Sports Nut. #MUFC #FALCONS #ALLBLACKS #KNICKS #F1 Sommelier turned Wine Importer.
Joined March 2009
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Can we talk about that refereeing performance for a moment? Yes, Como were better, but so many fouls let go from their end, yet every single one gets pulled up from ours. Kills every ounce of momentum and hands it back to them. Infuriating.
I was saying so last season. But the results meant it was all getting papered over. The management decided to focus on results, which is fine. The question is about sustainability and long term vision.
And this isn't about wanting RA back or that he shouldn't have been sacked.
A point away at Leeds isn't a bad result. The performance was one of the better ones, although that bar is pathetically low. The disappointment lies in giving up a lead. A patchwork defence getting undone. Carrick is rightfully under pressure. But as should the people above him.
Jarryd π·πΎπͺ retweeted
Was chatting with @MrTomMcDermott this morning trying to articulate why we are where we are - in summary I see it as this:
MartΓnez said it after the AM game. You could hear it in his words: the players feel let down and they've got every right.
Think about where this squad was in May. We finished 3rd. We were the best team in the league since MC took over. Back to basics: wingers tracking back, doubling up with the full-backs, hitting teams on the counter. That's United.
When you finish a season like that, the players expect the club to kick on with them. They want to win things.
A footballer's career is short, and they know the window is open, but what they got instead was a summer that bolstered the squad, not the starting XI.
Baleba arrived injured and late. Tielemans is gifted but lightweight. Santos might come good, in time. On a limited budget you buy two or three nailed-on starters. Full stop.
So put yourself in that dressing room. "We finished 3rd and you didn't back us." You walk out slightly deflated, feeling the club isn't behind you. At the top level, that's the extra few % that kills you.
We've seen it before, in the Mourinho summer and the Ten Hag summer. A good season, then a window that let the players down.
The players still need to perform. The manager takes his share, but the morale problem was made upstairs and for me, this sits with the club.
Jarryd π·πΎπͺ retweeted
Look at what the Glazers have made since buying Manchester United!
Safe to say theyβve bled our club dry!
#GLINEOSOUT
πΉ [Tiktok : Harry O'Connor]
You can add Bruno's comments regarding his extention to that list of players that spoke about needing players to compete.
Can also point to the players having short careers and want to win things, not rebuild time and time again.
@AdamMcKola
π€·ββοΈ "I think Lisandro Martinez was RIGHT. Maybe there is some good in keeping it indoors, but ultimately, they probably HAVE been keeping it indoors."
"It's clear to me that, when Carrick gets sacked, Jason Wilcox, Omar Berrada, all these people above him - they need to be on the chopping block" β
McKola gives his thoughts on Lisandro Martinez's post-match outburst after the defeat to Atletico last night π£οΈ
#MUFC
Jarryd π·πΎπͺ retweeted
Lisandro Martinezβs view that Michael Carrick has been sold short and the squad has not been equipped with the depth to fight on multiple fronts is shared by several senior players - and football staff. It has been discussed in the dressing room with the club aware of frustrations around recruitment.
There was a fear ahead of the campaign that the squad would not be strengthened properly - the lack of cover at left-back and striker were major concerns, which is evidenced in how much the need for reinforcements was stressed during pre-season interviews.
Told the driving reason behind Martinezβs airing these grievances publicly is fury that Carrick is likely going to lose his job despite not being given the tools to have a fair crack, and players are sick of reset after reset, without questions asked of the people in charge and what direction theyβre taking the club in.
Carrick and the team have faced criticism, accepted it, and owned up to performances being nowhere near good enough.
Where is the accountability from the people who keep leading the club to one doom spiral after another?
This brand of football is entering van Gaal levels of dull. Not pressing and holding shape can only work if you are either ruthless on the counter or clinical in possession. We're neither.
Expecting one player (Baleba) to change all of that is fanciful, at best.
Jarryd π·πΎπͺ retweeted
π¨ #MCFC Former City star says news of the club's sham contracts has made his life HELL.
The 39-year old, who asked not be identified, said, "I played 73 times for City but when I walk down the street people just look at me in disgust. It's tarnished my career." [@dailystar]
Jarryd π·πΎπͺ retweeted
Back in 2014, there was a man who was already aware of the irregularities involving Manchester City. That man now runs FIFA. The infamous Gianni Infantino, then UEFA General Secretary, abused his authority, shared confidential documents and, in short, outmanoeuvred the Investigatory Chamber, doing everything in his power to ensure that both Manchester City and PSG would merely receive a fine, avoiding a deeper investigation that could have led to a Champions League ban. All of these details were also revealed through Football Leaks.
