Manchester United was founded in 1878 as Newton Health and rebranded as Manchester United in 1902. In the early years, it was not a footballing powerhouse, justifiably so but still won 2 league titles, 2 FA Cups, and 1 FA community shield, till World War II which stopped football for some time.
This doesn’t tell you the full story because United, all these were won in the first decade of the 20th century. The period from 1911 United were trophyless and were a good mid-table side at best.Unfortunately, the club faced relegation and was in and out of the second division from 1922 to the World War.
The appointment of Matt Busby was the start of the glorious Manchester United. He led a major revamp in team selections, and policies and was the commander of a young army of footballers nicknamed THE BUSBY BABES due to their relative youthful age. The team started performing well, and consistently Manchester United became a successful team in his reign and won 7 major trophies in 9 years.
The revival of Manchester United in the 1960’s again under Busby was a “rags to riches story” and who doesn’t like these stories. But when he resigned, United tumbled even getting relegated once. And then began the great era of dominance for Liverpool which broke every trophy record ever held in English football and remains the most dominant era any team has ever had in the English First Division.
But SAF had delivered, he had “knocked off Liverpool of their fucking perch”
In my opinion, part of the reasons for Manchester United becoming the household brand was as follows but not limited to:
1. They Had Many English Players: It is no hidden secret of English people hyping up their players to an unwarranted level. But when the English core like David Beckham, Neville Brothers, Scholes, Nicky Butt and co. delivered it became a phenomenon. This was a huge part of United’s tremendous support. Don’t believe me: Look at Newcastle. For a good many years they haven't had any tangible success but no one can deny they still have one of the most passionate fan bases. The major reason behind this being Alan Shearer, Owen, and other English team stars. The English people are quite proud and whenever one of them does good he is bound to get superstardom; then imagine 6 talented players, all playing for United as well as the National Team.
2. SAF: No doubt SAF was quite successful but is quite commonly taken that SAF had quite a many contacts. Most of the other club’s coaches were seen frequently with him. His contacts included journalists; he was accused of having referees in his pockets (which successful team hasn’t faced this issue lol). But you can’t deny that SAF had a presence. When SAF had a fallout with the businessman owner of Man United; McManus, it was not SAF but MANCHESTER UNITED’S OWNER that left them, you have to think about that - Was the reason SAF’s success or his presence. Look at how the English media treated Paul Gascoigne nicknamed Gazza. He had refused joining Manchester United after arguably verbally conforming SAF that he would join them. I am not blaming SAF for what followed through in Gazza’s career because it was mostly due to his extreme addictions. But it was out of the blue: An English player that received so much scrutiny and blame from the English media itself? Got you thinking.
3. Social Media and Television: The Premier League rebranded in 1992 and Sky bagged a major broadcasting deal worth $300 million and upwards for 5 years. And which club was dominant in that period- you guessed it right. The Premier League rebrand was quite a radicle change and Manchester United became the face of it. Now the 2000’s decade was also the rise of technology, social media, Internet and start of global reach of the PL. Again, it was United that reaped the maximum benefits from it since it being the only dominant English club at that time. Don’t believe me: Look how each and every club dominant at that time enjoys a global fan base- Real Madrid, Barca, United, Bayern ( Lol when was it not dominant)
The Glazers are American that don’t have any interest in football outside of the cashing out. Most of the English fan base doesn’t want any American owner for their team. The Americans call football- Soccer and that’s when you know it is not going to be good. The Glazers made their entry in the sports field by buying an NFL team. I’ll tell you this: NFL has no correlation to football- There’s only one trophy to be contested. You spend money on the team and on famous names and you get most of that back handsomely, there’s no pressure of being the best and winning it every year. You can get a lot of backing and be rewarded financially even without performing on the field.
Everything about the Glazers incites hate- They took the ownership of the club through loans which was put on the club itself. You know how ridiculous that sounds- “Manchester United was bought by the money of United itself.” Essentially the club bought itself to give it to someone else. The commercial revenues increased from 90bmillion in 2012 to 275 million in 2019 but the stock has stayed stagnant from when Glazers took United public. Who will want to invest in a club that is sucked dry from the core?
Due to the brilliance of SAF and his smart signings, United were able to cover the mess hole which was bound to come up. But the moment SAF left, the club declined massively.
