Why shouldn’t Mason Greenwood play again for Man Utd? And the Mickey Mouse Cup…

The Mailbox bemoans the fact that Manchester United are being held to a higher standard than everyone else over the prospect of a return for Mason Greenwood. Also: gives us The Mickey Mouse Cup; a staunch defence of Wataru Endo…

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com

 
We need the Mickey Mouse Cup
Saw your article on the ranking of League cup names, and started thinking which companies would I like to be the next ones on the list. Here’s my top 5

5. Temu Cup – Not as expensive or valuable as the others but allows you to partake in the joys usually reserved for the rich (ahem Man City)

4. Mr Beast Cup – Who you ask? Mr Beast is the biggest YouTuber known for spending millions on click-baity stunts and videos. At the current rate of 6M pounds annually, Mr Beast should have enough in the bank to pull it off and the name just has that banter ring to it.

3. NFL Cup – So what happens if the richest “football” league in the world starts to sponsor some real football. Just the head scratchiness of the name would give NFL the kind of exposure and publicity in UK that all those games at Tottenham have failed to generate.

2. Netflix (and chill) cup – Just turn on the match, invite over your buddies, order some pizzas, open them cans of beer and voila, a perfect date night.

1. Mickey Mouse Cup – With Mickey losing cultural relevance day by day and in process of entering the public domain piece by piece, Disney has to take this last chance to honour it’s legacy. Much better than wasting money on Marvel movies and they can even stream the matches on Disney+ (to avoid the Netflix deal above). Football needs this. Fans need this. The world needs this. Disney needs to make this happen.
Gaurav MUFC Amsterdam

Greenwood hypocrisy
Reading the nonsense from Tickner regarding the Ratcliffe interview, it seems like Greenwood is only a problem if he wants to play for Manchester United. Being an ex England international, there seems to be no issues with him playing for Getafe, or any other club. But when it comes to Manchester United, it seems like it’s a world ending scenario. There is no continuous campaign for him to be out of football, just out of Manchester United. I don’t see any recurring articles or negative press regarding him other than the times when his name is linked with United again.

Forget the fact that:
– Marcus Alonso killed someone and was allowed to continue his career and earn millions.
– Y’all were ok with Pennant playing with an ankle monitor in the premier league for a drunk crash
– Patrick Kuilvert killed a man at 19 in a car crash and was found guilty.
– Ian Wright was jailed over some actual nonsense (failing to pay fines and driving without a licence – MC), but he got a chance to make his life better!
– And a lot more people are accused but never convicted due to lack of evidence.

But it seems that murders and assaults are forgiven as there was no actual video or audio recording, but with Greenwood, it seems that no one wants to give him a chance. Despite the fact that he is literally married to the same woman and is a father of her child now. What more do you want him to do? Kill himself? Leave the country? Community service? Interview with Oprah? Or do you want to see a man live the next 60 years of his life on the straight knowing he did a god awful crime which he must repent for and improve.

We are ok with known Oligarchs and murderers own football clubs like Chelsea and Newcastle, but draw the line at a 19 year old on the wrong path in life. We are ok with people dying, but not a girl who has forgiven her boyfriend for his crimes.

As a viewer, I am more than ok seeing Greenwood play for United or any other club in the world, his life, his choice, let him move on and let us all move on from this. If he ever even comes close to making the same mistakes, jail him for 15 years and fuck him off. But till then lets all take a step back and let a family live.

Regards
A

…The nonsense about what Man Utd should or shouldn’t do about Mason Greenwood is beyond ridiculous.

Why should they not ‘profit’ from his sale? I put profit in inverted commas as they have certainly not profited from all the bad publicity, media backlash, woke bulshit and from losing a half decent player. What price do we put on all that? Quite frankly, who cares. Utd should get whatever money they can from him and Mason should be allowed to ply his trade wherever he’s wanted. At some point he needs to be forgiven, his accuser has forgiven him but the media and woke brigade are somehow more offended than she was and somehow have more reason to be upset and for longer than the actual accuser? WTF? How in the hell can anyone be more offended than the actual (alleged) victim? What a joke.

There is not a single thing utd could do or have done that would have been deemed good enough for those out for blood or clicks. Utd would have got less backlash had they just said “he’s not been found guilty of anything so he’s back training with the first team”. It all would have been over by now.
Jon, Cape Town

Read more: Mason Greenwood and four other red flags from Ratcliffe’s cosy press-pack chat​

Red flags and Ratcliffe​
City fan here. And the reason I mostly (but not always) write that first is because of the following rule.

Context is everything.

