Rashford to stay as Amorim’s No.9 if sense finally prevails at Manchester United

 Why send Marcus Rashford on loan when the alternatives aren’t as good? ‘Talent alone doesn’t go to United to die, sense does.’

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Sense goes to die at Man Utd

If you want to sell something, you don’t start off by saying it’s shit. It doesn’t go well. Ask Gerald Ratner.

It also doesn’t help to fall out with your players, especially if you want to sell them for a decent price, because you’ve shown your hand and given yourself no room to manoeuvre. You also don’t tell the world you’re desperate to get rid as you’re broke.

Now, I’m crap at negotiation and haggling, but even I know this. There are people being paid big sums to do this professionally that don’t seem to understand these principles.

The club stated it’s desire to sell Rashford last summer (again). He’s still there, even after a successful loan. Of course it’s early days but at this point all signs point to the three loanees and Garnacho all to head out on loan with United covering some of the wages. I see zero chances of us selling Dalot or Shaw, Maguire is going no where, no interest in Onana. Only two serious options to exit are Højlund and the unthinkable transfer of Mainoo.

At this point, the logical move would be to at least outwardly suggest we keep Rashford as striker – he’s better than any of the options we’re likely to sign – and probably say the same with either Antony or Sancho as a 10. Make them desirable and worst case scenario actually try them. Who knows, maybe these talented players might actually be decent?

Instead we’re more likely to throw big money at a one or more season wonders, and then be stuck with them for the next 5 years on big wages after we realise.

Talent alone doesn’t go to United to die, sense does.

At least Brailsford is going again. Thanks for your “marginal gains”, dickhead.

Badwolf

Ratcliffe continuing what the Glazers started

So, I was looking at Man United’s possible transfer dealings trying to work out whether I thought theirs was a continuation of the poor policy of old or something a little more measured, sensible and evidence-based. Ultimately, I’m not sure. I have more concerns about Cunha than I do Mbeumo, but Utd’s business is far from over so it seems pointless to judge at this stage, I’ll wait and see what ins and outs occur and assess the window come September.

One thing that is already apparent though is that there is money to spend at Utd. This should come as no surprise to anyone who understands PSR and the flexibility afforded to clubs, but rather it does sit in stark contrast to the doom mongering and poor pot wielding Jim Ratclife, who offered the public his justifications for severe cuts in staff and expenses as “the club would have run out of cash by the end of 2025…”

Obviously, Utd have since found sixty million quid down the back of the sofa and are likely to find another £50-100m at the bottom of an old drawer.

Many people had characterised Ratcliffe as a private equity investor who purchases businesses, slashes costs, and then sells for a profit. I do not necessarily think this is the case with United, Ratcliffe has declared himself a lifelong fan, but what it has shown is that he is not going to change attitude or deviate from the playbook of private equity ownership just because the institution is his favourite football club as opposed to a chemicals corporation. When discussing the cuts with Gary Neville, he was asked about stopping the free lunch’s United provided for its employees, his response was ‘who else in this world gets a free lunch from work?’

It was a perfectly reasonable argument. I don’t, and probably most of the people reading in the mailbox don’t. I am not sure a billionaire needs to worry about lunch costs of course, and the reality he conveniently ignores is that he himself utilises every tax relief possible to offset as much of his work-related expense as he can, which is his right. Regardless, the vast majority of us do not work for football clubs. Football clubs are different from most commercial operations. They do not prioritise profits and a return on investment for investors as their barometer for success. Football clubs are community organisations. Their fans/stakeholders are the priority. Success, community involvement, support of the local population and fan happiness are the pillars upon which a successful football club should be built. Most football clubs exist below the Premiership and live and die by the continued support of those long term local and generational supporters, building foundations through social enterprise and outreach between the club and its people. That the elite clubs in the premiership are global brands with worldwide fame should not ultimately change the fact that they should be judged on how much happiness and support they bring their fans, and also those people who work to support the club professionally like players, coaches, physio’s, admin staff, stewards, youth support, community liaison and charitable foundations. You do that by buying the admin and catering staff their lunch in your million pound facilities because you are a billion pound organisation. It might not have to be the expectation, but it should be the goal.

