One thing that ticks me off about losing to Spurs in the League Cup is that we really should be laughing at Man U right now. Just look at how ripe that situation is for jokes:
They signed him to a new deal in January with Ed Woodward saying: “Jose has already achieved a great deal as Manchester United manager and I am delighted that he has agreed to extend his commitment until at least 2020. His work rate and professionalism are exceptional and he has embraced the club’s desire to promote top quality young players to the first team. He has brought an energy and a sense of purpose to everything that he does and I am sure that will continue to bring results for the fans and the club.” Almost before the ink was dry on that deal, he started in on his now patented “get me fired” campaign where he tours the country angrily insulting other managers, his own players, and eventually the management and ownership of the club. Of all the really wasteful things that Woodward has done, this has to be one of the worst. Even players who weren’t good signings can be moved on for a fraction of their contract; Jose Mourinho will be able to collect his bumper contract for years!
Jose Mourinho spent £315m net on transfers and had the guts to complain about not getting enough to spend. He also bought Fred this summer and then went about destroying the players he’d signed the previous few seasons, specifically the center back Eric Bailly, by saying he needed investment in another center back.
Let’s hit this net spend thing for another point: this is the guy who said Jurgen Klopp had to win a trophy because of his spending: “Maybe this season finally you demand they win. Now you have to demand and say the team – with the investments you are making last season and you make now, that will probably be the record of the Premier League this season, a team that was a finalist in the Champions League – you have to say you are a big candidate, you have to win.” Over the last three seasons, Jose Mourinho net spent £315m, Liverpool net spent £134m; and in terms of player purchases (not accounting for sales) Jose Mourinho spent £419m while Klopp spent £387m. This has to be the funniest case of the pot and kettle ever. Also, did I mention that Mourinho bought a midfielder, then decided he needed a defender, but what the club really needed was an offensive-minded manager who will get the most out of the over £300m they have investing in attacking talent at that club!
I don’t care if Henrikh Mkhitaryan is your least favorite player in an Arsenal shirt of all time. I admit he’s not great and my initial optimism that he’d re-forge that strong partnership with Aubameyang has evaporated. But I still think that no matter how you look at it, Arsene Wenger got one over on Jose Mourinho in that swap deal for Alexis Sanchez. Mkhitaryan is expensive (weekly salary) and he’s not quite as great as we all thought he was going to be (misses his chances, and his technique ain’t great) but he doesn’t shirk his duties; he gives everything on the pitch, he is willing to play any position for this manager, he tackles, he gets stuck in, puts his body on the line, and generally he tries to help this club move forward. Meanwhile Alexis has downed tools and is under investigation for betting on Jose Mourinho to get fired. I know that Alexis will probably be worth more in a trade and that Mkhi is probably never going to pan out but for now.. come on you have to have a chuckle because the edge in this has to go to Wenger. Ferguson was once quoted saying that he “wouldn’t sell Arsenal a virus” and from where I’m sitting it sure looks like Wenger didn’t have those same qualms.
Jose Mourinho slept in a hotel room for 895 days. Not only that but some suggest that he became a news junkie, that he sat around reading news reports about himself. The latter is probably not true and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone because it sounds like one of Dante’s hells. But he did live a mostly solo life in a hotel for over two years. Come to think of it, this isn’t funny. It’s sad.
What is funny is how predictable all of this was from the day he signed. He’s never been a tactically astute manager. His tactics are very basic, defense first, kick and rush. He’s always relied on players like John Terry (who will take a boot in the face for the club) or Materazzi and forwards like Drogba and Costa. And his main method of motivation has always been belittling players publicly and privately, Mesut Ozil recounted a story about being called a coward by Mou. Without those players, those “grizzled veterans” and guys that “don’t like it up ’em” he’s a very average manager.
It’s also hilarious that Piers Morgan wanted Mourinho to manage Arsenal !
