10 Years of Pain
On August 17, 2012 I woke up to one of the most joyous news I've ever heard as a sports enthusiast. For several minutes, I was gobsmacked, silently asking myself if what I've just read was real. I looked more crazy than happy, with streams of questions begging for immediate answers flowing tirelessly into my mind. Why did he choose us? Who convinced him? Where do we go from here now? How will he impact the dudes we have here already? Is he too expensive? What if he flopped? Are we changing our transfer strategy?
Growing up, I read a lot about how Liverpool used to be the dominant force in the '80s. They were the team to beat, with the best players and lots of winnings to boot. I couldn't help but wonder what went horribly wrong for such a dynasty. Were they usurped by other clubs? Did they sign the wrong players? Were they struck by catastrophic happenings? Or, maybe they made wrong investment decisions and couldn't afford the best players anymore?
Back then, I assured myself that what beset this historical club will never happen to mine. There is no way we will get this worse, not now, not in 50 years time. We have the best manager, the best young players who will only get better, we are making wise investment decisions and the team is growing globally at a very rapid rate. In short, lines are perfectly falling in place. That was 20 years ago.
August 17, 2012 was the day Robin Van Persie swapped North London for Manchester. As at that time, I still woke to the nightmarish scream of the commentator as Aguero lashed in a last-gasp winner to hand City their first title in decades, snatching it from Manchester United in brutal fashion. We lost to our less glamorous cross city rivals on goal difference, and it was very painful.
City, then a growing force, set plans in motion to grab the best player in the country, Robin Van Persie, to boost their ranks. They had Tevez, Aguero, Balotelli, and Dzeko, but they wanted the best player in the league. Manchester United on the other hand had Rooney, Hernandez, Welbeck and Berbatov. They weren't the most talented bunch, but they were more than enough at that time to win league titles.
Once RvP was announced, Manchester United became the bookies' favourite to win the league. We lost the previous season on goal difference. With the league's highest goal scorer joining the team, the outcome was inevitable. And, it went to plan. Man U won the league with games to spare. RvP returned to Arsenal a Premier League winner just 8 months after he divorced them. It was a wonderful ending to a difficult season. And, a brutal ending to 22 years of dominance even though we didn't know it at that time.
I wrote this piece as I painfully remembered that Man U already had bids rejected for the likes of Frenkie De Jong, Antony, and Arnautovic this summer. The fact that these ones are expected to come in and improve the team is even more painful. How low have we fallen! How backwards have we drifted!! What I thought will never happen in 50 years started happening after just 10 years. Ten years on from the beginning of the rot the wound is only getting deeper. How did we get here? What is the way out? No one seems to know or have an answer. Managers have been changed, players moved on, tactics tweaked, yet, we fall deeper.
It took Liverpool 30 years to return to glory days. Though they've been fiercely competitive, they are still not the best team in the land. That title goes to another Manchester club. Man U have fumbled through 10 years of mediocrity. After enduring Moyes, we felt it would never get worse. Alas, we miscalculated. Each era has ushered in its own brand of pain and anguish, each season starting with optimism and ending in regrets. Will we get it right? Will it take 30 years? I have no correct answer to that.
For now, the pain goes on. The only good thing that has come out of this debacle is that those years of pain have made me grow numb. I no longer feel it. I watch them play now with the realization that a loss is more likely than a win. I don't feel the urge to celebrate wins because I know the next few games have more defeats than winnings. I only watch them now out of loyalty to the club I will always love. I only watch them now because I feel it's my duty to do so, not because I'm excited to see them play!
Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/alone-to-be-alone-archetypes-513525/
10 years is nothing considering only now the club coming to terms with how bad the scenario really is. When you are in denial it takes longer so the first day of repairing the damage hasn't even started yet. This is a big hole and who says the club will eve bounce back as there are no guarantees. Finding the right players and filling the right positions in the club to take them forward will take years. Any decent player will give Man U a wide berth as it is seen as a dead end with no hope for trophies. The biggest difference today compared to 20 years ago is you have 6 clubs all looking for the best players and will spend money. United need to start from scratch which wont be easy. With a shrinking fan base and less income being generated each season compared to other clubs on the rise they need to act fast.
