We're ManchesteROFL United, we do what we want

[Avon Royal]

Shame about who beat them.

Not at all - perfect result. United fanboys rattled and football luddites pissed off. Perfect.

But you seem happy Avon.

You phoned that one in really didn't you?

I'll admit to being very happy.

[paultheroyal]

Hmm, don't want to get all Retro-Royal on you but United have consistently had the highest attendances in England for the bulk of the past part 60 years and they have achieved a phenomenal amount of success whilst not spending mega bucks relative to their rivals.

They have spent oxf*rd millions!!!

[Avon Royal]

Shhhhh! Let him grieve in peace.

[USA_Loyal_Royal]

Hmm, don't want to get all Retro-Royal on you but United have consistently had the highest attendances in England for the bulk of the past part 60 years and they have achieved a phenomenal amount of success whilst not spending mega bucks relative to their rivals.

id imagine a majority of those fans, so used to success and all will not appreciate these poor results and stop attending if they continue. all the united fans i know, except for 1 person are pretty plastic.

How many do you know, given that you live in the USA?

any football fan i meet they generally like chelsea, madrid, barcelona, united, or arsenal (most are united fans).

[paultheroyal]

Hmm, don't want to get all Retro-Royal on you but United have consistently had the highest attendances in England for the bulk of the past part 60 years and they have achieved a phenomenal amount of success whilst not spending mega bucks relative to their rivals.

They have spent oxf*rd millions!!!

14/15 - £150 million
13/14 - £67 million
12/13 - £63 million
11/12 - £53 million

Chicken feed!!!!!!!!!

[Winston Smith]

They have been breaking transfer records for decades. Up until Abramovich came along they were the big spenders of english football.

[USA_Loyal_Royal]

Hmm, don't want to get all Retro-Royal on you but United have consistently had the highest attendances in England for the bulk of the past part 60 years and they have achieved a phenomenal amount of success whilst not spending mega bucks relative to their rivals.

They have spent oxf*rd millions!!!

14/15 - £150 million
13/14 - £67 million
12/13 - £63 million
11/12 - £53 million

Chicken feed!!!!!!!!!

there will probably be more spent this summer to fill the defense and midfield problems that have been evident all summer but have been neglected. i hope they finish outside of the top 10 this year, that would be brilliant!

[paultheroyal]

They have not spent mega bucks though

[From Despair To Where?]

They have not spent mega bucks though

Nice that you took what i said out of context and didn't read it properly. I'm talking "relative" to their rivals. Compare what they spent to Newcastle in the 90's, Chelsea in the 00's, Man City in the last 5 years and Liverpool over the past 20 years. Neither have they stockpiled multi million pound players like City or Chelsea over the past 10 years and they have done this by trading profitably and not relyng on a sugar daddy to pay the bills. Yes there was a spell around the millenium where they spent big on players but other than that, less than others. Even Spurs outspent them last year, nett and gross.


You won't find too many pro United posts from me, this may even be the first time in 10 years I've defended them. I think it's hilarious that they are shit at the moment, far too many years of their fans arrogantly taking the piss out of mr supporting Reading from the comfort of their armchairs. Their demise from champions to clueless also rans in the space of one season was one of the best things about last season. I know Liverpool have gone 25 years without a title but at least they managed to hang around as contenders for a few seasons instead of just falling off the cliff.

Having Ferguson as manager was always a bigger factor than having money and I'm convinced, as I've said previously, that he retired when he did because he knew the rebuilding job was too big and he didn't want to sully his reputation. The big names have got old together and the academy has stopped producing good enough plagers.

[Winston Smith]

They broke transfer record after transfer record before Abramovich turned up and started taking things to a new level. Even then they did their best to try and keep up with him.

they had the wonderful youth system in the 90's but dont pretend that team wasnt also littered with some of the most expensive players ever at the time

[From Despair To Where?]

