EPL News 24/7Such has been the decline in Manchester United’s squad over recent seasons, that had they won the title this year it would have been at the very top of Sir Alex Ferguson’s list of accomplishments. United are an ever more average set of players, elevated beyond their means by an extraordinary manager.
But what would happen if Ferguson retired next week? What if all he sees in the future is light blue spending and an increasingly un-winnable league?
Whilst Manchester United without Ferguson has always been unimaginable, now it looks like it would be a catastrophe.
Ten years ago, had a new manager walked into Old Trafford, he would have a found a squad rich with talent with winning sewn into their DNA – it would have still been a tough act to follow, but the chances of success would still have been extremely high. That’s why nobody is particularly concerned about Tito Vilanova taking over from Pep Guardiola at Barcelona – he’s been given the keys to a high-performance sports car; as long as he doesn’t burn-out the tyres he’ll be just fine.
Manchester United are not a high-performance sports car anymore, they just have a very talented driver.
Before he leaves the club, Alex Ferguson has one final rebuild to undertake – this squad has to be improved over the Summer. Whereas his side once had quality in every position, and more often than not stacked on the bench as well, now Ferguson has pockets of mediocrity in his team. Outside of Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic, every other player falls into the category of ‘developing’, ‘past his prime’, or ‘not good enough’.
If Ferguson walked away tomorrow, United will lose the one component that still makes them special and still intimidates their opposition. Without their manager, this is a playing staff inferior to not only Manchester City, but Tottenham, Arsenal, and Chelsea, and depending on what Liverpool try and do in the next three months, maybe them too. United would start to slip back into afterthought territory, they’d be a hopeful for the title rather than a probable.
This is not a side that anybody would want to inherit.
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SAF is one of THE best managers ever, but as he so clearly says, you are only as good as your last match. It is the manager’s responsibility and his senior team to ensure that the squad is of the right quality, mindset and mix and playing with the correct tactics on each games. It is not, and we are paying the penalty, even if City screw it up this weekend. United’s strategy has been on the downslope for 2 to three years and our European ventures were amateirish. Scholes and Giggs impending retirement has been a known fact of life, and little or no effort has been made to correct this imbalance. Busby did the same in the late 60s, relying too much on players beyond their prime, and look what happened then! I am not suggesting that United are in that sort of peril, but strategy, leadership, team tactics, transfer policy all come from the top, and sorry for all the howls of protest I can hear right now, that lies fairly and squarely with Ferguson. I can’t speak about the Glazers, but maybe Ferguson believes that world class players need only cost the equivalent of a bag of chips and a hundred quid a week in pay. The reality is if you want the best, you have to pay. I’m all for youth development and buying potential cheaply, but SAF has refused to play people like Pogba and Morrison, and look where that has led to. Not too smart if you ask me. What has happened to the man who played a whole team of kids in the early 90s and took the league by storm? I’ll tell you what….he has turned 70 and is naturally much more cautious in his autumn years. And what about Berbatov? Whether he fits in naturally is not the question, but can he score goals, can he make goals, can he produce something in a moment of inspiration?….Shit yes, and yet he has been ignored for 2 seasons. What sense does that make? Fergie and his team needs to get on their toes and correct the structural deficiencies that are showing, or let another manager rebuild.
lol.. nob
What a load of rubbish. Fergie and phelan have made endless mistakes this year. City away playing nani up front. Resting scholes at Wigan with five matches to go. Not playing the right tactics v everton when we were 4-2 up with ten minutes to go. Dropping Rooney for a silly reason vs Blackburn. Need I go on any more.
Never mind catastrophe. It will be a catastrophe if we don’t get a younger manager with new ideas.
And while we are at it, sack the whole assistants phelan is total Yes man and he serves no purpose at all.
Bring a younger manager and get rid of the glazers too.
If we win nothing then at least we can start hauling the club
Fergie out now.