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15 Oct 2026 16:02:40
As much as I agree that Wilcox is not fit to be Director of Football at this club based on what we've seen so far, I also don't think Carrick is good enough to be Head Coach, nor are the coaches around him.
We're supposedly trying to compete at the top end of the table, yet we have a coaching setup made up of failed Middlesbrough coaches and former players. Honestly, it's hard to take seriously. What coaching or management credentials do Carrick, Woodgate and Evans have that justify them leading a club the size of Manchester United?
Having played football for 25 years, I can say from experience that being in an environment with poor coaching absolutely affects performances. You can have talented players, but there's nothing more frustrating than working under coaches who aren't good enough.
Wilcox certainly isn't innocent in any of this, but there has to be accountability throughout the football structure. The old saying goes: there are no bad students, only bad teachers. Before people respond by saying, "Amorim was a good coach", I'd challenge that as well. On what basis did he have the credentials to come in and coach Manchester United players?
For me, the problems at the club go far deeper than recruitment. The quality of leadership, coaching and football direction all need to be questioned if Manchester United genuinely want to get back to competing at the highest level.
1.) 15 Oct 2026 18:09:27
Exactly Curtis it's all low rent . But that sums up Ineos.
2.) 15 Oct 2026 18:13:01
Wilcox put the current coaching team in place. So he is accountable. We have huge holes in the squad. He is accountable. We can't sell players who need to be moved on. He is accountable. He chose to stick with amorim, but them failed to get him the right players and then fell out with him and pushed him out the door. Runours were that it was Wilcox that was going to go instead of amorim, before amorim blew up and made it clear he was leaving.
This is not a big deal. Man in charge of all football matters at club gets sacked because the team is not performing. They thought nothing of sacking hundreds of employees who cost relatively little. He is expensive. He is costing the club a fortune with his poor decisions and we are no closer to success than when he joined.
Best in class my ar3e.
18 Sep 2026 12:03:39
{Ed's Note - Kurtis has posted a new article entitled, United Under INEOS: Best in Class or Reactive?
1.) 18 Sep 2026 12:43:14
INEOS is £18 billion in Debt, they also only own 28.94% of the club. The Glazer family owns 48.9% and 67.9% of the overall voting rights, Public Shareholders own 22.2% of the club.
INEOS is an investment vehicle, they invested £1.54 billion, the company will have an obligation to turn a profit on that investment. The profit will come from the regeneration project.
We as fans really really need to get into our heads that the football club which means the fans will pay for this. The club will be run like a any other company within the confines of cash flow forecasts and projections that will take into account the regeneration project from a long term financial planning prospective.
We fans keep looking at this through a lens based on INEOS wanting what we want, footballing success. INEOS want financial success, their motivation is aligned with the objectives of the Glazers.
The clubs ownership structure means its highly unlikely any parties are putting their own cash in, the idea they would put their own cash in to pay off the debt is laughable.
The reality is this, the club will be run on a tight budget, they will try to use data models, like Brighton do to increase the odds of success. The question we need to ask is what does success look like? Well, if your objective is increasing profits and revenue, success is top 5 with a wage budged substantially below the top 5 teams.
We are currently the 6th highest wage bill in the prem, if we removed Rashford in the summer we'd of been 7th. We've significantly cut the wage bill for playing staff and Man United PLC wages/Salaries with the headcount reduction. All evidence points to significant cost cutting.
2.) 18 Sep 2026 13:22:06
Bang on there. INEOS have quickly shifted from best in class to best in budget. After last season, the question was could United push on to compete with City and Arsenal. The answer was an overwhelming no. They people running the club have calculated that the cost of competing is less profitable than being a club with the primary ambition of achieving Champions League.
3.) 18 Sep 2026 14:41:15
The debt, and the annual cost of servicing it is a serious impediment, particularly because the stadium still needs to be renovated or replaced. There's lots of speculation as to how the £2bn currently estimated will be raised, but clearly it will involve a large element of debt.
Meanwhile it's been reported that interest costs after the debt refinancing this summer could be around £60m a year (I think it will be a bit less). Never mind the outcry about dividends, that's where the most significant cost is, the equivalent of 2x £100k player on £200k a week. Paying dividends is an option if you're making profits, financing the debt is an obligation whether you are or not and United hasn't made any in 5 years.
The only meaningful way to bring the current debt load down is for the club to issue more shares, but, depending on the amount they want to raise, it would run the risk of Avram and Joel losing voting control. We talk of the Glazers as a single entity but there are 6 siblings and some might prefer to sell out completely, especially if the business is not profitable and not paying any dividends. So ni-omina control could fall apart if there was a family split.
Against that, the Glazers are traditionally a real estate concern, and clearly have a significant long term financial stake in regeneration of the area. So talk of rifts between them may be overstated. I know or have known a number of real estate investors in my time and the most successful ones have simply bought low and held on for extremely long periods of time. Kind of like McDonalds which is primarily a real estate holding company that finances its acquisitions through its food brand franchises.
I don't see any chance of them being able or wanting to raise capital by issuing stock, which means there's essentially no way out of the current debt bind other than gradual reduction through the retention of +ve cash flow from profitable trading. So, I agree with you they're going to try and make 2+2=5, hoping that somehow or other they can create a club that cheapskates its way into Europe every year, but failing that, even without Europe the club will remain profitable.
