Category: Opinion

Wanting to leave United should NOT be the deciding factor in becoming Captain.

We need One Choir singing from  One Hymn sheet not an out of key Choir Boy!

Enough soap opera. They all represent Manchester United and need to remember that.

It’s a tale as old as time. Big money movies, small screen soap operas; men in suits think they have a winning idea, they stick loads of money in it, make it look more glamorous than anything you have ever seen, they really stick the full weight of the machine behind it; so convinced are the men in suits that this is going to win everyone over and make a connection. But it the grand plan doesn’t connect with people! Do you know what happened next? Flop! King Arthur, flop! An English soap opera set in Spain, all the glamour, who cares about anything else! Well the BBC cancelled Eldorado.

Manchester United is the latest soap opera to hit your screens; the disconnect between the board and the manager and arguably the players has been rivotting or painful to watch and much like Manchesterford’s finest, Acorn Antiques, we have had key players failing to follow the script. At least Victoria Wood’s world within a world was funny – what’s happening at Old Trafford is not.
The he said, they said, he said nonsense shows no sign of going anywhere and I’d rather not discuss it but I will because it’s indicative of what is going wrong at Manchester United.
Last week, James Cooper goes on Sky Sports reading a statement; United are “insensed” at rumours of a bust up between Paul Pogba and Jose Mourinho, “they are telling me there was no bust up” says Cooper who then goes on to suggest that idea is “nonsense” and that the “relationship between the two is good”.
For his part Sun Journalist Neil Custis was of the opinion that this was an attempt to “knock down” a story under orders from the United press office. The journalist seems to suggest that if James Cooper had spoken to Custis before going on camera armed with the red tinted defence, the story may well have been different. Neil Custis stood behind his story, the rift is clear and present; manager and midfielder are at odds.
Jose Mourinho takes to the microphone at his Friday press conference and tells the press not to make up lies. Jose is pretty clear; there was apparently No fight, no exchange of words, no problems at all. Jose cannot say enough nice things about the world cup winner and captain of his team; “I cannot demand more from him, I cannot ask more from him I want him to play well, I want him to play for the team.”
In days gone by if there was a sniff of a story and our manager gave that kind of reponse, the story would have died and we would have all been able to concentrate on the football but we are in different times. When Jose comments on the HUGE news that David De Gea is committing his long term future to Manchester United he says “it was a collective situation involving the player, the agent and Manchester United. The agent didn’t create a war to achieve his objectives. He respected the club, he respected the player.”

Jose might well have heaped praise on his captain, but in praising his goalkeeper and the conduct of the agent (Jorge Mendes, by the way, who also represents Mourinho), he also managed to park a double decker bus at the door of Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola. This ability to aim a verbal laserbeam with pinpoint presicsion in this way was a thing of beauty in one respect becuase i’ve always wanted to believe Paul Pogba wanted to be at Manchester United specifically and that his head was being turned by the agent. I’ve supported Manchester United long enough to know that I’m naive in this respect but I never want to lose this naivity; representing Manchester United should mean everything to anyone lucky enough to do so. So I want to believe it means the world to Pogba, and I want to believe that because he’s ‘one of our own’ it means as much to him as it meant to players like Paul Scholes or Denis Irwin, players for whom contract negotiations seemed to be the player asking the chairman for a pen.
The fact that Manchester United told the world they were angry is a giveaway that there is something to know, but the manager does not need to get on with a player in order for them to do a job . Sir Alex and Eric Cantona may have had the arm round the shoulder relationship but Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex did not. Rooney told the Telegraph in 2015 “it’s not just me who has had a fall out with Alex Ferguson. I think many players have. Some have left some have stayed”, this after it was revealed by Rooney that he spoke to his manager about looking for a move if Sir Alex’s plans no longer included the striker. When the issues are no longer repairable, and say, a football boot is kicked in the face of our poster boy, poster boy is soon in Madrid doing keepy uppies in the sun or Jaap Stam signs for Lazio and looks very happy about it… not.
No one is bigger than Manchester United and while they represent that shirt they have my support because I want to believe that they know what it means. I want to believe we are singing one song, from one hymn sheet.

