If United lose the Liverpool game, I wonder if the club will sack ETH and get a new manager in before the opening of the January transfer window to allow any new manager the chance to sign a couple of players of their choosing to slip in along side the existing squad because I am sure any new manager would not want some of the players that have been left over by other managers.
"Get?"
Surely, you mean 'appoint'?
And that begs the question of just exactly who would wish to apply for such a position?
While the expression "poisoned chalice" might have been coined to describe it, I suspect that you would have to be completely out of your mind to want to apply for it - or, even think of - applying for it.
How many managers have Manchester United run through - that is, invited to apply for the position, been interviewed, appointed, and subsequently sacked or fired - since the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson retired?
Let's have a brief reminder of both the names and the sequence: David Moyes; Ryan Giggs; Louis van Gaal; José Mourinho; Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (temporary/care-taker capacity and permanent); Michael Carrick (very briefly); Ralf Rangnick; and with that, we arrive at the tenure of the current incumbent, Erik ten Hag.
Ten managers in as many years.
That is a sorry record.
And the stadium roof leaks. This has been reported on several occasions, in recent years, and it remains an enduring mystery (to me, at least) that this is, as yet, unaddressed in a club where both salaries (and profits) are colossal, and sometimes, stratospheric.
There is an interesting and thoughtful article (by Barney Ronay) in today's Guardian, which argues that the person who holds the position of manager for Manchester United must simultaneously (attempt to) fulfil or manage three concurrent roles.
The first of these is the challenge of having to manage the past "while the ghost of Hamlet’s father still skulks in the eaves" - the storied and legendary past of the club - which, as Ronay writes, "is constantly in the room and which skews every act, achievement and expectation".
Secondly, Ronay argues, is the fact that the unfortunate manager must also "manage the dysfunction of the present", (a state of affairs that includes stuff such as leaking roofs), while, thirdly, and finally, the manager is expected to "manage the everyday metrics on which you will be judged; team, results, style, energy, messaging".
Seriously, guys, there are standards to maintain: In a division where many of the clubs have built new stadia, or upgraded their old stadia, or acquired a new stadium, over the past two decades, fixing a leaking stadium roof should not be beyond wit, or financial planning, and should be the bare minimum of the club's explicitly stated ambitions.
As a metaphor, it is irresistible; as an actual and embarrassing fact, it is inexcusable.
Fix the roof, and then ask whether you need to appoint an eleventh individual to managing the sorry business of trying to rescue Manchester United from the twin burdens of the weight of their heavy history and the absurd levels of entitlement of some of their fans while trying to put together a football team that actually works.
metro.co.uk
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