Conte will not be winning anymore major trophies while he's with us period. Needs to go. But that's not the main issue. We have no identity in our playing style and will re-produce the horror show vs Man City again next season. He won the PL in his first season because Pep Guardiola needed 1 season to adjust and implement his style of play. No team wins every trophy every single year so I accept that. But when you have no identity and basically accept defeat before the ball is even kicked (Man City at the Etihad) then change is needed. West Brom put up a better fight then we did I never want to see that ever again.

The only way Pep Guardiola will be beaten (consistently, not a one off match) is by playing high pressing attacking football the way Liverpool play. The only team to beat them convincingly last season was Jurgen Klopp both in the league and Champions League. Sarri will be a great competitor and his brand of football might even outclass Pep's. We won the FA Cup but can anyone say they want to watch us play the way we did in that final vs Manure for 38 league matches and beyond? It was so painful to watch. I cant see how people still support Conte. 3-4-3 is the only thing he can offer. And his 'tactics' for big matches is to either play hoofball with Hazard or admit defeat before kick-off. ABSOLUTELY CANNOT CONTINUE at the club his time is up. Jose Mourinho and Conte are coaches that never remain in one club for long and constantly on the move. Their brand of football can bring trophies over a short period of time but when it goes wrong, it goes horrendously wrong like last season. I would say Mourinho's United at this stage doesnt even have a pattern of play judging by united fans' criticisms. We are not far behind - right now we play target man with Eden Hazard the best we can offer. 

The thing is while £20 million or whatever is a lot of money it could be peanuts compared to what we could lose if we fail to reach a top 4 place again. The CL money is at a record high and only increasing each year. We would make that back and plenty more just by getting top 4 from European money.

 

Conte is a fantastic manager but if his heart isn’t in it and the board can’t give him what he wants then it’s going to cost us long term…a lot more than a payoff would cost.

 

Penny pinching now to get hammered in the long term is ridiculous, if we want a manager then pay the rate it is going to take and get properly prepared for a season where we simply have to finish top 4. All this messing about is only going to hamper us but we are masters at that.

4 minutes ago, zes said:

Conte will not be winning anymore major trophies while he's with us period. Needs to go. But that's not the main issue. We have no identity in our playing style and will re-produce the horror show vs Man City again next season. He won the PL in his first season because Pep Guardiola needed 1 season to adjust and implement his style of play. No team wins every trophy every single year so I accept that. But when you have no identity and basically accept defeat before the ball is even kicked (Man City at the Etihad) then change is needed. West Brom put up a better fight then we did I never want to see that ever again.

The only way Pep Guardiola will be beaten (consistently, not a one off match) is by playing high pressing attacking football the way Liverpool play. The only team to beat them convincingly last season was Jurgen Klopp both in the league and Champions League. Sarri will be a great competitor and his brand of football might even outclass Pep's. We won the FA Cup but can anyone say they want to watch us play the way we did in that final vs Manure for 38 league matches and beyond? It was so painful to watch. I cant see how people still support Conte. 3-4-3 is the only thing he can offer. And his 'tactics' for big matches is to either play hoofball with Hazard or admit defeat before kick-off. ABSOLUTELY CANNOT CONTINUE at the club his time is up. Jose Mourinho and Conte are coaches that never remain in one club for long and constantly on the move. Their brand of football can bring trophies over a short period of time but when it goes wrong, it goes horrendously wrong like last season. I would say Mourinho's United at this stage doesnt even have a pattern of play judging by united fans' criticisms. We are not far behind - right now we play target man with Eden Hazard the best we can offer. 

Superb post! Just how i feel it.

 

According to Calciomercato Chelsea told Sarri to get himself out of Napoli within 48h otherwise they stick with Conte ......

So no real news yet,just speculation.I will drop in next week.

It does sound as if the club are tightening the deadline to this weekend/Monday. Makes sense as players are due to return. 

53 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

There you  go @Davey Baby, I corrected your spelling and logic errors for you.  You're welcome.  Have a nice day

I know you like to play devils advocate, and it is sensible approach to base opinions on facts. 

If the rumours and speculation have any substance, I find it hard to believe you wouldn't be concerned with how things have gone since the end of the season. 

If the rumours and speculation are completely unfounded, we were never looking to replace conte, and everything in that regard in hunky dory, surely you would still have to be concerned by what has happened. 

We have not made a single move in the transfer market, even though the window is closing earlier. 

The players are still not sure who will be in charge. Fabregas said they are waiting to see who will be in charge next season only last week. So why haven't we at least informed playing staff who the manager is going to be. 

We still don't have a director of football, this has been the case for over 6 months. Conte has been quoted as saying he doesn't pick the players, so if there is work going on in the background regarding transfers, who is actually identifying them.

Obviously we as a club are still in a privileged position, but I do think it's unfair for fans to be ridiculed (not by you necessarily) for being concerned.

If nothing else, Conte's position has been undermined to a point that makes his position untenable.

If he hasn't already lost the dressing room it's inevitable.

@big blue  You are right to be concerned and I am concerned as well, but my point is that none of us have any idea of what is being done by the club.  You say a couple of times...

