The future under Van Gaal - lay your chips

ghagua said:
With the spending over the last 18 months and whatever is going to be spent this summer, the league title is a must next year. Don't really mind if we sell some of the expensive signings we have made already, but LvG should get the players he feels will fit his system. Don't want any more excuses next year when our spending most probably will reach around 250+ millions.
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League title is a must? It will be very difficult to take the title from a very excellent Chelsea team which will no doubt strengthen this summer but we will be closer to them.

The title isn't some kind of privilege Manchester United have, the truth is our squad this season was too far behind our rivals. We aren't entitled to anything.
 
Done what was required in his first year. A fairly solid start results wise and vastly improved vs the other top teams compared to last year. Hopefully a few big signings will be made in the summer to go with Depay, after which I hope we'll challenge for the league, or at least finish 3rd, and reach at least the QFs in CL.
 
BennyBlanco said:
Fergie isnt here anymore, *mate.*
I like to live in reality where teams like Arsenal havent won the league in 10+ years, Chelsea before this season 1x in 7 years etc despite their spend.
Unless you have a plan to get Sir Alex back in charge, and have a contingency plan for reanimating his corpse after that then yea..
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Don't care if Fergie isn't here. The standards must not drop to those levels, this isn't Arsenal FC.
 
SonnyTheHaloPro said:
Don't care if Fergie isn't here. The standards must not drop to those levels, this isn't Arsenal FC.
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It took even sir alex 3 years to rebuild the side after the 03 season and our next title win in 07, finishing 3rd a couple times and miles off the pace, in a much less competitive Premier League.
We no longer have Sir Alex anymore, some may be in for a rude awakening to the harsh reality that Sir Alex.. was this club, without him we wont ever reach the heights we've enjoyed for the past 20 odd years.

Yes, we'll spend money this summer, but so will City, who could easily go out and spend big this year on the likes of Pogba and co., Mourinho will finish around the 80+ point mark next year as always, and Arsenal have the nucleus of a good side emerging, with a couple smart signings, (Schneiderlin, Cech) they could easily raise their level a notch or two as well.
In those circumstances, us putting in a title challenge for the majority of the season and finishing up 3rd wouldn't be a disgrace, we have no justified right to win leagues just because our name is Man Utd.
 
Earned himself some more time, just about.

If he's still not got "the right balance in the selection, which I have already said that" after this summer then he's got himself to blame entirely.

I think he shall have that balance though.
 
I've voted for success due to a number of reasons - the ridiculous injury crisis he nursed us through, the rebuilding of the squad's morale, the integration of new players (including ones from last year that had not been integrated properly), the vastly improved form against top sides, the return to solid home form, the return of vital late goals, the sense of purpose and planning he exudes...

The end of the season has fallen apart, but it doesn't take away from the progress we've made in my view.
 
BennyBlanco said:
It took even sir alex 3 years to rebuild the side after the 03 season and our next title win in 07, finishing 3rd a couple times and miles off the pace, in a much less competitive Premier League.
We no longer have Sir Alex anymore, some may be in for a rude awakening to the harsh reality that Sir Alex.. was this club, without him we wont ever reach the heights we've enjoyed for the past 20 odd years.

Yes, we'll spend money this summer, but so will City, who could easily go out and spend big this year on the likes of Pogba and co., Mourinho will finish around the 80+ point mark next year as always, and Arsenal have the nucleus of a good side emerging, with a couple smart signings, (Schneiderlin, Cech) they could easily raise their level a notch or two as well.
In those circumstances, us putting in a title challenge for the majority of the season and finishing up 3rd wouldn't be a disgrace, we have no justified right to win leagues just because our name is Man Utd.
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Our wage bill is the highest in the league and after this summer I presume our overall spending will be too. Anything other than the league is unacceptable.

And Ferguson still won trophies during that rebuild, something this side doesn't look close to doing.
 
I expect a title challenge next season. Anyone saying "if we spend another £100million+ we should be winning the league for sure" clearly doesn't appreciate where we are right now.

