Raheem Sterling

[DeanoUK]

Neville's bound to get a load of stick for that article, but he's written it in a very respectful way and I can't find anything to disagree with in it. I'm sure it gave him some pleasure in writing it, but that's not the point. He's right, and what he's saying needs saying. Sad state of affairs when it's an ex MU player saying what we need to be thinking and acting on, but our fans would be wrong to pillory him for it.

Agree with you and him. I thought he could've stayed away from the city and using it as an analogy though, it won't help using with his argument about the club which is actually right. As was Barret's the other day. We're a club continually failing to move on, and moving further behind year by year.

[Nicey]

Neville's bound to get a load of stick for that article, but he's written it in a very respectful way and I can't find anything to disagree with in it. I'm sure it gave him some pleasure in writing it, but that's not the point. He's right, and what he's saying needs saying. Sad state of affairs when it's an ex MU player saying what we need to be thinking and acting on, but our fans would be wrong to pillory him for it.

Yeah I began to write a reply to that piece and slow sad realisation came over me .... hes right you know .... we all know he's right

[peekay]

Neville's bound to get a load of stick for that article, but he's written it in a very respectful way and I can't find anything to disagree with in it. I'm sure it gave him some pleasure in writing it, but that's not the point. He's right, and what he's saying needs saying. Sad state of affairs when it's an ex MU player saying what we need to be thinking and acting on, but our fans would be wrong to pillory him for it.

F*** that ****. He played a relatively insignificant part in a man utd's greatest times and now he is an authority on football and stadium development and how clubs should be run. There is nothing in that article which everyone does not know. I wonder why he did not come up with similar article when we were tearing the league apart last year and Man Utd were destroying records for number of crosses in a game.

I hate patronizing, pseudo sympathetic, stating the bleeding f******** obvious but written as if it were some great intellectual insight articles like this.

Man Utd did well because they had a brilliant football operation supported by a good commercial infrastructure. We all know that. In fact before Neville learned to construct a sentence, we showed England how it can be done. We lost our way and have not recovered.

Utd have lost only one player blah blah blah. Yeah, we get it. When you win a lot of trophies and have lot of money you tend not to loose players. In fact it was the same for us. We also lost only very few great players during our heyday - Keegan and Souness. When you stop winning trophies frequently players leave. Again we know that. In fact, if Neville waits a couple of more weeks, he can experience that feeling when his most important player from last season packs his bag for Madrid. Maybe he needs to call him and try to convince him to stay based on how easy it is to walk in Manchester and the size of the stadium and commercial operations. And spend a couple of seasons yoyoying in and out of CL places 2 players leaving will very quickly becomes 3,4,5 and 6.

We know what we have been missing for 20 + years. One day we will figure it out and be back and hopefully I will be around to shove this article up his...

[Chilts33]

Good article that highlights just how we continually go on about our history etc...
We are in that second group of Premiership teams, last season was a fantastic blip but we are more like Spurs than City or United now. Yes, we have won plenty in the past but recently?

[MrMichael]

I'm not sure Neville's analysis there, though being partly valid, isn't also a touch unfair.

Steven Gerrard is also being allowed to leave and, although his circumstances are different, there is no way in a million years that Liverpool should be allowing him to pack up and sign for LA Galaxy.

If you compare Liverpool to Manchester United over the same period of time, I can think of only one player - Cristiano Ronaldo - who left when he wanted to go, rather than when Mr. Ferguson wanted it to happen.

This Gerrard point is rubbish, Stevie was not prepared to accept a lesser role and this season on the pitch has proven he does not merit a central one anymore on football alone. Fergie sold the likes of Keane when he thought they were on a downhill trajectory, rather than being seen to do the same with Gerrard we're "letting him leave" in the twilight of his career and it is almost certainly the best thing for the club and the dressing room where new leaders need to emerge without his shadow looming over them. Lets not act like he is still one of the world's best, he isn't and hasn't been for several years now.

As for the rest his main point seems to be about the stadium. Well you can't just magic up a new stadium from nowhere unless like City you get handed one on a silver platter; it isn't like we aren't aware of that issue and our previous owners were supposed to facilitate a spanking new facility and instead nearly drove us completely out of business. What we're doing now makes commercial sense and will improve our situation there, absolutely it is seriously overdue but holding the club in the present to the mistakes of the past & previous ownerships is pretty weak even if it does partly explain our current state of play. Quite obviously we are trying to arrest that slide we've been on but saying it and doing it are in no way similar in difficulty.

Using the over-ambition of a jumped up kid's agent (and no, he is not a star, not yet) as analogous purely to us, rather than the state and mentality of modern football as a whole, doesn't sit well with me. Coutinho is a magical player and he was more than happy to sign back on with us with no fuss at all so we obviously still match his ambitions, where does that fit with Neville's narrative? We may have fallen behind some but we are still well ahead of massive numbers of others and we do ourselves a huge disservice not to recognise that along with accepting the extremely difficult work we still have to do.

weak joke ... my people send there apologies and a bag of spices ( I am playing Civ )

Don't trust Ghandi

[Tatterdemalion]

F*** that ****. ....


We know what we have been missing for 20 + years. One day we will figure it out and be back and hopefully I will be around to shove this article up his...

Yup!

[gratziani]

Of course when you drive up to old toilet it is such a lovely area as well you Rat who is now showing his true colours which is he hates us as much as we hate them.

Go back a year and the mancs were getting all this **** when they went from defending champions to fifth then spunked 200 million.

Everyone seems to be all nodding and going along with this we are in decline and also rans ****.

