The 2024-2025 Football Thread

[laptech]

I had a glancing look at those news and thought they were going after Xabi (Alonso in Leverkussen) at that seemed a solid option.
But Xavi Hernandez... a nepo promotion that resulted in nothing at Barcelona.
Oh well, more money to throw down the drain.
ETH failed but he was a bet on an up and coming manager. It didn't work but it wasn't a stupid choice.

I agree. ETH was doing very good at Ajax. The next logical step was to see if he could handle managing a top tier team in a top tier league (no disrespect to Ajax intended). Granted Man United has not been a top tier team in the EPL for a number of years but what has gone before them and what is required now is maybe just too much for an up and coming manager to handle.

The club was in a dire mess when Ralf Rangnick was hired to steady the ship and to give his expert analysis on the team and the club of which he did which upset the boardroom resulting in the club getting rid of him.

When the club started looking for a new manager, the consensus from the football press, ex-players, other ex-players and other managers was that it was going to have to be a complete rebuild project at United and thus should take around 5-6 years before the club is consistently challenging for trophies again. Everyone laughed it off saying United would be title challengers within 4 years. ETH joined the club in 2022. His first year he wins a trophy, his second year he wins a trophy but league positioning has not been good but come on, for a team that is supposed to be on the rebuild, that is to be expected, isn't it? ETH should be allowed to continue with the rebuild project. If he is not allowed then it will show that the club is only interested in short fixes and if no one gets them the league or regular champions league then they will be sacked.

This is only ETH's 3 year in charge. He should not be sacked. He should be allowed to whether the storm and be allowed to continue the rebuild project regardless of how painful it may be.

If anyone at the club wanted the quick fix solution then people at the club should have worked how to get rid of the Glazers and force through the Qatar bid because they would have had the money to spend on the top quality players, just as Man City's owners have been doing. The Glazers do not have the money to spend on top quality players, therefore the rebuild will have to be done the hard way. Finding cheap talent that can be nurtured into something great. Just like Ferguson did with the class of 92' and with Ronaldo. But to do that the club has to find the right manager but also to allow that manager to do his thing.

Club owners in the EPL can be ruthless when it comes to sacking managers. Just look at Chelsea for one and United. 3 years seem to be the most that clubs are prepared to put up with a manager not performing. Will United be ruthless and sack ETH by Christmas if the league position does not improve? Basically it is anyone's guess.

 

[pachyderm]

1 - 2

11th now...

 

[Apple fanboy]

1 - 2

11th now...

Nice.
Not looking forward to our game with Man Utd on Sunday. We are not playing well at the moment.

 

[Lioness~]

0 - 4





All was good, and circulating players to give many some minutes, is good.
Return here in Sweden in a few days.

 

[daneoni]

England Women lose to Germany. Eyes on Williamson who seems to have dipped in form

Meanwhile, Barca men currently demolishing Madrid at the Bernabeu. Flick's boys seem to have kicked into gear.

 

[Apple fanboy]

A very welcome and unexpected win against United today.
Much needed to be honest. With some of the other results I was starting to look over my shoulder.
Elsewhere Spurs continue to be Spursy with a loss to Palace.
Chelsea beat Newcastle.

 

[Alphazoid]

[Delete]

 

[laptech]

I did not think United was going to beat West Ham. I had it down for a draw. West Ham has just put more pressure on ETH's job survival.

I was reading an article where ETH was again complaining about Injuries to his players as to why the team is struggling but it got me thinking, isn't that why they poached one of Arsenal's medical team, to stop the rot of injuries. Obviously it has not worked out.

As for the players, ETH cannot blame it on other reasons because this is the year he got all his 1st and 2nd choice signings. It's now his team, not an ex-managers left over team thus he can no longer use that as an excuse. This year the team failures will be down to him. As the football press pointed out during the summer transfer, ETH put nearly all members of the team up for sale. The only 3 that were reported not for sale was Rasmus Højlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Andre Onana. It turns out the Glazers refused to allow Rashford to be sold. Whether it was official from United or not but it was said in the press that any sensible offer for the players would be considered. Clearly no other teams wanted Bruno, Casemiro or Antony.

Now ETH has got the players he wanted, he needs to work them into the team with players he does not want. Problem is these players will not perform to their best because they know they are not wanted. Rashford, Bruno, Casemiro, Antony, Maguire are all players ETH wanted out of the club due to the fact that all of them were made available for sale. There is no way in hell those players are going to give 100% effort in games. I do not care what any one says, when an employee is scorned by their employer, the employee stops giving their all and it happens across every single industry across the world. An employer scorns you, disrespects you, the employee returns the favour by not trying hard enough as punishment for being scorned, disrespected. Football players are no different.

 

[Apple fanboy]

United should have been 2 or 3 up in the first half. They just couldn’t take their chances.
I’d have ripped your arm off for a draw before kick off. So I’m ecstatic with a win!

