Only one manager ticks all the boxes for Man United…

Matt Stead

Read our non-Manchester United Mailbox, then send any thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

 

Email, surely?
I wonder did Ed sack Jose so he didn’t have to get him a present for Christmas?

Probably did it by text too.

Or is that just me.
DC, BAC.

 

Enough
To all the Manchester United fans writing in, the rest of us have spent the last three years reading your unique, wonderful, amazing, everybody gets a trophy insight that the rot at United isn’t just the manager’s fault. It’s shockingly a deeper rooted issue that will need time to sort out.

Trust us, we get it. You can stop writing it. Please stop writing it. For the love of all that is holier than your defense, STOP NOW.
Niall, Denver

 

Poch job
So in comes the news that Solskjaer has taken over as Manchester United boss. This might seem like a reasonable appointment, then of course the PR team slip up and announce it all by accident. Perfectly sums up 2018 for the second best Manchester team.

Now onto the reason I’m writing this email. As a Tottenham supporter, we need to keep Pochettino from the clutches of this poisonous United team.

Here are the pros and negatives to staying at Tottenham and leaving for pastures new.

Staying:
New (arguably better) stadium
Better playing squad
Better training facilities
Full control of transfers

Leaving:
More money in his pockets per week
Will be given a lot of money to spend on transfers
Opportunity to revitalise a big team
Will be able to manage the ‘brand’ that is Manchester United

Looking at the last part, the Manchester United brand, Pochettino is now our brand, he’s Tottenham Hotspur, he’s everything we stand for and he is a rare breed these days in football management. All other clubs rotate managers every 4 years, we need the consistency to win trophies.

We need to milk him dry.

Suckle from his teet.
JoeKen (I’m not worried he’s leaving….. really…)

 

And so it begins. An endless merry-go-round of hearsay and rumour based on nothing more than conjecture, speculation and regurgitated hearsay and rumour. According to large swathes of the press, United has already offered a contract to Pochettino, who has already agreed terms for him and his team. Except he hasn’t, because apparently he’s already agreed terms with Real Madrid,  if you ask other members of the same esteemed fact-shy-gossip-mongers press

And for the cherry on the bullshit cake, our second favourite Argentinian after Ossie,  who vetoed working under a Director of Football following his elevation from “Head Coach” to Manager, has agreed to work under a Director of Football – Paul Mitchell, no less, who will be brought back from RB Leipzig to rekindle a relationship that brought you such hits as Kevin “Couldn’t cut it at Stoke’  Wimmer,  and Clinton “i’ve honestly never played football in my life. I’m not sure why i’m here” N’Jie. You couldn’t make it up, except, clearly you can, and they have.

If Pochettino did go to United, it’s not the strangest decision, given the wealth and status of the most successful club in England, and Real are also in his sights.  Ultimately he may yet well do a Diego Simeone and remain at a club he has moulded in his own image to punch well above their weight. He may also leverage the rumours to squeeze a nice new contract out of Levy, and actually see some disbursement on new players…though he shouldn’t hold his breathe. However, no one knows how this will play out at this stage – but unfortunately we’re going to spend the next six months hearing Gary Neville and his ilk talking as if it’s a done deal.  Can’t wait.
Dan James, antipathetic Spur 

 

Only one man fits the bill
Hello Editor,

Its a beautiful day as all United fans must’ve let you know by now. My letter, as you guessed it, is in relation to what’s next at United but not before a few last words about the Special One. Here it goes:

I was just about to start writing an expletive laden letter after the humiliation at Anfield (I was prepping bullet points yesterday before I procrastinated). Guess I don’t need that now! But still a few things off my chest on Mou,while I’m here:

Going from we need Mou in 2013 to finally getting that wish in 2016 to being absolutely disgusted in Feb when we went out to Sevilla and getting his rant about the club, I must say it’s been a full lifecycle of wanting someone, then loving them and then hating the very mention of them.

I knew all along that he’s not the nicest, but I always felt that for all his achievements he was never really given his due. And when he started batting his eyelashes towards United (remember that QF match against Madrid in 2013?), I knew he wants to come and take SAF’s place and try to make it his own. Alas, all that eroded slowly over the last 2½ years and with every significant action of his, he was just on a downward spiral and we as United fans were up close to that unraveling.

Constant bullying of and throwing playes under the bus. Not that its new, but we hoped he would’ve learnt his lesson after Madrid and Chelsea. We can go into when it all started but think most of the readers know it, so I’ll spare you of that.

Safety first instead of honoring United’s traditions (it was part of his introductory message to the fans).

But above all, it was buying Alexis Sanchez and Fred to thwart their moves to City were his biggest mistakes. The club also realized at that point that this is not the kind of union they were expecting from him.

