams to qualify for the CL isn’t clear. What IS clear with these conspiracies is that UEFA didn’t expand the number of entrants to the CL, having recognised that the product was becoming more popular and lucrative, to feather their own nests, it was purely because they wanted to keep the red cartel at the top of the PL table.
Because that’s UEFA’s remit, to enhance the popularity of the PL throughout the world by creating a structure where Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool succeed. James Outram, Wirral We are the champions Firstly, a proposal that would never ever happen, but that I like in theory. I agree that someone who isn’t a champion should never be able to win something called the champion’s league.
I disagree that winning a cup makes you a champion. Winning a cup should send you into the cup winner’s cup. My solution would be to stop giving places to the teams in 2-4/5 but instead, if you win the premier league, you are in the champion’s league for the next 4 years or 3/2/1 years for lower ranked leagues.
That way everyone in the competition is a champion in recent memory. It also penalises uncompetitive leagues, if you only ever have one of two champions in your league then you end up with one or two spots in the champion’s league. This year only Manchester City would be in the CL from England and that wouldn’t change until someone manages to beat them.
The variable number of teams from each country isn’t a problem as you simply promote the champions from lower ranked nations into the competition as necessary. My main reason for writing is that while I know the prevailing opinion is that the new CL format will be terrible, I am intrigued by it. The extra two games seem very arbitrary and a total money grab but the new format is a great help to teams that aren’t regulars in the competition.
Take Villa for example, they may end up in pot 4. If that were the case, then the old format puts them at risk of a Newcastle style group of death, but with the new system everyone plays 8 teams that are supposedly equivalent in strength. Real Madrid get 2 1s, 2 2s, 2 3s and 2 4s, just like everyone else.
The only teams it hurts are the 8 poor sods who pick Villa (or equivalent) as their pot 4 team, none of which will be PL teams unless they are very unlucky. The money people like the new format because they get 8 1v1 games in the group stage but it also encourages new blood because new teams don’t have the disadvantage they used to. The old format with the coefficient ranking encouraged the status quo with the successful teams getting an easier ride the next season and thus a higher chance of keeping a high coefficient.
Ozzy AFC DC The Chelsea Way I object in the strongest possible terms to Tim (CFC) – Ireland’s characterization of Todd Boehly as a Ted Lasso figure . Ted Lasso may be a fictional character, but he’s a genius and a goddamned national treasure. Boehly, by contrast, is merely an actual American with a lot of treasure.
We’ve got boatloads of those pricks. That said, he’s not wrong to point out that while Chelsea’s approach has yielded chaos on the pitch and in the squad, it’s not without forethought. Chelsea were among the first clubs to twig to what was going on with Man City’s rise and the thrust of so-called FFP regulations, whatever you call them.
Squad value is the real name of the game, and building it is the only path to long-term success in today’s football. To wit: that Man City could sell a player like Cole Palmer to a Premier League rival and not really notice is remarkable. Newcastle are trying to do the same thing as Chelsea, but started with a squad almost devoid of transfer value.
NUFC must also anticipate the upcoming UEFA rules regarding the proportion of player wages to income for teams in Euro competition (I hope I have that right). I think they’re outdoing Chelsea and their enormous squad in this respect. I’ve no doubt at all that the Odysseas Vlachodimos/Elliot Anderson transfer with Forest in particular was a way for both clubs to finesse the rules, but NUFC have been nowhere near as aggressive with those boundaries as Chelsea have.
All that amortization has to lead to decreasing flexibility, especially as their spending continues. It’s hard to believe their wage structure is even sustainable. Were I a Chelsea supporter, I’d fear the announcement.
There’s definitely a plan in place, but it feels like the biggest gamble in football. I think Tim was referring to results and league position when he called the last couple of seasons collateral damage, but I think it’s more likely that Chelsea, in their player purchases, have signed a low-rate mortgage with a huge bubble payment that comes due too soon. Chris C, Toon Army DC (dear lord, please send us a really talented CB).
