Manchester United continue to dominate the narrative and there is a new name touted as a potential manager.
*Watch the Champions League final and send your views to theeditor@football365.com…*
Ba-dum-tish
You guys are spending a lot of time writing content about Man Utd.
Should you really be devoting all this time to a struggling lower mid-table team?
Chris, NUFC
A new Man Utd manager…
Massive club? Check.
Can attract young players? Check.
Likes to play attacking football? Check.
Can qualify for Champions League or at least Europa? Check.
Still respected across Europe? Check.
Gets on with Fergie? (These days, yes) Check.
Computer says Man Utd’s new boss should be Arsene Wenger.
Graham Simons, (I’ve missed you guys) Gooner, Norf London
It’s not all Man Utd doom and gloomI get all the doom and gloom around United these days, but I don’t see the picture is as bad as people make out.
Sure, United are in a bad place, primarily down to utterly appalling recruitment over the past 8-10-12 years, but the club isn’t dead just yet.
And sure, the club has debt saddled on it by its owners – its not ideal, but again it’s not the death of the club just yet. Debt is designed for companies to use. It would have been nice not to have had the debt, but that’s our Glazers legacy, so we have to deal with it. People and pundits seem to say that United are dead and buried because this summer we can’t afford to stump up 100m for X and 75m for Y, and 80m Z wont come because we’re not in the Champions League.
But that didn’t stop Bournemouth, Forest, Fulham, Villa (to name but a few) all climbing the table in recent seasons.
Forest were many pundits’ picks for relegation last year, and having unearthed (amongst others) two very cheap diamonds in central defense, pushed for the top 4 until the very last game of the season. Bournemouth continue to sit top half of the table, give pretty much anyone a decent game, and have only ever paid over 25m once in their history. Ditto Fulham, who have never paid more than the 34m they paid for Emil Smith Rowe. Ditto Brentford. Villa only came back up to the Prem 6 seasons ago….!
The point being, just because we cant have a summer of getting all the current fad names, doesn’t mean we’re done and dusted. Ok, I agree that the squad needs some decent additions, but at least our transfer business is getting better.
6-8 years ago, we’d go and pay crazy money for names like Pogba and Di Maria, and then get frustrated when they didn’t return value. And fill in the gaps with loans of Falcao etc. Yuk.
2-4 years ago was utterly disastrous – Sancho, Antony, (if Greenwood hadn’t smacked his girlfriend, we’d have saved £150m not having to buy those two), Hojlund (nowhere near value, but think he’s been unlucky, if still below average). I love Casemiro, but hard to say his signing was astute and financially sound.
Last season – far better. Mazraoui, good value. De Ligt – meh, at least we didn’t pay 75, 40 was probably about right if he can stay fit. Yoro – looks a decent player and will only improve. Ugarte – hmmmm not so sure yet, looks a little lightweight for a DMC in the prem, and passing is shocking. Zirkzee – decent footballer, just a shame about his total lack of pace, odd signing.
Amorim’s only signings so far: Dorgu – I’ve seen fans moaning about him cos he’s not playing like peak Roberto Carlos. The kid is 20 years old ….. what is it with people nowadays. He will get better, stronger, brighter. And Heaven, £1.5m for an 18 year old who already looks pretty useful, definitely great value.
Better days are coming.
Ben, London (but still would have been nice to turn up against Spurs)
Bruno for £100m? Really?
Ashmundo says Utd shouldn’t sell Bruno for less than £100m. He is 30 years old, good for Utd but not quite as good as Utd fans think he is, surely even the Saudi league wouldn’t pay that sort of money for him.
Outside the PL and probably Portugal I’m not sure he is even that big a name, and there is no way any of the top teams in the PL would be interested in him.
I suppose it could be a way for some Saudi investor to gain favour with the club.
Mel – Dublin, Berlin, Athlone Town
Spurs and pointless transfer talk
I can’t help but think “who can Spurs buy now we have CL?” Which is pointless as we don’t know if we will have the same manager.
