Why are Manchester United measuring themselves in names like Ronaldo and Casemiro?

Manchester United pair Ronaldo and Casemiro Credit: Alamy

Manchester United pundits are giddy about attracting Ronaldo and Casemiro but where does that leave them? Send your mails to [email protected]. Why do Manchester United pundits pretend success is measured in names?
“Partey is a really good player, he’s been really good.

He’s not the right player to play holding midfielder for Man Utd…We’re talking about a player many rungs up, many rungs. It’s like saying before we had Fred and McTominay in the CDM position would you not have taken Partey? Well yes I would have but what does that prove?…All I’m saying is we’re talking about Casemiro against Partey and it’s not a competition.”

Sorry, Rio, but that wasn’t the question. The question was who was having the better season. There are many qualifications to this specific question and, honestly, we all know (from Mediawatch) the only point of asking this question in the first place is to force someone to make a seemingly controversial take on the surface when really it’s not that controversial given the specific circumstances of how Casemiro’s season has unfolded thus far.

Partey has been better – period. The question Rio answered – one which I would like to reiterate he wasn’t asked – was “who is the definitively more accomplished and, also, historically better player?” Thanks, Rio, for letting us know that Casemiro would win that debate. Stewie spoke of “shifting goalposts” (an insane accusation to lob at the Gooners with regards to this season) and this is exactly what Rio does here.

Why does he do this though? And why are former United player pundits always trying to talk up the status of their club in totally non-relevant contexts – who/what type of player they can attract because of this now overrated status as a club – given everything that’s going on right now. It’s especially funny because United is out laying an exorbitant fee for a 30-year-old player that can’t be built around while Arsenal is busy going younger and cheaper.

They paid 100 million for Antony while we paid 6 million for Martinelli. Paid 80 million for Maguire. We paid 27 million for Saliba.

But yeah let’s keeping talking about trophies Casemiro won elsewhere in some convoluted effort to prop up your club’s transfer business. I thought this was the exact kind of transfer true United supporters were looking to avoid anyway? Story continues

How is commentary like this supposed to actually help you guys? Because I have to say you sound a lot like us about 10 years ago.
MAW, LA Gooner Ronaldo is a man baby
Professor Yeboah and others in the mailbox as well as the press have discussed Ronaldo’s situation at United with an overarching conclusion of ‘just let him go’ and I just wanted to point out that it’s really not that simple.

From reading trusted journalists close to the club we know Ronaldo’s position is that he must start and play 90 minutes of every match which he is available, if this is not the case then he wants to leave the club. Not that terrible I suppose but then we also know that to leave the club he wants the remainder of his contract paid up in full, if this does not happen as we’ve seen he’ll be disruptive. That’s an astounding position to hold when you think about it, ‘I quit!

But you have to pay me my next year’s wages before I leave and if you don’t I’ll spend the next year making photocopies of my arse cheeks’. United did authorise Mendes to find Ronaldo a new club in the summer however they wanted a nominal fee for the transfer so they would have funds for a replacement striker. There were no takers and it was even mooted by some that even on a free transfer these clubs could not afford the player due to his wage demands.

In the intervening months the situation has worsened. With it clear United aren’t able to get a fee for his transfer and with the club’s striking options already limited the ‘just let him go’ approach would leave the team severely lacking in attacking options and about GBP12m worse off after paying up his contract. Even with his hissy fits and disruptive attitude we’d be better off with a petulant formerly great striker than no striker at all.

So to be clear Ronaldo could have left in the summer if he had lowered his wage demands to get the move and he could probably leave in January if he agrees to forgo money he hasn’t earnt and cancel his contract by mutual consent. I don’ think this is likely, in fact I’m pretty sure the big sulky man-baby will still be stinking up the United bench come February and then slope off at season’s end with his reputation in tatters. Whenever he goes it will be a relief.
Dave, Manchester

…it’s so boring hearing the Ronaldo mafia speculating on what ETH did or didn’t promise Ronaldo this season. Surely its quite obvious, I’d have thought he’s said ‘its a long season, we will need you and I’ll manage your time and ensure you’re not burned out for the World Cup. However, you will still need to earn your place.”

Reasonable? Fair? Something everyone can agree with.

Even Ronaldo can’t argue with that. Has Ronaldo earned his place?

90% would say probably not. But its the 10% of Ronaldo fanboys that think he deserves his spot based on the last 15yrs NOT what everyone else has seen this season.

And on top of not actually playing very well, his behaviour prevents him from being a starter. In his SLIGHT defence, his form has probably dipped because of no pre-season, but whose fault is that??
Barry Barnacle Emery > Pochettino
Quick point: The headline from today’s article, ‘Unai Emery: He’s not Pochettino but Aston Villa have still failed upwards‘ is spot on.

