Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

Mount wasn't an EtH signing at all.

According to the Athletic, EtH originally wanted FDJ with Rice as the alternative (and that summer Rice was interested), but the club went for Casemiro. The following year EtH wanted Rice again but we were too late to the table and Rice went elsewhere, so the club signed Mount.

It also claims EtH wanted Gakpo (to solve our striker shortage) and Antony (to solve our RW shortage after Sancho said he wanted to play LW), but the club said he could only have one - this is of course after the club failed to sign both Martinez and Antony for £100M. We ended up over spending on Antony at the end of the window and loaning Weghorst in Jan. EtH then wanted Kane but got Hojlund.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5549017/2024/06/14/erik-ten-hag-player-tensions-principles-play/

It's interesting until recently most laid the blame of our signings at EtH door, but the reality appears to be quiet different.

He wanted Timber too over Martinez.
 
De Ligt's struggles at Bayern and Juventus have been well-documented, despite his impressive six months at Ajax.

He played 2 full seasons at Ajax and certainly didnt struggle at Juventus, if he did why were FC Bayern happy to fork out €77m for him.

The FC Bayern fans have created a patition calling for him to not be sold and calling him one of the best CB's in the world so it doesnt sound like he has struggled very much their either.
 
De Ligt's struggles at Bayern and Juventus have been well-documented, despite his impressive six months at Ajax.
You should produce said documents because to be honest you are just making it up. Especially if you think he only played well at Ajax for 6 months.
 
Anybody genuinely excited about the new season knowing ETH is the manager?

I will always be excited when a new season starts because it’s a new season and you never know how things will go. However I will have a much lower threshold for that excitement disappearing and feeling hopeless than I did last season:lol:

To be clear it’s nothing to do with me believing ETH is going to do a good job, it’s just the nature of a new season coming around.
 
According to Stretford paddock, Fletcher told them that ETH is obsessed with mason mount and he was pushing to sign him up

There's been a tonne of PR work done by ETHs agent after the announcement he was staying, basically blaming every single thing on others. These same papers like the Athletic have published stories previously talking about how involved he was and how he was pushing for x and y player. But that was when the narrative was positive and the fans were ******* themselves silly over these players. Now they're looking like flops, the narrative changes.
 
At this point I don’t know either. I thought the new contract’s main purpose would be to be a vote of confidence in manager, basically show him that we trust him and will back him despite turbulent months behind us.

This extension, not even being a real extension, does not do that at all. I don’t see any purpose.

I'm guessing it was at the request of ETH with him staying. He's not going into the last year of his contract without that protection that there's at least a pay out at the end.
 
There's been a tonne of PR work done by ETHs agent after the announcement he was staying, basically blaming every single thing on others. These same papers like the Athletic have published stories previously talking about how involved he was and how he was pushing for x and y player. But that was when the narrative was positive and the fans were ******* themselves silly over these players. Now they're looking like flops, the narrative changes.

The Athletic loves doing that. I was the first to turn against Murtough. It was evident to me early on that he was a prop set by Woodward to shut the fan's gob for good. In 2022 Athletic came out with an article praising the guy as if he was the second coming of the Christ. In 2023 when the winds had turned and Murtough was doomed, they came with an article that was nothing more then a hit piece. Now any guy can testify of how much I hated the guy (not as a person but as a DOF). But that article literally buried him. There's a reason why the Athletic are so reliable. Its evident who feeds them.
 
It would be more interesting to see what the media opinion was when Bayern payed huge money from Juve. Because I don't really remember, apart from thinking the fee at the time seemed a little steep.
 
He wanted Timber too over Martinez.

It's a separate discussion but honestly I think the theory on that was more sound than the Martinez signing. We had a few different CBs who wanted to fall back and sweep (Martinez, Varane, Lindelof, Maguire) and no one who wanted to be the ball carrier / aggressive type at RCB. Timber would've provided that.

We signed Martinez and that ended up being the right decision but that also meant we didn't have an actual aggressive RCB for two years now. We're finally fixing that with De Ligt.
 
"Bayern Munich defender has only gone backwards since leaving Ajax"

https://www.goal.com/en/lists/erik-...g-ajax/blt80793dba77e38ff2#cs444c6901433a3e77
Goal.com :lol:

Mate, at this point you might as well start referencing ITKs.

Clearly he didn't go to the next level as many expected, but he didn't regress either. The Bayern fans started a petition to keep him. They already have 50k signatures.

As for the "he had 6 good months at Ajax: you might want to revisit that. He was part of that Ajax team that reached the EL final that eventually lost to us. He's been featuring for Ajax since he was 17. That CL run is what attracted interest from the top clubs. Not bad for 6 months.
 
However, Valentijn Driessen has expressed concerns

Its quoting the same source, so still one random journo

And a fecking horrible one at that. Take the most sour caf member, put that person behind a microphone and you get Valentijn Driessen.
 
Anybody genuinely excited about the new season knowing ETH is the manager?

Bar the Moyes season I've gone into every season post SAF pretty hopeful we could improve on the last one. Finding it hard to get excited at all this summer, hopefully we do well next season but I'd say my expectations are at an all time low.
 
Bar the Moyes season I've gone into every season post SAF pretty hopeful we could improve on the last one. Finding it hard to get excited at all this summer, hopefully we do well next season but I'd say my expectations are at an all time low.
Rightly or wrongly I always have hope. My hope this time is that ETH has been told his job depends on us controlling teams better.

But hard to get too excited without a CB and CM
 
Rightly or wrongly I always have hope. My hope this time is that ETH has been told his job depends on us controlling teams better.

But hard to get too excited without a CB and CM

Going off how things have panned out and how Ineos have handled the Ten Hag situation. I'm not too hopeful he'll be changing much next season or that he's even been told to change.
 
Rightly or wrongly I always have hope. My hope this time is that ETH has been told his job depends on us controlling teams better.

But hard to get too excited without a CB and CM

I'm quietly confident for this season.

I just think as supporters we are often in fantasy football land. Not least with the "sell him to Saudi" or "Saudi will give us £150m" and etc.

Although football has been frustrating at times I do think we forget nuances. So maybe Amads limited time was good management of slowly introducing him after injury.

Maybe Amrabat is decent but needed the first season to get used to the EPL. Vidic and Evra anyone?

Player contracts and playing time is an issue often ignored.

Obviously the injuries, players being noobs etc

I think the structure will help ETH so it won't be him v Sancho or Ronaldo etc

I honestly think this upcoming season will be a fresh start. I'm thinking even Antony will be a different player, and no that fee can't be excused.

Come on the reds



Could be wrong like