Given his actions as UEFA General Secretary and, more recently, as FIFA President, I can only say, in my humble opinion, that Gianni Infantino has become a cancer on football and should have no place in the future of the game.
I remember when a 300+ score was considered incredibly tough to chase. #WIvIND
Put this game on towards the end of the 1st innings because I thought it would be great to see a great West Indies innings. I didn't expect to see India show up and show out as well. #WIvIND
I don't know how anyone can spin this into anything other than unacceptable. Utterly embarrassing. How are they so poorly conditioned?
Jarryd π·πΎπͺ retweeted
Companies owned by Jim Ratcliffe have received state support to the tune of Β£630m in recent years. Now this 'wealth creator' is leaving the country because he doesn't want to pay taxes and doesn't like black and brown people.
"Immigrants are the problem" says the billionaire residing in Monaco to avoid paying tax...
Brilliant post. I'm far from a match going fan. But you can't help but empathise with men who grew up supporting the club with their dads & wanting to share that with their kid. INEOS have been taking one PR hit after another while giving little back. They need a good comms dept.
A long read, but its the truth!
I genuinely think we are watching football loyalty slowly die and I don't know what replaces it.
I've followed Man United home and away for decades. Thousands and thousands of miles, trains, cars, coaches, hotels, stupid kick off times, days off work and an absolutely frightening amount of money.
But forget the money for a minute because you can always earn more money.
You can't get the time back.
Weekends away from your wife and kids, family things you've missed, holidays planned around fixtures, getting home at stupid o'clock then getting up for work a few hours later.
And none of us were forced to do it. We did it because we fucking loved it.
When the fixtures came out you didn't think do I fancy that game?
You thought right, how am I getting there?
That's the difference.
And lately I've noticed more and more people I've known through football for years saying the same thing.
"They can have my ticket."
That's not normal.
These aren't people who started supporting United because they won a trophy last year. These are lads who've been everywhere following them.
And before rival fans jump on with the glory hunter stuff, that doesn't really wash anymore either.
Yes, Manchester United were ridiculously successful. We were spoilt for years and I'll never pretend otherwise.
But we've been mediocre for the best part of 12 years now.
There are kids going to Old Trafford today who've never seen Manchester United win the league. For some of them, United being bang average is basically all they've ever known.
What glory are they hunting?
They're still going.
Their dads and mams are still taking them. They're still buying the shirts, travelling away and growing up supporting United.
So this isn't about demanding we win the league every year.
Football fans can handle losing. Fuck me, we've proved that.
It's everything else.
You can have a Saturday night kick off now where you're Β£100 for a train, Β£100 for a hotel, ticket, food, drink and you're basically writing off 24 hours of your life. Sometimes you're fucked for work the next day as well.
And increasingly you sit there thinking...
What am I actually getting back from this?
Not trophies. I don't mean that.
I mean from the relationship with the club.
Because it doesn't feel like a relationship anymore.
It feels like a transaction.
You're a membership number. A ticket account. A customer.
And if after 20, 30, 40 years you finally say fuck this, you can have my ticket, it doesn't really matter.
Someone else will take it.
Probably someone who'll spend more money while they're there.
They'll buy the shirt, go in the Megastore, buy the experience, take the photos and maybe pay hundreds more for something that used to simply be part of going to the football.
Financially that might make perfect sense.
But I think football is playing a very dangerous game.
Because the people you're slowly replacing aren't customers.
They're supporters.
They're the people who went when it was brilliant and went when it was shit.
The people who knew everyone around their seat.
The people whose dad took them and who now take their own kids.
The people who didn't need a "matchday experience" because the fucking match WAS the experience.
And I don't even think this is just Manchester United.
I'm hearing supporters from other clubs saying exactly the same things.
Maybe we're just further down the road than some.
Football is becoming an event.
A day out.
A product.
Something you experience once and stick on Instagram.
And maybe that's just the future. Maybe old fuckers like me need to accept it π
But here's the bit I'd worry about if I ran a football club.
People aren't as angry anymore. They're just losing interest.
There's a massive difference.
Angry supporters still care.
They protest. They complain. They sing about the owners. They demand change.
When someone who's arranged their entire life around football for 30 years suddenly says...
"Know what? I can't be arsed going."