Coulrophobia used to abound at Old Trafford. Now it is there but in smaller doses and with different connotations.
José Mourinho was feared. Not as much as he would have liked to have been but he was feared particularly by his players who were so scared of him that they forgot how to play football in his, yes you guessed it, third season!
Prior to him, Louis van Gaal was feared and, as a strict disciplinarian, he probably had every right to be. (more…)
Ole Gunnar Solskjær can look forward to the backing of the board and a serious amount of cash to spend in the summer transfer window. This is according to Ed Woodward, the CEO of Manchester United Ltd. In the dreaded “vote of confidence” Woodward stated the obvious which was that the club were still challenging in the Europa League and FA Cup and still had a chance at Champion’s League qualification through their league position.
He failed to mention that ex-manager José Mourinho led United to second place in the Premier League, finishing 8 points above Liverpool who currently sit first, 38 points points ahead of United! (more…)
Meet the Glazers (from L to R): Avram, Joel, Kevin, Bryan, Darcie and Edward
The parasitic Glazer family or, to be more precise, the parasitic patriarch of the Glazer family, Malcolm, bought Manchester United in 2005. He bought the club purely as a cash cow which he could milk as and when he pleased. This has now been the case for the last 15 years and has resulted in more than £1billion being taken out of the club.
The deal to buy United was advised by an investment banker working for JP Morgan called Ed Woodward. As everybody is now very well aware, his pound of flesh for brokering the deal, (on top of his very fat commission cheque), was to be given the job of CEO at Old Trafford which, on the retirement of David Gill, also saw him take over the role of “transfer guru“. (more…)
The reasons for the current problems at Manchester United can be summed up quite simply.
1. The owners know absolutely nothing about football.
2. The CEO knows absolutely nothing about football.
3. The manager knows absolutely nothing about the tactical side of football, communicating with supporters or managing players.
With a CV which includes managing a third rate club in Norway and taking Cardiff City from the Premier League to the Championship, there was no reason to even consider Ole Gunnar Solskjær for the manager’s job at Old Trafford, let alone actually appoint him. (more…)
Providing Ed the Incompetent doesn’t mess things up, which is always a very strong possibility, then it would appear that Bruno Fernandes is about to sign for Manchester United. Is he a good signing or not? We here at WSA happen to think he would be a very good signing. In fact, we thought he would be a very good signing last summer when United could have bought him for less than now. So why didn’t they?
Well apparently they weren’t too impressed with the content of their scouts reports which said that he often gave the ball away. Strange this because, that being the case, he should have been a perfect fit for this team, all of whom are extremely adept at this very unwelcome skill! (more…)
Ashley Young has said, reportedly, that he no longer wishes to be considered for selection to Manchester United’s first team squad. Good! As we have consistently said, he should have been sold years ago. So what has been the manager’s reaction to this alleged insubordination? None really. Solskjær, being the teddy bear that he is, has basically told the media to “ask Ash” if they want to know what’s going on and, when pushed, said that he would “sit down with Ash” to discuss it!
Please excuse our ignorance but we were under the impression, (obviously misguided), that it was the manager’s job to know what was going on at the club and, in particular, with his players. (more…)
Ole Gunnar Solskjær is not an Old Trafford legend in the true sense of the word. He is not up there with Duncan Edwards, Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law. He is remembered, primarily, as the substitute who came on and scored the winning goal in the 1999 Champion’s League final.
He scored many other goals during his Manchester United career with the vast majority of them being scored as a substitute. In other words, he wasn’t considered good enough to start for the first team on a regular basis. This alone prevents him from being a fully-fledged legend. (more…)
Have no fear, Ole’s at the wheel!
The only problem with this is that he is still driving with ‘L’ plates on and he has no instructor!
Assisting him in his quest to at least keep the car going straight is Mike Phelan, whose managerial experience extends to a whole 3 months during which time he took Hull City to the brink of relegation before being replaced by Marco Silva who duly completed the task. (more…)
It’s official, the leaks have been plugged. With the arrival of Aaron Wan-Bissaka to replace old man Young and Harry Maguire to replace the average Jones/Smalling/Rojo and injury prone Bailly the Manchester United defence looks, on paper anyway, decidedly more solid than it did last season.
The downside is that football is, and has always been, a game best played on grass, not paper, so the proof of the pudding will only really be evident when United play Chelsea at Old Trafford in the season’s opener. (more…)
It would appear that Ed Woodward isn’t very well versed in the takeaway. No, not the Chinese kind, the sales kind. The one which appears to remove a particular tidbit from a deal only to reinstate it at a later date.
It’s like saying that your favourite car can be bought, is affordable but comes without electric windows. Then when you, the client, say that the only thing stopping you buying the car is the electric window issue, they can suddenly be included in the price. (more…)