Up until De Maria, they've broken the British transfer record 4 times since 1980, Bryan Robson in 1981, Andy Cole in 95 (extended by Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle, who doubled the record fee, in the space of 18 months), Veron in 2001 and Ferdinand in 2002, so fair enough, i concede that for 1 year, they were spending at a level higher than everyone else.

[Royal Rother]

I think it's rather disingenuous to suggest that Ferguson got out because he knew they were on the brink of a collapse.

He'd won the title, but recognised this team was just about "done" and that it would be yet another (he'd already done it 3 times) big job to rebuild the team and that he was too old to undertake that job again, especially when in need of a fairly major operation.

He'd done his bit.

I think that's a far fairer way of assessing his retirement.

[Winston Smith]

Wasnt Roy Keane also a British transfer record?

so unless they set the transfer record they weren't spending 'mega bucks'? Top re writing of history fdtw

[Big Foot]

Just how poorly rated is Zaha by those at United? He didn't even make it off the bench last night

[PieEater]

Steve Clariddge spot with an actual opinion for once:

Steve Claridge on Radio 5 live: "It's gallows humour from the United fans - they've been brilliant. But what they've watched beggars belief and borders on the disgraceful. I don't think we'll see too many of these players in a United shirt again if this is anything to go by.

"Louis van Gaal contributed by playing people out of position and a system that didn't suit them. They didn't know what they were doing, didn't know what they're playing."

To me that was total arrogance picking a shit team in a strange system and expecting them to win because they're a big club.

[Big Foot]

^ Agreed

His system is shit, I don't know how Holland spanked 5 past the reigning world champs and reached the Semis playing that system?

My m8s told me it's due to the Dutch having 2 years, 30 odd games to perfect it and it suiting their players....but I've seen more penetration in a channel 5 friday night adult movie than in any of United's 3 games this season - regardless of the quality/experience of the player on show.

[Whatevs]

He does tend to go with a 4-3-3. He did at Bayern, Barca & Ajax. Think Holland picked up a number of injuries so he went with 3-5-2. Don't think i saw United play a through ball all last season, just got down the sides and lump it in

[TBM]

"We played a match and we had 9 injuries"

So Van Gaal is blaming the fact Utd had 9 injuries going into this match against a League One side...........We [Reading] have 10+ first team players injured and we still managed to beat a League One team at their ground. Poor excuse if you ask me

[From Despair To Where?]

Wasnt Roy Keane also a British transfer record?

so unless they set the transfer record they weren't spending 'mega bucks'? Top re writing of history fdtw

I missed Keane as list I saw included Gazza's move to Lazio.

No re-writing history, it was you who introduced the idea of consistently breaking the transfer record being an indicator of big spending, and anyway, the evidence doesn't back that up barring a 12 month period 13 years ago.

I have consistantly made the point that relative to their rivals, with the exception of a couple of years around the turn of the millenium, their spending has not been head and shoulders above other teams. I haven't once denied that they have spent big, just that generally they haven't spent big in comparison to their rivals.

I accept they spent big in 98-99 compared to everyone else and won the treble, but compare their spend 1995-99 to Newcastle's, or compare their spending 1992-95 with Blackburn's.

They spent massively on 3 players in 2002 and 2003 yet the season before, they spent nothing.

RR, I think Ferguson knew he was the glue that was holding that squad together, he had nothing more to prove and at his age, better to give someone else a chance to build their own team from scratch. However, as is the way with modern football, I can't see any manager being given the time he was afforded and I think a shift of expectation is required at the club if they are not to lurch from one disappointment to another. It's taken Liverpool 25 years so far and they're still not there.

[LUX]

"We played a match and we had 9 injuries"

So Van Gaal is blaming the fact Utd had 9 injuries going into this match against a League One side...........We [Reading] have 10+ first team players injured and we still managed to beat a League One team at their ground. Poor excuse if you ask me

genuine headline on BBC Sport: "Van Gaal sees positives in 4-0 defeat". That is taking the piss, and the sub editor deserves 8/10. He'd have got the full ten if he'd added "to MK Dons".