Manchester United fans are starting to seriously worry, but there are graver concerns at Arsenal after their decisions.
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A Man Utd midsummer panic
So we reach the fabled ‘back in training day’ for Manchester United. And as a generally optimistic chap, this is the first time since INEOS took over that I’m nearing panic stations. And by that I mean dreading the drifting malaise and apathy that will come with following United for the foreseeable.
If we take a brief stroll down memory lane, we had ETH who had a terrible season but had some leeway because the squad he was managing – largely due to a ridiculous injury list – couldn’t actually field XI decent players in the right positions for two weeks in a row. He was then given a couple months with some fit players and it went pear-shaped and instead we got a systems-coach in. Which made sense given INEOS’ clear indication that we’d be spending in our means and these big, manager-led signings were over.
So Amorim arrives and is given leeway because his system very clearly needs excellent wing backs of which United have literally none. Fine INEOS, you wanted your man, this is longer-term thinking. More leeway from fans. A single signing in January alleviates a small piece of the problem, but United still start most weeks with a past-it central midfielder and no options up front. But more leeway is given because INEOS are going to sort the summer out, and United are finally going to start the second half of the open-heart surgery Ralf wanted.
And here we are. Probably the most-challenging opening few months of any team in the league. A manager we’ve heard for almost a year needs a great pre-season with his players. A system that we’ve heard for multiple years needs new blood, more athleticism and just more numbers. A season that is absolutely crucial to the club’s future. And what have INEOS achieved? They paid a release clause.
This was supposed to be a statement summer for Big Jim. I think maybe it is just that, but not in the way we were all hoping.
Ryan, Bermuda
READ: Manchester United have failed Amorim yet again with pre-season embarrassment
Dark times for Arsenal for serious reasonsThis weekend, a lot of Arsenal fans had to wrestle with some very uncomfortable truths, about our football club, and how it conducted itself regarding a player who has been charged with a most heinous series of crimes.
Let me be clear, I believe the way the club behaved regarding Thomas Partey was reprehensible, and has tarnished the reputation of both the club and the fans too. Now, not everyone is terminally online, following this discourse, so it is quite possible that many Arsenal fans had no idea that the club was protecting a potential sex offender, however many hundreds of thousands did. We all saw the same social media posts by the victims, we all knew who the police were alluding to. For me, the most shameful part is that they tried to renew his contract, knowing all this. Why would you do this?
I can’t believe I’m about to type this, but Stewie is right in this regard. How can the club talk about community when they circle the wagons for people accused of such crimes? How can we celebrate our amazing women’s team when this is how the club treats other women? How was this allowed to happen? Were they so scared about the value of an asset that they’d rather burn our reputation to protect someone else’s reputation. Someone who has cast a dark shadow over our club?
I don’t know the complexities of employment law, contracts, etc, but the club should have dropped him the moment he was accused, but they didn’t. There needs to be a top down review about how these decisions were made, who made them, and they are held to account.
I actually believe this is one of the darkest days for the club. I, like countless other Arsenal fans, am devastated for his victims, but also the irreparable damage that has been done to our club.
John Matrix AFC
Rodrygo to Arsenal?
Can someone explain Rodrygo to Arsenal for me. Pretend I’m stupid please as I don’t see an improvement over Martinelli.
If anything I cant see Rodrygo tracking back to cover for a wandering Zinchenko or Calafiori in the way Gabbie has for the last few years.
The problem with Arsenal’s left-hand side has been their team setup and use of inverted LBs and a lack of a decent/fixed Left 8. This means Martinelli tends to operate as more of a wingback thus negatively affecting his attacking play. MLS at left back has improved the situation somewhat there is still way to much inverting.
Nick
Liverpool fans patting themselves on the back, is it?
People: a question: Do we think Liverpool fans will ever get tired of fellating themselves & their transfer policy heroes? Ian H is just the latest in a very long and incredibly tedious line, but seriously – we get it, you like listening to podcasts with data analysts to reinforce your own self esteem through the medium of being the bestest finally after 30 years, you don’t need to keep telling us.
Hard to disagree with anything in Stewie’s latest mail too, the TP stuff in particular is an absolute disgrace which reflects incredibly poorly on the whole club, but Arteta in particular. It’s not hard to suffer potential financial/career hardship when you would be a) in the right for refusing to pick him, and b) you’re already a multi-millionaire. But no, let’s watch (and presumably be at the very least complicit) while the club offer him a contract extension.
