17 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Fergie had some very rough patches at United, he even went through a weird one in 2012 when Yakubu scored a hattrick at Old Trafford and United just couldn't stop losing games. 

Incomparable to Mourinho situation, it's just a fact any manager who has a bad patch here will be sacked, it's how it is. Conte hasn't had one thankfully. 

I think United that season were 7th in December, unbelievably poor for their standards granted but nothing close to the unprecedented all time collapse we ended up doing.  I spent years mocking Liverpool fans for their spell under Roy in 10/11 then we go one 'better' and make them look like Barca under Pep 

In a way we should be thankful it was Jose that oversaw this, if it was a newbie to the prem he and we would be in the hall of fame for all the wrong reasons .

11 hours ago, kiwi1691 said:

The injury crisis at the beginning of the season is the issue not, Conte's transfer failings. 

Its not Conte's failings its the boards failings in the transfer. The injuries have exposed the failings of the summer. Injuries are part of the game but our squad is a disgrace for a team that won the league with 15 players and should have been pushing on to improve the squad due to the higher number of games and just generally improving a squad

6 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

Its not Conte's failings its the boards failings in the transfer. The injuries have exposed the failings of the summer. Injuries are part of the game but our squad is a disgrace for a team that won the league with 15 players and should have been pushing on to improve the squad due to the higher number of games and just generally improving a squad

I agree. If the likes of Zappacosta, Drinkwater and even Morata had been signed a bit earlier, we probably wouldn't have had such an up and down start to the season. We may not have been up with City, but i don't think we would be as far behind as we currently are. The board knew we had injury problems at the start of the season, and they didn't do things quick enough to get us prepared properly for the new season.

 

41 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

The board knew we had injury problems at the start of the season, and they didn't do things quick enough to get us prepared properly for the new season.

Well they did go out and buy us some players that already had injuries to help make it a proper crisis...

On 01/12/2017 at 02:51, The Don Antonio said:

Its not Conte's failings its the boards failings in the transfer. 

No it is defiantly Conte's. Wasting all that time on trying to sign a wingback who didn't want to leave was  dumb of Conte. 

What Pogba said about wanting ManCity players to get injured was tolerated by Mourinho. That's unacceptable.

But Pep shrugged it

 

https://twitter.com/SBOBET/status/937701786655133696

Anyone think now there is increasing chance Jose might be tempted to leave United, try and get the PSG job instead? He was sweet talking about PSG some months ago in an interview, which was a bit surprising. I do wonder if City with Pep looking like dominating domestically, if Jose's ego could take it - could he be more tempted to quit United, and go off to PSG to try and more easily reclaim the image of being a winner that seems to be so important for his ego?

Mourinho had demanded City players show ‘more respect’ as music blared out of their dressing room. The United boss was heading from his own players’ dressing room to do his post-match press conference when he walked into City’s domain to make his feelings known and was confronted by City goalkeeper Ederson. The two were involved in a heated exchange and squared up, shouting at each other in Portuguese.

United’s players were enraged by the perceived gloating of City players and followed Mourinho into the corridor area between the dressing rooms, which sparked the skirmishes between players.

City, for their part, believed Mourinho, sore at losing, had overstepped the boundaries by entering their dressing room to voice his discontent and he was followed by his United players.

Witnesses said some players attempted to swing punches at each other as police, already present outside the referees’ room, looked on in disbelief. City coach Mikel Arteta, one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants, received a cut to the head.

Old Trafford security staff were forced to disperse the rumpus as United players blamed their City counterparts for ‘rubbing their noses in defeat’ by ‘whooping and cheering’. When tempers cooled, police remained outside the dressing rooms.

Mourinho’s anger was also fired by what he claimed was City receiving preferential treatment by referees, while he branded his own side’s defending ‘disgraceful’. 

In comments which irked City boss Guardiola, Mourinho insisted the league leaders were fortunate to seal a record 14th consecutive win — stretching their lead in the table to 11 points. 

Mourinho was adamant Michael Oliver’s refusal to award a 79th-minute penalty after Ander Herrera went down under Nicolas Otamendi’s challenge was wrong. Herrera was booked for diving.

‘They are lucky, I think they have all these decisions in their favour,’ said Mourinho, who had accused City of being divers in the run-up to the game. 

‘We can speak about anything you want, we can bring any football theory, stats, ball possession, but like last season it is a huge penalty in a crucial moment.

‘You expect City to score great goals, not to score two disgraceful goals. They had apparent control but the biggest save is the double save of Ederson.’

13 hours ago, Salato said:

Anyone think now there is increasing chance Jose might be tempted to leave United, try and get the PSG job instead? He was sweet talking about PSG some months ago in an interview, which was a bit surprising. I do wonder if City with Pep looking like dominating domestically, if Jose's ego could take it - could he be more tempted to quit United, and go off to PSG to try and more easily reclaim the image of being a winner that seems to be so important for his ego?

i think a lot might depend on how long pepe stays at city, as long as pepe is there jose knows he will struggle to get the upper hand but i also think united will not be in a hurry to get rid of jose. maybe city and united could do a swap 

i think jose is fast proving himself to be one of the sorest losers ever, i think he is doing himself no favors what so ever in this department, having the hump is understandable, but all this complaining about over celebrating is ridiculous, he is just making a massive rod for his own back 

Just makes me detest the bitter one even more.

Ha, a lot of the Utd fans I know have gone very quiet about The Special One!

