Morning guys.
Two managers have lost their jobs in the last 24 hours. Michael Carrick and Pierre Sage. I don’t know enough about Sage or the situation at Palace to have an opinion but I think Carrick is just another fall guy.
For all the money Utd has spent over recent years, a lot of it in my opinion has been wasted. They still have Harry Maguire in the centre of defence which I think is bonkers, nearly as bonkers as having a player like Mustafi in ours all those years ago.
Not every time things go wrong is it down to the manager, especially when a board is totally cocking up in the transfer department. I’m not sure how many managers Utd have tried since Fergie retired but none have really worked which I think speaks volumes.
Arsenal appointed Unai Emery after Arsene Wenger stood down who on paper, was pretty much the perfect appointment but, assuming the reports at the time were right, the players he wanted Arsenal to sign and who he actually ended up with was like chalk and cheese. (Gabriel Martinelli and William Saliba aside)
Reports suggested he wanted N’Zonzi and Zaha to name just two but ended up with Pepe and Torriera. He had Ozil and Aubameyang who it soon became clear, didn’t respect him despite his experience and success in Europe. He had a board which was in as big a mess as the squad was. Proved beyond all doubt once Mikel Arteta ripped things up and started again under a new regime which trusted him, or believed in him.
I read Carrick wanted Utd to sign Elliot Anderson, Lewis Hall, Morgan Rogers and Mateus Fernandes. He got none of them. I’ve no idea if Utd would have done better had all four joined the club but I always believe that if a manager is to stand a chance, he has to at least be given the profile of player he believes he needs if he’s to be judged.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care what is going on at debt ridden Manchester Utd but I do think footballers get away with far too much in the game. Yes, I think of Ozil, Aubameyang and a number of other players who appeared to down tools under Emery. That Europa Cup Final against Chelsea was the perfect example. The run of League results/performances during the buildup to the final were equally as bad. Was that down to Emery or the attitude of the players? Yet probably around 95 times of 100 though, it’s the manager who loses his job. I’m not sure if Poch is brave or stupid if should he take the Utd job but if he succeeds in improving things, I’ll have to eat humble pie, but I’ve a feeling that after a new manager bounce, things will just keep on carrying on as they have been. That is unless the board takes a very different approach to how they listen to their manager.
An approach which Arsenal decided to take with Mikel Arteta. Love or loathe him, he’s worked wonders at the club in so many ways. He made big, bold decisions which might have raised eyebrows at the time but were backed by the board.
We have a solid, and in my opinion, an exceptionally strong defence and midfield which has a good few years yet at its peak. Some of whom are yet to hit their peak too. Christos Tzolis, Noni Madueke, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Riccardo Calafiori, Piero Hincapie etc are still young in footballing terms as is Bukayo Saka. Max Dowman, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Marli Salmon, Cristhian Mosquera are younger still and behind them are a number of bright and exciting hopefuls, some of whom are yet to physically make the move to Arsenal.
As we know, the gulf between the under 21’s and first team is pretty big but that’s not to say a few of them might not burst their way into the the first team squad in the weeks, months or years to come. Ceadach O’Neill is a player I cannot wait to see in the first team. Theo Julienne too who can pretty much play anywhere on the left or right in defence or midfield and another who we’ve had a few glimpses of is Ife Ibrahim. Yes, I know they need to continue walking before they run but if and when they do get the opportunity to run, they will know what it takes to play in Arteta’s Arsenal team.
Catch up in the comments.
Balogun for United, now that would be an interesting move, I still think that Arsenal got a good deal when selling him. Pochettino will, I reckon, sort out a lot of that clubs problems but making them into winners is another thing altogether?
And Man United could have hired Pochettino when he was out of contract in the summer saving £7m.
Yeah Rico, Stan, as he always seems to do, played the long game until Usmanov got bored, not that it helped us fans who had to suffer and pay through the nose whilst KSE and tubby played their games…
Its a lot better now but Arteta was KSE’s most important signing.
G’day all. Fair comment Rico, but the most blame I this case rests with the owners,after all they appointed a rank rookie and boy has that cost them.
Since sacking Old Rednose, they have had Moyes, van Gaal, Mourinho, Solskjaer, Rangnick, ten Hag, Amorin and Carrick. The amount of compensation they have paid to those managers and their staff’s has cost them £101 million. Other compensation they have paid,hiring Dan Ashworth from Newcastle £3 million and then sacking him, a few months later, £4.1 million. That’s a total of £108.2 million.
To me that looks like serial rank incompetence. Ratcliffe and his bunch of Muppets couldn’t, and shouldn’t, be left alone to run a whelk stall.
Morning Limey, wouldn’t surprise re Balogun as Poch has seen him for the USA.
I still think it was more about joint ownership Kev, once the big guy sold his shares, the owners had more reason to invest.
Morning Rico/all
Interesting post. Its strange ,one of the most important people at Football clubs now is whoever is in charge of recruitment. Arsenal must be one of the few where the manager seems to have the final say (Aston Villa as well) Makes you wonder why more dont use a winning formula.
I see speculation Pochettino wants Balogun,he will probably turn up in the Premier league sometime anyway..
Morning Kev, Word is inaccessible right now but other than that, nothing.
Josh and Mikel have a good working relationship and KSE after some faltering steps have learned lessons and have done a great job putting good people into management positions at Highbury House which means our ownership can allow those people to run things whilst keeping an eye on the business from a distance. I think Josh visits the UK more than we realise and will probably be over during the January window.
Morning Rico, as you know, in the past, I’ve not been a massive fan of KSE and the disinterest shown by Silent Stan. His son Josh by comparison has shown an admirable ability to listen and learn about and from the fans and our football culture and he seems to get it and has seemed to be actually interested and motivated by it. Maybe Stan was just too old and stuck in his NBA and NFL ways, which is fine. But if a fanbase thinks its ownership isn’t really interested you end up with a United scenario.
Has the Microsoft outage affected everyone?
Never mind our dishonest political class are trying to ease us back into the EU, you know the EU that is in chaos. So good news for the remainers and globalists….
Exactly Kev, they keep hiring different managers but as we know, if the board is mucking things up, change doesn’t always come about..
The problem at Man United comes from an ownership (the Glaziers) that uses the club as a cash cow, all of United’s issues have come under their watch, the ownership then sold a percentage of the club to Ratcliffe so that he can take all the flak while the Glaziers can keep bleeding the club whilst hiding in the shadows.
Off course the Premier League is also to blame because they allowed their flagship club to be bought by asset strippers, so much for all the ‘fit n proper’ ownership bullsh*t.