Everybody has the right to choose, of course, but I can’t shake my intense dislike of those that write in to this mailbox without declaring their allegiances. You know, those that simply sign off as ‘Jim’ or ‘Steve’ or ‘Barbara’ or, worse still, ‘Anon.’ It can’t kill you to add Colchester United, or Blackburn Rovers or whatever. So why not? It’s important because football is nothing if not tribalistic and, I will repeat, context is everything.

Which brings me, as a City supporter, to the recent F365 articles about both Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Mason Greenwood.

Brass tacks. The only people trying to either defend Greenwood or somehow suggest that he might be eligible to be reintegrated into the Manchester United team are MUFC supporters. Nobody else. If he were an Arsenal or Liverpool player, there wouldn’t be a squeak from the same quarters, except in total condemnation. Think Suarez and the T-shirts and then I refer you to the ‘tribalism’ reference above.

On the red flags article, I too cannot agree with how Dave Tickner worded it, but the basic premise was sound, it seems to me. God knows that United fans need some positive input given the sh*tshow they’ve had to endure over the last ten years but consider this. There have been all too many so-called saviours coming into clubs, in all four of the top English Leagues, saying all the right things but screwing over said club for their own personal benefit. Ratcliffe may well prove me very, very wrong on this point, but I would ask any fellow F365 mail boxer to show me where either he, or INEOS have had any untainted success in any sporting venture they have previously dipped their toes into.

His calls for public funds for either a new, or re-furbished stadium, should be ringing alarm bells if nothing else. I don’t, for example, recall Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs or Everton doing the same thing. They seem to have achieved their own aims regarding their own stadia despite not being the ‘biggest club in the world.’
Mark (So just why is Ratcliffe floating that and Greenwood?) MCFC.

Endo the nonsense
F365 started the season frequently and often flagging that Endo was a pointless signing; culminating in this article in October – and your claiming Gravenberch would be the star.

I’d written both prior and post that article to suggest yeah, maybe, maybe not. Given they’d both likely follow Robbo’s and Fabinho’s journey and be slowly introduced to the team, and that as neither hit the ground running, perhaps the Winter would be the best time to judge (idiot that i was, unknowing that he’d bugger off for most of January for the Asian Cup).

But here’s the thing. Endo has proved himself. He’s a fan favourite. He’s doing exceptionally well as a squad player. So by any available metric it’s not been pointless.

But there was yet another dig in the somewhat stretched article comparing Klopp’s last season to Fergie’s. Endo is a “clear panic buy” you see, and that he performed to “levels not anticipated” apparently.

Endo was signed almost immediately after the failed bid for Caicedo. As in one deal fell down, and before the news cycle had even stopped communicating that deal not happening this one was announced out of the blue hours later. Furthermore, it happened nearly two weeks prior to the end of the transfer window. He was clearly on a pre-existing list. And in a position that you make a fairly strong argument wasn’t even a hiring priority until Henderson left. So signing a midfielder on a list you’ve drawn up in advance, waaay ahead of the transfer window closing, can’t really be a panic buy can it? Endo was also a player Klopp was supremely excited about joining:

“I’m really happy. Wataru is a really good player. I know in this world of football how it goes and stuff like this, but have a look, have a look, because he’s a really good player. Experienced player, captain of Stuttgart, captain of Japan, speaks good English, nice fella, family man. Machine on the pitch, good footballer on top of that, sensational attitude. So, I’m really happy. He’s a good footballer, very experienced and loves to work extremely hard”

Two days prior to Klopp saying that, they were bidding for Caicedo. The Caicedo deal didn’t happen, and the next day they signed Endo. Unless you are saying a level of research and analysis, and pre-existing contact with Stuttgart to understand a reasonable fee, and for the player to have draft personal terms conversations already underway, is a panic.

I’m not arguing that everyone knew who he was ahead of the transfer; I’m not arguing that he is the second coming of Essien and Pirlo in one; I’m not arguing that he was the primary target of the LFC.

But for gods sake Ronaldinho was a result of Barca missing out on Beckham. Not getting your first choice doesn’t mean whom you sign is automatically a nobody. Folks have budgets and lists, unless you’re Hicks and Gillet.

For 7+ months now you’ve taken pot shots at him and throughout all that he has significantly out performed Gravenberch who you’ve over-praised to ludicrous extremes (he’s 20; he gets it wrong more than he gets it right. he is clearly learning still), and whom Endo has started in his stead multiple times.

The above sounds like the scouts, coaching team and manager did anticipate what they’ve got.

F365 got it wrong. That happens. The amount of nonsense fans cite when they get a new player on board; we all do it. But every time he’s mentioned there’s a needless pot shot at him. Every time. Just comes across as a bit unnecessary; ‘Dont back doon, double doon’ sort of trolling. Time has borne out that you jumped the gun and made the wrong assessment.

