Off the cuff: The decade of difference between us and United

So this started as a reply to Jerry and got so long winded I decided to turn it into an article, which has in turn given me an idea. When the season is in full swing with three games a week, the site takes care of itself article wise but in the close season and international breaks like we’re coming into now, it can be tough to come up with new content and we’re getting more comments than ever these days. That’s brilliant but it means we often now have hundreds of comments on articles only a day or two old and if you’ve not logged on in a day or two, you’re not going to sit and read through 300 posts so I thought – How often do people say before or at the end of a long-ish post “I probably should’ve made this an article” and so I thought up the concept of an ‘Off the cuff’ section for articles, where if you’re making a point in a post that’s suitable for article form and more than two paragraphs, or you find that you’ve just rabbited on a bit in a reply to someone, just cut and paste your post and email it to one of us and we’ll post it as an article. The off the cuff name being so everyone understands it was originally just a post on the site, so no spell checks or concerns about structure that you might have if sitting down to write an article. Just anything three paragraphs or more that is a conversation worthy topic will do and obviously only if you feel comfortable having one of your posts published. I figure it’s an easy way to increase article content without anyone having to make time to do something they weren’t already doing. Anyway, it’s just an idea if anyone fancies it, no pressure. To that end though, I give you the inaugural off the cuff, where a reply to Jerry just became a ridiculously long ramble. I’m not going to spell check it or read it over as per ‘Off the cuff’ rules so if it makes no sense or looks like a child wrote it, I’m entirely unapologetic as yes, I have been drinking steadily throughout writing this bloody novel that probably nobody will read all of 😂

The worst thing that happened to United was David Gill going at the same time as Fergie. They should’ve moved heaven and earth and paid him whatever he wanted to stay on another year, preferably two while they stabilised the club. Fergie was a general manager, not a coach. Didn’t get involved in coaching at all for the most part by all accounts and so when he and Gill left together, basically the entire footballing operation left.

Ed Woodward came in and did great things for them commercially as that’s his bag but he knew fuck all about putting the structure together at an elite football club and so his answer was to utilise the significant fruits of his commercial labour and just throw money at it, thinking if you sign enough world class players it’s bound to come good at some point. Wrong!

When Fergie left was also the time to go for a big time manager. Ancelotti would’ve been perfect for them, I’m sure that was around the same time Pep went to Bayern too. Even Jose. He’d have likely fared better if he’d taken over from Fergie, as opposed to the mess they were in by the time he joined.

Their lack of a plan or even a vision, has also led to them flip flopping with the type of managers they were targeting. Moyes – whole career and reputation built on making Everton a team who was difficult to beat, physical, good on the counter attack etc and slowly but surely he got them to a point of sniffing around Europe. It was a solid job but hardly set him up for taking over from an icon, at a giant of a club that’s been built on success playing attractive football. Doomed to fail.

Then Van Gaal, the opposite of Moyes – wants to play total football, possession and control but he’s inherited dumplings like Fellaini who can’t do it. Plus it bores the fans. Jose comes in to a total mess but leads them to 2nd in a season other big clubs were in transition but they don’t back him. I saw an interview with him where he said he told the club he needed a CB and gave them a list with 5 names. They didn’t get him one, he’s off and then the following season the sign Maguire for 5 million more than we paid for Van Dijk!! 🤯🤦🏻‍♂️

Now the club are trying to bring the old guard back to try and get some of the old culture back. Olly comes in, Carrick as a coach, Darren Fletcher director of football. Ok that’s all very well but what have they all got in common? Fuck all experience and you’re asking them to run probably the second biggest club in the world, which has been in disarray for a number of years to boot! They’re not qualified for that.

Now you’ve got a massively imbalanced team due to the flip flopping in managerial style of the appointments you’ve made over the last decade, you’ve spent a billion quid in that time but have somehow regressed as a team, you need a clear out snd further major investment but you have another problem – you’ve been handing out contracts on silly wages for a decade and now you can’t get rid of players you want to – Martial being a prime example.