Anyway it’s over and my only regret for him is that he couldn’t get the better off the bald one in the blue corner. May he get the last laugh in some other league on some other day.

But now for United, it is all about what now, we all are excited and worried, at the same time!

And I’ve read a ton of articles and comments about the usual suspects but we can’t and shouldn’t be hasty again. These are some of the criteria that every United fan will agree and this should be the ethos on who gets the job next.

  1. Attacking and entertaining football in United’s style
  2. Develop and play the young players
  3. Have won some silverware before coming and taking the seat at the biggest club in England
  4. Ability to play and beat the best even when the money is not a guarantee (This is why Mou didn’t work for us)
  5. Be a semi-decent Human Being

I think most would say Poch, but he doesn’t get a yes on Pt. 3 which I think is really important for this club. Along with a heavy payout for Spurs stadium repayment, Mou’s severance package, in my opinion he’s a no go.

I think only 1 coach meets all the above and is available for FREE. Hear me out about this guy…..Leonardo Jardim.

He’s the only coach in the recent past who has shown that he can build a team of highly rated youngsters and win the league against the richest team in their league and their successful manager (Unai Emery). His football was attractive and even beat the likes of Manchester City in UCL and have been performing amazingly even while losing their best players constantly over the last few seasons.

He was let go because the team finally was paying for all the player exodus and I wonder how any of these top coaches would would’ve performed in that situation. But apart from that one blemish, he has done surprisingly well at every club that he’s been at.

And most importantly, this gives United a chance to do the reset the likes of Gary Neville have been asking for. Lower our expectations for at least a season and a half. Let just play good football and build for the long term. That DoF would’ve been a bad idea with Mou in charge, imagine the stories we’d be reading about his run-ins with that guy. Well,  now we can fix that.

Lastly, all I want to say is that, Every few years there comes a coach who just needs the right platform to show what only a few others knew. E.g., Biesla at Leeds. Jardim can take this high profile job and compete with the best and because of his relatively unknown stature, we may have a coach who can appreciate this opportunity and stick around when United is back where it belongs.

Thank you,
AVM (Phoenix) We’ll never die

 

Getting Solskjaer is in actually mental
Wait, I feel it has come so suddenly and is seemingly happening so quickly that people aren’t mentioning how absolutely mental the idea of appointing Solskjaer is, even just for the rest of the season. Why?

Why does it need to be an ex player, why has there seemingly been no attempt to sort out an actual good manager to come in immediately, why are they writing off the rest of the season so readily?

This is not to say sacking Mourinho is wrong, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, really? Mental. It seems to me that lots of United fans were so sick of Mourinho that they’re not reacting to this with how it deserves.

Yes United will probably get Poch in the summer and spend a lot of money with a manager who makes it work well and they’ll be good again within a couple of years, so I understand in the big picture today still seems to be good news for united fans. But..

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer? Wtf
Steve Bruce fan club president

 

Silly United fans
The only upside to Jose’s departure (Gutted they sacked him.  Gutted!) is reading or listening to United fans speculating on who their next manager should be.  Also, why he should be an attack minded coach and so on.  Seriously?  What planet are these people on?  I love it!

Their club is still run by the same morons who allowed the last squad under Saint SAF (And they conveniently forget that he was an unashamed apologist for the Glazers) to fester before deciding that David Moyes was the man to take them forward.  When he ‘failed’, they picked LVG.  When he ‘failed’ they picked the man who said, at his first press conference, the following:

“What is playing well? It is scoring more goals than the opponent, it is to concede less than the opponent.  It is to make your fans proud because you gave everything and you win. I want everything. I want to win matches, play well, play young players, score goals, not concede goals.”

And how did that work out for you United supporters?  The MUFC board care about the views of their own fans over who the next manager will be as much as Lewis Hamilton cares what people think of his fashion sense.

Samuel Pepys once said, of any man who married for a second time, that it was the triumph of hope over experience.  Quite why ManYoo fans think this board will now either suddenly appoint, or support, a man with a ten-year vision, on and off the pitch, is utterly beyond me.
Mark (Great fun for the rest of us though) MCFC.

 

Where next for Jose?
So, as much as he deserved it, I for one am so sad Mourinho got the sack. It feels like my favourite tv-show has been cancelled. Watching United play Cardiff, Wolves, Young Boys or who ever is just not gonna be as fun anymore. It was pure drama every time United played a football match. He was the perfect premier league villain, and I loved to watch him fail again and again. It was so much fun.

Whats even sadder is that he wont get a top premier league job again, and its probably beneath him to take a job at the likes of Huddersfield or Fulham, so we probably wont see him in England again – at least for a very long time.