The question is where does he go from here? I’m legitimately curious. I can’t see a top club taking a chance on him. He doesn’t develop players, he actually devalues them. So, my guess is that he starts on that long downward slide that so many top managers slip into after they fail at the highest level.
It would be funny if, one day, he turns up at Stoke City. I’ve always thought of him as a checkbook Tony Pulis.
I left off one of the funniest aspects of this whole thing: hiring Solskjaer. This could turn out well for them and I do think that there’s a huge problem with the players downing tools against Mourinho which means that they could suddenly look a revelation under Ole Gunner. But this is also a crazy appointment. Imagine if Arsenal appointed Freddie Ljungberg after he’d hugely failed in the Premier League with Cardiff and was currently manager of some tiny team in Norway? That is a huge risk and all of the papers would be running 24/7 stories about how Arsenal had lost the plot. I mean, look at how they treated the Arteta story this summer. They made us look like a joke club.
But more than that, what an absolute slap in the face to Mourinho. Ok, it’s one thing to be fired. Normally, if they were going to do that, they would have the next manager lined up: Zidane, Poch, or even if it was going to be a caretaker manager, they would want to appoint someone with a proven track record as a top level manager, like Ancelotti (he’s not available) or someone. But what did they do? They got in a failed manager and not only that but a manager with a diametrically opposed philosophy: Solskjaer is supposedly an attacking manager, saying that he’d rather win 4-2 than 1-0.
What happens if Solskjaer has a better record than Mou? Come on. That would be hilarious – not if they finish above Arsenal in the top four but in the “humiliation to Mourinho” way. Chances are that he’s going to get a bit of a new man bump but after that my money will be on a continuation of form. Which in it’s own way is just as funny. Because if a guy like Solskjaer can get the same performances from this club as Mourinho, then what does it say about Mou? A lot.
Continuation of the form? in a good way or to the form they were under Mourinho?
The wankathon over OGS is nauseating. Even from the supposedly neutral press. It is built on nothing but misty-eyed nostalgia for their long distant days of the 1999 treble.
Heck, if good ex-players were good managers, we’d be managed by Tony Adams or Thierry, who’s struggling at Monaco.
I’m rooting for him to fall flat on his face. @ me all you like. Im being honest.
In my business (I’m a civil engineer) OGS means “Oil & Grit Separator”. When I read that I laughed. There may be a metaphor there.
Mourinho is past his prime as was Wenger. But the latter still manages to ooze class and decorum and wit and charm. AND still managed to do a lot with a relative little compared to what his nemesis has spent. All that name calling trash talk couldn’t hide his deep insecurities against a better human being despite a bigger trophy cabinet. Mourinho is nothing but a crass and empty bag of tricks with a 3 year curse and it says a lot of about Man U as a club to have hired him when this was all so very predictable,
People complaining of Micki’s high wage need to understand it was a swap deal. He gives his everything for our club so far. Yes he is not perfect. He was broken by Mourinho and haven’t recovered completely. But imagine having to give Alexis a deal. It could have all possibilities of the Ozil situation now. Then instead of one 350k player we would have two with no resale value. Best option is to use Micki this year and next and move him for whatever we get.
“People complaining of Micki’s high wage need to understand it was a swap deal. He gives his everything for our club so far. Yes he is not perfect. He was broken by Mourinho and haven’t recovered completely”.
What does any of that even mean?
The positive with Mhki is that he gets into good goalscoring positions. The huge negative is that he looks a desperately ordinary (if hard-working) player… a (very) poor man’s Ljungberg. What does a swap deal have to do with his ordinariness? United couldn’t wait to get shot of him.
And it’s rather too easy and convenient to blame Mourinho. The players around him at Dortmund probably made him look better than he was . How did he ‘break” him? Why isn’t Martial “broken?”
Martial is well and truly broken and I hope you don’t consider his performances this season as his benchmark. Micki came in at trouble times at Arsenal. The last 6 months of AW is not a time to evaluate him. This season he has shown improvement and our third best goal scoring option after Auba and Laca (4th if you consider Welbeck). Imagine you got a young player for a high fee. Won’t we wait on him for more than a year?
