RED, WHITE & BRUISED - TIME FOR JOSE TO GO
Oct 1, 2018 10:17:59 GMT
king nothing, ratbag, and 1 more like this
Post by chalkie on Oct 1, 2018 10:17:59 GMT
I have heard Manchester United being described as being similar to a Religion. Even the legendary Bill Shankly once said: “Football is not a matter of Life or Death, it is much more important than that.” I always used to say to my mate when we went to Old Trafford: “I am going to miss Mass on Sunday but at least I am still on Holy Ground!” Reference being I was at Mass which I missed. So, I can’t argue with Shankly’s statement. After all isn’t the world full of unusual Cults and Religions? But with every Cult or Religion there has to be a Leader. So answer this question for me please. Where is our Leader? Is it Antonio Valencia? In my honest opinion, NO. So is our leader our vice-captain? Well how can I answer this question when our last vice-captain, Paul Pogba, was stripped of that armband last Wednesday? So is our Caesar, Jose Mourinho? In my opinion, Jose is a Centurion and we doesn’t even have 100 players in our First Team Squad.
The Atlantic Portuguese man-of-war is a jellyfish whose long tentacles delivers a very painful sting which is venomous and powerful enough to kill fish or, on the rare occasion, humans. Where is our Portuguese man-of-war when we need him?
Many of my fellow Reds will vividly recall, often scarred, season 1991-92 when we should have won our first League Championship title in 25 years (First Division winners 1966-67). But we buckled, we capitulated and lost that crown to a Leeds United side which was inspired by a former Red, Gordon Strachan, and a future United Icon, perhaps only lower in the Manchester United Legends Order of Merit to the United Trinity of Law, Charlton and Best, Monsieur Eric Cantona. What price would a 26 year old Eric Cantona cost today? Multiply your estimation by 10 and you might just get a young George Best. Best, “The Belfast Boy,” had his problems but let anyone dare tell me that an n under the weather Bestie would have played a poorer game than Lingard, Lukaku, Martial or Rashford for the Red shirt this season.
After our 3-1 loss away to West Ham United on Saturday I only wish that when the players turned up for training at the club’s AON Training Complex on Monday they were carrying knocks and visibly displaying bruises. But no. No such commitment was on display in the game. I never even saw so much as a sweaty shirt or a stained pair of shorts. When they emerged from their luxury cars for training I bet they were all laughing and joking and telling one another what exclusive club or restaurant they had been to over the weekend. Well, we, the fans, are most definitely not in the mood for cracking jokes and like me, many of us just stayed at home to try and comprehend what we had just witnessed from our team. And how well is our Carrington based training ground named? The “AON” could quite easily be a statement of intent, “ALL OR NOTHING.” Just like a previous sponsor’s logo, “AIG”, was adopted by the fans as “ALEX IS GOD.” Well as far as I can see from our opening 7 Premier League games the players are giving NOTHING to the shirt and have no passion or desire to build on our famous history. They just appear content to take the big pay cheque but do as little as possible in return to get it. And our manager doesn’t deserve whatever mega deal he is on.
If Jose Mourinho had been a TV detective then I would have said that during his Chelsea days he would have been Kojak, cool, calm, collected and always solved the case. I look at Jose this season and I can only liken him to Inspector Clouseau because he looks to be so out of his depth at Old Trafford, inept at times and all too often clueless. And I am not making a comparison to the French Surete detective, who was played so well by the magnificent Peter Sellers, because we were wearing our pink kit against West Ham United. To me Jose just doesn’t seem to understand our DNA which for many decades was an attacking side who went out on to the pitch with a swagger. Sir Matt Busby’s teams played with the attitude of if you score 2 against us then we will score 3. Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams were able to dominate opponents by just lining up against them in the tunnel before kick-off. I look at our team today and I don’t see any desire, hunger or passion let alone a will to win. What I do see is a team lacking confidence, players who even if they have a decent game don’t know if they will be in the side for the next game. The latter only installs fear in the players because they are afraid to take a risk in the game by shooting at goal opting instead to pass the ball backwards to a teammate. You can’t attack your opponents if most of your teammates are behind you and this negative style of okay means the players are afraid to make a mistake which in turn forces mistakes at the back.
