TEDDY’S corner
Dear All I am typing these words with mental pain, deep frustration, and a helpless feeling (all emanating from football disillusion of course) a few days after United got once again eliminated at an early stage of the Champions League. With nothing to play for by mid-March other than a very remote chance of making the 4th place, like most of you, I keep pondering how on earth is our team ever going to get back to those glorious, happy days. I fully understand that in life there is always a process for everything but when one factors in the 1 billion plus pounds spent on players since Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill left the Club and looks at the current status of our beloved football team, 9 years after this great tandem guided Manchester United to the last Premier League success, years during which Manchester United were supposed to start off the new process and have always been in transition, a few questions crop up – What progress has been done? Which players have developed their talent in the first team? Where did it all go wrong? From where can I start? In 7 of these last 9 years, the so-called greatest football team in the world did not win a trophy (excluding the Community Shield won in David Moyes’ first game in charge). Regretfully 5 from these 7
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VOL 49 - ISSUE 3 - APRIL 2022
have been the last 5 dreadful and frustrating ones. When I ask this question to myself, I get an explosion of thoughts in my mind. No long-term strategy, bad football decisions – managers and players, no leadership on and off the field, marketing and branding prioritised over the football focus, no real and tangible interest from the owners who clearly have no knowledge about the world of football. With Ole, something went wrong at the end and a section of the Man United fans, most of them being young age glory hunters thinking that what they could do on their PlayStation could be applied in the real world, blamed the manager. Today most of them are confused and have a different opinion - they are now blaming the players (decide please!). The hierarchy at Old Trafford brought in an interim manager till the end of the season with a subsequent two-year engagement, quasi-director of football role, as a consultant. Rangnick is very experienced and has nothing to prove to anyone. He brought with him a disciplined mentality which from the outside seemed to be lacking under Ole. However, in my opinion, the interim role does not really help the enforcement of discipline because some lazy prima donnas who are unfortunately wearing the shirt and representing the millions of fans world-wide do not really seem to be bothered knowing this guy is in charge on a temporary basis. How can someone bring
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a new manager at such a great football club but pre appoint his consultant in advance? Maybe the new manager doesn’t want Ralf as his consultant. Is the management so idiotic or is this a case of hiding what has already been pre agreed? I am pretty sure, at least