What Sir Jim has done is crystalise the worst aspect of the modern club, its desperate desire to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on new football players. It’s a process that evidentially does not work particularly well, with Utd largely selling or releasing players who are equally as good as the players they bring in, except the swapping process costs the club tens of millions of pounds. Also, the savings, as discussed at length in pubs across the country, are a fraction of the cost of purchasing and paying the vast wages of football players. I am sure there were legitimate savings to be made in aspects of the club, but in taking an Elon-esque chainsaw to the clubs expenditure with charitable, community, ex-pro and staff benefits heavily affected, they are removing the community and support aspect, which costs them a fraction of a single players salary, just so they can squeeze out a few extra shekels to throw away on agent fee’s.

And this is not a criticism of United as a football club, on the contrary, the club and fans are the victims in this financial endeavour. This kind of approach erodes good will and reduces Utd from a football club to a financial institution. Their product is football, the fans are customers, and they are just a private company providing a service to the paying public.

It is the continuation of a journey started under the Glazers, a family utterly devoid of any affection for what the club stood for, its heritage, history and place in the local community. They saw a business opportunity and took advantage. Ratcliffe was supposed to come in and prioritise success and a best-in-class philosophy yes, (though his governance has been equally as shambolic and incompetent as those who came before) but he was also supposed to be a fan, who grew up in the city and would reconnect the club to its fans. He should know what the club stands for. Instead, his billions have removed him so far from where he grew up, that he forgot a club needs its community as much as its millions…

Cherki to outshine Wirtz?

In late 2020 during the height of the pandemic, we needed a new car to replace one of ours which had been (not even joking) stolen from our gated community in broad daylight.  Just basic life in Los Angeles I suppose.  We had CCTV coverage of the incident, authorities were involved, insurance handled everything, we were provided a rental vehicle and daily life quickly moved on.

By coincidence of timing we’d been mulling a shiny new motor anyway, and were monitoring a new model that had been announced to significant fanfare in 2019 but was delayed arriving to dealership showrooms due to the pandemic.  Supply chains were clogged up, much of world trade had obviously ground to a halt, and the port authority in Long Beach (where most of the new vehicles for California arrive and gateway for much of the West Coast’s auto intake) had experienced massive container ship stoppage.  In fact, unionized labor tensions at the ports were already an ongoing issue well before the pandemic struck so it was an unmitigated shitshow for an age.

Anyway my point in all this is that awaiting confirmation of Florian Wirtz’ impending transfer to Liverpool reminds me of that car buying experience, as we had an exact make, model and trim in mind well before we even needed a new car out of necessity, but when necessity arose we then had to wait out a storm.  We were on several dealer waitlists and had been patiently watching for availability on our own terms and our own schedule, but the sudden theft accelerated everything and we didn’t want to motor around indefinitely with a rental car.

Late in the summer of 2021 we finally got a call the car was arriving.  The exact wheel option we’d hoped for was unavailable due to the shipping port delays, and dealerships were lockstep in placing USD$10-20K premiums (above MSRP) on all inventory for this specific model due demands and limited supply.  Our connection offered the lower end of the premium and suffice to say it took us mere milliseconds to decide and wire a deposit; we bought the car outright within days and drove it home chuffed to bits.

Now several years on we see a few of these same cars out on the road, although not many (just by virtue of the specific make and model being somewhat unique and still extremely limited in supply).  I’ve even spotted one or two on the motorway sporting the exact wheel trim we had initially wanted.  I’ve also learnt that subsequent model refreshes now include many options as standard…  options we’d paid for a la carte, on top of the ask of a five-figure dealership premium.  Yet if I’d gone back in time to summer 2021 I’d have done nothing differently; it’s a striking automobile, an absolute joy to drive, and even now still very difficult to acquire via effort and luck with waitlists and networks.

Part of me does wonder whether Rayan Cherki at City will outshine Wirtz, and at a fraction of the outlay.  There was news Liverpool had ambitiously hoped to sign both (but that Cherki was nervous his playing time could be marginalized by Wirtz as incumbent second-choice 10).  This at least tells me Liverpool rate Cherki very highly as well, and to my eye he certainly looked better in Nations League action than did the German.

But end of day I suppose everyone simply wants what they want, balance and justify to our own ledgers and accounts, we constantly customize our own value propositions.  If Liverpool believe Wirtz is the lad and I’m some stupid guy sat at my keyboard rationalizing it with some ill-fitting anecdote about car-buying, so be it.  Life is a highway, no buyer’s remorse, you get what you pay for…  insert your own idioms but if we lift 21 at Anfield on the back of this kid, he’ll be priceless won’t he.  You heard it here first, he’ll be a Rolls-Royce of a raumdeuter.