It's frustrating how everything seems to be going downhill. We thought we've seen the worst not knowing we are still scratching the surface.
Honestly, the situation seems hopeless. With just two games into the season, a top 4 finish is already out of reach. Add an oncoming Liverpool beatdown to the mix, and the season will quickly spiral into chaos.
That same thing that happened to Liverpool a couple of years ago is something that every club can face.
It was a tough time for us but when our German tactician came with his gegenpressing, he completely changed the trajectory of how the club have been in recent years.
Was it a year job? No way! It took an awful lot of time but Liverpool are back to its glory days.
Looking at this Manchester United team, we all can only imagine how long it will take for them to find their feet again. If they play like this for 10 game weeks in a row, we can all agree that the season is already over for them.
Will they get relegated? That will surely break the airwaves if it's happens. Haha
Wicked! Just wicked!!😂😂😂
So, you actually want us to relegate. That's not happening.
Hahaha... I can't wish that on the almighty Manchester United, but if it happens, the banter will be too raw against Man United fans. Haha 😂
I don't even want to think about it. Nah, it's not happening. Stop scaring me, man.😂😂😂
Congratulations @mckane! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 50 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 300 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Yay! 🤗
Your content has been boosted with Ecency Points, by @mckane.
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
One thing nobody should miss watching EPL is the mancheter derby and the fighting duo of the two teams. Where every team challenges another, its where the consistent climb is hard ongoing.
What caught my attention is the players selection you mentioned in binary fashion, at one side city picked up players like Persy & Aguero, Argentine indigenous sensation - Tevez and how they rolled back the specter to the glory. Man You also progressed with Rooney and others but city had the most stunning comeback.
I think, a decade is not a big deal, compared to the long history of the EPL. The most important thing is to have a right managerial team backing up a club,as long it goes, thats what gets best for the team, ultimately.
I don't think I can stomach the impending embarrassment Man U will be dealt in the Manchester Derby. Will I watch it? Yes, but I will pray hard before the match starts. It will be a beatdown, to way the least.
For a team accustomed to winning, a decade of mediocrity is much.
Goes to show how important the coaching stuff and current club culture and climate is. It's so toxic there that on the bravest would dare join
There is no single sense of organization; everything is in chaos. It looks like the only strategy the club has right now is hope. And as the saying goes, "hope is not a financial strategy." It should never be a sporting strategy too. It will be a while before they get it right.
That was an awful day for me. I loved Van Persie at Arsenal, so seeing him play for Man United was terrible for me and other Arsenal fans, but I guess that's football. Money and greed trump passion and loyalty these days.
I have to admit I felt some kind of way towards RvP's move to Man U. The dude had being injured most of his career yet, Wenger stuck by him. He had one injury free season, hit a lot of goals and bailed for another team. That, to me, is betrayal. But then, that was the time football landscape was changing from passion being the ultimate determinant to money and fame.
He probably regrets that move as his career petered out after the 2012/2013 triumphant season. But, if you ask him he'll probably refer to the lone EPL title he won as justification.
I see that team plumeting to new lows with no remedy in sight. The only thing that can save them now is if everyone is sacked and they start recruitment afresh. All these "man utd way" thing is never going to work.
I believe alot in ETH and I believe if given the right tools, he can turn things around, but it seems the management are bereft of any idea what those right tools are or how to go about acquiring them.
The way things are going, this rot might last another 10 years
Mourinho, when given the right tools, has been uber-successful. Van Gaal returned Bayern Munich to consciousness when they were already forgotten after crossing to the new millennium. These are fantastic managers who failed at Man U more than anywhere else. One thing they all have in common is their complaints about the club's concern for marketing than football.
Without the right players, every manager will crumble. The almighty Guardiola once lost 4-0 to Everton. He suffered the most humiliating defeats of his glamorous career in England. His domination started when he got in the right players for his pattern. Klopp lost a cup final to Sevilla. He turned Liverpool to a pressing machine when he eventually handpicked the right tools for his method.
Despite the season already two games old, Ten Hag doesn't even know the players that will come in or leave. He's probably as confused as all of us.
And that failure is on the management. To think that LvG warned ETH about the job and all he prophesied are now playing out.
