Woke up and seen the news. Just been sobbing uncontrollably tbh. Meant to be going to a beer garden today but I can't face it, not in this state. Someone please tell me this is fake news?

I actually think he's been pretty unlucky. Can you imagine if we had Evans and Casemiro at the back? Or even Casemiro in midfield? The whole system falls apart, we'd instantly be a shitshow.

His purchases have been a shitshow though. Casemiro, Mount, Antony... even Hojlund looks average to me. Two years after he's taken over the squad looks significantly worse.

His supporters say that he didn't negotiate for Antony and the other fees but the fact is they were all high profile players HE wanted and the board backed him on those. He also had a veto on transfers he didn't want. Antony cost Ajax themselves 20 odd million, and obviously they'd charge a mark-up.

Summer 2022 - We bid to Ajax for Martinez (First choice LB) for around 30-40m, United took negotiations to an extreme and ended up paying 50-60m. Pony up another 80m because now Ajax realises they can take them to the cleaners because of Martinez, then a disaster initial showing ends up with the desperate deal for Casemiro.

Winter 2023 - After spending all his 200m budgets, ETH starts crying about the lack of funds for January and even then they get him Sabitzer (and Weghorst) on loan.

In the entire season, they only sell about 5-10m TOTAL worth of talent so net spend is around 200m

Summer 2023 - Starts by paying 60m for Mount who's had an injury prone season and plays most naturally in a position filled by arguably their best player. Pays 50m to land a keeper available for free the season before and in a year of a considerable number of GK purchases in the PL, proceeds to land probably the worst one in terms of value. Pay approx 15-20m in wages and fees to get amrabat for the season. Only decent signing is Hojlund.

Winter 2024 - Starts complaining about money again after spending another 170 odd million in the summer.

This is why I swore they'd beat us at Old Trafford. Ten Hag is a wondrous being. If they hold this lead he'll have half-humiliated Ratcliffe and probably done more than the next Frankenstein's hunchback to dare to take the job will over the next season. He's a moron, but he's somehow a golden electric moron. What a glorious contradiction his whole tenure would be if he were sacked on the eve of an unlikely FA Cup victory. Or perhaps ... this is just the prelude to their latest extraordinary collapse?

United's directness always troubles Pep. We don't have runners like them to play this direct.

We may laugh at him but in half the time has won more trophies than Arteta.

Utd also better season than us (on paper).

    Lukazan

    A trophy > no trophy. Simples.

    In reality I disagree but purely on paper then they had a better season. Get killed about this on the WhatsApp forums.

        Sicario2 - Tier 1 so you'd rather be a United fan right now? I sure wouldn't. This is the plaster that covers up the fact they need major surgery.

        Need to mute those WhatsApp groups if they bother you so much. 😉

            Don Pacifico

            Mate of course we had a better season but they have bragging rights.

            Football at this level is ultimately decided in trophies. In 2012 we had a better league season than Chelsea by far but they won the CL (obviously CL bigger than FA cup) but they had the last laugh.

            Imagine if Spurs win a trophy before us. We would be laughing stock. Need to win next year.

                Sicario2 - Tier 1 what do you mean 'before' us? We won an FA Cup four years ago, so how far do we go back (rhetorical question if that wasn't apparent)?

                If any United fan tried to claim they had bragging rights, I think I'd find it very easy to shut that chat down.

                Bottom line - yes, we need to win trophies some time soon but if you're feeling insecure because United have won the cup today, then I don't think you're looking at the bigger picture/need to have more pride in what we've achieved & where we're headed. An FA Cup or not doesn't really change that.

                  We won four FA Cups from 2014-2020 – do we look back at that time as a glorious period, a proud trophy-winning era? No, that's our worst stretch since Arsene arrived in 1996.

                  Congrats to United, a trophy is a trophy but we have many FA Cups that don't compare to the league.

                  The path that Arteta is on, I am convinced can get us the bigger trophies. Wenger wouldn't have ever paid up for Rice.

                  Mikel won the FA Cup but people still go back and talk about 8th position rather than that. Yes, we gotta win something but let's not pretend league standing has no bearing on how well a season went.

                  If United are going into next season with Ratcliffe insisting on any better than the Europa League places from anyone who's managing them, they've got it backwards. Right now the bookies have got them at 9/4 as the seventh most likely club to achieve top four, and that sounds about right. Let's hope the hyper-rational oil and gas investment arbitrage guy is exactly that impatient.

                  • goon replied to this.

                    Big talk for a guy who finished 8th and over 30 points off the title winners.

                    Its incredible now that all of Chelsea United City and Liverpool are all managed by baldies

                      Clrnc

                      This "baldness evolution" photo triptych of Maresca from the Athletic's puff piece on him seemed to imply it may be the only qualification you require:

                        Haha. Qwiss. Are you a card carrying member?

                          flobaba not quite yet, I'm still fighting the good fight. I was paraphrasing Larry David on Curb.

                            14 days later

                            Well deserved new contract as well.

                            He brought this mid table club to win the FA cup against all odds, no mean feat

                            The beauty of it all … INEOS clearly believe they're pulling ten Hag's puppet strings, when it's actually the other way round.

                            Our shining messiah is intent on fucking them all over again, having won the FA Cup and made the club such a basket case that between the begrudged fact of a literal trophy, and the distaste of anyone more sane to coach there, he must be retained. Forget six-dimensional chess, this is a career strategy conducted on the outside of any representable reality whatsoever.

                            Amazing haha. Contract extension loool. He won't make it till January

                            It gives me confidence that INEOS are inept in football. There is no scenario in which ETH should’ve survived, even with that trophy

                              Claudius INEOS seem to have decided they're too busy putting their corporate thought leader dream team in place (Brailsford, Ashworth etc) to bother with the coach hunt.

                              Ratcliffe's cringeworthy inquisition into the office culture suggests a hands-on, egoistic leadership that'll cause problems. Then you've got the Glazers up the back digging their heels in on fixing the leaky roof. Truly the best of times to hate United for now 😆