Regardless, you bring in what you perceive to be a promising Dutch coach (just like we have) and entrust him to build an attractive, competitive team. Spend another half a billion, most on his personal picks who have all pretty much flopped badly. Antony at £85 million has to be the worst signing in PL history. You chased a keeper who was a legend at the club out the door and replaced him with a keeper who may be able to pass better but is an absolute bombscare in every other way.

Marcus Rashford has had one good season in his entire career. Stank the place out last season, attitude stinks and he’s yet to register a shot on goal this season. Despite that, you’ve given him a massive new contract and he plays every minute of every game, which must be so demoralising for the likes of Garnacho or whoever, sitting on the bench.

They’re going to be in the same position at the end of this season. I’ll be amazed if Ten Hag is still the manager come next summer and it’ll be the same old story. New man comes in to a totally unbalanced team, toxic dressing room that needs a clear out but it’s full of players on inflated wages who won’t be pushed out the door easily. Basically a mess and it’s all down to that lack of even a plan, never mind the structure to implement it.

That’s where we’re different, we have a clear style we want to play as a club – high pressing, dynamic football. A coach can put his own slant on it sure but the principles and fundamentals of the style remain the same. That gives us a profile of manager, as well as the profiles of players that suit what we’re looking for. So unlike United appointing Ten Hag in the HOPE that he could be what they need, we IDENTIFIED Slot as having the playing style characteristics that we’re looking for in a coach. Basically – This is the house that Jurgen built. We like it. It’s been successful for us and we want to keep it. The manager knows that’s what’s expected but the fact he’s been selected due to similarities in style, should in theory make it easier for him.

Another huge difference between us and United when replacing our respective PL era icons in Fergie and Klopp – I always felt Fergie stitched the new manager up on purpose, whoever he was going be, by allowing that team to get to the stage it needed major surgery. His final season saw others in transition and he knew the signing of Van Persie would be enough to get them over the line but after that, that team was done and considering this was the man who famously said that a winning team only has a three year lifespan before you need to refresh it, he knew fine that team was finished at the end of that season and the new manager had a major rebuilding job on their hands but the fact they were PL champions was always going to be an unfair stick to beat the new manager with if things inevitably didn’t go smoothly.

Slot on the other hand is inheriting a world class team that’s already well drilled in and suited to the style of play he’s been brought in to implement. Again, of course you can tweak it and put your own version of it together but that’s also made easier by the boys not having to learn the pressing game etc. He can focus most of the tactics training on the changes he wants to make to midfield, his methods for playing out from the back etc… He doesn’t need to spend a load of time on team shape and pressing drills as the boys are already all over it. Slot said the same at the weekend when asked about his style compared to Klopp’s – More of it is the same than is different so that makes it easier for the boys. It’s night and day compared to what Moyes walked into.

I can get frustrated with FSG at times for never pushing the boat out even a little bit to try and win NOW, when we’ve been so close at certain periods. You have to admire the structure they’ve built at the club however. We’re one of a tiny minority of European clubs that aren’t at least flirting with some kind of financial problems, be that FFP or administration. We have a clear vision of what we do both on and off the pitch and everyone knows what their job is and where they stand and behind the scenes, we generally go for the best in class, as displayed by FSG bringing Edwards back on an infinitely better package than he was on before, as well as much more power. They clearly view him as best in class. There’s no sign of any ex players being given such an important role at the club in the FSG era. Even now at United, ok they got rid of Fletcher and finally got in a director of football who knows what he’s doing in Dan Ashworth but not before paying Newcastle enough compensation that they could afford to pull out of our proposed £60 million deal for Anthony Gordon. Van Nistelrooy has come in though. Is he a Ten Hah pick or a continuation of trying to bring back the old magic by appointing legends when you need to realise those days are gone, football has changed and despite all your money, you need new ideas from people who actually know what they’re doing.

United have pretty much found themselves where we were before Klopp. 2nd one season, 8th the next, beat Arsenal one week and get pumped by Palace the next. For every good signing, you have five flops and multiple managers clearly not on the same page as those behind the scenes and it being difficult to see what the long term plan or bigger picture was.