To think that a coach would be in a job and two weeks into the season, he's still not sure of which team he's going to use for the season. Who does that? They just don't want to accept the fact that Utd is now a small club and should start rebuilding from scratch as that would negatively affect the business side of things
Stock market reacts to news, both fake and real. If Man U sits their shareholders down and tell them they want to rip everything up and start from the beginning, they will lose most of them. That's why they continually go after high profile players. The news always sends market into a frenzy. And, it keeps those moneybags believing that the club is still a global powerhouse.
That's where the priorities are wrong. They're just trading onfield success for financial gains and that's why the team will never recover. As long as they can go to Hong Kong every summer to harvest huge funds, they're content with it.
They better get to grips with reality or it might get too late for them.
When Glazer was interviewed last year, he said the club will attract big names. That's the man's idea of running a football club, big players that helps drive traffic. That was why they signed a 36 year old Ronaldo. That was why they signed Pogba, a fanciful dude with huge online following. I could remember back then Shinji Kagawa was signed from Dortmund to boost support in Asia because Ji-Sung Park, the only Asian in the squad, moved on.
Maybe if the Glazers sell the club their will be peace. The only problem is those guys are making money from it every single year. Despite the Covid issue, they still withdrew huge amounts from the club's purse as dividends. No one sells a profitable business.
That's where we need the fans to step in and put pressure on the owners. And the ex players are not even helping, they see the problem and instead of calling out the Glazers, they're busy running down the coach and the players who can't even help themselves.
This is a time for all the fans and legends to unite and rescue this club before its too late
The fans have done their bit. We spent the better part of last year protesting. A lot of protests were conducted on social media platforms and at Old Trafford. Those guys are Americans, they don't care. They love baseball and NFL, not football. They've been pressured to sell the club, they just won't budge.
As for the legends, they now make money as commentators and analysts. Manchester United is not paying their bills, the employers are. So, they have to say what keeps them in their jobs.
True though
I just learnt that Sir Ratcliffe is interested in buying the club
The club is still am attractive proposition, financial wise so it's not short of buyers. But, those Glazer dudes are not selling. Fans have been protesting for years now, they won't budge.
Just found out that it's a minority stake they want to sell. I think they just want to do that as a publicity stunt to placate the fans' protest. I'm tired of those dudes
That's exactly what I've been saying, those dudes are not willing to leave.
When Abrahamovic was the owner of Chelsea, he attended over 80% of Chelsea's home game before the UK ban forced his relocation to Israel.
I'm certain most Man U supporters doesn't even know what a Glazer looks like, but they can easily identify Roman Abrahamovic who has no single stake in their club. One owner loved his club, the other loves his money.
That 80% includes me. I barely know what a Glaser looks like and I don't even care anymore.
I recognized their dad when he was alive, but these ones that took over from him, I have no clue. They are always absent, invincible.
I hope they become permanently invisible to us
For all the noise about the fans being the most important part of a football club, its disheartening to see just one family hold millions of people to ransom out of selfish gains.
The fans have never been the most important for these businessmen, it's all a deflection
The board are to be blamed for this. Not doing something on time, always patching the defect with just 1 or 2 signings for years is what has led united to this and the worst thing is they are just realising how bad the situation is now when the warning signs has been there for years.
They've been making money, that is their barometer for determining if the club is in a bad state or not. We are the ones watching the matches, all they've been watching is financial statements.
For some reason, I couldn't help but compare with some countries because you know... Falling under the wrong regime is worse than having no leader at all...
I came in through Dreemport.
Bad leadership has ruined a lot of once flourishing enterprises. Despite all the problems my club has faced, the one constant has been the unbelievable amount of wrong decisions the leaders have made, and are still making.
That's when it's time to take a break... Maybe completely lose track of the game for several months, not even looking at the scores. THEN go to a game, live. If that doesn't work, maybe it's just not worth your time right now?
The plan was to take a break, but I always end up watching their games. That wish for them to do well keeps me coming back.
I watched a couple kids in my neighborhood play last week. It was absolutely refreshing.
Awesome 👍But you know, not watching might bring that fire back :) ...
The fire will be back once those dudes start playing well again. They got me disinterested with their terrible performances.