A title challenge (hopefully winning it), a run in the FA Cup (if not winning it) and making at least the quarters in the CL. That'll be a good second season.
 
We're not far off a title challenge by the looks of it. Depends on what the opposition does over the summer, of course, but I've found said opposition pretty underwhelming this season.

Get someone in who can do roughly what Carrick did for us during the good run – and that's pretty close right there.

Get a right back in – and an additional CB, perhaps – and it's almost overkill.

Seriously, though, I think we'll be tough to deal with next season and if the opposition doesn't strengthen to an extent which is – almost – unrealistic, then well. We should have a decent shot at the title. I can see a two-horse race with us and Maureen's gang.

CL is partly a lottery, so I'm not too fussed about that. It's important to win the league again – build a new empire from there.
 
Minimalist said:
I expect a title challenge next season. Anyone saying "if we spend another £100million+ we should be winning the league for sure" clearly doesn't appreciate where we are right now.

A title challenge (hopefully winning it), a run in the FA Cup (if not winning it) and making at least the quarters in the CL. That'll be a good second season.
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Sums it up for me.
 
We need to buy 3 world class players.

If we do, we will challenge for titles.

If we don't, we won't.

Our manager is good enough. We need top players.
 
We need luck with fitness/injuries as well. Consistency with personnel is one of our biggest problems imo.
 
Minimalist said:
I expect a title challenge next season. Anyone saying "if we spend another £100million+ we should be winning the league for sure" clearly doesn't appreciate where we are right now.

A title challenge (hopefully winning it), a run in the FA Cup (if not winning it) and making at least the quarters in the CL. That'll be a good second season.
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Plus we have Chelsea who will be very strong again next season, City who most likely will improve and Arsenal who might continue where they end now.
 
SonnyTheHaloPro said:
Our wage bill is the highest in the league and after this summer I presume our overall spending will be too. Anything other than the league is unacceptable.

And Ferguson still won trophies during that rebuild, something this side doesn't look close to doing.
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The wage bill is the highest because they had to attract some of the players in without CL football. It isn't LvG's fault that we have been stupid in giving inflated contracts to some players. A lot of that happened before he came.
 
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SAF spent most of his career in a football world far less competitive than this one. During most of his career we were the top guns with Arsenal winning the title whenever we failed to address a weak position or a key player got injured. In time competition increased Chelsea burst into scene and now we've got City. However so did his experience in doing well in the EPL. That's a luxury LVG didn't had. He's got to settle down quickly in possibly the most competitive league he ever played in.

Also SAF was gifted by the possibly the best youth generation we've had in the past 30 years. Giggs, Scholes and Beckham were simply magnificent. LVG found an unbalanced and clearly inadequate squad. SAF failed to build his last great side and left the team with a bunch of players who were nowhere near to those who they were meant to replace (Smalling instead of Rio, Buttner instead of Evra, Jones/Evans instead of Vidic, Cleverley instead of Scholes, Young instead of Giggs.....anyway you get the drift). Moyes shot confidence down and added players who will find it pretty difficult to settle down in a modern type of team (Fellaini is more appropriate to a direct style of football, Mata can only play magnificently as no 10, hence why Mourinho sold him).

I am not protecting LVG at all. For example some of his decisions (Rooney in CM, Valencia as RB, Jones taking corners) border to the ridiculous. However lets take all into concept can we?
 
unchanged_lineup said:
I've voted for success due to a number of reasons - the ridiculous injury crisis he nursed us through, the rebuilding of the squad's morale, the integration of new players (including ones from last year that had not been integrated properly), the vastly improved form against top sides, the return to solid home form, the return of vital late goals, the sense of purpose and planning he exudes...

The end of the season has fallen apart, but it doesn't take away from the progress we've made in my view.
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Very well put. I agree.
 
For next season if we spend big, i think our aims should be top 2 with a strong push for the league title and hopefully win a domestic cup or at least have a good run to the semi/final.

In europe Quarter Finals should be the minimum with anything else a bonus.

That would be progress on this season and most should be satisfied if thats how we do.

Of course there's always those who think we should win the league automatically just because we spend some money.
 
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