10 minutes ago, big blue said:

If the rumours and speculation

And I agree with you.  BUT, they are just rumours and speculation, mostly generated by journalists who have pages to make up, or twatter idiots trying to build a following,  or whatever satisfaction people get from social meejah.  

It's fine expressing concern,  but I get a bit wound up when people (not you and not particularly @Davey Baby) get all screechy and a bit abusive about some gossip or other they have heard from a mate of a mate who saw  it on twatter from someone who was  right once in 2013 about something totally different.

By all means be concerned,  but the doom and gloom posts from some in here (again, not you) based on nothing at all just get wearing.

3 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

@big blue  You are right to be concerned and I am concerned as well, but my point is that none of us have any idea of what is being done by the club.  You say a couple of times...

And I agree with you.  BUT, they are just rumours and speculation, mostly generated by journalists who have pages to make up, or twatter idiots trying to build a following,  or whatever satisfaction people get from social meejah.  

It's fine expressing concern,  but I get a bit wound up when people (not you and not particularly @Davey Baby) get all screechy and a bit abusive about some gossip or other they have heard from a mate of a mate who saw  it on twatter from someone who was  right once in 2013 about something totally different.

By all means be concerned,  but the doom and gloom posts from some in here (again, not you) based on nothing at all just get wearing.

That's fair enough, there are definately posters that go over the top from both sides of the coin. 

I think there is just so much frustration at the moment. Roman is now a very experienced owner, so too are the directors and people around him. So I think there is an expectancy for the club to be run a little smoother than it has been the last 12 months. 

It's strange because the youth side of things is a well oiled machine. 

Whether there is any truth to the rumours or not, it will still have a negative affect on the team, as it did in the last few months of the season. 

If conte is staying I fear there will be more perfomances like Newcastle away, since he will only be here until the end of the season, and a lot of the players are in their final year aswell.

It shouldn't be like that, but this group of players can and will disappear for months, which is another issue altogether.

2 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

There you  go @Davey Baby, I corrected your spelling and logic errors for you.  You're welcome.  Have a nice day

 

Thanks a bunch yorkley. I detected one little tiny error otherwise it's top marks. You wrote "outside" instead of "inside". 

I agree this situation is disappointing yet after the initial losses under Conte he changed us to a back three with a couple of weeks of intense training.

All is not lost yet again agree it is messy and makes us look bad in the market.

6 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

Sarri to replace, then Chelsea to speed up movements in and out of club

 

I hope you are right

47 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

 

Thanks a bunch yorkley. I detected one little tiny error otherwise it's top marks. You wrote "outside" instead of "inside". 

Good to see you on here again DB. Hadn't noticed you posting much of late and yet @yorkleyblue makes a post about a Gay Night Club and suddeny you're back on here in no time. Coincidence?

Reading that Times article, and I am not going to hit the Quote button because it takes up too much space, but I am the only one that thinks as a club and at a board level, somebody has to be questioning those that have been constructing contracts here. On the back of a league championship in a year when we were not involved in Europe whilst all of our competitors were we agreed to enrich Conte's contract to end up to continue paying him for an additional full year if we sacked him, along with paying off all of his staff etc. Good grief have we learned nothing from previous contracts.

No wonder the guy has been po-faced all season with his go on and sack me attitude. A fully paid holiday for a year, with no stress, a chance to recharge the batteries. All he had to do was to play his hand out in front of the press so it made him look the victim and the penny pinching club ambitionless and undermining. Christ how could they not see that scenario. A multi million pound organization and they don't have a Risk Manager? Jesus!

I'm going to get a fake profile picture and an italian name and starting spouting bullsh*t, see if everyone believes me as well as these so-called journalists.

3 hours ago, zes said:

Conte will not be winning anymore major trophies while he's with us period. Needs to go. But that's not the main issue. We have no identity in our playing style and will re-produce the horror show vs Man City again next season. He won the PL in his first season because Pep Guardiola needed 1 season to adjust and implement his style of play. No team wins every trophy every single year so I accept that. But when you have no identity and basically accept defeat before the ball is even kicked (Man City at the Etihad) then change is needed. West Brom put up a better fight then we did I never want to see that ever again.

The only way Pep Guardiola will be beaten (consistently, not a one off match) is by playing high pressing attacking football the way Liverpool play. The only team to beat them convincingly last season was Jurgen Klopp both in the league and Champions League. Sarri will be a great competitor and his brand of football might even outclass Pep's. We won the FA Cup but can anyone say they want to watch us play the way we did in that final vs Manure for 38 league matches and beyond? It was so painful to watch. I cant see how people still support Conte. 3-4-3 is the only thing he can offer. And his 'tactics' for big matches is to either play hoofball with Hazard or admit defeat before kick-off. ABSOLUTELY CANNOT CONTINUE at the club his time is up. Jose Mourinho and Conte are coaches that never remain in one club for long and constantly on the move. Their brand of football can bring trophies over a short period of time but when it goes wrong, it goes horrendously wrong like last season. I would say Mourinho's United at this stage doesnt even have a pattern of play judging by united fans' criticisms. We are not far behind - right now we play target man with Eden Hazard the best we can offer. 

