Originally Posted by
I am invisible
Oh I’m sure Ten Hag is willing and is under no illusions about the job that needs doing - I just don’t think most United fans really understand what it’s going to look like. They say it will be a 3 year project, but I think they’re expecting a nice, neat, steady progression where they go from where they are to EL to CL to challenging for the title in consecutive years - I’m not sure many of them are ready for it to get worse before it can get better.
Year 1 isn’t going to be about anything more than salvage, and it’s going to suck. The club have invested hundreds of millions in some of those players and they’re going to want to see if ETH can get anything out of them before they write all that money off and have to start buying out contracts. Which means he’s going to have to pick a lot of players and teams that won’t make sense to us and will piss off a lot of their supporters.
But that’s what we’re talking about in year 1: salvage and write-offs. Some players might show that they’re willing to get on board, but a lot of them won’t like it and are going to be unsellable on the contracts they’re on, so the club are either going to have to wait them out or buy them out, if they want the quicker option. And once those players start to understand that they’re no longer wanted or needed, and that there’s no buyers out there for them, they’re going to try to down tools and try to tank the manager. Because that will be their best bet for survival. Same as happened here.
It’s gonna get ugly over there and they need to back the manager, no matter how bad it gets, otherwise they’re never getting past this. I just really question whether they’ve got the stomach for it - there’s a sense of entitlement that comes with a lot United fans of a certain generation that I don’t think will allow them to accept anything other than immediate results, and that’s going to keep them stuck in this same cycle of never seeing the job through if they keep demanding the manager’s head.
And as an Arsenal fan I’m here for that!