I think Mourinho does have a track record of ‘breaking’ or at least dulling certain kinds of talents. Witness Alexis, Pogba, Martial, Mkhyitaryan, Fred, Mata, Lukaku, Bailly. Basically, if you like not having the ball, you thrive under Mourinho’s ‘stewardship’!
That’s another angle to this that we should be laughing our asses off at. This is a man who broke Lukaku not once but twice, broke Mata twice, and broke Matic twice. And here at this team, right now, he’s broken Alexis, Pgba, Martial, David de Gea, and basically his entire defense. And let’s not forget the players Mourinho deemed surplus to requirements: Kevin de Bruyne, Bonucci (at Inter, went on to win 6 titles with Juve), Mo Salad, and Aj Robben.
Good read, BTW. Well done, again.
Pretty sure the Fergie “virus” quote was about Real Madrid, during their relentless and eventually successful pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo.
You are correct sir.
In my humble opinion Man Utd don’t need a restructuring to move forward, they need an exterminator. If you look at fees paid to agents in the past 5 years I believe they are miles ahead of everyone else. Pogba didn’t want to go to Man Utd, he wanted to go to Madrid and play for Zidane, but when his agent Raiola told Real that in addition to the 100m transfer fee to Juve they would need to pay an additional 15m to Raiola directly, Real (rightly) told him to fluff off. Man Utd paid the fee. It’s no coincidence that Jorge Mendes is Jose’s agent, Martial’s, DeGea’s, Angel di Maria – gets bought and sold twice in two years and who pockets a percentage of those transfer fees?… and on and on.
Nothing will change for Man Utd. OGS is a laughable appointment, what respect is he going to get out of Pogba, Lukaku, Sanchez et al? None of them are steeped in Man U lore, they’ll only know he’s the failed Cardiff manager and current manager of some tiny club in Norway.
Man Utd are looking at a long spell in purgatory until they get rid of the rot at executive level. Guys like Gary Neville know this and that’s why they get their shots at Woodward in all the time.
As for Mourinho? He’ll be back at Real or Inter within a year or take over the Portuguese national team next year.
Can I add that I am in the minority that actually thinks Pocchetino will NOT go to Man United – why would he? He knows there’s rot there that he can’t fix. And Zidane’s kids are all playing for the Real youth teams, he lives in Madrid. I think he wants the French national team because it’s less of a time commitment, and he’ll wait for it. So who are United left with if those two drop out?
Alan Pardew, Mark Hughes, Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis, Tim Sherwood, Harry Redknapp… all available.
Don’t agree.
Manchester United is the biggest brand in English football, superceded, arguably, only by Real and Barcelona. If they go through a proper, rigorous recruitment process, they’ll get an outstanding coach. maybe even pise one away from another club.
Please please please hire Pulis/Allardyce, Tactics Tim or ‘Arry.
Re: the debate over Mkhitaryan over/underperforming-I believe the truth is somewhere in between. It’s likely that he looked better than he is at Dortmund given the style and players around him, but I do not believe we’ve seen him at his best.
It’s true though, as was pointed out in the last post, that we need goalscorers other than Laca and Auba. I don’t believe at this time that Mkhi or Iwobi can provide those goals. We’re out Welbeck, and it remains to be seen if Ramsey will be here or even be able to provide those goals. I know we need a CB, and an RB, but we also need an attacking player. Pepe has been thrown around. Would we shell out the dukats for him? Would he fit into Emery’s system? Would you sell Ozil to free up money for him?
I would, assuming he’s a player Emery would want to use.
Actually speaking of players Mourinho broke, Mohamed Salah is the biggest indictment of Mourinho’s management. A flop at Chelsea, an outstanding success at Liverpool.
Oh, and he’s got a goal. Plus (are you watching, Mhki and Alex?) he’s goalscoring wide man.
Didn’t Mhki arrive at United the season before Jose did?
