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Louis van Gaal

POLL: Should LvG be sacked now?

December 20, 2015

Scott is the editor of RoM and has a season ticket at Old Trafford. He started The Republik of Mancunia in March 2006. Follow @R_o_M on Twitter or @R_o_M7 on Instagram.

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93 Comments

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Mirainashe December 21, 2015

Why would anyone actually want Mourinho at United? Does no one ever learn? It's actually quite amazing. I get called all sorts of things. Plastic fan. Glory hunter. Barça,Arsenal,City etc fan. Yet I'm the ONLY person on this blog always demanding that United should go back to it's identity. But I'm the fucking plastic. Not the ones saying "only results matter". What the fuck does Mourinho bring to the table? There's no club that Mourinho has not lost the dressing room. No club where he hasn't tarnished the image. No club he has been praised for playing great football. So why in the fuck should he be anywhere near Manchester United? Have we become a bunch of close minded idiots who can't find alternatives. Mourinho WILL NOT guarantee trophies. He will only guarantee such negatives as bad press, civil war,mud slinging and basically hitting everyone below the belt. To make it worse we just witnessed the worst of Mourinho in the last six months and this is apparently the best time to hire him. What the fucking hell for?

Better alternatives? Ask the people over at Chelsea? They found a better alternative in no time. Whilst at United we just sit around dazed and confused. Ancelotti should have been hired ages ago or at least secured for next season. In replacing Martino Barça hired Luis Enrique whose previous stint was with Celta Vigo and Roma. Juventus have Allegri who failed at Milan. PSG have Laurent Blanc. Somehow everyone else seems to find a solution for themselves except at United. Fucking Mourinho. From Moyes to Van Gaal to fucking Mourinho. We truly have become a bona fide laughing stock

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Dan Young December 21, 2015

you say old ones as if they are not needed? most of fergies title winning sides had an average age of 28+ .. and infact its experience like that which we are currently missing

as for what you say about scoring a goal then parking the bus, that again has no proof atall. they ground out results, from december onwards when required, but they came out the blocks flying. thrashing everton 6-3, swansea 4-2. might i remind you of what we currently are putting up with, 0-0 draws or boring losses. mouinho won, in whatever way at all costs .. just like fergie

and wait so let me get this straight, a guy leaves a club and suddenly they decline and aparently that means they are in turmoil? if it was a likable manager we would be saying them leaving had such an effect the new manager wasnt as good as the old one (kinda like moyes after SAF). how can you even say he left inter milan in a state? when he left they had just won the treble!

as for him moving on after he has got what he wants. he left porto to join chelsea. he also left inter to join madrid. you cant criticise someone for that both were huge moves for his own career. at chelsea and madrid he got fired both times due to ridiculous owners or a club that constantly changes manager no matter what success is happening

and yes, mourinho in the press comes across as an arsehole, but why do we care what he tells the press? the press are wankers and he knows exactly how to manipulate them, fergie said it himself

as for saying his only real success came at porto .. that is obscene! he brought success despite not having control of who comes in, that is even harder then winning with your own squad!

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United24 December 21, 2015

Dan.
Points well noted.

RedOne, If we were to get Maurinho, this will possibly be the best time.
His ego has been bruised, and he will be a bit malleable.
He can adapt to a shared view of our long term goals, while achieving some short term success too...

At Chelsea, they were a nonentity, and he had to buy big, to overcome the juggernaut that was United. In his second coming, he needed to overcome the "new monster" our noisy neighbours, and all his bosses needed short term success. Same with Madrid. Of the Madrid managers, only he has recently been able to tame Barca for a year. His Inter also had to overcome Barca for the treble, having already dominated the league before he went there...

He can do same here. We can say, you'll get the superstars, but new ones will be 23-27 year olds, and we will keep rebuilding the team every 4 years with youth/new stars. He will do it!

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United24 December 21, 2015

Mrianashe,
Are you kidding?
Hiddink is the better alternative?
Are we going by recent results, then why does Hiddink even have a job?