So farewell the Donald Trump of the premier league. Thank you for the show – we all enjoyed it very much and we will miss you.

I see him going back to Inter or maybe Milan in the future though, so I might have to take an interest in the Serie A once more. Lots of drama there as well, but the football is pretty dull, with Juve being so much better than everyone else unfortunately.

But with a Sheik backing Mourinho at a Milan-club, it could end up being a good show there. One can only dream.
Jesper, Spurs, Denmark

 

Here’s a question, where does José go from here? After he was sacked from Chelsea second time round there was a feeling that the way it ended was an anomaly almost. He’d never left any club as bad as that. Three years on he’s left in almost identical circumstances(almost to the day!).

So really, what top club will look at José now and say we need him?
Dave, London

 

Stop the rot
Gareth, Manchester is trying to spoil Man United fans’ Christmas it seems. I agree the issues are more deeply rooted and sacking Mourinho isn’t going to turn us into challengers this year or even next. In fact I can’t see anybody claiming this. What is evident is that Mourinho has created a toxic environment, does not have the backing of the players or the board. So his removal may actually help if you look at the history of the premier league how many teams have changed manager and received a boost as a result like for instance when Chelsea sacked Mourinho and brought in Hiddink in 2015, Chelsea went on an unbeaten run of 15 games before the end of the season. We need a director of football who can help instil a philosophy and there are plenty of other issues to address but you cannot say removing Mou isn’t going to help.

You cry about our defence not being good and I can’t argue but saying Mou wasn’t backed when he was given Eric Bailly for £30 million in his first season. A young raw player who had a brilliant first season with us. However he has not improved under Mourinho. This is a guy who we signed because of his excellent performances against La Liga’s best. Shutting out Ronaldo and Messi, so what happened to him? When you look across the city at John Stones and how he has progressed due to being coached well.

Second season we eeked out a transfer for Lukaku and refused to spend big bucks elsewhere? Is that right so the £30m we invest in another young highly rated centre back. Keep in mind even now there are only about 10 cb’s in world football signed for over £30m. Lindelof who was brought in for his ability to play out from the back but once he came in after chasing him for six months just wasn’t fancied by the manager, so does he not count? Oh and let us not forget the £40m we spent that summer on Matic who at the time looked a great player but has regressed significantly since then. (see a pattern emerging?)

But no Mourinho wasn’t backed to get the players he wanted because we missed out on Perisic that summer, he would have solved all of the defensive issues playing primarily on the left wing, not even looking at the issue of how bare our right wing is and we were seriously linked with nobody for that position which desperately needs filled, Mata, Lingard, Rashford, Martial none of them fit there.

“Everyone cheered the more attacking football we’re playing, but it has cost us big”

Who has been cheering? I haven’t heard many united fans cheer this season. I haven’t seen more attacking football. I see us playing the same robust, limited style, play safety first get men behind the ball. Midfielders not committing to getting into the box to support attacks. Kicking the ball to Lukaku to hold up when all he wants to do is run in behind (seriously go and look at him playing for Belgium or Everton before he joined us and compare the type of service he is provided with) Just because we have been terrible defensively doesn’t mean that we are playing more attacking football, we are still creating the fewest chances of the teams competing for champions league football.

Truth be told the club needs to make a lot of changes in players, coaching staff, and behind the scenes at board room level but it is a silly argument at this point to say changing the manager won’t help. Was that not Arsenal’s perspective with Wenger for so long but the majority of their fans now are much happier and much better entertained this season than they have been for the past five years.

When the rot sets in and you want to save the boat you need to remove the rot, with the sacking of Mourinho and talk of bringing in a DoF before appointing a permanent manager that process is starting so stop apologising for Mourinho and making his excuses for him especially when the evidence is completely against what you are saying. I for one am looking forward to the match this weekend now compared to the last two months where I feel dread with every match

Anyway Happy Christmas everybody
Dan, MUFC, Belfast

 

Mourinho > Van Gaal
Dan, Brighton

Van Gaal, best of a bad trio? Last I check he didn’t win the Europa League or got the best league finish (2nd) for United in the post-Ferguson era. He’s more likable as a person sure, but Mourinho shouldn’t be bashed for the sake of bashing Mourinho.

And it wasn’t like Van Gaal’s football was any more positive than Mourinho’s either lets be honest. I’d argue it was even more boring.

Also in regards to the “bad trio”, Van Gaal and Mourinho’s resumes speak for themselves while Moyes kept Everton competitive for years in a shoestring budget. Not saying that these managers don’t share any blame for the bad runs but United organization problem goes beyond them – and arguably started even during the final years of Fergie’s time (his final year was hardly “vintage United” but by god did he squeeze every inch of performance from the team he did have).
Yaru, Malaysia