Paul Pogba was on the pitch for 70 minutes but for me that was 25 minutes too long. He had a poor first half and looked a forlorn and frustrated individual. I would be highly surprised if Pogba was still a United player when the January transfer window closes. However, very few clubs can afford him and of the wealthy few who can, which club would want him? I can’t see Barcelona or Bayern Munich chasing him because these two European giants are well disciplined, well drilled sides where every player does what is required of him and ultimately what is best for the team. I can’t see Juventus taking him back unless they are offered him for considerably less than what they sold him for and I very much doubt if another Premier League club would even telephone his agent. So for me that only leaves Real Madrid or a move to China. Real Madrid have a tendency to buy Galacticos but Pogba is no Figo or Zidane. But Pogba is not solely to blame for our poor performances this season because I do not believe he has been our most disappointing player in our opening 7 Premiership games. I would say it is a coin toss between Lukaku and Sanchez. The ex-Arsenal striker is a shadow of the player who was a menace to defences throughout the Premier League when he arrived at The Emirates in the summer of 2014. I have never thought of Lukaku as being a United centre forward. Let’s face it he is not in the same class as Mark Hughes, Brian McClair, Eric Cantona, Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham, Rudd van Nistelrooy, Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney etc. In many ways Lukaku reminds me of Garry Birtles, a prolific goal scorer for Nottingham Forest but not the same player in the red of United.
It was this month (8th September 1958) 60 years ago when the legendary Bobby Moore made his first team debut for West Ham United against Manchester United. That was in a First Division match which ended in a 3-2 win for The Hammers at the Boleyn Ground (no, not Upton Park just like Arsenal used to play at Arsenal Stadium, not Highbury). But you know what? Sir Bobby Charlton is 80 years old and hasn’t played a competitive game in the last 42 years (scored 1 goal in 3 games for Waterford United in 1976) but I would have given him our No.9 shirt today. OK, Bobby would have been taken off after the first minute but then again please explain to me why Lukaku is untouchable in our team by being selected first above all others. After all, Jose is happy to have a dig at Luke Shaw about his performances but I have never heard him criticise Lukaku. Why? Is it because he shelled out £75 million plus another possible £15 million in add-ons for a striker who for this United fan is not in my opinion a United striker. Yeah, yeah I know he is one of only five players to have scored 50 Premier League goals before his 23rd birthday and the fifth youngest to have scored 100 goals in the top flight of English football. And yes I am fully aware that with 43 goals in 77 games for Belgium he is his country’s all-time leading goal scorer. So explain to me then why he is so prolific for Les Diables Rouge (The Red Devil’s) of his National team but so very disappointing for the world’s most famous Red Devils.
Every time I see Lukaku in our starting line-up I end up scratching my head. I just cannot work Jose out. And, I can’t work Ed Woodward out either by sitting back and watch us implode. Let’s look at the facts. This season under Jose we have accumulated the exact same number of points that we attained under David Moyes in season 2013-14. OK, Moyes replaced The Boss, Sir Alex, whose seat was always going to be impossible to fill in terms of winning trophies, who possibly could?, but Moyes was gone before the season finished. Step in Louis van Gaal, a manager with huge experience. An FA Cup Final win and then he was gone after two seasons to make way for the self-proclaimed “Special One.” When Jose accepted the job to become the manager of Manchester United, I for one thought that the Glory Days would return to Old Trafford and we would get our trophy back. Yes we won the EFL Cup and the Europa League in his first season in charge but how has he not managed to improve us since then? Whilst the players are the ones who cross the white line, as far as I am concerned it is the manager who must place his head and shoulders above the parapet and accept full responsibility for the team’s performances, good and bad. But that’s not the case with Jose. Can you possibly imagine Sir Alex asking reporters to respect him? Not for a minute. The Boss would have mentally noted his main critics in the room and then told United’s Press Officer to ban them from all future media engagements. After all didn’t he ban the BBC? And what’s this posturing and bragging about winning 3 Premier League titles, one more than all of his fellow Premier League managers added together? Do me a favour. Seriously? I never once heard Sir Alex tease Arsene Wenger about his 13 Premier League crowns compared to the Frenchman’s 3. And what was that all about when he took the vice-captaincy of Pogba last week? How is actions such as the latter meant to establish a close bond between Jose and his player? The answer is it doesn’t. And then he comes off with that unbelievable comment that he cannot motivate his players. For goodness sake get a grip of yourself Jose and do your job or go. Let’s face it Jose’s position is becoming more untenable as the weeks pass by. An embarrassing EFL Cup defeat to Championship side Derby County last week and a third Premier League loss from 7 games versus West Ham United and don’t even start me on his excuse why we lost the penalty shootout to Derby County. So to use a play on the words of a Shania Twain song; “So Jose you have won 3 titles. That don’t impress me much.” And if Jose really wants to do a medal count then there are 30 players who have won 4 or more Premier League titles and 28 of them won them with United. The remaining two being Petr Cech and Didier Drogba under Jose at Chelsea and as Rafa Benitez once said; “And that’s a fact!”