The signing of Moyes was disaster class. And although SAF’s smart signings had made difference but it had begun to show: Glazers were spending considerably low during SAF’s reign because to them the team was good and competing well, why invest more? But the same signings were struggling under others notably RVP and if United was still competing, it was all on SAF.
LVG won a few trophies so did Mourinho but it was clear United were not the team anymore, the dominant force in England and even Europe.
Here are few points to note:
1. Signings- The United after SAF was typically NFL. The spending increased to cover the performances and names were brought. NOTE names not players were brought. The signing of Depay, Di Maria, Zaha, Mata, Valdes hugely backfired and most of them were brought thinking as the possible next big thing and not from a clear cut plan. Ed Woodward made United a bigger brand at the expense of success. All these were stars but not players United needed.
2. Pogba- If there was a symbol of incompetency, it has to be him. A guy sold for free, bought for a world record fee and now about to leave for free. Pogba is one of the most inconsistent players I have seen getting “best in position shouts”. He is one of those players lacks the zeal to play with their heart. He always has an injury, who knows if he fakes them.
For all the talent of Pogba, he has flopped for United given the amount he takes home and the fees they paid to Juventus. He might have been brilliant for the Old Ladies but remember this was in a team that had won the league title before and would go on to win 8 more continuously.
Jose Mourinho, the last successful manager had the same problems- Look at the ones who had quite a fallout with him Pogba and Martial. At this time United was buried, they were not challenging and when the team is down, fans find a way to cling to any good thing in hope…… As a result, Jose Mourinho was sacked as Manchester United manager on 18 December 2018 —that decision came after months of poor results, but Mourinho's lowest point was a 3-1 defeat against Liverpool and he was sacked two days after that loss
Ole was the final nail- He comforted the players instead of giving them a rude awakening. He was a coach sacked by Cardiff. But had the backing because of him sticking his leg out on a historic night in 1999. He brought the most mediocre core of English players one could buy. He did brought the dressing room together but that was at the cost of success. Like modern soft parents, he comforted failure saying it was all about time and they would win something and blah blah. The core consisted of an unwanted mixture of some technical, some raw and some passionate. The problem was that all these qualities were distributed highly unequally and there was no one player who had the adequate of them to get success.
Now the fan base is rotten. They blame the Glazers but the glazers for their standards have funded the team quite decently. Not the way I agree but the onus should be now to remove the non football staff. Also remember how I told earlier about the English core being the face of United. These people were the childhood heroes and now they were supporting Ole because he was their mate. There grew the unconditional love for the Norweignan. No former player in any club has this much influence as these guys have and for all of SAF, they should know he is their greatest manager but not above the club. Other former players of different clubs help the club in technical areas, start coaching and do football stuff. I have never seen any of SAF’s candidates or the players he coached have half any decent achievement ever since SAF left.
This unconditional love blinds the fans and the primary focus today should be removing their influence and stopping the club from becoming a water stream where everyone washes their hands. Ralf should continue to direct all the footballing operations and Erik TEn Haag could actually succeed.
Notice how Newcastle turned their fortunes remarkably in one window due to a coach that knows his football and a ruthless operation of football stuff. Today, Chelsea the most successful club of the decade are known to be ruthless with no external influence. How many times have you seen Terry talking about the club or Drogba talking about backing Lampard ? The answer is none. It’s not like they are not loved by their fans but it’s more of a belief that players and staff were not to be emotionally connected with, but the club which has to be in your heart. Players and staff will come and go; they are replaceable and if they fail, new people come because emotions were connected when they played for the club not if they are doing anything else.
United continue to brag of their pull but look how have most of their high profile signings have worked out. Believe me today the club has no pull. All it does is attract players because of money. That is not a pull. Look at RM attracting the arguably best player in Kylian Mbappe or Barca in a financial mess attracting Auba for a free transfer. This is real pull not buying others out like United did to City with Pogba, Maguire, Sanchez,etc. I am not even gonna talk about Magure because you already know enough of him.
Gaining control in games and high pressing the opponent were the major keywords Rangnick promised. Below were his words:
"I think to gain control on games in the future has got to do with playing proactively, no matter if we have the ball ourselves of if the other team is in possession of the ball. It's about helping the team to play together, it's about togetherness, it's also about team spirit. We saw it yesterday. If we compare the two halves, first half and second half yesterday was completely different.
