***Official*** English Football Season 2018-19

[Furball]

Yeah Mourino's relationship with the press is not what it was. They've already created the narrative that he's ballsed everything up, and he has previous, so once the trigger is pulled I doubt there will be many crying about it, especially if an exciting replacement is lined up. Though I have no idea who that might be. Wenger lol.

To be fair Mourinho's relationship with the press is as much to do with the media's lack of sycophancy as it is to do with anything Mourinho's done. Mourinho in 2004 was a world class manager who could have walked into any job in Europe and chose to come to England (probably the first manager to do so, and laid the foundation for the likes of Benitez, Scolari, Ancelotti, Conte, Klopp and Guardiola to follow), in an era where England were developing genuinely world class players (Ashley Cole, Terry, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney) and starting to attract genuinely world class players to the league (Crespo, Makelele, Robben, Ronaldo, Tevez, Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, Torres etc). I think there would have been an effort from the press to big up the hot shot young world class manager on their shores.

He didn't have anything like the relationship with the media at either Inter or (especially) Real Madrid, who were quite prepared to call him out on his bawbaggery. There's a reason he came back to England once he'd been chased from Real Madrid for being an arse. Unfortunately for Mourinho, the England he came back to wasn't the same England he remembered from his first spell at Chelsea.

 

[Niall]

Yeah I mean his "falling out" with Mata at Chelsea was ludicrously overhyped. What really happened was that Willian, Oscar, and Hazard forced him out of the team by being better players, then Moyes bid something silly for him.

He plays now because the other options are so poor. Jose's been trying to replace him for years but the board keep saying his targets are too old, then not coming up with any alternatives. His ongoing presence in the team is just another symptom of the whole club being utterly dysfunctional. Zidane would be a terrible choice, which makes me suspect that they'll do it.

Zidane would be the punt to end all punts but at least the players would enjoy playing for him at least. The flair players seem to loath Mourinho. I don't see it happening, surely his current role is to keep him occupied until he becomes Juve manager?

The other issue which has been touched upon here, Mourinho isn't that clever at identifying players. Supposedly the four players he wanted to strengthen a position where he spent 70 million on were,,,Alderweld who was always going to be a brutal transfer due to how Levy operates, Boateng who is always injured, Mina (Nooooo) and Maguire after a excellent world cup who was going to be very expensive. Winger wise it only seems to be Perisic and Willian they have been sniffing after which does indicate a pretty crappy scouting system.

Mahrez was the obvious choice for so long, but I suppose he doesn't track back enough for Jose.

 

[Uppercut]

Zidane would be the punt to end all punts but at least the players would enjoy playing for him at least. The flair players seem to loath Mourinho. I don't see it happening, surely his current role is to keep him occupied until he becomes Juve manager?

The other issue which has been touched upon here, Mourinho isn't that clever at identifying players. Supposedly the four players he wanted to strengthen a position where he spent 70 million on were,,,Alderweld who was always going to be a brutal transfer due to how Levy operates, Boateng who is always injured, Mina (Nooooo) and Maguire after a excellent world cup who was going to be very expensive. Winger wise it only seems to be Perisic and Willian they have been sniffing after which does indicate a pretty crappy scouting system.

Mahrez was the obvious choice for so long, but I suppose he doesn't track back enough for Jose.

Everyone points to his tactical backwardness but I think transfers is the area where Mourinho has been most superseded. Signing obviously-good players at their peak to fill clear holes in the squad was better than what most clubs were doing even in his second Chelsea spell. It's not going to cut it when Liverpool and City are nabbing 23-year-old future superstars in every position for £30m each.

 

[Uppercut]

Zidane would be the punt to end all punts but at least the players would enjoy playing for him at least.

Why would they? He's barely more attacking as a coach than Mourinho. Real Madrid epitomised the "throw world-class attackers at the wall and see what sticks" approach.

If it's not someone who's coached modern attacking play before then it's a wasted appointment. The only qualified candidate who's even semi-plausible is Nagelsmann.

EDIT: He's probably not even semi-plausible is he. There probably is no qualified candidate.

 

[Spark]

Jardim? How available is he?

 

[vcs]

I think Zidane would struggle to **** it up no matter where he goes from here. He's made an amazing start to his managerial career like Guardiola. ATG player who's also won 3 CLs on the trot as a manager. How can any player not want to run through walls for him?

 

[Uppercut]

Jardim? How available is he?

Yeah that's a pretty good shout. Would still realistically only be the fifth best manager in the league, but he does fulfill the key "has previously coached good attacking play" criteria.

 

[Uppercut]

I think Zidane would struggle to **** it up no matter where he goes from here. He's made an amazing start to his managerial career like Guardiola. ATG player who's also won 3 CLs on the trot as a manager. How can any player not want to run through walls for him?

