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Trouble in Manchester

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rurikbird

Part of the Furniture
Honorary Member
A version of this article will be in every paper this morning. Obviously this is Woodward's response to Mourinho's criticism of the lack of United's spending – many passages sound like they've been transcribed verbatim. It's hard to see a way back from this; surely it's only a matter of time, perhaps very short time, before Jose is gone. Lovely timing too on the eve the first game of the season. I find all of this highly enjoyable.

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Manchester United veto José Mourinho’s transfer wishlist
• Manager’s short-term fixes rejected by Ed Woodward
• Some targets viewed as no better than those already at club
Daniel Taylor


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Manchester United did not follow through with some of José Mourinho’s transfer targets because of misgivings about the players he had identified and a decision, from the top of the club, that he should not be allowed to get his way if it meant potentially wasting tens of millions of pounds on a short-term fix.

As the transfer window closed on Thursday with no more arrivals at Old Trafford, new details have emerged that highlight the differences between an increasingly disaffected manager and the people above him, primarily the executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, in terms of the players on Mourinho’s wishlist and whether they would have been worth the money.
To Mourinho’s intense irritation, United’s conclusion was that in most cases he had targeted defenders who were no better than those they already had and who, in today’s inflated market, could conceivably have cost upwards of £70m without vastly improving the team.
Mourinho’s enthusiasm for Harry Maguire was not shared by the Old Trafford decision-makers and when the club approached Leicester they were put off by the kind of fee that would have been necessary to sign the England international in the wake of Virgil van Dijk’s £75m transfer from Southampton to Liverpool last season.
The interest in Maguire was abandoned and, for all the speculation linking Toby Alderweireld with Old Trafford, the truth is there has been only one conversation between Woodward and the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Daniel Levy, throughout the summer. That was Levy calling Woodward to ask about two of United’s players, one being Anthony Martial. Woodward wants to keep Martial and that, again, is a serious issue between club and manager.
Mourinho was willing to cut Martial free and, behind the scenes, he has been withering in his assessment of the player.

The suspicion of United’s hierarchy is the manager is taking a short‑term view rather than thinking more strategically about what would be better for the club in the coming years. Alderweireld will turn 30 in March and, as well as a fee reputed to be more than £50m, would have warranted a salary in the region of £25m over the next four years. United decided the player was not worth such a huge outlay, particularly given his age.

Mourinho sees things differently and can argue that, without new signings, it is unrealistic to expect his team to overhaul Manchester City. He made that point in a press conference on Thursday by stating United’s second-placed finish last season, 19 points behind City, was “one of my biggest achievements in the game”.
Yet the club have had to balance the manager’s wishes, and the permanent battle to keep him happy, by taking into account Mourinho is notorious for wanting short-term measures, rarely stays too long at any club and does not tend to worry about what happens when he leaves. Their own vision of team-building is considerably different and that is why Woodward is against selling players such as Martial, Paul Pogba and Luke Shaw when they could conceivably be an asset to the club for many years.
United did have significant money available for summer signings and would have paid in excess of £100m for Raphaël Varane if the French World Cup winner had been available from Real Madrid. Woodward had breakfast with Real’s president, Florentino Pérez, over the summer but nothing came of it.

Woodward was also willing to make an exception for Diego Godín of Atlético Madrid and inquired about the Uruguayan’s £18m release clause this week. The money was considered reasonable for a player of Godín’s ability but the 32-year-old was reluctant to leave Spain and another deal was scratched off the list.
Otherwise, United were reluctant to spend vast amounts of money on players they did not consider to be elite performers. Jérôme Boateng of Bayern Munich would once have appealed and Mourinho was keen on the Germany international. However, Boateng’s injury record counted against him, especially as United were mindful they had already bought two players from Bayern, Owen Hargreaves and Bastian Schweinsteiger, whose time at Old Trafford was notable for how many games they missed.
Mourinho’s desire to bring in another centre-half indicates he has misgivings about Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Victor Lindelöf and Eric Bailly, despite the latter two being his own signings.
Yerry Mina was another possibility but United were put off by what they considered to be excessive agent fees. The sum in question is not clear but must be significant: United will say in private they hope Everton, who have signed the player from Barcelona, have not paid the same, on the basis it could seriously distort the fees demanded by agents in future.