Mkhi was one of Jose’s first buys in 2016.
Salah isn’t really a “wide man”. He starts wide but he’s the forward on that team. He has almost zero build-up responsibility and is the only player on that team without defensive responsibilities. Iwobi drops to collect and moves the ball forward, looking for one of the others. The correct equivalent is Auba.
I stand corrected all round.
So on Salah, would Lacazette be Firminho’s Arsenal equivalent? I dont watch them that much
Salah and Auba may be comparable positionally but they use the ball very differently in those positions. Salah is still a winger at heart, a bit more like Messi or Hazard, he likes to get involved in the build up, to carry the ball and find others. He works the channels so he can get on the ball and link up more centrally. Auba works the channels mostly to try to get in behind himself or free up space for others behind him. Salah and forwards like him elevate the play of the other forwards around him because he commands so much attention whether he is in possession of the ball or not, and once he is in possession, he can create goals equally adeptly with a shot or a pass.
Part of the reason Arsenal are struggling offensively is because Aubameyang doesn’t do those things that Salah does. He doesn’t get on the ball to knit passing moves together, he is not a great dribbler or passer, nor does he win physical duels in the box like contested headers. He does have the superior instincts and physical tools when in the box compared to Salah and will take a scoring chance more calmly and smoothly than the Egyptian. As long as he is scoring goals, he is doing enough. When he misses chances, Arsenal really struggle. When Salah misses his shots, he is still bringing others into the play. That’s the missing dimension in Arsenal’s attack.
The point is that Salah isn’t a wide player. He’s their forward and as I said in my other response the main difference between Salah and Auba is that Auba is a poor dribbler and mediocre passer. Even in open space his ability on the ball is poor. Both players pass in order to create space for themselves, both look to run in behind defenders. But yes, Salah “brings others in” because he can dribble and pass but it’s not his job to be a wide man (cross, defend, etc). His job is to score goals, just like Auba. Salah is just technically superior.
Yep!
Salah is better dribbler than Auba, he’s actually a better all around player. But he’s their forward.
Every single attack went down that right side. He was the lone CF but would start wide right and either Milner or Alexander-Arnold would play a through ball to a cutting Salah. Every. Single. Time. How were Wolves not ready for this?
Mourinho’s secretly self-loathing daddy complex has superseded his actual managerial abilities (which were once upon a time considerable). The son of a goalkeeper who was never good enough to play himself, who was only hired as an interpreter despite going to school to get a degree in sport science, always harboring what must have been a jealous hate for those who had it easier than him, for those who were loved simply for who they were.
He was able to put spectacular seasons together with multiple clubs, yet sabotaged himself at each one by alienating key players, supporters or both. He saw at every club the need to declare himself as the crucial element to success and thus set up effective popularity contests between himself and the players. He made the fans choose between him and Casillas, then him and Hazard, and now him and Pogba. He’s a tortured little man, I almost feel sorry for him except he’s won more trophies than most other top flight managers combined and he is filthy rich.
After his Man U disaster I’m convinced the only big league Mou would thrive in today is Serie A. Even then he wouldn’t have it easy as he’d never get the Juve or Napoli jobs and all the other big teams are way off the pace.
His stock has taken a such a knock that he is a top 4 manager now and the top teams would never touch him.
I think there’s such a dearth of talent at top clubs he will find a job eventually. I don’t know how he’ll adapt to being an underdog though. I think he’s a good tactician and good at game management, but he’s too risk averse . Plus his man management starts to wear the team down in year 3.
I heard Florentino Perez, Réal Madrid president like him a lot. So JM can return in Madrid… To be fired again like he was at Chelsea. The special one? What a better way to be special. The only manager to be fired twice by the same club in 2 different leagues!
Ozil back. Great. I’ve wanted that. Rotation also welcome. Nice to see Saka on the bench; exciting young talent.
Midfield of Xhaka, Elneny and Guendouzi. Front of Laca, Auba and Mesut.