And can you imagine Sir Alex picking a United side whereby he said to Gary Neville: “Now listen son. I know you are a right back, maybe the best in the League, but here it is. I am gonna try a new formation today, a 3-5-2, and so Nicky Butt is taking your place today and you’re on the bench.” Never! So somebody, somewhere explain to me how on earth Jose Mourinho can stick Scott McTominay in at right back against West Ham United and make Eric Bailly a substitute. And I wonder why I am scratching my head!
In my opinion, Jose is not good enough to be our manager because we have never been such a boring, indeed predicable side, a team clearly devoid of not only a solid spine running through it but missing a beating heart. The Sweet, a 1970’s band whose songs I love enjoyed a hit single entitled “Love Is Like Oxygen.” But the way we are playing now just chokes me to death.
Don’t get me wrong. I am, and I never will be, a Glory Hunter. I have followed United through thick and thin for more than 50 years so don’t be fooled into thinking that I am.
I LOVE MANCHESTER UNITED.
I SO TRULY DO
But right now.
I am so hurting.
My question to Manchester United players today is plain and simple.
WHERE IS YOUR COMMITMENT TO OUR HISTORY? START SHOWING IT.
And I have a special message for Jose so let me quote Kojak, played by Telly Savalas; “Who loves ya baby?” My answer is plain and simple: “Not this United fan Jose. Not me baby!”
John White
The Atlantic Portuguese man-of-war is a jellyfish whose long tentacles delivers a very painful sting which is venomous and powerful enough to kill fish or, on the rare occasion, humans. Where is our Portuguese man-of-war when we need him?
Many of my fellow Reds will vividly recall, often scarred, season 1991-92 when we should have won our first League Championship title in 25 years (First Division winners 1966-67). But we buckled, we capitulated and lost that crown to a Leeds United side which was inspired by a former Red, Gordon Strachan, and a future United Icon, perhaps only lower in the Manchester United Legends Order of Merit to the United Trinity of Law, Charlton and Best, Monsieur Eric Cantona. What price would a 26 year old Eric Cantona cost today? Multiply your estimation by 10 and you might just get a young George Best. Best, “The Belfast Boy,” had his problems but let anyone dare tell me that an n under the weather Bestie would have played a poorer game than Lingard, Lukaku, Martial or Rashford for the Red shirt this season.
After our 3-1 loss away to West Ham United on Saturday I only wish that when the players turned up for training at the club’s AON Training Complex on Monday they were carrying knocks and visibly displaying bruises. But no. No such commitment was on display in the game. I never even saw so much as a sweaty shirt or a stained pair of shorts. When they emerged from their luxury cars for training I bet they were all laughing and joking and telling one another what exclusive club or restaurant they had been to over the weekend. Well, we, the fans, are most definitely not in the mood for cracking jokes and like me, many of us just stayed at home to try and comprehend what we had just witnessed from our team. And how well is our Carrington based training ground named? The “AON” could quite easily be a statement of intent, “ALL OR NOTHING.” Just like a previous sponsor’s logo, “AIG”, was adopted by the fans as “ALEX IS GOD.” Well as far as I can see from our opening 7 Premier League games the players are giving NOTHING to the shirt and have no passion or desire to build on our famous history. They just appear content to take the big pay cheque but do as little as possible in return to get it. And our manager doesn’t deserve whatever mega deal he is on.