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United24 December 21, 2015

You also seem to contradict yourself
Allegri was a failure at Milan , but succeeded in Juventus, so why not Mourinho?
He lost the dressing room in ALL clubs? Porto and Inter? Or Chelsea, the first time out?
Are you making stuff up just to diss him.

I won't even argue about Mourinho,anymore.
Please name your choice (anyone against Mourinho), and let us subject that person to similar critique.
It's not enough to be against something all the time. You have to be FOR something else.

Waiting....

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Dan Young December 21, 2015

united24 - thankyou for the well thought out comment not manipulated by your opinion of someone

as iv stated alot of time, mourinho is a wanker, but i still know for sure he is one of the top 2 managers on the planet at the moment.

as for people he brings in, i bet we will see benzema coming through the doors, most likely a departure for mata though which would suck. can see mane at southampton being a player mourinho goes for too

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Mirainashe December 21, 2015

Which brings me to the next issue. If you think Manchester United is a well run football club you're clearly a time traveller stuck in 2000. Very few clubs are well run. Bayern Munich is one of them. Manchester United is not.

Where do we start? Let's start with transfers. A complete shambles. Forget about the players we missed out on. Just look at the technical side of it. Embarrassing. Fellaini. At the time I thought it was probably the worst handled completed transfer in recent memory. Herrera. Fabregas. Pedro/Neymar. De Gea. Martial. Pogba

Let's look at the youth development. Pogba. Januzaj. Pereira. It's so bad players like Lingard are considered part of the youth policy. At clubs like Barcelona, his mates would be Neymar,Rafinha,Sergi Roberto. All of them expected to deliver world class performances when they are selected. If it was a well run club then only the standard of Anthony Martial would qualify to get a look in the first team.

Manager recruitment. It has been an absolute disaster and from the look of things that policy is not changing. And there's nothing more to say about that.

Extremely slow decision making. It took guaranteeing United's status OUT of the top four for Moyes to be fired. It took forever to even attempt fixing the midfield issues we had for a decade. It's seemingly going to take another guarantee of Europa League football for Van Gaal to be fired. Even if it has been clear for ages that he is rubbish. What the fuck is Rooney still doing at United and why the hell is he paid that much?

The people in charge are all extremely confused and clueless. They can't seem to find solutions to problems. Real Madrid fire Ancelotti (foolishly) and they already have a replacement. Manchester City are already favorites to land Pep. Bayern Munich already have Ancelotti coming in. Chelsea have hired Hiddink. Liverpool with Klopp. United is always the only "big" club which doesn't know how to find good solutions tineously. We wait until things go wrong. And then wait some more until it gets worse. Then pause a bit more until it's almost irreversibly damaged.

Not a well run club by a long shot

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RedOne December 21, 2015

Dan

Except that you forgot to mention that SAF brought them up, they might have been 28+ but they were at the club for a while before...not some "experienced" new comers who came for a final pay and glory which lasts couple of years and then they are gone. Charater is raised over time, it cannot be bought if that`s what you think. And this alone is a reason why Maureen falls out with his players every single time...sometimes it goes quietly and he offloads them, sometimes it gets leaked out. to the press.

Comparing Maureen to SAF is a bit of a joke. Completely different figures with completely different background and experience. I won`t say Marueen is shite, quite the opposite actually but he really doesn`t suit our club. He may be a success for a couple of years but what then? And in the meantime he will totally destroy our way of doing things.

As for Inter, why hadn`t he stayed there then? And prove how good of a squad he has for another three to five years? I can answer you that. He isn`t some tool, he knows excatly what he is doing and he set up a squad there for just as long as his contract because he knew before he came he would go elsewhere after expiry date anyway.

Anyway, I won`t argue anymore about this because clearly our perspective on the matter is not the same and so my vote, for what is worth, is a big NO to Maureen.