On Sunday quite a few of the choir boys were off key and instead of being cancelled the soap opera was commisioned for another week of episodes. It was within their power to put it all down, regardless of the issues, everyone had said the right things and the team had the ability to fire a message to Neil Custis, James Cooper, Kevin Palmer, everyone; IGNORE THE SOAP OPERA IT IS THE FOOTBALL THAT COUNTS.
There is no distraction from the tension now because on the pitch we were poor. Defensively we switched off. Ashley Young stepped up to shadow Solly March but backed off him, he found enough space to find Murray, with a flick of the boot Brighton were a goal up and questions were being asked of Viktor Lindleof. Within minutes it was 2:0, Gross with the corner, United failed to fully deal with the danger and Duffy finds the corner with a strike better than it has any right to be. United very quickly not just on the ropes (the back four certainly were) but in danger of being out for the count before the half time break. This fear was realised with a 44th minute penalty; Eric Bailly brought down Pascal Gross who took the penalty and may well have been lucky given that it struck De Gea’s legs, next week that bounces to safety perhaps but on Sunday it put United 3:1 down. Forgive me for not focusing on the positives because I couldn’t find any.

Jose’s post match comments were centred around making “too many mistakes” and those mistakes giving “happinness and confidence to Brighton, taken from us” he also told reporters he would not go in the direction of being critical to his players, when elaborating he said that he had in the past been too honest and open and would now only speak about his players when they have had good days.
On Sunday Jose “was not expecting big mistakes” but his captain Paul Pogba told reporters “the attitude that we had is not like we wanted to beat them”, before putting himself first in the firing line for that criticism; “I put myself first, my attitude wasnt right.” Of course, I put myself first could be a staggeringly self aware moment of clarity from our midfielder, but I think he means it more as the buck stops here.
I like the fact that Jose is doing all his negative / realistic work behind closed doors and I like the fact that in the wake of this response another hopefully more succesful shut down will occur but his captain mentioned attitude three times in his Sky Sports interview and the press are quick to pick up on his crumbs that the team was not correctly prepared. Pogba suggests a “big lesson” has been learned after that defeat. United were humbled many times last season, we all had to pick ourselves up and hope for better next time, Brighton clinched survival on the back of our bad day at the office last season in this same fixture.
United have had embarrasments; yesterday shouldn’t have been a big lesson, anyone who needed to learn another “big lesson” should look at themselves in the mirror. Are they really good enough to play for us?

We need United players who are going to turn up and try – and collapse on the floor at the final whistle because they are feeling the dissapointment of every supporter. I thank Paul for stepping up and taking the bullet with his it starts with me comments, I agree – it does, but there are plenty who watched yesterday and think he doesn’t give a crap. There are plenty out there who thinks United’s is just the fattest pay cheque and if he’s not taking ours it will be someone else’s. I think Paul makes a good captain, he would have made a better one without all this going on because now it’s reactive not pro-active. I long for the days when allegedly wanting to leave Manchester United was not the key factor it getting you the armband.
We are years away from winning the league but I want to believe that Paul Pogba wants to be part of our rebuilding. There are those that suggest otherwise. I want to believe that Jose Mourinho is part of our rebuilding, there are those that suggest otherwise. Love him or hate him Jose needs the players to do better. But not one person comes out of Sunday’s horror show with any credit, Jose bought the two central defenders that were ripped apart, Paul Pogba is again the focus and off the field is again where the story lies, Ed Woodward shoulders monumental blame too.
The Spanish transfer window closes on August the 31st and United are soon to appoint a Director of Football so the moves Ed Woodward makes next are going to tell us how this soap opera ends – roll credits.
GTS