If Jose Mourinho had been a TV detective then I would have said that during his Chelsea days he would have been Kojak, cool, calm, collected and always solved the case. I look at Jose this season and I can only liken him to Inspector Clouseau because he looks to be so out of his depth at Old Trafford, inept at times and all too often clueless. And I am not making a comparison to the French Surete detective, who was played so well by the magnificent Peter Sellers, because we were wearing our pink kit against West Ham United. To me Jose just doesn’t seem to understand our DNA which for many decades was an attacking side who went out on to the pitch with a swagger. Sir Matt Busby’s teams played with the attitude of if you score 2 against us then we will score 3. Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams were able to dominate opponents by just lining up against them in the tunnel before kick-off. I look at our team today and I don’t see any desire, hunger or passion let alone a will to win. What I do see is a team lacking confidence, players who even if they have a decent game don’t know if they will be in the side for the next game. The latter only installs fear in the players because they are afraid to take a risk in the game by shooting at goal opting instead to pass the ball backwards to a teammate. You can’t attack your opponents if most of your teammates are behind you and this negative style of okay means the players are afraid to make a mistake which in turn forces mistakes at the back.
Paul Pogba was on the pitch for 70 minutes but for me that was 25 minutes too long. He had a poor first half and looked a forlorn and frustrated individual. I would be highly surprised if Pogba was still a United player when the January transfer window closes. However, very few clubs can afford him and of the wealthy few who can, which club would want him? I can’t see Barcelona or Bayern Munich chasing him because these two European giants are well disciplined, well drilled sides where every player does what is required of him and ultimately what is best for the team. I can’t see Juventus taking him back unless they are offered him for considerably less than what they sold him for and I very much doubt if another Premier League club would even telephone his agent. So for me that only leaves Real Madrid or a move to China. Real Madrid have a tendency to buy Galacticos but Pogba is no Figo or Zidane. But Pogba is not solely to blame for our poor performances this season because I do not believe he has been our most disappointing player in our opening 7 Premiership games. I would say it is a coin toss between Lukaku and Sanchez. The ex-Arsenal striker is a shadow of the player who was a menace to defences throughout the Premier League when he arrived at The Emirates in the summer of 2014. I have never thought of Lukaku as being a United centre forward. Let’s face it he is not in the same class as Mark Hughes, Brian McClair, Eric Cantona, Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham, Rudd van Nistelrooy, Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney etc. In many ways Lukaku reminds me of Garry Birtles, a prolific goal scorer for Nottingham Forest but not the same player in the red of United.
It was this month (8th September 1958) 60 years ago when the legendary Bobby Moore made his first team debut for West Ham United against Manchester United. That was in a First Division match which ended in a 3-2 win for The Hammers at the Boleyn Ground (no, not Upton Park just like Arsenal used to play at Arsenal Stadium, not Highbury). But you know what? Sir Bobby Charlton is 80 years old and hasn’t played a competitive game in the last 42 years (scored 1 goal in 3 games for Waterford United in 1976) but I would have given him our No.9 shirt today. OK, Bobby would have been taken off after the first minute but then again please explain to me why Lukaku is untouchable in our team by being selected first above all others. After all, Jose is happy to have a dig at Luke Shaw about his performances but I have never heard him criticise Lukaku. Why? Is it because he shelled out £75 million plus another possible £15 million in add-ons for a striker who for this United fan is not in my opinion a United striker. Yeah, yeah I know he is one of only five players to have scored 50 Premier League goals before his 23rd birthday and the fifth youngest to have scored 100 goals in the top flight of English football. And yes I am fully aware that with 43 goals in 77 games for Belgium he is his country’s all-time leading goal scorer. So explain to me then why he is so prolific for Les Diables Rouge (The Red Devil’s) of his National team but so very disappointing for the world’s most famous Red Devils.