 

[laptech]

United should have been 2 or 3 up in the first half. They just couldn’t take their chances.
I’d have ripped your arm off for a draw before kick off. So I’m ecstatic with a win!

Reminds me of the days of the striker partnership of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole. When they were in tune they were the premier leagues deadliest partnership but oh man when they were not in tune and that was a lot of times, neither of them could hit a barn door. Chance after chance would go begging, hitting the bar, just over the bar, just past the left post, just past the right post.

 

[laptech]

Arsenal is going to suffer with the injuries they have to their defenders. The draw with Liverpool is evidence of that.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Manchester United sack Erik ten Hag after West Ham defeat

Manchester United have sacked their manager Erik ten Hag after the club’s troubling start to the season

www.theguardian.com

 

[Apple fanboy]

Manchester United sack Erik ten Hag after West Ham defeat

Manchester United have sacked their manager Erik ten Hag after the club’s troubling start to the season

www.theguardian.com

Nah. It was the way West Ham beat them!
I think he’s been on borrowed time since last season.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Manchester United sack Erik ten Hag after West Ham defeat

Manchester United have sacked their manager Erik ten Hag after the club’s troubling start to the season

www.theguardian.com

Nah. It was the way West Ham beat them!
I think he’s been on borrowed time since last season.

Not terribly surprising news; I think that this sacking had inevitably become a "when" situation rather than an "if" situation.

Nevertheless, credit to West Ham - that was a very good - and well-taken - win.

 

[laptech]

United have made a bad mistake in my opinion of sacking ETH because this 3rd year was the year he had a team of players that HE wanted and not a team of players left over by other managers that the Glazers would not allow ETH to get rid of. Year 1 and 2 the Glazers prevented ETH from getting rid of a number of players he did not want. The Glazers forced him to work with players he did not want. He tried to put many on the transfer list but the Glazers refused. Year 3, INEOS comes in and changes everything. They put all players up for sale except 3, many of them being sold, ETH get's in the players he wanted. With many of the players he wanted gone now gone, this was the year he could put to work HIS team but naturally this was going to take time. The club cannot see this and thus decided to sack him. Injuries to a number of key players has not helped his cause but is that down to him? Look at the injury stats for last year, United had the highest number of injuries out of all the clubs with 45 recorded injuries (source: BBC website) and this carried on into the start of the new season, players picking up injuries in preseason and then picking up injuries in the first 2 games. No other United manager had this problem so what does ETH? so is it all down to his doing or is it down to something else?

Now the club is looking for a new manager, any manager out there would be a fool to take on the job. Ralf Ragnick a highly respected man in the field of director of football, sports management and development. He was also highly respected as a manager, especially for popularizing 'zonal marking'. Comes into the squad to use his years of vast experience to help steady the boat, something he has had success at with other clubs. He see's the issue at United is much much worse than expected. He gives the club his honest thoughts and opinions and they get rid of him. In comes ETH, been doing brilliantly in his 3 years at Ajax, winning titles and other trophies, getting through the group stages of the champions league, has a good combination of experience and youth, has a good style of play, a good choice as United's next manager. ETH has a certain style of play and he wanted to bring that style of play to united but he couldn't because the club kept failing in buying the main players he wanted. He finally gets into a position where he can put into place what he want's to do but is not given the time to do it because he is sacked.

Seeing how the Glazers have behaved towards the club's managers, any good quality manager would be a fool to take on the job because of how they treated Ragnick and ETH.

 

[Silencio]

United lost on bad finishing and a dodgy penalty yesterday and squad injuries have been a big problem, but ETH did not deserve any more time. The body of work was simply not good enough, and his poor man management has caused too many issues. The job was simply too big for him.

INEOS has burned a lot of goodwill due to their indecisiveness before ultimately making the right call, though I can understand why they wanted to have their full brain trust in place over the summer before taking any action. Lot of pressure on for them to get the next managerial appointment right.

 

[laptech]

There is not a manager on the planet who could make United a success within 3 years with what the club has now.

When Ralf Rangnick spoke out against the club, telling the world how bad it actually was at the club, well respected people in the football world said United is in for a rebuilding project and it would take a manager at least 5 to 6 years to get the club back to where they once were, winning trophies and being in the champions league. ETH was not even given 3 years. The Glazers and INEOS are utter fools if they think they can find a manager who will get the club to winning ways within 3 years. They tried with arguably two of the best managers in the world, Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho and they couldn't do it. They had arguably one of the world's best football brains at the club in Ralf Rangnick but they sacked him because he spoke his mind. The stadium is a mess, in much need of repair, the training ground is need of updating and upgrading, things the Glazers have no intention of doing because it would mean them having to spend their own money and they are not about to do something they have never done which is put a dime of their own money into the club. Everything has been paid for either by loans or by money gained from the commercial side of the club (Merchandising).