"Having these unique fans behind us, this will help us and help the team to gain confidence. You could see it in the second half. Obviously it's not easy, I cannot do that in one or two training sessions, not even in one or two weeks. It's not about playing pressing or counter-pressing for pressing sake, it's about control. This is the major target."
Since his first game against Crystal palace which they gained control of the game, United have been on the receiving end of high pressing even against relegation threatened Norwich.
As much as I love Manchester United, it doesn’t look like they will bounce back from this. Hopefully, I pray they will miraculously make it into the top 4. Maybe Arsenal still has enough of bottling fuel in them. Maybe they will roar back in form but it seems their form is diminishing as the day goes by.
What I can say though, is that no matter whichever manager comes in, the current crop of players won't win as long as they think they deserve their paychecks for the way they play.
They’re already talking about the 5 signings Ten Hag will bring in with him. Yeah he has a good record at Ajax. He played nice football. His football philosophy has always been like Pep Guardiola's and Johan Cruyff's. He likes to attack, to create things on the pitch.
The brutal reality of what Ten Hag is letting himself in for can be illustrated by the fact he is inheriting a bigger, more problematic task at United.
Ten Hag will be taking on a dysfunctional dressing room inhabited by players who do not want to be there, who are not good enough to be there and a team that embarrassed the club's good name in the 3-1 defeat against Liverpool at Emirate Stadium.
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| manutd logo history and meaning |
SIR MATT BUSBY ERA
The appointment of Matt Busby was the start of the glorious Manchester United. He led a major revamp in team selections, and policies and was the commander of a young army of footballers nicknamed THE BUSBY BABES due to their relative youthful age. The team started performing well, and consistently Manchester United became a successful team in his reign and won 7 major trophies in 9 years.
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| SIR MATT BUSBY YOUNG SQUAD |
THE MUNICH AIR DISASTER IN 1958
23 people died in this horrific event among which 8 were players. This was English football’s first-ever major disaster which prompts sympathy from the footballing world to this date. This Manchester United team, mind you was the first to represent the English League in European competitions. The Britishers as we all know are very passionate and proud about the game and Manchester United started becoming a thing of pride for the English people. So when the tragedy took place, it gathered a lot of sympathies, and naturally everyone had a soft spot for United not just as fans but as well-wishers.The revival of Manchester United in the 1960’s again under Busby was a “rags to riches story” and who doesn’t like these stories. But when he resigned, United tumbled even getting relegated once. And then began the great era of dominance for Liverpool which broke every trophy record ever held in English football and remains the most dominant era any team has ever had in the English First Division.
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The Munich Air Disaster Plane Crash |
AND THEN CAME SIR ALEX FERGUSON (SAF)
The early years of SAF weren’t quite satisfactory but then began the era that made Manchester United the brand it is. SAF dominated English football and the continued dominance of Manchester United brought United ever closer to their greatest rivals Liverpool. Liverpool had crumbled with occasionally winning the odd trophy here and there including the historic 2005 Miracle of Instanbul. |
| Sir alex ferguson dominate English football |
But SAF had delivered, he had “knocked off Liverpool of their fucking perch”
In my opinion, part of the reasons for Manchester United becoming the household brand was as follows but not limited to:
1. They Had Many English Players: It is no hidden secret of English people hyping up their players to an unwarranted level. But when the English core like David Beckham, Neville Brothers, Scholes, Nicky Butt and co. delivered it became a phenomenon. This was a huge part of United’s tremendous support. Don’t believe me: Look at Newcastle. For a good many years they haven't had any tangible success but no one can deny they still have one of the most passionate fan bases. The major reason behind this being Alan Shearer, Owen, and other English team stars. The English people are quite proud and whenever one of them does good he is bound to get superstardom; then imagine 6 talented players, all playing for United as well as the National Team.
