Carrick backed in blinking contest with Man Utd ‘cretins’, ‘parasites’ and ‘absolute dildo’ Ratcliffe

Michael Carrick is doomed at Man Utd, but has been backed in waiting to be pushed by the ‘cretins’ in the boardroom rather than walking.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Anyone else?
Am I the only one who doesn’t care about Man U? We get it, they’re sh*te…. move on
Rob, NZ

Howe about that?
I’d warn United fans off Eddie Howe if they think he will be the cure to all your ills.

He’s a great man manager, of that there is no doubt, he turned around Newcastle and did build a competitive team, however he is severely limited for a number of reasons which will not help Utd.

He may get the players on side with his man management but his training regime and style of play is infamously demanding. This is a Utd team being accused of a lack of legs and its hard to see how they could take to Howe’s style. You are back in the same territory as previous managers that you won’t have the players to fit the manager unless you spend loads of money.

Howe has also proved incapable of managing a Champions League schedule. He had two cracks at it and failed both times to sustain league performance alongside European nights. He benefitted both times when Newcastle qualified for the CL by not having European football on the calendar the season before. Dropping him into a listless (I won’t say lazy) squad, with 2-3 games per week, is not a good plan.

Compounding this inability to perform with a heavy schedule is his overreliance on specific players. Look at the collapse in Newcastle’s form since Isak left, and it was clear he couldn’t see a future without Bruno G. Newcastle’s record without those two players was relegation worthy. All teams struggle without their best players for sure, but Howe sides simply cannot perform if one or two components are missing. Any manager would build around Bruno Fernandes but if he wasn’t there Utd’s form would go over a cliff (even more so than now).

Howe’s eye for talent is really not great. Credit for Newcastle’s star signings sits with others like Amanda Staveley rather than Howe – he gets credit for Trippier, Burn who have been great but his reliance on their ageing legs was a long-term mistake. Stars like Bruno, Isak, Tonali were not Howe signings. Elanga and Wissa are definitely the players Howe wanted and look at how that has worked out. Last thing Utd need is another manager blaffing huge wads on mediocrity, which is what you’ll get with Howe, but conversely Wilcox may sign players who Howe simply won’t accommodate.

And lastly; Howe quit because he was burnt out and couldn’t face the massive uphill challenge of building a team with players he didn’t sign, who were very young, and when his favoured lieutenants had left or were getting too old. And to me as a Newcastle fan, that is fair enough. I just wish he’d made that decision at the beginning and not the end of the summer but never mind, he genuinely loves the club and the fans so I appreciate why he tried to soldier on. I don’t think 3-4 months out of the game will have refreshed his batteries, an initial energetic burst could galvanise the squad and bring some results, but both he and the squad would tire very quickly, and you would be back at square one.
James, Leeds

Those bloody Glazers
The United hierarchy are likely hoping that Carrick is so sickened by his predicament that he resigns, saving them a few quid in pay off money.

They will know it’s over, as he does. He is likely inclined to walk away but very rightly, should wait to be paid out by the cretins that put him in this position.

There is no doubt who is responsible for all this: Glineos. United went into the summer with a measure of goodwill, qualifying for the CL and winning games. What did they do? Looked at the numbers and cut spending. Absolutely and utterly unforgivable. They sucked the positivity and energy out of the squad – quite clear before players started to say it publicly – and left a good servant of United in Carrick right in the firing line to take the next bullet.

It’s beyond anger now, I’m beyond caring. They will build a jumbo stadium in place of Old Trafford and nobody will come. What is there to see but the rotting corpse of a ravaged titan that was sucked empty from the inside out by a parasitic disease that presented itself as stewardship.

What can Wilcox do? What can Berrada or Sir Jim do? They will be thinking the same sad thing with the Glazers still in majority control.

Only the end of that sickness can save Man United – and perhaps many of us will be dead and gone before that ever happens.
Mark

Loved the article about why it’s the worst crisis yet, and why it can only get worse.

Many will say that sort of take is lazy doom-mongering, but if you look at it rationally and you go on the available evidence, what else is there to conclude? This is an utterly broken football club on every level imaginable.