In other words we may as well just try to chill out and accept that for the foreseeable future we've become firmly cemented as the #2 team in Manchester, the whining, not remotely noisy neighbours. A team whose past glories are drifting out of memory or were never even known by new fans around the world. Liverpool had 30 years during which they didn't win the title. I don't see us faring any better. Berrada's words about winning the title by 2028 ring very hollow after the events of this summer. Clearly financial realities are taking precedence over doing what's necessary to win titles.
08 Sep 2026 14:37:41
Slightly different topic, but am I the only one who finds it ironic that United signed three midfielders this summer, yet so far it feels like we've failed to replace what Casemiro brought defensively?
Everyone is focusing on the defence, and I agree there are quality issues there. But I don't think we should underestimate the amount of protection Casemiro provided last season. Despite the criticism, he still put up 89 tackles, 30 interceptions and 137 recoveries in the league. That is a huge amount of defensive work being done in front of the back four.
The bigger concern for me is balance. Tielemans and Mainoo seem quite similar in the sense that both want to receive the ball, progress play and dictate possession. They're good footballers, but neither is naturally a destroyer screening the defence. As a result, the midfield can look a bit lightweight without the ball.
Last season we may have got away with some of the defence's shortcomings because Casemiro was doing so much of the ugly side of the game. Take that layer of protection away and suddenly defenders are defending larger spaces, facing more transitions and getting exposed far more often.
I'm hoping Baleba can make a difference. He's much more of a natural ball winning midfielder and on paper, he looks much closer to the type of player needed to balance the midfield than another possession focused midfielder.
I'm not going into transfer window shortcomings. The defence does need replacing, but I also think we've overlooked how much Casemiro was masking those issues.
1.) 08 Sep 2026 16:23:32
Kurtis
I spent the summer saying we should buy Alex Scott, who I thought would be the right fit in front of our back four. But what do I know...
2.) 08 Sep 2026 17:13:05
Totally agree, it is a major miss and I think Baleba is completely the replacement for Casemiro. Seemingly, he is getting close to fitness and hopefully can provide the cover needed by the defence.
I do think Santos is also a player who can play the position, but needs more experience. I watched all of the pre season games and he was probably the best player of the tour.
He was poor against Hull, but that was pretty much the case for everyone, except Lammens. Seemingly, based on that one game, there are those questioning his signing.
Indeed, it was said that all the midfield signings have not delivered.
Let's not forget there was pretty much universal acceptance that the midfield signings were of a decent standard and should achieve the level of control we have been looking to achieve. Things have not changed significantly in the space of a couple of weeks.
To reach any kind of judgement based upon the games played, levels of fitness at present, and the lack of familiarity with each other, is surely, at best, rather foolish.
A bit more time is needed for all the parts to bed in!
3.) 08 Sep 2026 23:39:03
Santos was excellent pre season. Don't get why he hasn't been given a run of games.
{Ed0666's Note - I honestly thought Santos was a real coup for you. Judge him in a few months say.
17 Sep 2026 08:52:20
People are surprised we haven't kicked on when we have replaced players with the class of Casemiro with second string players in Tielemans and Santos.
Then you look at the coaching set up of, Carrick, Woodgate and Jonny Evans and wonder why we aren't competing.
22 Jun 2026 09:27:59
Wesley Sneijder coming out of retirement and signing would be more believable.
04 Nov 2026 22:43:04
Probably signed it the second Cunhas third when in and he realised our incompetent management weren't getting rid of Carrick.
23 Oct 2026 09:57:00
Lets not kid ourselves, it will be someone who is another yes man or not good enough. Kieran Mckenna or Southgate come to mind.
The club will appoint to its level, which is a midtable team with no aspiration. No doubt SJR or Wilcox will make a statement trying to gaslight the fans into thinking it was a good decision.
Sick of this ownership, the players and the club as a whole at the minute.
22 Oct 2026 10:41:29
RedGedge, all valid points and I completely agree with not wanting to project a "we know best" attitude.
My point is just that he has never managed an elite club, his overall success is average, and to be honest, I think his comment was made just for effect. Dalot is not be good enough for where United want to be, but let's be real, he absolutely would have been taken by Warnock at any of his League One or Championship clubs. It's just controversial journalism designed to dig at United and stir a reaction, which clearly worked.
Sim, tenure doesn't automatically equal elite competence. Someone can spend 60 years running a local high street franchise, but that doesn't mean they're qualified to advise a FTSE 100 board on global strategy. Experience has to be measured by the level you operated at, not just the clock time.
22 Oct 2026 09:46:57
Nothing us fans and whole football world didn't already know.
Warnock had a win percentage as a manager of 40%, lower than all post Ferguson managers except Amorim. Don't think he has enough credibility to be throwing out comments about the club.
22 Oct 2026 08:35:42
My friend is a Wolves fan and knows some of the staff that were present with Cunha, apparently this is quite common and he is quite difficult to manage with poor discipline.
Not saying it relieves Carrick of anything, and the fact a number of players have spoken out now points to a pattern, but in isolation this wouldn't have surprised me about Cunha.