2. SAF: No doubt SAF was quite successful but is quite commonly taken that SAF had quite a many contacts. Most of the other club’s coaches were seen frequently with him. His contacts included journalists; he was accused of having referees in his pockets (which successful team hasn’t faced this issue lol). But you can’t deny that SAF had a presence. When SAF had a fallout with the businessman owner of Man United; McManus, it was not SAF but MANCHESTER UNITED’S OWNER that left them, you have to think about that - Was the reason SAF’s success or his presence. Look at how the English media treated Paul Gascoigne nicknamed Gazza. He had refused joining Manchester United after arguably verbally conforming SAF that he would join them. I am not blaming SAF for what followed through in Gazza’s career because it was mostly due to his extreme addictions. But it was out of the blue: An English player that received so much scrutiny and blame from the English media itself? Got you thinking.
3. Social Media and Television: The Premier League rebranded in 1992 and Sky bagged a major broadcasting deal worth $300 million and upwards for 5 years. And which club was dominant in that period- you guessed it right. The Premier League rebrand was quite a radicle change and Manchester United became the face of it. Now the 2000’s decade was also the rise of technology, social media, Internet and start of global reach of the PL. Again, it was United that reaped the maximum benefits from it since it being the only dominant English club at that time. Don’t believe me: Look how each and every club dominant at that time enjoys a global fan base- Real Madrid, Barca, United, Bayern ( Lol when was it not dominant)
GLAZERS TAKEOVER
What is wrong with Mand Utd?
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| Glazers family |
The Glazers are American that don’t have any interest in football outside of the cashing out. Most of the English fan base doesn’t want any American owner for their team. The Americans call football- Soccer and that’s when you know it is not going to be good. The Glazers made their entry in the sports field by buying an NFL team. I’ll tell you this: NFL has no correlation to football- There’s only one trophy to be contested. You spend money on the team and on famous names and you get most of that back handsomely, there’s no pressure of being the best and winning it every year. You can get a lot of backing and be rewarded financially even without performing on the field.
Everything about the Glazers incites hate- They took the ownership of the club through loans which was put on the club itself. You know how ridiculous that sounds- “Manchester United was bought by the money of United itself.” Essentially the club bought itself to give it to someone else. The commercial revenues increased from 90bmillion in 2012 to 275 million in 2019 but the stock has stayed stagnant from when Glazers took United public. Who will want to invest in a club that is sucked dry from the core?
Due to the brilliance of SAF and his smart signings, United were able to cover the mess hole which was bound to come up. But the moment SAF left, the club declined massively.
Why Are Manchester United Playing So Badly
THE DOWNFALL HAD BEGUN
The signing of Moyes was disaster class. And although SAF’s smart signings had made difference but it had begun to show: Glazers were spending considerably low during SAF’s reign because to them the team was good and competing well, why invest more? But the same signings were struggling under others notably RVP and if United was still competing, it was all on SAF.
LVG won a few trophies so did Mourinho but it was clear United were not the team anymore, the dominant force in England and even Europe.
Here are few points to note:
1. Signings- The United after SAF was typically NFL. The spending increased to cover the performances and names were brought. NOTE names not players were brought. The signing of Depay, Di Maria, Zaha, Mata, Valdes hugely backfired and most of them were brought thinking as the possible next big thing and not from a clear cut plan. Ed Woodward made United a bigger brand at the expense of success. All these were stars but not players United needed.
2. Pogba- If there was a symbol of incompetency, it has to be him. A guy sold for free, bought for a world record fee and now about to leave for free. Pogba is one of the most inconsistent players I have seen getting “best in position shouts”. He is one of those players lacks the zeal to play with their heart. He always has an injury, who knows if he fakes them.
For all the talent of Pogba, he has flopped for United given the amount he takes home and the fees they paid to Juventus. He might have been brilliant for the Old Ladies but remember this was in a team that had won the league title before and would go on to win 8 more continuously.
Jose Mourinho, the last successful manager had the same problems- Look at the ones who had quite a fallout with him Pogba and Martial. At this time United was buried, they were not challenging and when the team is down, fans find a way to cling to any good thing in hope…… As a result, Jose Mourinho was sacked as Manchester United manager on 18 December 2018 —that decision came after months of poor results, but Mourinho's lowest point was a 3-1 defeat against Liverpool and he was sacked two days after that loss
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER
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| Manutd sacked Solskjaer after Watford trashing |
Ole was the final nail- He comforted the players instead of giving them a rude awakening. He was a coach sacked by Cardiff. But had the backing because of him sticking his leg out on a historic night in 1999. He brought the most mediocre core of English players one could buy. He did brought the dressing room together but that was at the cost of success. Like modern soft parents, he comforted failure saying it was all about time and they would win something and blah blah. The core consisted of an unwanted mixture of some technical, some raw and some passionate. The problem was that all these qualities were distributed highly unequally and there was no one player who had the adequate of them to get success.