Every time I see Lukaku in our starting line-up I end up scratching my head. I just cannot work Jose out. And, I can’t work Ed Woodward out either by sitting back and watch us implode. Let’s look at the facts. This season under Jose we have accumulated the exact same number of points that we attained under David Moyes in season 2013-14. OK, Moyes replaced The Boss, Sir Alex, whose seat was always going to be impossible to fill in terms of winning trophies, who possibly could?, but Moyes was gone before the season finished. Step in Louis van Gaal, a manager with huge experience. An FA Cup Final win and then he was gone after two seasons to make way for the self-proclaimed “Special One.” When Jose accepted the job to become the manager of Manchester United, I for one thought that the Glory Days would return to Old Trafford and we would get our trophy back. Yes we won the EFL Cup and the Europa League in his first season in charge but how has he not managed to improve us since then? Whilst the players are the ones who cross the white line, as far as I am concerned it is the manager who must place his head and shoulders above the parapet and accept full responsibility for the team’s performances, good and bad. But that’s not the case with Jose. Can you possibly imagine Sir Alex asking reporters to respect him? Not for a minute. The Boss would have mentally noted his main critics in the room and then told United’s Press Officer to ban them from all future media engagements. After all didn’t he ban the BBC? And what’s this posturing and bragging about winning 3 Premier League titles, one more than all of his fellow Premier League managers added together? Do me a favour. Seriously? I never once heard Sir Alex tease Arsene Wenger about his 13 Premier League crowns compared to the Frenchman’s 3. And what was that all about when he took the vice-captaincy of Pogba last week? How is actions such as the latter meant to establish a close bond between Jose and his player? The answer is it doesn’t. And then he comes off with that unbelievable comment that he cannot motivate his players. For goodness sake get a grip of yourself Jose and do your job or go. Let’s face it Jose’s position is becoming more untenable as the weeks pass by. An embarrassing EFL Cup defeat to Championship side Derby County last week and a third Premier League loss from 7 games versus West Ham United and don’t even start me on his excuse why we lost the penalty shootout to Derby County. So to use a play on the words of a Shania Twain song; “So Jose you have won 3 titles. That don’t impress me much.” And if Jose really wants to do a medal count then there are 30 players who have won 4 or more Premier League titles and 28 of them won them with United. The remaining two being Petr Cech and Didier Drogba under Jose at Chelsea and as Rafa Benitez once said; “And that’s a fact!”
And can you imagine Sir Alex picking a United side whereby he said to Gary Neville: “Now listen son. I know you are a right back, maybe the best in the League, but here it is. I am gonna try a new formation today, a 3-5-2, and so Nicky Butt is taking your place today and you’re on the bench.” Never! So somebody, somewhere explain to me how on earth Jose Mourinho can stick Scott McTominay in at right back against West Ham United and make Eric Bailly a substitute. And I wonder why I am scratching my head!
In my opinion, Jose is not good enough to be our manager because we have never been such a boring, indeed predicable side, a team clearly devoid of not only a solid spine running through it but missing a beating heart. The Sweet, a 1970’s band whose songs I love enjoyed a hit single entitled “Love Is Like Oxygen.” But the way we are playing now just chokes me to death.
Don’t get me wrong. I am, and I never will be, a Glory Hunter. I have followed United through thick and thin for more than 50 years so don’t be fooled into thinking that I am.
I LOVE MANCHESTER UNITED.
I SO TRULY DO
But right now.
I am so hurting.
My question to Manchester United players today is plain and simple.
WHERE IS YOUR COMMITMENT TO OUR HISTORY? START SHOWING IT.
And I have a special message for Jose so let me quote Kojak, played by Telly Savalas; “Who loves ya baby?” My answer is plain and simple: “Not this United fan Jose. Not me baby!”
John White