Manchester United is Pain
I don’t plan on leaving this hotel bar until I finish a blog post so this will inevitably end up as one of two things: The somewhat coherent ramblings of a buzzed, disheartened Manchester United fan, or the blackout ramblings of an emotionally unstable, traumatized Carolina fan. I don’t want to talk about Carolina Basketball for pretty obvious reasons so we’ll deal with the other source of my trauma today, Manchester United.
In case you weren’t aware, Manchester United is currently sitting in 9th place, 6 points away from a top-4 place, 41 points away from first, and has little to no hope of turning it around in the next season. If you can’t tell, I’m an optimist. My dismay isn’t without cause, I promise. Since Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season in 2012–13 that ended with a Premier League title, the club has been an absolute train wreck.
As much as I’d love to blame the refs, the players, the multiple managers, or just about anyone else, the truth is that they aren’t to blame, they are simply a symptom of the real problem at Manchester United — The lack of a director of football. Without one, the club’s direction in terms of what types of players they bring in is pretty much decided by the manager and Ed Woodward, the chairman of the club. This system only works when you have one manager for an extended period like we did with Ferguson.
Another drink please.
Since Ferguson, the club has been through multiple managers without any clear vision of the future. Rather than build the team with a single philosophy in mind over the years, the club has just adapted to each manager that comes in. When you’re changing managers quicker than Leonardo DiCaprio changes girlfriends after they turn 25, you end up with a mismatched group of players of decent quality that just shouldn’t be on the same team.
Whatever the hell David Moyes tried to do, didn’t work. Louis Van Gaal’s style of play that led the Dutch National Team to third place in the 2014 World Cup, stalled at Manchester United, leaving fans asleep in the stands. Jose Mourinho led the Red Devils to be Europa League champions in his first season, second place in his second season, but by the midway point of the third, the team was an absolute dumpster fire. Olé started on an absolute heater so of course Woodward went full Notre Dame and Charlie Weis and gave him a full-time contract right as the team went back to being a raging dumpster fire.
This lack of direction over the years has led to player after player being brought in for exorbitant amounts, failing, and being sold for pennies on the dollar. Ángel Di María came, played well for half a season and left. Bought for $82.5 million, sold for $69 million. Not nice. Romelu Lukaku cost over $90 million and was sold for $70 million. Alexis Sanchez was $40 million and I’d probably let him leave on a free just so we don’t have to pay his monstrous salary.
No team gets every transfer right, but no team should get every transfer wrong. Yet, somehow, Manchester United is. Bad signings are inevitable, even in the glory days Manchester United missed (Anderson). But when signings that theoretically can’t go wrong for Manchester United do, it’s a sign.
Make this one a double bartender.
Paul Pogba is one of the best midfielders in the world, no question about it. He would slot into any XI on any team in the world, once again, no question. He just won the World Cup with France in 2018, playing a key part throughout the entire tournament. Even if the price was high for him, his transfer literally couldn’t be considered a miss because United added one of the best midfielders in the world to the squad. When he plays, it’s clear that he has the quality, it’s not like he’s a shell of the player we bought.
Yet, somehow, he’s become a miss. Not because he’s played poorly, not because he’s been injured, not because he lacks motivation or anything like that. He’s a miss because once we bought him, we stranded him. He’s by far the best player on the team, surrounded by players nowhere near his quality. Rather than continue to recruit the world’s best and field him in a team competing for top spots, he has been hung out to dry and made the scapegoat for all our issues. Now, unsurprisingly, he wants to leave, will probably force his way out this summer, and we’ll get a fraction of what we paid for him.
Next season, unless major changes occur, we’ll be the same but without a superstar to point to. New players will be blamed, the manager will be let go, people will yell at Ed Woodward and the Glazers, but unless a director of football is brought in, nothing will change. I hope I’m wrong, I really do, but Manchester has a long way to go to return to Europe’s elite and to do it, we need a director of football.
I’ll take another refill.