United24

I doubt he can adapt as this 3, 4 year program is the only thing he knows so far in his career. Short term success may be appealing right now but can`t imagine how we will look like after he`s gone. But if he can be persuaded to buy up to 25y stars and future stars and can persuade them to join United and stop his ego bullshit and look to settle down and look for the future and start working on a serious project like United, then perhaps he could come. But I just don`t think he can change so...see my vote above :)

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Mirainashe December 21, 2015

United24

The point about Allegri is simple. He failed at Milan but was a good fit for Juventus as per their style and identity. You don't necessarily need a trademark name. You didn't include Enrique or Blanc in your critique for obvious reasons.

Hiddink vs Mourinho. Of course he is better. For Chelsea. They were going down a slippery path with the great Mourinho who did an excellent job of enhancing Chelsea's reputation didn't he.

It's not all about fucking results. Clearly. In any case Mourinho wasn't getting any was he? Forget alternatives. How is Mourinho a fit for United? Is history not supposed to teach us? Mourinho fell out with Di Stefano at Madrid. Di Stefano initially supported him. At United we have Bobby Charlton. A club legend in an influential role. He made it clear that he doesn't fancy Mourinho at United as he doesn't represent the identity of the club. Do we honestly have to wait for history to repeat itself when it's so obvious it will? It's not just about Wikipedia. It's about finding the right fit and doing the right thing. Right now the absolute right thing is to retain the club's image. That is the most important thing at this moment. We need it identity back. We can't function without a name. We have to remember who we are and start building from there.

Unfortunately with most of you if not all, the most important thing is trophies. That's why Mourinho seems the logical choice. You will get the shock of your life because trophies at this present moment should be the least of our worries. We are in very deep shit. What we need is to reset to factory settings. Right now. Not win the league or the fucking CL final. We are nowhere near doing that anyway,Mourinho,Ancelotti or Pep. So we should only concentrate on starting afresh. That's it. And Mourinho is not who you go to if you want to start afresh. And he has no respect for a club's identity,history and image. He cares only for himself. We can find our own Pep our own Blanc our own Frank de Boer. Mourinho is not the last football manager on earth.

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lecho December 21, 2015

@Mirainashe

Yeah, let's waste some more time waiting or searching for our own Pep or our own Blanc watching the competition drive away. In the meantime let's contemplate about the past, recall Fergie times etc.

The team that is out there can win trophies. It only needs a manager who can a. do selection b. motivate c. do transfers. Mourinho ticks all these boxes so he's a no-brainer for United at this point. Really. It's either him or cruising down to mediocrity.

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RedOne December 21, 2015

Mirainashe

Who would be your solution then? Asking just out of curiosity...

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United24 December 21, 2015

This should never be a "fight" between what SAF/ Sir Bobby Charlton want or do not want.
I won't cross the line here, but all I 'll say is Moyes is a perfect example of where we should leave sentimentality for our heroes out of this

Loius Enrique and Blanc are not available.
Allegri is not the only example. Klopp with Dortmund had them hovering above relegation at similar points during their tenures, but it hasn't stopped people from touting their capabilities. We have to look at their body of work over the course of their careers. The past 4 months at Chelsea has been an outlier for Mourinho.

I did not particularly like him ( because he was the boss of our rivals), but if I want someone to knock worse rivals- Liverpool, City, Arsenal- off whatever perch they sit on, I will love Mourinho to come do the job. While at it, go after those Spanish teams I don't like. He is a proven winner. He can do it!

You still have not named the alternative for US.

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midfield-man December 21, 2015

For the record I was beaten up here last year when I used lucky to describe our qualification.m for the CL and have never ever imagined this guy can lead our club to a PL crown after what I've seen from him first year.
It's amazing the amount of people on here singing a different tune now like they just discovered some kind of enlightenment in regards to LVG while attacking everyone who could see after his first 6 months in charge he's Moyes 2.0.
Even ducking Scott wrote some insane articles defending this guy that in sure he'll hope will get magically erased sooner then later.