RHT/TS x
Tuning out now…
F365 Mailbox in shock Arsenal kicking and Liverpool love-in
It’s all getting a bit tedious now. If there was anything constructive about the letters then fine but it is all really designed around maximising clicks now.
Who knows how well each team will do next season but I am sure it will be irrelevant because it will still be the same boring record on repeat.
Tuning out now and counting the days to August 16.
Justin F
Apathy abounds
On Saturday late afternoon I was collecting my two kids in Highbury, so went to the pub to have a pint before they arrived. On some screens were the women’s euros, and on others, the CWC.
The pub was full, some Fontaines fans there for pre-gig drinks but the rest of the very busy pub paid quite literally no attention to the numerous screens. This is a London boozer with easily 150 to 200 people, and the only screen which was receiving any attention was the smallest of the lot, and it was showing cricket.
That really is quite an indictment of those tournaments. Perhaps it’s just football overdose but I can’t remember a time football was so roundly ignored by so many people.
Dan Mallerman
Pick a Champions League underdogI completely forgot about this, so will understand if Ed thinks it might be a case of squeezing it in at the last minute and doesn’t put this in, but today (July 8th) is the start of the 2025/26 Champion’s League.
Every year I pick a team from the qualifiers, and they become ‘my new club’. The rules are simple:
Choose team
Follow said club
Only change if/when they are eliminated, in which case swap allegiance to the victors
Repeat, if they, too, are knocked out, and so on
Of course as a fan of a club that’s in the CL, the potential is there that New Club may face Old Club, but whaddya gonna do? I have often wondered if it would ever end up me being required to pledge my (current CL season) allegiance to a club I detest, but this has never happened in all the years I have been doing this.
However, my chosen club this season is Finnish side, KuPS, who are currently playing in their domestic season (there are a fair few clubs in the same predicament, yet no one ever hears them complain about ‘too much football’).
Become everything you hate, and become a Fairweather Fan by picking one of the twenty-eight teams playing their 1st leg over the next couple of days, and see how far you get before having to change clubs.
Mike D
Trying to see the positives in Jota
It’s been a few days, I’ve read the mailboxes and Johnny Nic but haven’t been able to bring myself to read some of the longer form pieces about Diogo Jota. It’s just too heartbreaking, and feels too soon. As many have said, he only knew of me in the collective, as one of millions of LFC supporters, but nonetheless his death in many ways feels like the loss of a close friend. We invest so much in our clubs & these players so something like this is a shock and it hurts.
Thanks to the intervention of autoplay, the recent episode of The Athletic’s LFC podcast came up and I ended up listening to them memorialize Jota. More than once they hit on the tragedy of Diogo being taken just as he hit the prime of his life – winning a league title with his club, winning a Nations League with his country, and most importantly marrying his childhood sweetheart. All of which are especially cruel.
But listening to that episode, and reflecting on my own personal losses, I am going to (try to) see the positive in this. My mother passed away a little over a year ago, only about a week after I moved from NYC to London. She had been in cancer treatment for a couple years, and the last 6 months of her life were clinical trials and experimental treatments, none of which were able to help. One of the main things to give us comfort, which doesn’t apply at all here, is that we all knew the end was coming and she was fully at peace with it. She encouraged me to make the move, and as a result of some timing issues I ended up living with my parents in Upstate NY for a month and I absolutely wouldn’t trade that time for anything in the world.
The other silver lining which gave us peace, is that she got to have all of the major experiences she wanted out of life. My parents were married for 43 years and got to do a bit of traveling in retirement before her life was dominated by appointments and treatments. My sister got married about 3 years ago, so she got to experience the joy of one of her children getting married.
About a year after that, she was overjoyed at the news that my sister was pregnant. And while she was in the end stages of her own life when my niece arrived, my mom got to be a grandmother. I can only imagine the physical pain she was quietly going through but I have never seen my mom as happy as when she held her grandchild.
There is such a sense of cruelty in Diogo passing away just as he was going through the prime of his professional life and hitting these personal milestones, which cuts deep for many but especially those closest to him. He had so much in life ahead of him, but I am going to try to take peace knowing that he and his family got to experience those recent highs while he was alive and hope that someday they are able to do the same.
It took me a long time to get that perspective, in part because of the ability to mentally prepare and to say goodbye while Mom was still with us. I hope they reach a similar comfort in the future and that they always know the love that the LFC, Wolves, Portugal, Pacos de Ferreira communities (among others) hold for Diogo, Andre, and their entire family.
Danny, LFC NY