Malcom Glazer, the father, may he rest in peace, was the brains of the outfit. He knew how to run a sports club, his children did not and when he passed away his children took ownership of the club and ever since the Glazer siblings have taken control of the club, the club has nose dived. None of the children have a clue how to run a sports club. Whilst they are in control of the club, United will never reach the heights of success it once used to.

 

[daneoni]

Real Madrid being incredibly petulant with their boycott of the Ballon d’or ceremony.

Because Vinicius and Carvajal haven’t been confirmed as winners. Although this year there has been no pre-announcement of the winner but all nominees have been invited

Basically ‘i haven’t been chosen so I feel disrespected and will through my toys out of the pram’

I hope they fail to win La Liga and the UCL this year.

Pathetic

 

[laptech]

Real Madrid being incredibly petulant with their boycott of the Ballon d’or ceremony.

Because Vinicius and Carvajal haven’t been confirmed as winners. Although this year there has been no pre-announcement of the winner but all nominees have been invited

Basically ‘i haven’t been chosen so I feel disrespected and will through my toys out of the pram’

I hope they fail to win La Liga and the UCL this year.

Pathetic

Thing is though Madrid do have a good claim against the Ballon d’or because we all know last year Messi won it on trophy merit because of his world cup win. There were players who's season performance was way better than Messi. Messi winning it put the Ballon d’or into a difficult position because many said at the time is the award for best performance over a season or for the amount of trophies won over a season.

If it's a mixture of both then Rodri get's it because whilst his and Vinicius performance have been great over the season, the Euro championship trophy carries a higher merit than the champions league trophy BUT if it's on trophies then Carvajal should get it because he has won more trophies than any one else.

 

[daneoni]

Rodri wins it. Deservedly so.

And i hope no Madrid player wins it for a while.

 

[laptech]

Just read a news article where it is stating that Sporting Lisbon's manager Ruben Amorim has agreed in principle to be United's new manager. Else where in the report it highlights the Man City connection now within United, that being United chief executive Omar Berrada defecting from City, bringing technical director Jason Wilcox, formerly a coach and academy director at City and also arranged for the appointment of chief communications officer Toby Craig, having known him at City. But here is the kicker, West Ham interviewed Ruben for the manager's job but they went Julen Lopetegui instead. So if Ruben is not good enough for West Ham, what makes United think he is good enough for them?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Ever since the Glazers took over at Manchester United, especially the way they did so, loading what had been a profitable club with astronomical levels of debt - their "vision" for the club has ensured - has meant - that the club is simply considered as a vehicle - a platform - for the generation of profit, and that everything else, even acquiring - and winning - trophies, titles and competitions - is merely secondary - a charming if pleasant distraction - to this primary pursuit of profit.

Thus, in the eyes of their owners, winning trophies, titles, competitions is an optional extra, a luxury, something secondary to the primary reason for the existence of the club, which is nothing other than the generation of - and the pursuit of - profit, something deemed to be entirely independent of, and irrespective of, whether trophies or titles are won, although, of course, this will be welcomed when it occurs.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Ever since the Glazers took over at Manchester United, especially the way they did so, loading what had been a profitable club with astronomical levels of debt - their "vision" for the club has ensured - has meant - that the club is simply considered as a vehicle - a platform - for the generation of profit, and that everything else, even acquiring - and winning - trophies, titles and competitions - is merely secondary - a charming if pleasant distraction - to this primary pursuit of profit.

Thus, in the eyes of their owners, winning trophies, titles, competitions is an optional extra, a luxury, something secondary to the primary reason for the existence of the club, which is nothing other than the generation of - and the pursuit of - profit, something deemed to be entirely independent of, and irrespective of, whether trophies or titles are won, although, of course, this will be welcomed when it occurs.

Exactly. The owners aren’t in the least bit interested in the number of titles. If they had two option. Win the quadruple and make 100 million profit or win nothing and make 200 million profit they would choose the later.

The club is a business. It is designed to make money for them. That is their sole reason to own it.

As a business person I’d be looking at the likes of City with their bottomless pit of money and saying, right we can’t compete with that. Instead let’s cut unnecessary costs (like letting Old Trafford fall apart) and concentrate on being profitable with the minimum spend.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Just read a news article where it is stating that Sporting Lisbon's manager Ruben Amorim has agreed in principle to be United's new manager. Else where in the report it highlights the Man City connection now within United, that being United chief executive Omar Berrada defecting from City, bringing technical director Jason Wilcox, formerly a coach and academy director at City and also arranged for the appointment of chief communications officer Toby Craig, having known him at City. But here is the kicker, West Ham interviewed Ruben for the manager's job but they went Julen Lopetegui instead. So if Ruben is not good enough for West Ham, what makes United think he is good enough for them?

It maybe that he wasn’t the right fit for West Ham or he chose to not come. Of course given our current form I wish he had! Or we had kept hold of David Moyes!

 

[pachyderm]

vs

EFL Cup round 4