Murphy now having surgery. Dan Burn out 2 months. Targett out 3 months. Squad is depleted as fuck right now. Youth teamers are filling the bench tomorrow.
I’ve said it before, but I’m all in on Miley. Kid is fucking good. His positioning is insane for being 17
Positive news on Willock. Sounds like weeks out and not months Apparently Botman is back training individually and they don’t think he needs surgery
Apparently Longstaff passed his fitness test. Also some chatter that Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes also did as well
Yea it’s going to be interesting for sure. I wouldn’t be opposed to finding the next GK but that may be tough in January. Also would like them to add another striker. We can’t rely on Callum to hold up if/when Isak gets hurt.
Group is an utter shit show, we are so injured we can't even maintain our place in the league. We don't need more european games in the spring
We’re in similar boats from all I’ve read of late. I want to advance as this is the first time they’ve been in UCL and I’m hoping by February we can have the squad sorted
Y’all seen or heard anything about your sporting director Dan Ashworth? There’s talk that he is the top target for the same role at MUFC once Ratcliffe takes over.
I haven’t. Candidly, unless he’s from Manchester/the Northwest, not sure what would draw him to that job. As far as I’ve read, he’s given a lot of freedom to operate how he wants. Just doesn’t makes lot of sense to me considering the resources he has behind him at Newcastle
I think he is really close with Dave Brailsford, who is Ratcliffe’s right-hand man and will be heavily involved at United.
I guess that would make some sense. In terms of the job I can’t imagine there’s anything that our owners didn’t provide, but hard to beat relationships.
Yeah I’ve just seen his name floated out there the last few weeks so figured I’d ask if you guys heard anything.
Popped up today in a couple spots. I imagine if he wants to go, there will be quite a tug of war on how it goes down. He was on a lengthy gardening leave when Newcastle was signing him from Brighton, imagine it'd be similar here unless Man U is paying big
Does seem like it’s trending towards Ashworth being the guy. Had honestly forgotten he was at Brighton before taking the Newcastle job. Changes my perspective a little as I would have viewed hiring him to be a bit underwhelming with guys like Paul Mitchell and Michael Edwards currently without clubs. Definitely can’t imagine Newcastle will let him go without significant compensation so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Yea it won't be cheap/easy I imagine. Does anything you read indicate that it's actually real, or is it all just speculative "this is who he wants" headlines? The latter is what this morning seemed to indicate on NUFC side.
I would say it’s still in that latter stage but there have been reports that MUFC will be making an approach for him. However, all of the reporting so far has come from the mid-tier journalists. Don’t remember seeing any of the most reliable sources weigh in on it yet.
Gotcha. Not trying to say it can't happen, just seems to be a lot more speculative than substantive now. It would suck, as he's doing a lot of really great things for the club, especially in the academy level. I just don't really get it, though, from a professional sense unless he doesn't want to work for PIF anymore
I think it will mostly just come down to relationships being hard to beat like you said earlier. Other than that, you don’t get to this level in your career without being highly ambitious and I think being the one to turn Manchester United back around will always appeal to that type of person.
There really hasn’t been much talk on it other than Ashworth is still the top target and they want to bring in Paul Mitchell as well to head recruitment. I would be surprised if anything concrete comes from the United side until Ratcliffe’s stake passes the ownership test. This is from a Newcastle reporter today. Him and Luke Edwards have the same tier 2 reliability rating. Although who knows how accurate those lists are. This could all just be Ashworth angling for a new contract at Newcastle for all anybody knows.
Not that it’s accurate, but fwiw most NUFC fans hate both of them as they both seem to chase headlines/clicks rather than telling it honestly. Lots of stuff has come out on the NUFC recruitment side and it seems like it’s somewhat of a shit show, which leads me to think he may want out based on how that job works.
And no I’m not trying at all to defend or justify Saudi and the awful shit they do. More just speaking on the hypocrisy the media has regarding Newcastle being owned by PIF Also had no idea they now own Nintendo
I disagree and think that ignoring the difference between state owned clubs with literally unlimited resources vs. non state owned clubs completely undermines his point. As does City’s willingness to cheat and break the rules anyway.
I’m saying they all deserve criticism because they all get their level of money/wealth by shitty means, the degree shouldn’t matter on it being called out/criticized.
I was busy and didn’t realize this was in team thread, thought it was EPL thread. Don’t mean to be confrontational in your thread.
the Ratcliffe bit is the most damning. As if your typical American billionaire doesn’t have a massive portfolio of energy funds.