Author: PastorFred

Manchester United fan and all round sports fan

#Olein or #Oleout?: We’re going to start a dialogue.

Ole in (1) – After finishing the season with one point from 2 games against relegated clubs Cardiff and Huddersfield, it was evident that Solskjaers purple patch was over, and it was time for the real hard work to begin. However after agreeing to the sales of Romelu Lukaku and Ander Herrera and not replacing them, Ole found himself going into the new season with a weaker squad than he had in the previous season. Ed Woodward couldn’t get the deals over the line in a shortened transfer window, and let Ole down like he has with every other manager.

Ole out response (1) – One point from two games against those relegation candidates (Cardiff and Huddersfield) plus the overall awful end to the 18/19 season is enough evidence to show Ole should not have been given the job permanently. Woodward rushed into another huge decision because it was the most convenient at the time.

Ole out response (2) – Why did Ole agree to the sales of Lukaku and Herrera? This was one of the first signs that he was hired to be a Glazer puppet that they could hide behind. This was confirmed when Ole said the Glazers were doing a good job. Let me remind you that the Glazers have used almost 2 billion of the clubs self generated money, to use for themselves. They are doing everything but a good job. Ole being a yes man has had so many negative effects on Uniteds season including the sales of seasoned professionals. Lack of squad depth means players have an extreme work load which leads to injuries. Both strikers (Rashford and Martial) have suffered long term injuries this season. United have also their worst start to a league season ever and players who should be nowhere near the club have been given minutes they should not be getting at a club of United’s size.  

Ole in (2) – Solskjaer has successfully introduced young talent such and Greenwood and Williams into the squad. This continues the clubs famous traditions of always giving youth a chance, which potentially saves the club from spending money unnecessarily especially in today’s market. Furthermore, he has cleared the deadwood in the club and is slowly turning the toxic environment into a positive one.

Ole out response (3) – Thats because he has no where else to turn for reinforcements so he has had to rely on teenagers knowing he can use the class of 92 concept to get away with it. United would be much higher in the table with experienced players. Furthermore after Greenwood, Angel Gomes is probably our most promising academy talent yet he has been given little opportunity to impress. He was even playing for the U19s the other week. Not actions you’d expect from a manager that believes in youth so much. Secondly there is still a significant amount of deadwood at United that Ole has trusted in this season (Lingard, Pereira, Juan Mata etc) that have let him down but its no surprise. they are simply not good enough. “Getting the club” and showing a good attitude will always come second to talent. This has already been shown in the few games Bruno Fernandes has played for the club. He makes a significantly better impact on the game than players such as Lingard and Pereira.

Ole in (3) – Solskjaer’s record in big games is phenomenal. This season alone he’s the only manager to take points of Liverpool in the league. He also has two wins against Man City, 3 against Chelsea, one against Spurs, and one against Leicester.

Ole out response (4) – Ole does have an impressive record in big games. However his counter attacking playing style is built to play against big teams. Ole can get away with sacrificing possession and defending deep against big teams because the opposition have players who will punish you if the team is open. The pace in the squad is built to capitalise on mistakes and attack when a lot of space is offered by the opposition. Unfortunately for Ole, big games do not come as often as the other games, where the onus is on United to take the initiative and break down defences that want to counter attack. This season, United have lost to Bournemouth, West ham, Newcastle, Watford and Burnley. United also struggled to break down 10 man Southampton and League 1 Rochdale. These damaging dropped points why fans do not believe in Ole because there is no evidence that the team can break defences down. You can say the squad is not good enough, and injuries have played a role, but United have lost to teams they have a better team than and that comes down to coaching. 

This dialogue can continue forever but the article will be too long. So for now I’ll leave this as a part one and part 2 will be up in the near future. Hope you enjoyed reading. 

Why do Barcelona and Real Madrid’s negotiations for them?

Barcelona and Real Madrid are widely recognised as the pinnacle of football. Despite this, the Premier League has grown to such incredible heights financially that it is now the envy of the rest of the world. This begs the questions; Why do we not embrace our football royalties with more arrogance? Furthermore, why are we so desperate to help foreign teams stay at the top of football? Finally, why do we over sympathise with players who want to leave?

Let us take World Cup winner Paul Pogba (26) and England International Jessie Lingard (27) as examples. Both play for the same team and are the same age. The narrative that the English media has of Paul Pogba is that he is flamboyant and flashy player who should always be doing better than he is, and because he does not match the insanely high expectations of pundits, he is “troublesome”, “lazy” and has a “bad attitude”. Lingard on the other hand is considered the young and inexperienced best friend of Marcus Rashford (22) who always works for the team. Pogba was voted in the PFA team of the year while Lingard has struggled to hold down a place in the United team. So why do they boast such contrasting opinions from the media?

Perhaps this is the reason we are so open to selling our foreign superstars to the El Clasico teams, because it gives our own English players more opportunities to start regular games at the highest level. This makes us turn a blind eye to their lack of consistent good performances. The reality is though, that sometimes we have to accept that if our players are good enough, then they will always be given a chance. Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling are perfect examples of English players taking their chance and becoming the most important players at their clubs. The cream always rises to the top, so instead of being so willing to let top foreign stars leave to accommodate English players, we should let English players deserving of a chance prove that they deserve starting places over foreign stars. Compare this to Spanish media outlets such as Marca, and we see the difference in support. Marca continually pushes rumours and speculation about the best foreign talent going to Barcelona or Real Madrid, because they appreciate the value of these players.

The English media also has a tendency to over sympathise with foreign stars who are linked with moves abroad. For example, the narrative that was being pushed in Philippe Coutinho’s final days at Liverpool was that had outgrown the Merseyside club and it was time for him to realise his dream of playing for Barcelona. A player realising his dream is all good and well, but Liverpool were being criticised for not accepting what the British media saw as a good enough offer from Barcelona. This impatience was another subtle sign of the English media trying to force out another one of the league’s best foreign players. The English FA also made no attempt to protect Liverpool’s prized asset from being sold by the media both in Spain and England. Compare this to La Liga who attempted to block Neymar Jr’s move to Paris Saint Germain by reporting PSG to UEFA, and it is a stark difference to how we act to protect our best players from leaving. When discussing the Coutinho Saga on Sky Sports, pundit and former Liverpool player Craig Bellamy said “from a human point of view he would not stand in the way of someone trying to better their career”. This is a fair take on the situation, but why do we not use that same sympathy with the fans who have invested their money, time and support into watching Coutinho develop only to watch him leave as soon as he reached the top of his game. A matter of months after Coutinho got his dream move to Barcelona, the Spanish giants were embarrassed by AS Roma in the Champions League while Liverpool got to the Champions League final. After having pundits advocate for Liverpool not to stand in the way of Coutinho’s move to Barcelona, Sky Sports then titled one of their videos “Are Liverpool making a big mistake by not replacing Coutinho”. These types of headlines do not consider how hard it is to complete deals in the winter, and how much less planning any deal would involve, which would most likely result in a flopped signing that could disrupt the dressing room.

So, what are we getting at with these almost provocative headlines? By forcing players out, we are strengthening the negotiations of foreign clubs that value our talent more than we do. This shown by Real Madrid’s eagerness to use the Premier League to rebuild their dynasty rather than looking closer to home for reinforcements La Liga.