We signed Lovren, Lallana Lambert and Balotelli last year all as experienced first team players and just because they all had **** seasons we are now not providing for our younger players like Sterling so it gives him the right to leave after a tough season when he has let us down as much,

[Tatterdemalion]

I'm not sure Neville's analysis there, though being partly valid, isn't also a touch unfair.



This Gerrard point is rubbish, Stevie was not prepared to accept a lesser role and this season on the pitch has proven he does not merit a central one anymore on football alone. Fergie sold the likes of Keane when he thought they were on a downhill trajectory, rather than being seen to do the same with Gerrard we're "letting him leave" in the twilight of his career and it is almost certainly the best thing for the club and the dressing room where new leaders need to emerge without his shadow looming over them. Lets not act like he is still one of the world's best, he isn't and hasn't been for several years now.

As for the rest his main point seems to be about the stadium. Well you can't just magic up a new stadium from nowhere unless like City you get handed one on a silver platter; it isn't like we aren't aware of that issue and our previous owners were supposed to facilitate a spanking new facility and instead nearly drove us completely out of business. What we're doing now makes commercial sense and will improve our situation there, absolutely it is seriously overdue but holding the club in the present to the mistakes of the past & previous ownerships is pretty weak even if it does partly explain our current state of play. Quite obviously we are trying to arrest that slide we've been on but saying it and doing it are in no way similar in difficulty.

Using the over-ambition of a jumped up kid's agent (and no, he is not a star, not yet) as analogous purely to us, rather than the state and mentality of modern football as a whole, doesn't sit well with me. Coutinho is a magical player and he was more than happy to sign back on with us with no fuss at all so we obviously still match his ambitions, where does that fit with Neville's narrative? We may have fallen behind some but we are still well ahead of massive numbers of others and we do ourselves a huge disservice not to recognise that along with accepting the extremely difficult work we still have to do.



Don't trust Ghandi

Actually, I did disagree on the Gerrard point..

[MrMichael]

Good article that highlights just how we continually go on about our history etc...
We are in that second group of Premiership teams, last season was a fantastic blip but we are more like Spurs than City or United now. Yes, we have won plenty in the past but recently?

Which in a way points out that expecting us just to challenge those teams because of who we are (or were) is unrealistic does it not? We've been in that second group now effectively for a very long time, turning that around is a lot more difficult than writing an article like that imo.

[Shaggy]

Yeah the general message of his article I agree with...but there's a lot of rubbish in there. The Gerrard point for a start, and he reckoned Ronaldo was the only one United lost against their wishes. He conveniently neglects to mention Pique, Pobga and De Gea.

I think ultimately our problem boils down to the club's bad decisions - notably the decision to sell to Hicks & Gillett, and the many times we've decided to buy **** players for crazy money.

[Chilts33]

United can afford to spend £200m then go again the season after because they didn't stand still. So many times we've not moved on over the years (post Istanbul?) and are now seeing the 'benefits'.
We need to deal with today, then look forward and stop this self-pity that has held us back for so long.
Laughable at times. Neville is unfortunately bang on.

[MrMichael]

Actually, I did disagree on the Gerrard point..

Thing is at Utd Fergie could keep the likes of Giggs, Scholes and Neville around well beyond their real merit as footballers because he was the massively dominant personality & power there, not them. I don't see any legitimate argument that we could have done anything else with Gerrard, most fans on here anyway seem to think Rodgers accommodated and played Stevie more than he should have over the last 12 months particularly, easy for media commentators to say he shouldn't be leaving but much harder to come up with a practical reason to keep him given his actual play on the pitch.

Yeah the general message of his article I agree with...but there's a lot of rubbish in there. The Gerrard point for a start, and he reckoned Ronaldo was the only one United lost against their wishes. He conveniently neglects to mention Pique, Pobga and De Gea.

I think ultimately our problem boils down to the club's bad decisions - notably the decision to sell to Hicks & Gillett, and the many times we've decided to buy **** players for crazy money.

Good calls.

Yup, transfer failings certainly have hurt us (though we have bought well at times too, Alonso, Masch, Torres, Suarez, Sterling even), but for me the root of everything comes down to a failure to move on in the 90s/early 00s and then the disastrous sale to those 2 cowboys which rather than allowing us to step up almost turned us into the next Leeds. In many ways we should be grateful we're still able to have discussions today about how to bridge the gap to the very top rather than competing with Huddersfield.

[MrMichael]

United can afford to spend £200m then go again the season after because they didn't stand still. So many times we've not moved on over the years (post Istanbul?) and are now seeing the 'benefits'.
We need to deal with today, then look forward and stop this self-pity that has held us back for so long.
Laughable at times. Neville is unfortunately bang on.

I totally agree with that bit, although I do think it is worth pointing out that the situation isn't unique to us, Utd have outpaced almost everyone with the success they had at such a critical time with so much money flowing into football, certainly those who haven't had billions to launder. It isn't just post-Istanbul that we failed to move on (as I said above, we're in many ways lucky to still be where we are after the H&G fiasco), but since 1992.

[Roboklopp]

Don't get Leyton started Mr M.

[Slinky Skills]

It's a good piece by Neville, don't agree with all of it but was a good read and he's right about many things but he's also wrong about a lot of stuff.

I know we've had an atrocious season but I can honestly see a positive future for us next season and beyond I really can. We have a lot of talent and I am absolutely certain we will strengthen in the right areas this summer and in following years.

We will have a larger stadium within the next 3 years which will bring in a lot of money into the club and we will also have more money from the current commercial side of things. Think positive people, we will be back.