They were giving it large a while back but I think the realisation is beginning to hit. What they witnessed on Sunday - Utd being outclassed by a better footballing team on their sacred Old Trafford turf is how it's gonna be as Jose will always be too cautious to play it any different when it comes to the big games. 

Mourinho would never celebrate in the face of a defeated rival, would he?

He would never run down a touchline beating his chest and knee sliding in front of the opposition fans. 

At least City did in behind closed doors. In their own dressing room. 

 

Utd is a team full of detestable man babies. 

Lukaku also starting to look a bit redundant as the ball does not come to him in the tight matches. Wonder when the penny might drop that his skillset although good is not the best.

Still think Jose will drop him for the big matches in favor of Zlatan once he's 100% fit again.  

I think Jose's temper got the better of him, not for the first time.

 

He was sore at losing. It was an unpalatable defeat. His team was outclassed, by THEM. He was outclassed, by HIM. THEY broke the record for consecutive wins at Old Trafford, and they went 11 clear in the process. Jesus that must have hurt.

 

He couldn't handle it. He lashed out, having a go at the ref, unfairly, and starting a fight with City over their celebrating, which they are perfectly entitled to do.

 

Jose made it toxic before a ball was kicked, accusing City's players of diving and trying to put pressure on the ref. Ironically, and typically, one of his players was caught diving during the match. 

 

Everything else follows on from there, the toxicity Jose introduced. It will only get more toxic, as it did between Real and Barca, and Jose will hope it will galvanise his squad and rattle City, eventually, because they have more meetings to come, both this season and in the ensuing seasons.

 

Unfortunately for Jose, this strategy only has a short shelf-life, as has been proven throughout his career. It may go to plan in the near-future but pretty soon the toxicity will be too much to bear, and along with the refs, the authorities, the media and his rivals, his players will also get fed up with it and he'll lose them, because he doesn't have another string to his bow. He simply does not know another way to motivate players. He needs to ratchet it up, but you can only do that for so long until things get overcooked and then it all just crashes and burns.

 

Edit: Jose will plead innocence but the common denominator in all this toxicity is always him. Jesus am I looking forward to it. So glad he's gone from our club.

Edited December 12, 20178 yr by Davey Baby

The Derby result really suited Jose, there are lots of 'positives' for him and his supporters. He didn't park the bus, didn't lose by a big margin, had a chance to level late in the game, and most importantly the result was completely down to the referee ( in his mind). It was close to be a Jose tactical master piece.

In my opinion, Jose lost his "special" tag at the end of his Madrid tenure.

Something changed particularly in his mindset when he was manager of them, not been as imperious since.

Best manager in the world from 04-11.

Yeah I think Jose has definitely lost that “something” and he doesn’t seem quite the coach he was - even when he was us second time around he wasn’t the same guy. 

I remember Ballack talking about the best coaches who can get that extra 5% out of players and that’s what makes the difference and wins the big titles. In some ways, I think Jose has lost that. The players 2004-07 would run through walls for him and his biggest strength was creating a strong bond between him and his players. He doesn’t be able to seem to do that anymore and actually seems very critical of them. 

Edited December 13, 20178 yr by JM7

On 12/12/2017 at 17:37, TheChelseaBlues said:

Still think Jose will drop him for the big matches in favor of Zlatan once he's 100% fit again.  

Nah, Jose has made it clear Lukaku is untouchable which is rather ironic given what happened at Chelsea. He's played 90 minutes in every league and CL game this season, that mixed with his rage quit with us because he wasn't walking in the team makes me wonder if United won the battle for him because Jose promised him unconditional 90 minutes and Conte wouldn't. Conte took Morata off while we were losing to Watford, he wouldn't have hesitated doing the same to Rom if he was performing for us the same way he did at United in the last two months.

Mind you, you have to give kudos to what a blinder Lukaku has played into getting in such a position where he is an undisputed starter at one of the world's biggest clubs. When he was with us, he didn't have a price tag to prop him up (as we saw with Torres, a big price tag will give you 20 times more playing time and patience if it's not working) meaning he would have to earn his place in the side on merit, which lets be realistic, he wasn't good enough to do and he knew it. He also knew that if he scored goals at Everton some big boy would ignore any shortcoming's initially and make a punt (it happens so often, Benteke, Bent two other major examples) so going back to Everton was another masterstroke by him firstly £28m on a player back in 2014 was unprecedented for Everton meaning he had a guaranteed place in the side and clubs would get starry eyed by the goal record, which United did. United then lumped £75m on him, meaning he's now got what he wanted all along, he's now at one of the top clubs with a guaranteed starting spot, no matter how badly he plays or if Martial/Rashford are more deserving.

If he remained with us to this day he would likely be occupying the role Batshuayi is now, which would be appropriate to the level he is as a player so you can only really say well played to him for getting into such a privileged position and thank god it isn't us lumbered with him.

Jose still seems to think that having "untouchables" is the right way to do things. No-one should ever be untouchable.

18 hours ago, Zeta said:

Jose still seems to think that having "untouchables" is the right way to do things. No-one should ever be untouchable.

Please don't correct him now.

Saw this tweet and thought it was interesting. 

“Today marks 2 years since José Mourinho was sacked at Chelsea. He nearly relegated us, turned fans against Eden Hazard and above all sold Our young spine Lukaku, De Bruyne and Salah, he sacked our dear Eva Carneiro.”

They conviently forgot to include the league and league cup trophies in that list. 

2 years.. today. Horrible moment in the club history, whatever the circumstances. Morale at its lowest. 

Yes, the rare December relegations