₦airaland Forum

Oasis007:




Who are we gonna blame again now?! LOL!

larride:
The foolish Glazers and those they appointed.

Let’s not forget nitrogen too that always remind us they spend money.

nitrogen:
I am so sure, many of you were also against having us sign Harry Kane. We were all clamouring for younger players vs Mercs like Harry Kane.

Have not we tried Mercenaries previously for that position? E.g. Ibra, Ighalo, Cavani, Lukaku etc. you guys said we should stop spending big on these guys and go for the opposite.

Fans are always interesting sha.

nitrogen:
I am so sure, many of you were also against having us sign Harry Kane. We were all clamouring for younger players vs Mercs like Harry Kane.

Have not we tried Mercenaries previously for that position? E.g. Ibra, Ighalo, Cavani, Lukaku etc. you guys said we should stop spending big on these guys and go for the opposite.

Fans are always interesting sha.

larride:
Wait wait

ighalo, Cavani, Lukaku are mercenaries?

Hojlund is what? Patriot?

afrodoc2:
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odizeey:
Having Hodlund and Zirkzee as striker then you'll try to tell me they are better players than players in Aston Villa or Brighton because they wear the United jersey. 😀😀

That talk of comparing our players with other teams' players and telling the coach to use what he has is dead.

We have the most useless set of players. And I don't know how they managed to get here.

They need to leave this summer if possible.

We slowly replaced okay players with the most useless set of united players I've seen.

TrebleChamp:
Amorim should trust the young Midfielders like Kone, Moorhouse in subsequent games, if he start Casemiro in our next game i will take it that he is indeed a fraud. Bruno sef have earn a place on the bench with is shitty performance dis day...

TrebleChamp:
Amorim should trust the young Midfielders like Kone, Moorhouse in subsequent games, if he start Casemiro in our next game i will take it that he is indeed a fraud. Bruno sef have earn a place on the bench with is shitty performance dis day...

Gambit001:
🚨🚨🎙️| Raphael Varane on key differences in the running of Manchester United compared to Real Madrid:

“At Madrid, you can see that for years there has been a framework. A player is added, some leave, but there is always a solid foundation.

“When you recruit young, talented players, they have to learn before they can play. It gives them time to develop. When I arrived, at the age of 18, I had no responsibilities in the dressing room. I was just there to learn.

“At United, they can recruit a very young player and immediately play him, with all the responsibilities in an extremely difficult league. He’s got a huge weight on his shoulders straight away.”

odizeey:
No be lie be this too.

Our system is a disaster now.

But make our young boys help us small for now.

odizeey:
No be lie be this too.

Our system is a disaster now.

But make our young boys help us small for now.

odizeey:
He better put those boys in the game. They are the only ones to save him now.

At least, he can put like 4 of the good ones to back up the team till the end of the season.

Every disappointment is a blessing. Let the young boys see this as an opportunity for accelerated growth.

"God accelerate my promotion" wey them dey pray, na the answer be this o. Na to pray make Amorim come wise 😀

“It was the opposite,” he says, “with fairly rigid patterns of play defined in advance. There was very little flexibility in terms of adapting on the pitch. The game plans were very, very precise, with lots and lots of information. It was different.”

As an instinctive player, Varane preferred more autonomy, which he had at his previous club and with France. “We could say to each other, ‘You have to do it more like this’, instead of a system that was, let’s say, a bit blocked by the coach’s instructions.”

Varane describes his relationship with Ten Hag as “a bit idiosyncratic”. “It’s hard to find the right words. It was very tense at times. Sometimes he made an effort to listen to the players’ feedback. Sometimes he made decisions without listening to the players’ feelings. So there were ups and downs. It was complicated at times.”

Varane was Ten Hag’s first-choice centre-back in that 2022-23 season but from the October to mid-December of the following campaign he did not start a game, despite being available. He played only 18 minutes in nine league games during that period and did not feature in a Manchester derby which United lost 3-0 to City at Old Trafford. At the time, Ten Hag told the media it was for “tactical reasons”. It was perceived by some at the club that Varane could not cope physically with the manager’s desire to play a high line. United were left with a high press but a low-block defence, which left big gaps in between.

According to Varane, Ten Hag did not offer him an explanation for leaving him out, other than it was for the best of the team. “We had a robust discussion. We told each other some truths, but then I didn’t play for almost two months. I said I didn’t agree with certain ways of doing things regarding the relationship between him and the team. It wasn’t something that I thought was good for the team because some of the players weren’t at all satisfied. It was not good in terms of the relationship with the coach.

“He said ‘OK, I hear what you said’ and after that I didn’t play.”

Varane did not feel Ten Hag was making an example of him but he did with other players and cited Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho as examples. He believes Ten Hag “wanted to gain respect through fear, perhaps”. “He always needed an example of a player who was alone the entire time he was at Manchester. He did that with at least one important player on the team. He was always in conflict with certain leaders of the group. That is his way of managing.

I also have to recognise what was good (about Ten Hag’s management). He gave me the peace of mind to come back from my injury to play in the FA Cup final. He was counting on me. That was very positive, because it allowed me to play my role in the team,” says Varane. “We had ups and downs. I can’t say everything was bad. There were complicated moments.

The players really came together for the same goal with a clear idea of how to play,” he says. “It is not only an individual achievement but a collective one, to make the players believe that it was possible. The players accepted the challenge and managed to forget everything negative that had happened to really be 100 per cent in this match.