As I wrote in August, it remains the case that there is seemingly no plan at LFC. Hiring a DoF only for them to quit isn’t ideal. Only having a contractor in the post isn’t ideal. Still not having a Director of Football in the pipeline for July is a really significant problem. And now adding to that, having a manager and coaching staff on their way out isn’t ideal. Sounds like Summer 2024 could be noisy and will increasingly likely result in some transfer mistakes.

But if they are like Endo, with prior research, and a bargain price, a fortnight before the window closes, that wouldn’t by any conceivable metric be a panic?
Tom G

The Liverpool owners most like the Glazers
Man United fan here but with lots of Liverpool supporting family (boooo) so I’m always very aware of what’s going on at Anfield, and to echo Mark LFC’s point FSG have been absolutely fantastic for Liverpool and I always find it mind blowingly stupid when supporters criticise them as owners.

Of course no owners are perfect, but people really do have short memories, the owners that are perfectly aligned with the Glazers are actually Hicks and Gillett, the spade in the ground Hodgson merchants who would have absolutely destroyed Liverpool had they remained in charge, never mind returning them to the pinnacle of club football after a period of around 30 years. It absolutely cannot be overemphasised how bad H and G were for the club.
Mike, Man United

Arteta knows
Why do people think Arteta doesn’t know we need a more potent striker?

Arsenal spent most of our transfer funds on Declan Rice. Was it the right call? Well, given Partey has spent less time on the pitch than Gunnersaurus and we’re currently third, I’d say yes.

Spending another £100m on a striker would have put us in breach of financial fair play rules.

Now you could argue Havertz has proven a waste of money – but £65m isn’t going to get you a top striker now is it?

And before anyone pipes up – I do realise City paid less than £65m for Haaland but they activated a release clause.

You simply can’t sign any of the world’s top, top strikers for that amount these days unless you pay obscene wages, damaging Arsenal’s wage structure and risking the likes of Martinelli and Saka sodding off.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Who’s to blame for injury woes
A few thoughts on the complaints around injury crisis hitting certain clubs – or seemingly just clubs with fans that moan loudly about it. As an Arsenal fan we’ve experienced plenty of injury woes down the years, back in the late Wenger days we were seemingly always missing hugely important players to long injuries and some were never the same again, at the time Arsenal fans bemoaned the rough house tactics that saw us lose 3 players to career threatening broken legs, and at the time we were told to basically lump it and start buying players with a more robust availability record. The truth in all of injuries lies somewhere in between. If you’re player has his leg broken by a bad tackle then its usually bad luck that can happen to anyone and doesn’t signify an injury prone player, albeit said player may then be injury prone as he tries to recover from a bad injury. Similar to ACL’s where you often see the player break down with a number of seemingly unrelated niggles when making his comeback after 9 months. But also, one of the best attributes a modern player can have is availability. It is hardly like Messi and Ronaldo won’t have been targeted all through their career with rough tactics and bad tackles but the pair have been virtual ever presents on the field and are the best two players in the world over the last 20 years, the two are hugely linked.
Also, sometimes the club don’t help themselves in respect of injuries. Liverpool are bemoaning their injury crisis but have pretty much admitted that they rushed Trent, Thiago and Salah back from niggles and the player broke down again, so is that bad luck or bad management of the recovery?
For my team we have someone like Partey whose injury record was superb before we signed him, but ever since he’s missed large chunks of every season at critical points – he’s played fewer minutes than De Bruyne this season. But we have to admit that we now have an injury prone player who can’t be relied on. Similarly we have Jesus, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu who have all unfortunately regularly picked up niggles that keep them out of games, these are more than likely players who won’t shake that off now. So before complaining too much about injuries teams should consider whether retaining true injury prone players, or signing players on the cheap because they have a checkered injury history is a wise idea.
Rich, AFC

Vintage Carabao
Great article on the names of the League Cup. I have a soft spot for Rumbelows as United’s victory in 1992 in that great blue kit was the start of my obsession with English football. I think I’ll spend the weekend getting off my tits on Carabao.
Robert, Birmingham.

A day in football
Had a good giggle this morning, I love football fans:

Thursday, after beating relegation battlers at home – Liverpool are excellent as we win with a packet of chips up front, your nan at left back, the tea lady running midfield and some jumpers in goal.

On Friday, also Liverpool fans – we have a team on the up with the most complete squad (better than Bayern’s) so Alonso will definitely be better coming home as it means more or something.

Have a nice weekend,
Barney