The majority owners are parasites. The guy with the next biggest stake is an absolute dildo, hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing. The people he’s appointed to run the football operations are quite clearly clueless idiots, who have made an already bad squad worse. The stadium is crumbling and aforementioned dildo is struggling to raise the finances for a new one. The training ground, once state of the art, is now dated and has long since been surpassed by several other clubs.

The head coach is a failed Championship coach. The playing staff is chock full of mediocrity. The small handful of decent footballers that they do possess unfortunately also come with massive attitude problems and inflated egos.

The fanbase, already febrile after years of not being listened to, are now furious with the club for kicking many of them out of their ST seats.

The staff at the club have been treated like sh*t ever since Dildo took over, subject to cuts and constantly patronised with the removal of courtesy food and WFH privileges. Morale is on the floor.

Where the hell do you even START with all that? You might fix one problem for a short while, but another ten pop up elsewhere. It’s like the world’s largest and most unwinnable version of Whac-a-mole.

A grand old club slowly dying, in front of everyone’s eyes, and no one has any idea how to stop it happening. And it’s not the slightest bit hyperbolic to say that.
Andy H, Swansea. 

As a united fan, its hard to know exactly whats gone wrong in the team/club.

I often think its the Glazers/Board… but we have spent a fortune over the last few years. The spending has however had zero positive effect. Regardless of what is happening on the balance sheet, plenty of cash is being spent on players and plenty on wages. This should have a positive effect on the pitch, if not on the accountants excel spreadsheet. Money is not fixing the problem.

Then, when i think we spent the money badly, I’m not so sure either. Every single player we buy is/was quality… they just turn to sh*te at united. If Klopp/Pep had signed the majority of these united duds, then they would be excelling, or at worst, being adequate.  New players are not fixing the problem.

Then, surely the managers are the problem. But we have had legends (Mourinho, Van Gaal), We have had club legends (Carrick, Ole), we have had hipster managers (Amorim and Ten Haag). All have failed pretty much miserably. New Managers are not fixing the problem.

Is it just the premier league in general. Is the quality so high that the margins are now so small. Bournemouth just spanked AC Milan 3 nil. Relegated West Ham just sold one of their players for almost $100m. A regular Brazil striker plays for Brentford. Spurs have spent half a billion quid. They are near relegation. Sunderland are in Europe. They are bottom of the league. The premier leagues worst, are better the majority of Europes best.

Players fitness levels are obscene in general (United being the exception). Your average premier league player these days is of a far higher standard than the Fergie era which most of us old united fans pine for. Its a different game now, a different league. You can spunk all the money in the world on “world class” players, but they will still be up against elite opposition most weeks.

In the not so distant past , the following were record signings, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Alan Shearer, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Dwight Yorke. All absolute legends and raised the standards of massive clubs.

Records signings now often make little impact (Isaak, Wirtz, Grealish, Lukaku, Anthony, Nunez). There is of course a couple of exceptions (Rice, maybe Gvardiol?), but now, you cant simply buy your way out of trouble. Spend 100m now, you may get a flop in the premier league.

This email is a mess, just like Man Utd. I have no idea what the problem is. The answer is somewhere muddled in the above words. But anyone who thinks they have the solution is a fool. Football is chaos.
Shz

Trump card
Manchester United stand on the brink. Not of relegation, nor of bankruptcy; those battles may well come later, or never. Manchester United are going to fire their manager, Michael Carrick.

This isn’t a prediction, even though the event hasn’t come to pass. It’s reporting of a certainty. Carrick lacks the skills and the circumstances to survive the current club malaise for more than a few more weeks. Busby would have trouble surviving this; even Ferguson.

The talk of who will replace Carrick has been amusing and illuminating; the laughable notion that Enrique would be willing to spin these particular bottles especially so. If Carrick’s ponderous positional obsession is too energetic for this squad, how would they possibly deal with Enrique’s demands for aggressive fluidity and expectations of flexibility?

That is the problem with most of the candidates so far suggested; those who could bring success with combative, adaptive tactics (like Hurzeler and Nagelsmann) will struggle with these players, while those whom the squad fits, such as Frank or Xavi Hernandez, are unlikely to break United out of its cycle of ordinariness.