That said; with Villa in financial strife and Forest not making the CL those two clubs have four players I would be all over; Gibbs-White, Tielemans, Rodgers and Murillo. Not all of them as they’ll cost a king’s ransom but I can see at least one big names from both sides being snapped up.
Bournemouth aren’t desperate for cash anymore but Semenyo is a terrific player, however if Kerkez does go along with Huijsen then I can’t see a world where they sell their three best players.
Joao Paulinha isn’t enjoying life in Munich, we should be all over a player like that; experienced and durable in that tricky no. 6 role.
Then there are the dream players; Wharton, Eze and Lacroix have all been exceptional at Palace (Glasner too 😬) and maybe it is the season they cash in on Eze…or, f*ck it; bring in Nico Williams and Sesko.
So, it’s definitely going to be Timo Werner again, isn’t it?
Dan Mallerman
Are promoted clubs really screwed?
There’s been a lot of discussion, especially on this website, about how the PL is becoming a closed shop and the gap is widening etc etc. Apparently the 3 promoted clubs are already doomed before they even kick a football!
Personally I think this is all a bit premature and there’s too much reading into a couple of seasons where, frankly, the promoted teams were just poor and barely even gave themselves a chance at staying up.
One of the arguments seems to be that of the other 17 clubs there are no obvious candidates to go down. But I disagree. We could easily have a very open relegation dogfight with any of West Ham, Wolves, Everton, Fulham, Bournemouth, Palace and Brentford all potentially in the mix with the 3 newbies.
Who knows which of those clubs will lose key players and potentially their manager over the Summer. A lot can change from one season to the next. Sometimes even a small change can make a big difference. Just look at how Wolves were transformed when they replaced their manager. What if they lose Pereira and make a bad decision in appointing his successor?
If you look back to the 22/23 season, the 3 relegated clubs finished 8th, 15th and 17th the previous season. Did anyone really see Leicester getting relegated that season? Not many, I imagine. Southampton went down after 12 consecutive seasons in the Prem and were not widely tipped to be relegated that season.
And fundamentally it comes down to how well the promoted clubs prepare themselves. When my team Brentford came up, we added a few new faces but most of the promotion-winning squad remained intact. It was a long term plan coming together because we were (and are) an extremely well-managed club. Same with Brighton. Same with Bournemouth. Same with Fulham.
So I really don’t agree it’s a closed shop. Is it tough to get promoted and stay in the PL? Absolutely. But why shouldn’t it be? In terms of depth, it’s the strongest league in the world, by a distance. But if clubs come up with no real vision and either just hope for the best or think throwing some money at players with little strategy will keep them up, they shouldn’t be surprised if they end up struggling. And they shouldn’t be blaming the Premier League for that.
Rob, Surrey, Bees fan
Pedants corner
Have seen a couple of emails stating that Chelsea didn’t qualify for the Conference League, rather they qualified for Europa but were relegated to the Conference when Man Utd won the FA Cup.
This is entirely the wrong way of looking at it. Chelsea qualified for Conference and would have been promoted to Europa League if City had won the cup, but as United won, they stayed in the Conference.
If fact, 6th does not even automatically qualify for Europe. Liverpool had the Conference place via the Carabao Cup and this only moved to the league once they confirmed Champions League qualification.
None of this really matters, but the pedant in me couldn’t let it pass.
Andy the Hammer (really hate seeing two other London clubs win in Europe)
MAGA
Reading between the lines, Peter G is about 70. But he exhibits all the needy, narcissistic fragility of a Gen Z-er. He no longer cares about the LA Dodgers because, er, they gave Donald Trump a jersey. Didn’t endorse him. Didn’t make any comment on any of his policies. Just gave him a jersey.
Honestly, man, get over yourself. If anyone wants a definition of Trump Derangement Syndrome, just read re-read Peter’s letter. Quite ridiculous. On a related note, there are no red lines. Your football team is like your mother. You love them whatever. I’ve supported Villa since I was seven and I always will. I might not always like their ownership or their players or their style of play but they’re my team. That’s it.
Matt Pitt