I like Zidane but he's a very limited coach. You get selection/substitution decisions that make sense and enough clout to get big egos to commit to a fairly defensive system. He doesn't really teach players anything new.

Real Madrid was pretty much his perfect job. Could do well at an international team too. Not even close to being what United need, though.

 

[vcs]

I guess I don't really know enough about football to be able to properly evaluate what coaches do. I kind of think, if you're a great motivator, that's half the battle won.

 

[Uppercut]

I guess I don't really know enough about football to be able to properly evaluate what coaches do. I kind of think, if you're a great motivator, that's half the battle won.

Real Madrid didn't play like a well-motivated team at all. If anything Zidane's contribution was to calm them down so they didn't make the horrible mistakes in big games that other teams made. It's the antithesis of the Simeone/Pochettino teams where everyone constantly fights like a pack of wild dogs.

 

[vcs]

Is he a great in-game tactician then? It's pretty incredible that he's gone through so many knockout ties without losing one.
Guardiola struggles to get wins in CL ties away from home.

 

[sledger]

I guess I don't really know enough about football to be able to properly evaluate what coaches do. I kind of think, if you're a great motivator, that's half the battle won.

Yeah but "half" doesn't buy you the groceries. Not even close these days, and not for a long time. There is a reason why the tactically naive great motivator type coaches are viewed as dinosaurs and never get the top jobs these days.

 

[Uppercut]

Is he a great in-game tactician then? It's pretty incredible that he's gone through so many knockout ties without losing one.
Guardiola struggles to get wins in CL ties away from home.

Nobody really knows tbh. I don’t think there was a single KO game in there where Real didn’t have the better players and it’s probably never even been close. So any kind of tactical cohesion makes them big favourites, but guys like Benitez couldn’t force it on them without alienating the players and the board. Whereas Zidane could. Lot of luck involved too.

That sounds like I’m trying to devalue his achievement and I’m really not. I just think he was the perfect man for the moment but he’s not a perfect manager.

 

[Tangles]

The transfer policy has been a shambles over Moyes, LVG and Mourinho. Woodward is the constant there. He needs to go or be removed from transfers.

 

[cpr]

I'm not so sure on that - we've always had a manager calling the transfer shots rather than a DoF. Apart from that first year under Moyes, we've pretty much got who we can get - Ronaldo/Bale et al aren't going to sign for a club thats barely making the CL (last year being the first time it's been a sure deal). I'm struggling to think of many we've actively been in for who were available for transfer and we've lost out on

Even still, there's been some impressive signings from a boardroom POV - Mata, Di Maria, Shaw (nabbing a promising youngster from the reaches of other clubs), Martial, Pogba, Zlatan, Lukaku, Matic, Sanchez. On paper they are some pretty decent deals - each one brought a sense of excitement from the fans at seeing them in the shirt - certainly the idea of seeing di Maria, Pogba, and to an extent Zlatan play for the club was something fans were massively looking forward to. Woodward isn't the one to blame for them failing to transfer it onto the pitch, each and every one of them was either performing at a high standard beforehand or hugely promising. Blaming someone like di Maria or Sanchez flopping, or Shaw/Martial not fufilling potential, on Woodward is unfair.

Outside of that, our managers have tended to get what they want - Bailly, Lindelof and Mkhitaryan were Jose picks, as were Blind, Rojo and Schweinsteiger for van Gaal. Plus Fellaini....

Plus, look back on the Fergie years and theres an comparable number of transfers that we'd be calling Woodward for nowadays. His final season saw Kagawa come in and not fufill his potential, plus a fair bit of money on Zaha, and then Powell, Henriques and Buttner too... van Persie paid off, as did de Gea the year before, but he came in a summer with Jones and Young, neither of which have exactly become utd legends. The year before that was the summer of Bebe, and before that we spent £8m on Mame Diouf and Obertan.....


IMO, the buck stops with the managers on these - The clubs always signed who the boss wants, whether its a big name or a youngster. Many haven't lived up to the hype, but its been the managers job to get enough out of what he's asked for and deliver results - either through nurturing the young talent he's signed, or dropping in that big name key signing to turn the team around. That's whats stopped happening, and Mourinho seems to think the only solution is to replace what he has constantly rather than replenish their desire to play for him.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

The transfer policy has been a shambles over Moyes, LVG and Mourinho. Woodward is the constant there. He needs to go or be removed from transfers.

Amazed he is still in a job to be honest. The club has been very badly run for years.