Was hoping for Ancelotti to be here by now, but oh well. Turn this club over to a glorified intern and we'll see the mess continue.
Giggs doesn't exude any kind of leadership, authority, proven experience, something that players need to look up to, let along a name that can bring world class talent.

He was a great, great United player but he is not a leader. Not that I've observed anyway.

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midfield-man December 21, 2015

Miranashe - some very valid points about club management. For the size of the club it feels way too much like its run by armatures, especially now that Fergies genius is gone and some real and critical decision making is required in order not to bring our club to its knees - so far we are miserably and embarrassingly failing. Painful to watch.

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Marko Maric December 21, 2015

I agree that Mo has some negative sides...and dont fit United history and way. But who would be other choice? It s easy to crap we need this and that, but who would be that person? Even we are in transition time, we can t fall behind others.

If we compare United and Citeh...SAF SAID that our academy is not good enough, and that Citeh is better in the academy organization then we are. But we were blinded by Uniteds success.

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

trouble is weve got a bunch of people running a football club, the biggest one in the world, for the very first time. When glazers took over, the club was running itself via fergie. they just sat back and didnt fix what wasnt broken.

if gill had stayed on, it wouldve minimized the loss of fergies input in club affairs. now they have to make all the big calls with woodward at the helm, its the blind leading the blind.

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Was speaking to some civilised Chelsea supporters over the weekend (a strange breed).

They were quite upset at the sacking of Mourinho, and seemed to think it all evolved round the the doctor Eva issue .

They also cannot believe that LVG is etill at United , and are puzzled at some of his transfer dealings and getting rid of all the forwards .

But they seemed to think that Mourinho would be perfect at United, as they would fit his ego.

If he brought in a centre forward and a centre back he would soon have them back on track .

They also seemed to think that Moyes was hard done by (their words not mine) .

I think that something has to be done quickly, and much as I dislike the bloke, Mourinho seems the obvious choice .

At the very least he will put some passion back into the club !

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

it seems obvious that the eva situation threw a big turd in the chelsea well. mourinho didnt count on the attachment that players prob had to the dr either. she wouldve prob been some sort of confidante to players or a release valve for things when in the treatment room. either/ or it was a huge miscalculation from the supposed best man manager on the planet.

the board, whilst lacking experience, are smart enough to know its only a matter of time before mourinho shits in utd's well.

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

what people also dont realise is he didnt get sacked for taking chelsea to 16th place. everyone knows he's got the talent to turn it around. he got sacked cos he prob changed the whloe atmosphere at the club which no amount of coaching could turn round.

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Cantona,

I agree, no doubt he will.

But at the present time I would take anyone over this insipid Dutchman who is sucking the life out of United.

As I said in previous posts, it is all similar the the post Busby era, and I think it will take a while to get it right,

We've had two disasters, time to try something else

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Cantona,

Maureen is also a snake, don't you think he manipulated Chelsea to speed up his exit, for whatever reason ?

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gra mar December 21, 2015

I voted 'no'. I have no faith in LvG but unless there us a credible successor then he'd have to stay.

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Mancdub December 21, 2015

If Mourinhio gets named United boss I'll get behind him. But until it happens I'm praying it won't.

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

no i think he screwed himself over thinking he was untouchable cos roman came crawling back to ask him to manage a 2nd time. he thought he could pick a fight with whoever and assert himself to people.

he was charged with trying to lift players he'd gone out of his way to demotivate.

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Cantona,

He does think he's God, I'll give you that .

But I think he would have more success at United than LVG, mind you that wouldn't be difficult.

I'm not sticking up for the bloke by the way, I can't stand him .

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

trevor i understand peoples need to see something happen, anything happen.

but we have literally all just witnessed mourinho suck the life out of chelsea. there's no other way to put it.

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Mancdub December 21, 2015

Trevor
When you say he manipulated Chelsea to speed up his exit, do you mean he kept losing on purpose? And why was he in a hurry to get sacked? That doesn't make sense mate.