The irony is that United helped to create that market by routinely flexing their financial muscle and, in the case of Pogba’s £93m transfer from Juventus, the mind-boggling sums that went to the player’s adviser, Mino Raiola. Alexis Sánchez’s contract – £391,000 a week with an extra £75,000 for every game he plays and an annual £1.1m signing-on fee – is another indication of how far the club are willing to go when a category-A player is available.
Yet United blame other clubs for the transfer market spiralling and trace it back to Kyle Walker’s £53m move from Spurs to Manchester City last summer. Neymar’s £200m switch to Paris Saint-Germain took the market to another level entirely, but the view at Old Trafford is that the most outlandish deal was Barcelona signing Ousmane Dembélé from Borussia Dortmund for a fee that could rise to over £135m. United believe Van Dijk’s fee will not seem disproportionate within a year but, with the prices currently so inflated, the club do not want to pay similar amounts unless their targets are at a certain level – higher, plainly, than Maguire or Alderweireld.

Perhaps surprisingly, United are not among the clubs – Spurs being one – who are regretting the early closure of the transfer window and the feeling at Old Trafford is that the rest of Europe will eventually fall in line.
The bigger problem for United is how the summer’s transfer business affects the club’s relationship with Mourinho when the only signings are Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk, the injured Diogo Dalot from Porto and Lee Grant, as a third-choice goalkeeper from Stoke.
Mourinho has so many players ruled out of the game against Leicester on Friday, or not deemed fully fit after their post-World Cup breaks, he floated the idea the substitutes may include “16-year-old boys without experience”. On this occasion, however, he chose not to question the club’s transfer activity. It was time, he said, to “stop thinking about the market”, insisting he was going to enjoy the season and it was “a lie” to say he did not get on with his players.

Unlike his first two seasons in Manchester, Mourinho stopped noticeably short of talking up United as potential champions but his spikiest moment, presumably with Liverpool in mind, was directed towards the media for “making people that finish second look like they were relegated and people who win nothing, finishing below us, look like serial winners”.
 
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Several news organizations - Independent, bbc, running with the same story. Looks like they were briefed by the board.
 
I am a firm believer that we should never take joy in other's misfortune or misery, but that's just me.

One of the things I like about Klopp is that you almost never hear him practise schadenfreude, because he's humble enough to know he's equally fallible too.

If Jose and others want to slag us off or engage us in petty mind games, let them do it and we'll just laugh it off. Like what Klopp did previously. It's about time we behave with class like we were always known for.

Btw, I'm not trying to attack/criticise anyone in this thread.
 
I think all of the sane posters predicted this. He’d spend a fortune win a cup or 2 then turn to shit in his third season.
 
Don't get me wrong. I take the piss out of any scum like any other person but I will draw the line when it comes to things like Munich for example.

In Jose's case, I just don't want be forced to eat humble pie at the end of the season. After all they did finish above us in 2nd place.

Oh I dunno. Maybe I'm being a little cautious after what happened in the CL. Too many false dawns and banana skins in the past. Optimistic yes. Overly confident ? Nope.
 
I don't really remember now but what sort of state did he leave Inter Milan in? Did they struggle with a load of elderly highly paid players after he left because he bought players in their late twenties?

I'd say united are right to reject signing those players but Mourinho is a back him or get rid manager. I don't see him being there next season.
 
Isn’t Giggs the wales boss? They’d end up giving it to carrick till the end of the season.
 
Its pretty clear they either expect him to walk this year or they are trying to goad him into it. They know exactly waht his reaponse to this will be, he will start picking fights and blame the lack of transfer backing at every single defeat this season. Cowardly stuff from the board but then Woodward has always seemed hopelessly out out of his depth there.

I really dislike Mourinho but he seems to have become completely jaded, he doesnt have the same swagger hes just a guy who is well paid to do a job he doesnt enjoy. His whole demeanour changed around the time his father passed away last year. He could do with a break from the game, he doesnt need the money.
 
I think he is goading the board into sacking him for a massive pay off. Otherwise Mourinho would’ve walked by now.
 
Its pretty clear they either expect him to walk this year or they are trying to goad him into it. They know exactly waht his reaponse to this will be, he will start picking fights and blame the lack of transfer backing at every single defeat this season. Cowardly stuff from the board but then Woodward has always seemed hopelessly out out of his depth there.

I really dislike Mourinho but he seems to have become completely jaded, he doesnt have the same swagger hes just a guy who is well paid to do a job he doesnt enjoy. His whole demeanour changed around the time his father passed away last year. He could do with a break from the game, he doesnt need the money.

I think its that everyone knows he is a short termist and his future is uncertain. Backing him to bring in more older players just increases the size of the rebuilding task ahead of him.

He has not made good use of the squad he has and the majority of his signings have failed to live up to the billing.

Pogba - Underwhelming.
Lukaku - fine
Matic - okay
Mkhytarian - poor
Bailly - alright
Lindelhof - shite
Sanche - poor

And they were all expensive signings. Why would anyone trust Mourinho given that record ?
 