It’s easy to forget that the FSG model wasn’t working before Klopp. You could argue that the plan was always sound and just needed the right manager to implement it, which they ultimately found in Klopp. On the flip side, you could say that only a very special manager could’ve made their model the success it’s become and truly special managers are rare and ones that are happy to work with considerably less resources than those they’re expected to compete with are even rarer. FSG won the lottery when they found Klopp and it’s been the thrills and success he brought that has allowed FSG’s model to grow to the level it has now, which does put us in a financial position to compete with the big boys. Maybe not directly in terms of if we were both going for the same player but enough that we can afford to be one of the biggest spenders around should we choose to be. It was Klopp that made us cool again though. Before him we were losing all our transfer targets to Spurs!! Klopp delivered consistent CL football – always so financially important to FSG’s model for us and not only that by excelled. Europa
League final and then back to back CL finals, playing thrilling football that had every bit of drama you could think of. Earned the maximum revenue he possibly could for the club in that time and even in the PL that season – the one before we won the league, we made the most TV revenue as the most televised team. We were box office again, having spent a fraction of what our rivals had. It was a fairytale when you think about it and all FSG’s Christmases came at once.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not comparing FSG’s ownership to that of the Glaziers, it’s night and day in comparison, from professionalism to financial prudence, the only thing they have in common is that they’re American. My point is, even with a sound plan you still need the right people to implement it. We may have won the lottery with Klopp but we identified the kind of manager who had the potential snd track record of beating the big dicks with significantly less resources. What nobody knew was if Dortmund had just been a perfect storm and he’d be unable to repeat the achievement. Thankfully it proved an inspired appointment as he not only repeated but exceeded his past achievements and when he did, the club had a plan and knew exactly how to maximise all that, both commercially but also structurally in terms of stadium redevelopment and new training facilities. We also found ourselves with the capacity to issue contracts such as the one Salah got. Those wages for one player would’ve been unthinkable for the club, even 3 years earlier and off to Barca/Real/Chelsea or whoever, he’d have gone.

Anyway it doesn’t matter in the end. The perfect storm happened and we find ourselves a club in rude health, strutting around like someone with natural immunity during a pandemic. Watching as our rivals face FFP charges and even United are no longer immune, forced to sell McTominay to generate the academy player profit in order to comply with the new profit and sustainability rules. Oh and in doing so, they sold their only midfielder with any character, who gives 100% every game and has dragged them through a good few games. Desperate to sell Casemeiro but not even the Saudis will touch his 350 grand a week wages, for someone who’s a shadow of the player we saw at Madrid.

It’s been a hard road at times but the decade of difference I mention in the title was starkly laid bare on Sunday at Old Trafford. Ten Hag began his third full season and his team is still totally imbalanced, still has a poor attitude and still seems to have absolutely no plan whatsoever on the pitch apart from try and get the ball to Rashford and Fernandes and hope one of them can pull a rabbit out the hat. He’s falling out with players, has a spiky relationship with the board and media… Where on earth does he go from here? There isn’t going to be some miracle switch one week where they suddenly become the Ajax team of the Cruyff era. He’s out his depth, he’s on borrowed time and he knows it. Everyone does if they’re being completely honest.

Slot’s situation couldn’t be more different. The fans have sensible and realistic ambitions going into the new season. Everyone recognised the job he’s got on his hands taking over from someone like Klopp and the big step up in level he’s making and so nobody is expecting him to win the league or CL this year and if we’d had a couple of dodgy early season results, nobody would’ve jumped on his back. FSG have also proved themselves as patient owners who will allow a building process and not make knee jerk decisions based on a poor run of form. Plus the fact as I mentioned before – he’s inherited a top quality team that has been built for his style of play. A team with the right attitude, a good mixture of youth and experience but when you talk about dressing room culture, you look at the senior pros and that’s where the difference between us and United once again becomes stark. Look at our captains – Van Dijk a generational talent in the conversation for the best the PL has seen. An inspirational player who leads by example but who also organises and cajoles his team with the utmost professionalism. Then we have Alisson alongside Robbo and Salah who captain their respective nations. All big personalities and players who have actually done it and won it all with the club. They’re the standard bearers in the dressing room.

Compare that to the petulant brat Fernandes, the mentally broken, way out of his depth Maguire and the sulking Rashford and you can see why the dressing room is the way it is. It’ll take some fixing too.

Anyway I’m all rambled out. First off the cuff done. Walk on!!