 

[Furball]

I'm not so sure on that - we've always had a manager calling the transfer shots rather than a DoF. Apart from that first year under Moyes, we've pretty much got who we can get - Ronaldo/Bale et al aren't going to sign for a club thats barely making the CL (last year being the first time it's been a sure deal). I'm struggling to think of many we've actively been in for who were available for transfer and we've lost out on

Even still, there's been some impressive signings from a boardroom POV - Mata, Di Maria, Shaw (nabbing a promising youngster from the reaches of other clubs), Martial, Pogba, Zlatan, Lukaku, Matic, Sanchez. On paper they are some pretty decent deals - each one brought a sense of excitement from the fans at seeing them in the shirt - certainly the idea of seeing di Maria, Pogba, and to an extent Zlatan play for the club was something fans were massively looking forward to. Woodward isn't the one to blame for them failing to transfer it onto the pitch, each and every one of them was either performing at a high standard beforehand or hugely promising. Blaming someone like di Maria or Sanchez flopping, or Shaw/Martial not fufilling potential, on Woodward is unfair.

Outside of that, our managers have tended to get what they want - Bailly, Lindelof and Mkhitaryan were Jose picks, as were Blind, Rojo and Schweinsteiger for van Gaal. Plus Fellaini....

Plus, look back on the Fergie years and theres an comparable number of transfers that we'd be calling Woodward for nowadays. His final season saw Kagawa come in and not fufill his potential, plus a fair bit of money on Zaha, and then Powell, Henriques and Buttner too... van Persie paid off, as did de Gea the year before, but he came in a summer with Jones and Young, neither of which have exactly become utd legends. The year before that was the summer of Bebe, and before that we spent £8m on Mame Diouf and Obertan.....


IMO, the buck stops with the managers on these - The clubs always signed who the boss wants, whether its a big name or a youngster. Many haven't lived up to the hype, but its been the managers job to get enough out of what he's asked for and deliver results - either through nurturing the young talent he's signed, or dropping in that big name key signing to turn the team around. That's whats stopped happening, and Mourinho seems to think the only solution is to replace what he has constantly rather than replenish their desire to play for him.

Nah, the Pogba transfer was a farce, Juventus absolutely played United on that one. Basically trolled yourselves into signing Pogba no matter the cost.

United aren't really going through anything different transfer wise to other big clubs who have cycled through managers. The difference is that for 25 years you had a coherent vision from one man on the footballing front, with transfers to match. Even allowing for some of the shite you've mentioned that was signed by Ferguson, not many of them were signed for huge money.

 

[Pratters]

How do you guys rate the Liverpool back four? Gave a few chances against Crystal Palace. If it wasn't for the goal keeper, they would have probably conceded.

 

[Pothas]

Would Zidane even be interested?

Conte would have to be the best guy out of work and feel like he would suit the squad quite well but it does not seem at all plausible.

 

[Uppercut]

I'm not so sure on that - we've always had a manager calling the transfer shots rather than a DoF. Apart from that first year under Moyes, we've pretty much got who we can get - Ronaldo/Bale et al aren't going to sign for a club thats barely making the CL (last year being the first time it's been a sure deal). I'm struggling to think of many we've actively been in for who were available for transfer and we've lost out on

Even still, there's been some impressive signings from a boardroom POV - Mata, Di Maria, Shaw (nabbing a promising youngster from the reaches of other clubs), Martial, Pogba, Zlatan, Lukaku, Matic, Sanchez. On paper they are some pretty decent deals - each one brought a sense of excitement from the fans at seeing them in the shirt - certainly the idea of seeing di Maria, Pogba, and to an extent Zlatan play for the club was something fans were massively looking forward to. Woodward isn't the one to blame for them failing to transfer it onto the pitch, each and every one of them was either performing at a high standard beforehand or hugely promising. Blaming someone like di Maria or Sanchez flopping, or Shaw/Martial not fufilling potential, on Woodward is unfair.

Outside of that, our managers have tended to get what they want - Bailly, Lindelof and Mkhitaryan were Jose picks, as were Blind, Rojo and Schweinsteiger for van Gaal. Plus Fellaini....

Plus, look back on the Fergie years and theres an comparable number of transfers that we'd be calling Woodward for nowadays. His final season saw Kagawa come in and not fufill his potential, plus a fair bit of money on Zaha, and then Powell, Henriques and Buttner too... van Persie paid off, as did de Gea the year before, but he came in a summer with Jones and Young, neither of which have exactly become utd legends. The year before that was the summer of Bebe, and before that we spent £8m on Mame Diouf and Obertan.....


IMO, the buck stops with the managers on these - The clubs always signed who the boss wants, whether its a big name or a youngster. Many haven't lived up to the hype, but its been the managers job to get enough out of what he's asked for and deliver results - either through nurturing the young talent he's signed, or dropping in that big name key signing to turn the team around. That's whats stopped happening, and Mourinho seems to think the only solution is to replace what he has constantly rather than replenish their desire to play for him.

This is completely the board’s fault. Letting the manager run transfers is absolutely terrible.