Now the fan base is rotten. They blame the Glazers but the glazers for their standards have funded the team quite decently. Not the way I agree but the onus should be now to remove the non football staff. Also remember how I told earlier about the English core being the face of United. These people were the childhood heroes and now they were supporting Ole because he was their mate. There grew the unconditional love for the Norweignan. No former player in any club has this much influence as these guys have and for all of SAF, they should know he is their greatest manager but not above the club. Other former players of different clubs help the club in technical areas, start coaching and do football stuff. I have never seen any of SAF’s candidates or the players he coached have half any decent achievement ever since SAF left.
This unconditional love blinds the fans and the primary focus today should be removing their influence and stopping the club from becoming a water stream where everyone washes their hands. Ralf should continue to direct all the footballing operations and Erik TEn Haag could actually succeed.
Notice how Newcastle turned their fortunes remarkably in one window due to a coach that knows his football and a ruthless operation of football stuff. Today, Chelsea the most successful club of the decade are known to be ruthless with no external influence. How many times have you seen Terry talking about the club or Drogba talking about backing Lampard ? The answer is none. It’s not like they are not loved by their fans but it’s more of a belief that players and staff were not to be emotionally connected with, but the club which has to be in your heart. Players and staff will come and go; they are replaceable and if they fail, new people come because emotions were connected when they played for the club not if they are doing anything else.
Read Also: Erik ten Hag Has A Lot Of Work To do: Liverpool Exposed Manchester United
United continue to brag of their pull but look how have most of their high profile signings have worked out. Believe me today the club has no pull. All it does is attract players because of money. That is not a pull. Look at RM attracting the arguably best player in Kylian Mbappe or Barca in a financial mess attracting Auba for a free transfer. This is real pull not buying others out like United did to City with Pogba, Maguire, Sanchez,etc. I am not even gonna talk about Magure because you already know enough of him.
RANGNICK HIGH PRESSING MANIFESTO
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| Rangnick promised high pressing |
Gaining control in games and high pressing the opponent were the major keywords Rangnick promised. Below were his words:
"I think to gain control on games in the future has got to do with playing proactively, no matter if we have the ball ourselves of if the other team is in possession of the ball. It's about helping the team to play together, it's about togetherness, it's also about team spirit. We saw it yesterday. If we compare the two halves, first half and second half yesterday was completely different.
"Having these unique fans behind us, this will help us and help the team to gain confidence. You could see it in the second half. Obviously it's not easy, I cannot do that in one or two training sessions, not even in one or two weeks. It's not about playing pressing or counter-pressing for pressing sake, it's about control. This is the major target."
Since his first game against Crystal palace which they gained control of the game, United have been on the receiving end of high pressing even against relegation threatened Norwich.
GOOD LUCK ERIK TEN HAG
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| Erik appointed new Manutd manager |
As much as I love Manchester United, it doesn’t look like they will bounce back from this. Hopefully, I pray they will miraculously make it into the top 4. Maybe Arsenal still has enough of bottling fuel in them. Maybe they will roar back in form but it seems their form is diminishing as the day goes by.
What I can say though, is that no matter whichever manager comes in, the current crop of players won't win as long as they think they deserve their paychecks for the way they play.
They’re already talking about the 5 signings Ten Hag will bring in with him. Yeah he has a good record at Ajax. He played nice football. His football philosophy has always been like Pep Guardiola's and Johan Cruyff's. He likes to attack, to create things on the pitch.
The brutal reality of what Ten Hag is letting himself in for can be illustrated by the fact he is inheriting a bigger, more problematic task at United.
Ten Hag will be taking on a dysfunctional dressing room inhabited by players who do not want to be there, who are not good enough to be there and a team that embarrassed the club's good name in the 3-1 defeat against Liverpool at Emirate Stadium.
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