The problem, of course, isn’t solely Carrick. He was a poor hire, made by a leadership group that doesn’t appear to understand football. He
was surrounded with players who are not suitable for the task; Luke Shaw should no longer be a Premier League left back; Mason Mount is a
lightweight who flatters to deceive; Benjamin Sesko has not proven himself useful; Bruno may be able to thread a beautiful pass but he is not a leader of men. Who is Leny Yoro? Why is Joshua Zirkzee?

While United could technically be relegated, the chances of the Glazers allowing their cash cow to actually go down are minimal. They cannot take the dividends from a Championship team in the same manner they are currently able to bloodlet – and how many second-tier clubs
sell jerseys in Asia and Africa?

If the immediate future looks bleak in January, they will invest in some older, experienced players to pull them away from the bottom – exactly the same players who will then woefully underachieve in following seasons, ensuring the circle closes. The billion pounds in debt will continue to inch upward. The stadium project – already threatening to collapse under the weight of its planners’ vanity – will be an anvil rather than an anchor, as it was initially for Arsenal and Spurs.

Welcome, then, to mid-table mediocrity. The doom spiral guaranteed by having owners dedicated to making the club too big to fail by making it too empty to succeed. Even their cross-city rivalry is about to be stolen from United fans. It’s a grim destiny, only avoided by the entrance of white knight. Of course, this iteration of United is unlikely to attract interest from the upper suite of billionaires and sheiks. Perhaps a post-impeachment donie drumpf would be interested? After all, given the success of his steaks (flopped) and his university (shuttered) and his casino (bankrupted, with the building imploded), he’s looking for somewhere to turn his golden touch next.

Is there any doubt he’s the perfect man – using the word man completely wrongly – to Make United Great Again?
George, Alberta, A province of Canada

Time to suck it up
Every sane fan knew Como would be difficult – they’re a team in good form, sat 5th and with some exciting players. I personally never imagined it would be *that* bad, but this is what happens when half the squad is injured and it exposes the threadbare nature of what is left.

Since everyone is giving Carrick a solid kicking, I wonder what the esteemed mailbox and BTL would do to fix the lack of striker at United. Or indeed what striker you imagine Conte (probably going to Juve) or Howe (a very unfunny joke) would miraculously pull from the ether. Tried Cunha and that went miserably. Mbeumo is better but not by a lot. Rashford would be better but is injured. Amad? Tried that before and it wasn’t good. Dalot? He runs into good spaces but has the composure of Heskey. Maguire maybe?

In fact, the only thing that a new manager brings is the grace period of settling in that might get them to the January window where they can be roundly failed by the board. Just like Carrick was. Just like Amorim was. Just like Ten Hag and Ole were.

Do I think Carrick is nailed on to turn it all around, or be the long term guy? Nope. I do think he deserves the chance though, and at least a full season, considering how much he elevated the team last year with the same squad Amorim was failing with.

Talk of changing managers is just a huge distraction from the reality of the issues; it’s fun for the media, but that’s all. Peak Sir Alex isn’t making this squad into title challengers. No manager in the world is.

And if you won’t give a guy who dragged this sorry squad to 3rd and the best form in the league the time to try and fix things, then what hope does any replacement have for more patience? Hurzeler has already looked and noped his way past. Probably the most sane thing I’ve seen in the last week.

It is time the fans accepted where we are, and stopped expecting immediate success. We need to suck it up for a bit, fix the squad and move players on. It will take a few years. It’s a bitter taste but Liverpool and Arsenal have both been through it.

From my perspective, there’s one bit of good news from the Bruno situation. Not only has he been “busy” proving me right over the last 7 games (zero discipline, terrible captain, resistant to possession football, disappears in the big games, world class only in a counter attack etc) but he’s also now revealed his true face for all to see. When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
Badwolf

Never mind Conte…
Everyone talking about bringing Conte as a manager to change everything and lit a fire at Man United.

Why not do the same at Upper Management too. Just sell Evangelos Marinakis a minority stake and give him Wilcox’s job. I recommend my man would straighten out the entire club in 2 months…

Also, Would love to see Bruno take a swing on him…
Victor MCFC ( I would rather have us relegated or disintegrated or whatever at our absolute peak and pomp rather than drag on as a pathetic lifeless vampire like our Neighbours.. in 10 years)