Let's not forget we only got the ball rolling for this tournament of the back of squeezing past Norwich in a penalty shootout.

13 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Reading that Times article, and I am not going to hit the Quote button because it takes up too much space, but I am the only one that thinks as a club and at a board level, somebody has to be questioning those that have been constructing contracts here. On the back of a league championship in a year when we were not involved in Europe whilst all of our competitors were we agreed to enrich Conte's contract to end up to continue paying him for an additional full year if we sacked him, along with paying off all of his staff etc. Good grief have we learned nothing from previous contracts.

No wonder the guy has been po-faced all season with his go on and sack me attitude. A fully paid holiday for a year, with no stress, a chance to recharge the batteries. All he had to do was to play his hand out in front of the press so it made him look the victim and the penny pinching club ambitionless and undermining. Christ how could they not see that scenario. A multi million pound organization and they don't have a Risk Manager? Jesus!

That's probably the most spot-on thesis I've read for a long time. I completely agree.

Latest update from Carlo Alvino who's a lot more reliable than Pedulla for Napoli says we are still at the stages of indirect contact through Napolis lawyer.

4 hours ago, Hanzen said:

Agreed, though it really isn't peanuts. We're talking about releasing Conte along with his 9 staffmembers. The value of these contracts over 12 months is possibly more than £10M. Furthermore, we'd have to pay Napoli for Sarri. 

To summarize: We could end up paying something like £20M for getting rid of a brilliant (although defensive) manager, who has an amazing record and lots of trophies to his name. In exchange we'd get a manager with an attacking approach with a rather doubtful record in regards of trophies. That's not peanuts, but the value of a possible high quality player.

I'm not saying I don't get the point, because really I agree, but as well I understand the situation from the clubs view. These things take time. Hopefully it'll all get sorted soon.

This is the attitude that has screwed us in the transfer-market the last several years.
"Why buy top class player A or B, when we can save 20 million on signing average option C"

And then the club forgets all about the cost of consequense and believe they did a good job.

40 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

we agreed to enrich Conte's contract to end up to continue paying him for an additional full year if we sacked him, along with paying off all of his staff etc. Good grief have we learned nothing from previous contracts.

His contract wasn't extended though.

3 hours ago, zes said:

Conte will not be winning anymore major trophies while he's with us period. Needs to go. But that's not the main issue. We have no identity in our playing style and will re-produce the horror show vs Man City again next season. He won the PL in his first season because Pep Guardiola needed 1 season to adjust and implement his style of play. No team wins every trophy every single year so I accept that. But when you have no identity and basically accept defeat before the ball is even kicked (Man City at the Etihad) then change is needed. West Brom put up a better fight then we did I never want to see that ever again.

The only way Pep Guardiola will be beaten (consistently, not a one off match) is by playing high pressing attacking football the way Liverpool play. The only team to beat them convincingly last season was Jurgen Klopp both in the league and Champions League. Sarri will be a great competitor and his brand of football might even outclass Pep's. We won the FA Cup but can anyone say they want to watch us play the way we did in that final vs Manure for 38 league matches and beyond? It was so painful to watch. I cant see how people still support Conte. 3-4-3 is the only thing he can offer. And his 'tactics' for big matches is to either play hoofball with Hazard or admit defeat before kick-off. ABSOLUTELY CANNOT CONTINUE at the club his time is up. Jose Mourinho and Conte are coaches that never remain in one club for long and constantly on the move. Their brand of football can bring trophies over a short period of time but when it goes wrong, it goes horrendously wrong like last season. I would say Mourinho's United at this stage doesnt even have a pattern of play judging by united fans' criticisms. We are not far behind - right now we play target man with Eden Hazard the best we can offer. 

Some of the points made are fair enough but also a good example of some exaggerated points just to get your own view across. We have won plenty of big matches under Conte without playing "hoofball". We wouldn't have picked up two trophies if that were the case. We have played some great stuff under Conte so let's not re-write history for sensationalism purposes. Sure last season wasn't AS good, but I'm not going to go over the old argument of him not having the players and squad he wanted or needed.

 

27 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Let's not forget we only got the ball rolling for this tournament of the back of squeezing past Norwich in a penalty shootout.

But that is hardly unusual. Many sides struggle in early rounds of Cup competitions and then go on to win it. That Norwich tie to go to a replay and penalties was grim, but we went on to lift the trophy so who cares? Look at Portugal in the 2016 Euros - didn't win a group game but still lifted the trophy, so what does it matter? 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Good to see you on here again DB. Hadn't noticed you posting much of late and yet @yorkleyblue makes a post about a Gay Night Club and suddeny you're back on here in no time. Coincidence?

I gave him a prod in the night club.  Told him you were missing him as a member @Nibs

Seems like Ronaldo is set for Juve. Almost every good journalist in Spain and Italy are reporting the same thing.

Wonder if Real will go for Hazard now? Would be a good time for them to approach him with the mess we are.

The mess we are rumoured to be.

Just gotta keep on keeping on @Stim