I wanted the best for the team. Sometimes I said things to the coach, not for me, but for the team, or because players felt things. The FA Cup (final) was not about proving something to him at all. My motivation was to achieve with the team, to make the fans happy and above all to experience this feeling of entering the pitch as a gladiator who returns victorious. It’s the best feeling.

The manager admitted after the game that he “didn’t know” whether it had been his last match in charge, but following an end-of-season review, led by United’s new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS business empire’s sporting director Sir Dave Brailsford, Ten Hag was kept on. “I was surprised he stayed,” says Varane. “The connection with the group no longer existed.

He wanted to stay for another year but during conversations, which involved United’s then football director John Murtough and Brailsford, it was clear that club and player were not aligned. “I didn’t know who the coach would be. I didn’t know if they wanted to change the squad a lot or not. I had no visibility, so it’s difficult to commit when you don’t know exactly what you’re committing to."

The two parties mutually agreed to end his contract and Varane left as a free agent. “It wasn’t problematic,” he says.

Even from the inside as a player, there wasn’t a clear structure on how things were going to work. There hasn’t been a fixed methodology for years. At Madrid, they have a defined way of doing things at every level of the club. At Manchester (United), it was not clear or defined enough to know how to recruit, how to play, how to communicate. There weren’t the same procedures, processes, structure.

“It’s not one person’s responsibility. That’s the problem — we don’t even know whose fault it is. It has to be in the overall structure of the organisation. There were too many people involved in the decision-making process, so we didn’t know who was really making the decisions. I can’t say who was responsible, I don’t know. It was a bit of everyone and a bit of no one.”

At Madrid, you can see that for years there has been a framework. A player is added, some leave, but there is always a solid foundation. When you recruit young, talented players, they have to learn before they can play. It gives them time to develop. When I arrived, at the age of 18, I had no responsibilities in the dressing room. I was just there to learn. At United, they can recruit a very expensive young player and immediately play him, with all the responsibilities in an extremely difficult league. He’s got a huge weight on his shoulders straight away.”

Varane feels United have “succumbed to the pressure of expectation”. “You have to be able to build a long-term strategy while resisting the daily pressure and matches every three days. That’s what’s difficult. For years, the fans have been expecting to win immediately. Those who take the decisions to achieve these goals want to achieve them straight away.

“You have to be calm in a storm in the knowledge you are building something. Sometimes, when the storm came, we needed to make quick decisions, change something. At Real Madrid, people accept the pressure and know how to live with it.

“When I say that the players are in the best conditions at Madrid, it’s because we’re trying to protect them from that pressure. There’s enough pressure already playing on the pitch, with the fans, media and social media. That’s why there was a bit of a protective atmosphere around the players at Madrid. It’s the club where there’s undoubtedly the most pressure. But whether it’s the coach, or the way the club handles difficult situations, it’s really a protection against that pressure. At Manchester, that wasn’t the case.”

During those years at United, Varane shared the dressing room with his best friend in football, Bruno Fernandes, who along with David de Gea and Marcus Rashford, were the players at the club who impressed him the most. “Even in difficult moments, they are capable of doing extraordinary things. It’s difficult to perform well individually when the team is struggling. You have to be very very strong,” he says.

Speaking about rashford: Staying for so many years with this level of intensity and demand, years when the overall atmosphere is often negative because performances are below expectations, it’s very, very difficult. For him to change his environment is positive. He is someone who loves the club and who gives everything for the shirt. But I’m surprised he’s going (to a club) so close to Manchester. I imagined him going further than a few kilometres away.”

Gambit001:
I feel starting them from the bench would be better. Let Casemiro start the match if he's not doing well sub in the young ones...

Oasis007:


.......yet some fans wanted kids to start against Spurs! United fans ain't ready to learn from loads of past mistakes.

eph12:
I don't know how you're so confident in those youngsters o

odizeey:
They just need to be integrated little by little. We are in between the devil and the deep blue see now.

Oasis007:


....how many una this approach don wreck?! Januzaj?! Greenwood?! Rashford?! Garnacho?! Mainoo?! McTominay?! LOL!

Garnacho and Mainoo were fans' favourite last season, but we want their heads on spikes now, coz we expect them to be consistent week in week out. LOL!

Let the Kids breathe, don't suffocate them.

Oasis007:


....how many una this approach don wreck?! Januzaj?! Greenwood?! Rashford?! Garnacho?! Mainoo?! McTominay?! LOL!

Garnacho and Mainoo were fans' favourite last season, but we want their heads on spikes now, coz we expect them to be consistent week in week out. LOL!

Let the Kids breathe, don't suffocate them.

TheAthletic:
As pointed out by @MU_ST, another £18.8m in debt interest payments for six months to Dec 31 takes total interest costs since Glazers’ leveraged buyout to more than £1bn.

Club remains £1bn in debt: gross, future transfer fees + revolving credit facility. Scandalous.

- Laurie Whitwell

odizeey:
He better put those boys in the game. They are the only ones to save him now.

At least, he can put like 4 of the good ones to back up the team till the end of the season.

Every disappointment is a blessing. Let the young boys see this as an opportunity for accelerated growth.

"God accelerate my promotion" wey them dey pray, na the answer be this o. Na to pray make Amorim come wise 😀

Mrviktor:
i dont even understand why adnan was let go, that boy was special,

his problem started when belgium was after him for the worldcup squad,

if he had picked albania he would have been a better player