But to quote today’s Mediawatch, Emery is “indeed not Pochettino, just not for the reason they (F365) thinks”. Unai Emery is objectively a more successful manager than Pochettino, and if I were in charge of almost any club, I would pick Emery over Pochettino every single time.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland Villa treble?
Congtratulations to Unai Emery on succeeding in his personal crusade to manage the three major ‘Villas’ in world football.

(Ideally, Andres Villas-Boas would have done it but you can’t have everything).
Conor, Surrey Pushing back on Emery
Going to push back a little on the Emery love from Will in the mail there – that is not a complete view of his time at Arsenal, nor I believe a reflection of who he is. Arsenal under Emery substantially underperformed as a team, whilst outperforming certain key metrics (Auba in particular was going through a huge purple patch) and were never coherent in his reign.

Some of the most frustrating football came in his tenure and even when we were winning, most fans couldn’t really point to what was working well, other than star players occasionally showing up. The meltdowns we frequently experienced were utterly miserable. That closeness to Champions League wasn’t a reflection of fine coaching, it was a failure of Arsenal to exploit a period when you could argue it last had world class players and a ‘tactician’ who was out of his depth when it came to motivating and creating a balanced team.

Now, there are some real defenses/rationale for that which isn’t on his shoulders – Arsenal were an utter basket-case behind the scenes, with power struggles between players and at the board level, an apathetic owner and no coherent vision for the club. For Emery, this was a horrible situation. He is a pure head coach, with little to no squad involvement/player acquisition input.

He works best making the most out of limited resources, with a Director of Football who a) he trusts and b) is themselves exceptional at identifying talent which fits Emery’s system. He was out of his depth, isolated and increasingly targeted at Arsenal for things that weren’t his fault, which is the point to which most Arsenal fans are much more sympathetic to him now than they were at the time. So for Villa, what will he be?

Well, he’s great at cups (mostly) but pretty mediocre in the league. He coaches up players well (in particular young players) and creates punchy teams that are fun to watch. I’m confident players like Buendia and Watkins would thrive under him.

But they’re not super resilient, struggle when not playing as the underdog and he himself is not a great communicator outside of Spain (unless he’s improved since). So the real question for Villa fans, do you trust the rest of the system around him? If so, yeh, he might be the best option out there.

But if you have doubts about the club recruiting/working with him at all, it’s unlikely you’ll feel much better in a few months time. Is he a step up from Gerard? Sure.

But not close to an equal of Tuchel or Pochettino IMO. And given we’re in something of a golden era for exciting Championship managers, as well as exciting younger managers in Portugal, Germany and France, maybe a bit unimaginative?
Tom (really, watching Emery’s Arsenal is probably the nadir of my 25 year Arsenal watching life; Arteta was a clear improvement pretty much from Day 1) Walthamstow Upgrade your laughs
‘No record exists of how many points Spurs had at the time, nor how many games they had played.

It remains a mystery.’ This gave me an actual belly laugh.
Robert, Birmingham The Conte conundrum
The phrase both things can be right should be applied to Spurs; Conte is a world class manager but we can demand more of him – in fact it’s the supporters inalienable right to question a man on GBP15m who persists on playing a style of football not suited to his players, or one who doesn’t use a young, quick, aggressive RWB because of Emerson – nice bloke as he might well be – who is not remotely good enough.

The romantic side of me would love Pochettino back but I fear the real problem is a lack of Walker, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Dembele, Eriksen and Rose – none of these players have been improved upon since their departures. In Walker’s case the slapstick approach to replacing him is depressing. The club has, in PEH, Davies, Dier, Sessegnon, Emerson, Doherty, Sanchez, Richarlison, Lenglet and Perisic a group of fair to middling players – Richarlison and Perisic are possibly better but for differing reasons will never be the answer to improving the specific positions they are playing in – and so, Conte is right, recruitment must improve.

Bastoni has been mentioned god knows how often, but how often does a prime aged Italian leave Italy for England? Rarely. Barella the same.

It feels like our approach is to target players without having suitable, and more gettable players, and throwing money at shiny toys has been disastrous; Lo Celso, Sissoko, Ndombele and Sanchez are four of our six most expensive signings, each one has been an unmitigated failure. Scouting the right player is a tricky task but neither Poch, Mourinho, Conte or Big Sam would get a tune out of those four mentioned. Or – and this is probably more likely – Spurs are just Spurs, thirty years of being on the cusp of success – or relegation, and will be forever more.

Still struggling to accept we cocked it so badly by not turning a generational team into a title winning one.
Dan Mallerman

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