THEY were still on their final-day lap of dishonour when the first calls started trickling in. Over the next few hours, the next few days that became a flood. Louder and more heated, a rising crescendo of fury and frustration. If only Manchester United’s players had shown a fraction of the same passion and desire, […]
THEY were still on their final-day lap of dishonour when the first calls started trickling in.
Over the next few hours, the next few days that became a flood.
Louder and more heated, a rising crescendo of fury and frustration.
If only Manchester United’s players had shown a fraction of the same passion and desire, maybe their season wouldn’t have been such a car crash.
Maybe it wouldn’t have meant such swathes of it were blanketed by a depression not seen by Old Trafford fans since some of the mind-numbing days under Dave Sexton.
Even then, though, 40 years ago there was a gallows humour on the terraces.
After all, it wasn’t as if United were serial winners.
For all the parts of the senior dressing room are rotten, there ARE also players who offer plenty of hope for the mass rebuilding job.
Phil Thomas
They wanted to challenge for the title, of course, but that was a pipe dream.
They weren’t trying to recapture a still fresh-in-the-memory time when their team was the envy of the land.
That’s what it’s like for the Stretford Ender of 2019.
Dark clouds and dismal. When the only thing to raise a smile is Liverpool falling short, it really is a sorry state of affairs.
The optimism and hope that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer brought with him when he arrived has all but drained away.
To the point some are even calling for his head less than two months after the job was made permanent.
That really would be ludicrous, by the way. The man hasn’t had a chance to work with his own tools, bring in any new faces, dump the most rotten of the deadwood or have a pre-season.
And that pre-season at least gives him the chance to work on the fitness, which has been a real issue, as Ole has constantly pointed out.
The one bright spot, the ray of hope for the future, came when he said this week that none of United’s best young talent will be allowed out on loan next year.
A clear indication the likes of teenagers Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes and Mason Greenwood, as well as soon-to-return Axel Tuanzebe and hopefully-fit-again Timothy Fosu-Mensah, will get their chance.
For all the parts of the senior dressing room are rotten, there ARE also players who offer plenty of hope for the mass rebuilding job.
Marcus Rashford, still just 21 himself, is the poster boy to shape the team around.
Jesse Lingard, Victor Lindelof, Andreas Pereira, Scott McTominay and Luke Shaw are others with big roles ahead.
And in Greenwood and Chong, in particular, they have a couple of youngsters with a real chance to break through next season.
There will be money to spend too, hopefully even more if they can get rid of Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and others dragging down the rest.
That’s on top of more obvious departures such as Marcos Rojo and Ashley Young, and the already-gone Antonio Valencia and Ander Herrera.
Heads need to roll, but the manager’s should not be one of them. To suggest otherwise is as lazy as it is plain wrong.
The last thing United need is another destabilising move. The main thing they do need is some stability, some continuity, a chance to develop the job.
And that means recognising it isn’t going to happen over a season or two. It is going to take at least half a dozen transfer windows.
The biggest club in Europe has become a project — one that will take far longer than 12 months.
It’s so depressing at the moment, you’d wager more on it taking 12 years.
United is such a rancid club right now, they could bring in Jesus to turn it around and he’d say: “Any more of those loaves and fishes left?”
That was an easier miracle to pull off.
That’s how far the biggest name in world football has fallen.
AT the start of the season, the message for Chris Hughton was clear — keep Brighton in the Premier League.
At the end of the season, the message was equally so — keeping Brighton in the Prem is no longer enough.
Owner Tony Bloom’s ambition is admirable, but that also has to come with a dose of realism too.
Yes, Hughton has been too cautious and negative on occasion. Sure, he’d do some things differently given his time again.
Bloom, though, now wants more than just staying up.
A man who has owned Group One winners on the flat and Grade One winners at the Cheltenham Festival, wants to see his football team bringing as much glory as his horses.
No doubt he sees Southampton as the role model, who axed Nigel Adkins after he won promotion. Given they got Mauricio Pochettino, that clearly worked.
But Bloom needs to be careful what he wishes for.
If he doubts that, maybe a glance at Stoke would jolt him back to reality.
IT isn’t only football which has enjoyed a couple of weeks to remember.
Rugby League’s Challenge Cup also threw up two hugely memorable clashes.
Warrington’s win over old foes Wigan was nail-biting, and packed with controversy.
But even that was a poor second to Bradford Bulls’ shock win over glitzy Leeds.
The Bulls have fallen a long way since dominating the early years of Super League, but are steadily heading back towards the top under coach John Kear.
His giant-killing act also put paid to one sporting idiom… nice guys CAN win after all.
FAIR play to the Tottenham and Liverpool stars who want to be considered for England against Holland on June 6 — four days after they meet in the Champions League final.
Some reckon they should rest this summer, snubbing the high-profile, yet ultimately meaningless Nations League semi.
Yet England boss Gareth Southgate is desperate to create genuine competition for places.
The fact the players have bought into it deserves nothing but praise rather than pointed fingers.