Question for me is who’s doing the tackling? Not Elneny. Not Mesut. Not Xhaka. More halftime changes from Emery? I fear he got this lineup not defensive-minded enough. And fgs, Unai, give Auba a break.
This was the game.
4-4-2 with midfield diamond!
Bloody hell Burnley!! Are you Stoke in disguise?
I think we’ve lost yet another defender (Monreal) and with the busy Xmas schedule we’ll be lucky to be able to field eleven players if teams like this are allowed to foul, stamp & kick our men with impunity.
Our attack against these packed defenses is a different class with Ozil in it. That was a positive response from him to whatever has been going on behind the scenes and I hope to see more performances like that from him. Brighton will be a similar challenge and we can use his craft and technique in the final third, where he was a 100% passer today. Aubameyang did what Aubameyang does best but without Ozil on the pitch that first half chance probably never comes his way.
We were able to win 3-1 today without starting Torreira and with another makeshift back line. El-Neny did all right generally but had two ugly moments where he was dispossessed in his own half and a better team would’ve made us pay for that. Sokratis is becoming vital to us back there, seemingly the only defender we have who seems to relish the physical battles, he was also in the right place at the right time in crucial moments today. The goal was more unfortunate than anything, Torreira’s clearance ricocheting kindly to Barnes’ feet 6 yards from goal.
In fairness to Elneny, his helping Ozil out (Ozil had just lost possession in a dangerous area for us) was the beginning of the move for Aubameyang’s second goal. I don’t think he moved the needle regarding Emery’s view of him, but he certainly made himself useful today.
El-Neny is what the baseball guys call a replacement level talent. I like him as a man, he seems to be a good teammate and tries hard for the cause, but not the level required for a club like Arsenal.
Hate them or love them but Arsenal aren’t making top four without Ozil and Ramsey’s creativity.
Sokratis is a first Arsenal defender since Keown , who’s got that bit of extra bastard in him and actually relishes physical contact. Every team needs one.
Mustafi doesn’t mind flying into challenges but that’s not quite the same.
Next level is VVD but he’s a freak of nature and cost a GDP of a small country.
Looks like pressure has finally got to the “ginger mourinho” , accusing Arsenal players of diving . Ha ha.
Championship awaits.
The irony of it is one of his players put Sokratis in a half-nelson but he chooses to complain about going down too easily. Which, by the way, his own players were doing too. The whole “won’t somebody think of the children” thing with diving was the worst display of false piety I’ve seen in a long time.
Ozil’s pass to iwobi wasn’t a shot on goal, it was intended for iwobi and I still don’t get why people keep calling it a “deflected shot” ..
Not a deflected shot, but a deflected pass. This is maestro Ozil. Even after the game, it’s a difficult task to read his movements. Two days ago, everyone was talking about Mezut Ozil leaving. What about now. Ho, don’t mind. I like the style of management of Mr Emery.
Regarding your remark – “This has to be the funniest case of the pot and kettle ever,” referencing Mourinho’s jibes at Klopp, because you used the word ‘funniest’ it may be technically correct. But the most egregious ‘pot and kettle’ case is playing itself out – in real time, all the time – in America right now, co-starring the oxymoron of the last three millenia the ‘christian right’ (aka the true believin’ patriots), together with the rump Republicans who can’t resist blaming Dems for shutting down the government when they’ve had complete control the last two years…. sorry to bring up the politics.
I typed something real quick in response to Doc’s “false piety” bit but it got lost in ether I suppose, but it since you mentioned the Christian Right and Republicans, it goes without saying they are undisputed world champions of false piety and pot/ kettle phenomenon.
None more evident than in case of the national debt debate.
“ mustn’t burden our children with paying off our excessive borrowing”
Unless of course we need to borrow 1.5 trillion to pay for the tax cuts for the rich, then screw the children.
As for Mourinho’s “sad” end in the PL my only regret is that it wasn’t Arsenal who finished him off and they should’ve.
The biggest examples of “false piety” are the people who rail against “PC Culture”