January Transfer Window

Exactly right. We clearly don't have the longer term strategy or ambition to take this club forward. I'm not talking about 'hoping' we get to the championship and underpricing season tickets. I'm talking about a proper, forward looking and ambitious, exciting plan to take the club forward. It simply isn't there. We're being left behind by the top 2 leagues. At most, we'll be a reasonably competitive League 1 club in the next 10 years.

 

There were some attractive bits in their plans, for sure, but the problem was Rahic was an idiot and his whole recruitment drive was undermined by naivety.

He claimed he wanted to implement a more German style of paying the players, with a lower basic wage and more incentivised add ons. That may work in Germany where you are competing against other German clubs for German players who are au fait with that way of doing things, but you can't come over here and expect Rory McArdle and other history makers to accept a lower basic wage, while dangling the carrot of other incentives to bump the overall salary package back up, when the player can travel an hour down the road and get a traditional British contract with a higher basic wage and fewer add ons at a rival club.

When he started banging on about this, that was the point I started to question if he knew what he was doing! He was never going to revolutionlise the British game.

With the player squad ruined, the plans to modernise the ground, professionalise the scouting and coaching etc all took a back seat. Well, it became even worse than that in the end once Rahic started sacking staff and cutting back, doing away with protein bars and ice baths etc. Shambolic stuff in the end and it was inadequate.

 

Doomed from the start.

I remember being in the baggage claim area of Manchester Airport after coming back from a business trip, going online to the T&A website and reading the story about wealthy German owners buying out Bradford City. I was made up. Seemed like the shot in the arm the club needed to really move it forward. The optimism didn't last long....

A couple of weeks later I was on holiday and by pure chance I bumped into someone I new, who's very well connected at City - particularly at the time. I asked him about the new owners and he told me that their plan was to REDUCE costs at the club, at least in the short term. The playing budget was to be trimmed and he didn't expect Parky to hang around. I was gobsmacked.

As Rahic then spoke, there were elements of what he talked to that sounded great, but it was quickly apparent that the substance around his 'vision' was all fantasy. And then I heard more and more about how people were being treated at the club....

I bumped into Billy Clarke just after he left, shortly after our Play-Off final. He was at the Goals facility next to Hanson school. Our kids were playing in the same competition. I spent 10 mins chatting to him - an absolutely brilliant bloke. He was nearly in tears, told me he hadn't want to leave and that if left unchecked, Rahic would destroy the club beyond repair. Told me other things that horrified me, which I won't share on here.

 

It’s “Access to additional investment “ that is the key but it’s a philanthropist we need not an investor because the risk against reward are to high

 

The most impressive thing that Klopp has done, is tap into the emotion of the Liverpool fans. Their current setup is about as Liverpool as you could make it.

 

we know how it works on here pal, some people don't rate Clarke as a footballer so his opinion on how things were at City can't be believed.

 

Or Lingard. Or Martial. Can't understand where Man United are going wrong....

 

They are going about it the right way now bringing home grown players and good young players like James in. They will need patience and one or two established big but right signings and in a year or two there will be a big difference

 

Man Utd's recruitment is embarrassing for a club like that. They're signing any average joe so long as he has a British passport.

 

We will see. I think after a few years of paying silly money for bad attitude they are now bringing their own players through and young players on the rise like James. If they continue this and buy a couple of the right type and attitude they will reap the reward in the future. We saw glimpses of it when they well beat Man City and came the closest to beating Liverpool this season

 

Sir Alex knew when to get out he was always going to be a hard act to follow.

 

I think they’re fundamentally broken. They’re no longer the draw they were. The need a massive overhaul and I don’t think they’re geared up to do it. They’re being left behind.

 

Anyway, back to our transfer window. Kind of concerning that we haven't heard about anyone coming in for our fringe players. I'd have thought that Akpan and the rest would have been put on the market by now.

 

Only on the pitch they can compete with most in Europe it may take a while because Liverpool and city are way off at the moment but they will be back again

 

But their financial muscle isn’t THAT much better than anyone else’s, in the sense that matters. Sure, they can throw 300k at someone and if that player is solely driven by the best financial deal possible, they’ll get them. But you’re not going to get the type of quality player who’s motivated by success - and that’s EXACTLY what they need.

If you’re a top player in your early or mid twenties, with the talent to play Champions League Football, you’re going to have better footballing options than Man United. I wonder whether Maguire regrets going there.... And I bet the likes of Maddison, who they’re linked with, aren’t in a rush to make the same journey.

 

There is no doubt the Champions league is a big draw for players and united and others who want to be back there have to pay over the odds but they are still a big name and a big draw for players and they have to be cleverer which I say they are starting to do. Unlike other top teams they don’t have a director of football and I think it is needed at level