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Cantona,

Agreed, but we've also seen LVG suck the life out of United.

I have never known the supporters so dispirited, even when we got relegated there was more spirit about the club .

It won't happen, but personally I would like to see Diego Simeone .

But at least the dippers have cheered us up !

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Mancub,

I wouldn't say lose on purpose, but the bloke is definitely not to be trusted , he wanted out for whatever reason, so I think he picked on the players and just pissed them off .

I know it doesn't make sense at all, but he could crawl under a snake he is so low, and who knows what goes on in his mind.?

I think he thinks he is the second coming.

His behaviour has been very strange, he would sell his own grandmother to prove a point

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

my only real criticism of LVG will come with what he does from now on.

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

sorry it posted accidentally.

he's in do or die territory. i cant blame him for the injuries, nor the fact we havent won matches fielding carling cup sides

but i am now looking to see what he does with continued perserverance with rooney or not bringing experienced players back from injury cos they dont tick all the boxes on magical philosophy list.

his backs against the wall so its gonna be interesting to see what he does to save his backside.

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Cantona,

I'm so pissed off at the moment I would take Doris Day as manager.

But it will all come out in the wash

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cantonafanclub December 21, 2015

i hear ya trevor. but at least when utd lose, the day is nearly over for you guys.

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trevor knightsmith December 21, 2015

Cantona,

True, got to pop out again, I shall leave you in charge young man

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John_Wright December 21, 2015

I think lvg should go. It is etched in my mind the moment he looked at giggs when hernandez missed the penalty. His belief was such that he got rid of hernandez. To me that was the single biggest and most arrogant mistake LVG has made. As if Man U was easy and the prem league even more so. he no longer carries rhe swagger and good on Giggs for using the tech area, it speaks volumes to me. United have to act now they just have too.

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gra mar December 21, 2015

@Mancdub...I said it ages ago that everything Mourinho was doing at Chelsea looked like he was trying to give his employers reasons to sack him.

It may be that he wanted to be available for the United job and not miss out on it by being under contract to Chelsea. It may be that he saw he was losing the dressing room and decided to bail out as he didn't think he could retreive the situation. I don't know but if you look at the repeated incidents and incendiary comments he's hard not to conclude that he was looking for it for whatever reason.

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dannysoya LOVES USAIN BOLT December 21, 2015

Beggars cannot be choosers. Carlo Ancelotti ( my first choice) is headed to Bayern. Pep will most likely go to Manchester City. That leaves us with a straight choice between Ryan Giggs and Jose Mourinho in terms of realistic choices. In this situation, I don't see how you reject Mourinho.

There is this regular myth perpetuated on here as well as in a lot of football circles that Jose Mourinho's teams regularly play boring football. In Mourinho's four full seasons at Chelsea, his team was in the top 3 in scoring every single season. At Real Madrid, his team set the club record (and at the time, the La Liga record) for most goals by one team in a single season with 109 goals en route to the teams ONLY league title in 7 years. His Inter Milan team was the highest scoring team in Italy en route to a historic treble. This is not to say that Mourinho cannot be boring. Of course Mourinho can be very boring at times as he is an extremely pragmatic man.... just like another legendary manager who used to manage Manchester United.

What we are asking for is not to play champagne football every single game. That is highly unrealistic and flat out stupid but we would like more often than not to play half decent football with a lot of goalmouth action at least and Mourinho's track record clearly shows that he can provide that. What this team currently lacks is legitimate defensive solidity and directness in front of goal. I don't know any manager alive who is more direct in his playing style than Jose Mourinho is and he also values defensive solidity as the base on which to build a strong team. Yes, he is controversial and Yes this could all go pear shaped very quickly and I could be flat out wrong on Mourinho (Just like I was with Van Gaal) but what would you rather have. Another 18 months of this soul-destroying nonsense or a crack with one of Europe's greatest ever managers?

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gra mar December 21, 2015

It looks inevitable that Mourinho will be our manager in the next week or two.

Where does that leave Giggs?