Thankfully for us their last three manager appointments have been footballing dinosaurs. Hoping they keep up that trend. Sam Allardyce is available, isn't he?
 
I think they will go with a younger manager after Van Gaal and Mpurinho. Pochetino or Zidane would be my guess as to who is next in the door there. I cant see Pochetino staying at Spurs beyond this year, thats not to say he wont have other offers but Utd will definitely be in for him.
 
As much as I love seeing Mourinho embarrassed, this is surely mainly Woodward and the board's fault. To hire a manager notorious for focusing on buying tried and tested stars, at huge prices, and to indulge him for a couple of years, only to then tell him they want a youth policy, well, it's foolish in the extreme. And it overlooks the fact that City have hoovered up the best youth players in the area over the past few years. If they bring in anyone expecting them to repeat the Scholes, Giggs and Beckham era, they'll be rudely disabused by the results.

As for Maureen, I don't think he ever got over being found out by the Italian and Spanish media. They saw straight through his silly little games, which must have come as a shock after a few years of being indulged by British hacks. There's a little shivering, twitching ex-translator with a clipboard behind that swaggering 'Special One' persona, and no matter how many things he's won it's never really gone away. Now all he has left is one-dimensional snarling and sneering.
 
Yeah, they have no DoF, they have some paedo looking thing who used to be an accountant, so they should back him or sack him.

Glad they've done neither to be honest.
 
I think all of the sane posters predicted this. He’d spend a fortune win a cup or 2 then turn to shit in his third season.


The truth is he didn't buy very well did he... and they are dull to watch...

That said it is far too early to suggest that it will definitely turn to shit, generally they are defensively excellent and as long as they have De Gea they have a chance to win points.
 
I think its that everyone knows he is a short termist and his future is uncertain. Backing him to bring in more older players just increases the size of the rebuilding task ahead of him.

He has not made good use of the squad he has and the majority of his signings have failed to live up to the billing.

Pogba - Underwhelming.
Lukaku - fine
Matic - okay
Mkhytarian - poor
Bailly - alright
Lindelhof - shite
Sanche - poor

And they were all expensive signings. Why would anyone trust Mourinho given that record ?
I think if you stuck that squad into the hands of a progressive manager a tune would come out.

Not that I dont think we are all being a little presumptive.
They finished second and have signed a 50m midfielder to add to the squad.
Sanchez will be better intergrated into the squad now, they still have Mata, Rashford, Lingard, Pogba, Sanchez, Lukaku, Matic, Herrera, Fred, Martial etc etc in their squad. I cant think of many of them I wouldnt want in ours.

The question is. And its a big one. Will the players switch off as they did for him twice at Chelsea.

If they do excpect a Chelsea-lastMourinhoseason-start and mutual consent by Christmas.

If they dont expect a lot of 1-0 boring games and a top 4 finish
 
I think if you stuck that squad into the hands of a progressive manager a tune would come out.

Not that I dont think we are all being a little presumptive.
They finished second and have signed a 50m midfielder to add to the squad.
Sanchez will be better intergrated into the squad now, they still have Mata, Rashford, Lingard, Pogba, Sanchez, Lukaku, Matic, Herrera, Fred, Martial etc etc in their squad. I cant think of many of them I wouldnt want in ours.

The question is. And its a big one. Will the players switch off as they did for him twice at Chelsea.

If they do excpect a Chelsea-lastMourinhoseason-start and mutual consent by Christmas.

If they dont expect a lot of 1-0 boring games and a top 4 finish


Yes I agree I think we are being a bit presumptive, they have loads of very good players, the fact that he has got them playing a highly boring style is the key thing... I hope they continue being shit.
 
I fully expect them to get a late winner tonight in a shit game and go on a bit of a run, but I'm not arsed, after thirty fucking years of putting up with those nobheads down the end of the road going about being god's gift to football, none of them can even be arsed going anymore.
 
I still had them in the top four in my predictions but that's mainly because they will be solid defensively ,even without new signings, and because Lukaku is a reliable goalscorer.

If Mourinho changes the habit of a lifetime and helps improve Rashford and Martial the team would be better.

I never thought Sanchez was a good fit for a Mourinho team so i don't know that he will be much better. He always has been an inefficient attacker and now he is in a team that requires efficiency from its attackers. He typically is up there in the most wasteful players in the final third.

If world cup Pogba plays in the Premier League they could be very good again
 
Might sound a bit stupid but it does seem that all the top managers are off somewhere else and just getting stuck into a chunk of work right now. Whoever takes over after Maureen, no matter how promising they might seem, won't have won much before. It'll be the Moyesiah 2 no matter who it is.
 
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