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Dsd Wynberg December 21, 2015

LvG was brought in to settle the after Moyes. He brought in Marquee signings like Di Maria and Falcao and i thought we were well in our way to the top. But Both failed under his management and were both sold after being good at their previous teams. The disrespect showed towards these players (inlcuding Valdes) is what really troubles me. Having Di maria benched for most of the season and never really trusting Falcao. He also openly criticised Schweinsteiger, got rid of RVP and hernandez. All International players. now we are left with players in a trimmed down squad with youngsters leading the line, carrying our captain (the less said the better). LVG had all the ingredients to make us great again. he had the credentials, full support of the fans, the board, funds for transfers. most of which he never received anywhere else. He has without a doubt been the architect of his own downfall at the club and must accept full responsibility for the recent results. I doubt whether we can turn this around with LVG in charge. The result against Norwich on the weekend proves this in my view. We need a fresh start and as much as i hate to say this but Mourhino might be our best bet and pep has not managed in the Epl. Mourhino perhaps has bad qualities, but he is a winner and thats an irrefutable fact.

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Ezzerguru December 21, 2015

@Dannysoya
Great points, and I certainly didn't know those stats. You just hear it so often that Mourinho plays boring football that it sticks. (

But thinking back to when he first sign Drogba, Chelsea were awesome and I don't remember being bored watching those games just worried. Similarly loved watching his Inter team in the champions league although I didn't see much of them Serie A.

@Dsd
Well said.

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martial_magnifique December 22, 2015

Hi to all my fellow super reds fans around the world
This my 1st ever comment on this great fans forum!
I think this is the most pivotal moment in our utd's
history since sir Alex retired.
Jose Mourinho's very badly hurt by his treatment
by those classless Ruskies @ cfc & their rent boys.
Jose must be given initial 2 year contract with a view
to go on depending on success & style of play.
Jose for 1st in his career,needs to reinvent himself
Personally I think it would suit both parties.
Lvg & before him the clueless1 have made our Utd
Laughing stock of NOT EPL but Europe too.
C'mon sir bobby grab the moment,hire Jose to take
The greatest club in the world back to the pinnacle of
EPL , champions league.

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Nnamdi Ejim December 22, 2015

I think that we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. We've waited far too long to make real actionable long term plans.

I don't favor MO as our new manager, due to his demeanor, NOT his results. I haven't seen him play United football EVER. He isn't always boring, but he can really get depressingly pragmatic until he has the pieces to play more attractively. I also don't like how much friction he creates in the media. SAF did a lot of that in his day, but with MO it feels like it's about him. Just my opinion and that may just because the guy seems to have dimples and smiles to much when he goes back and forth with the media.

That said, people who call for answer of "who else". Stop it. That's desperation decision making. If we have to tank another season to identify find and secure our long term replacement, then let's do it. Because the sure way to follow the Liverpool model is to be making panic buys every year.

MO might be fantastic, but then secure him in a planned out and sensible fashion.

Our lack of calm in our decision making has already cost use the last two seasons and this season. I'm sure it will likely eat up next season. We're now realistically looking at 2017-2018 at the earliest to get back on track. We've got a lot of improvements to make, but I actually think the first change is the board has to come up with a sensible sustatiainable game plan for how we return our youth and first team to playing Manchester United football. Honestly, results be damned for a season, because we've already done enough emotional damage to most of our players, that I don't see us playing well as a team until next season at the absolute earliest.

I reiterate, we have good pieces that can take us to the top, but like under Moyes we are in a huge CRISIS of confidence more than anything else.

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martial_magnifique December 22, 2015

Our board have made 2 very disappointing
choices,playing Stone Age football courtesy of
Messrs moyes & lvg.
With Pepes surposely in at Citteh,Chelsea maybe
getting Simone, Utd will be cut adrift if Lvg is not
sent packing by the board ASAP.
After Norwich & recent debacles,why hasn't
this dinosaur packed off to the Natural history
museum.
Why does our board move