The Emergency Man United Podcast

(upbeat music) - Right, and people, welcome back to the Ripple Effect. We have ourselves an emergency meeting with key sources. When it comes to me, I'm talking about our football clubs. I go to my sources, and these three people are those sources when it comes to match United. All incredible creators in their own right. And I actually can't believe I've got all three of them together at the same time. And the Monday after a Man United game, crazy. Anyway, I am very grateful. And we have Sam from United People's TV. We've got Harrison from the Overlap, The Breakdown, Tactical Channel. And my old mate, Steven Housen, from a long, long time ago, we haven't looked each other in the eye for quite a while. I've been watching this, you're doing brilliantly mate. You all do fantastically. And you guys go to sort of depths when it comes to Man United and Man United, kind of in the depth at the moment. So I wanted to get you guys together to kind of get your take on it. And it's almost collect your thoughts. So I can kind of make my end decision. 'Cause I think there are, there are actually differing opinions between all three of you, sort of watching some of the content that you guys have put forward. And that's absolutely fine. But I think the one thing you probably all agree on is that you're not thrilled with the form at the moment. So the first question I wanted to ask, 'cause there is a lot of different issues here, is what is the biggest problem at Man United this season? And eventually we're gonna talk about ownership, we're gonna talk about all sorts of different looks and crannies. But whoever wants to go first, can go first. What is the biggest problem at Man United this season? - Everyone knows the answer, man. It's the same problem every season. Everybody feels like United fans are sort of repeating and repeating it. But until the club is not hamstrung by owners who don't genuinely have any ambitions to win the club, anything that happens underneath and you've. I don't know, it's like you can repair a car tire, but if the engine's shit, like it's true, but it's boring that we have to keep saying it. But that's why the idea of any else coming in and thinking apart ownership, takeover was gonna be the shift. Not happened in two and a half years. So now we're back in the same conversations again and how the hell do you get rid of them? They are the ultimate problem, but we're talking about the football this season and the football well. - State, can you give us something? Is there another problem at play? - There is. And I think the ownership is the ultimate. Until that changes, I don't think United will have any level of sustained success. And I have no idea how you're going to achieve that ownership change. It very much feels like it's like a lottery win of some ultra high net worth individual or conglomerate that wants to come together and get rid of the glazes. It feels like a pipe dream. For 21 years, we've been protesting it. For 21 years, we've been complaining about it. Interestingly, Manchester City fans have just decided that the debt is a bad thing. Cheers for noticing that in the last couple of weeks. Not sure why they've only decided to notice that in the last couple of weeks, but if you're looking at just on a pure football point of view, I think there's got to be some context. We've lost our striker. Anybody that we've tried to replace our striker with is not working. Whether that's Brian and Bummo, whether that's Cunya, whether that's Zirkecy, none of them offer what CESCO offers. And compounding that, you've got Bruno Fernandez, who last season was one of the best most effective chance creators on the planet. Is not playing like Bruno Fernandez one of the best chance creators on the planet. Whether that's because of injury, whether that's because of burnout, whether that's because of something else. So our ability to be able to create and score chances just isn't there. We've only recently got our marquee signing in Belabor onto the pitch. He's not completed night. Minutes for us just yet. And when you think about how important Casamiro was for us last season, what our win rate was with and without him. And then you look at the business that we did this summer. You're bringing Tillman's. He's essentially replaced what you had in Casamiro. You're bringing Santos. He's essentially kind of replaced what you had in regards to it in a way. And then Belabor's like our one signing. Well, this squad wasn't deep enough lassies in any way. So you've added one signing. Maybe it's a bit of a bonus signing in Marcus Rashford coming back from long. Although he's not scored or assisted. I think there's got to be a little bit of context to the business that we did, hasn't actually taken the football club forward, but we've now got more games, two games a week. Players that were previously in form and no longer in form. Players that you previously had a no longer available. There's a defensive crisis in the defense. We had Luke Shaw pull out a unicorn season where he somehow didn't get injured and played every single game. There was zero chance of that happening again this season. And before the end of the window, he was already injured. So I think whilst the football has been poor and it has been provably poor, I think there's a level of context to it that seems to be going missed in my opinion. It ain't great. And I'm not sitting it like we sit a couple of points above relegation. I'm not going to sit here and say it's champagne when it's piss. But there's got to be some context to it, I think. - Harrison, what's on your mind then when you're thinking about the problems in Manchester United? Is there anything else you feel like we haven't touched on just yet in terms of like the sort of opening statements? - I think the ownership do take a massive percentage of the blame. It's something that just, you know, when you're not winning football matches, everyone just, you know, get the scarves out type thing. It's nothing to do with that. I think we've had enough proof in the pudding now to look at what any of us have done on the recruitment side. You know, 14% win rate lesser than post-Suralics Ferguson up until glazes took over. And it's 14% less under any of us, the win percentage. And I think I made this point quite a lot. And it's like, we always talk about manager percentage win rate. If you're dealing the hand to the managers, then surely what point do you have to look at the percentage win rate of your, you know, your sporting leadership, the people who are actually making the big decisions? I referenced a quote quite recently on Surgeon Ratcliffe when he took over the club. He said they were never going to jump between a Jozin Renewer style of play to a Pep Guardiola style of play. That's not how they will run the football club. In my eyes, they've done 10 times worse than that, which is at least Jozin Renewer and Pep Guardiola at times have both played for at the back. And in between all these mixing and matching, and they've given a four-back manager, wing backs, they've given three-back manager wingers who doesn't play wingers. And I think the conclusion I come to is just, this is just the basics of football. This is not something that, this is not something that you have to be in the game to know. This is not something you have to be passionate about tactics or recruitment or scouting. This is genuinely the basics of football. If a manager doesn't play wingers and you get rid of all the wingers, then surely the manager that follows is going to want wingers if he needs wingers to play winger. So it's just, it's just like, it's an absolute shambles. One thing I will not defend. And I know people who don't support Manchester United do this a lot. And it's like, yeah, the owners are a massive issue. And for all the reasons I've just said there, I get rid of, you know, X amount of players to bring in certain amount of players for a different system. I won't kind of excuse some of the on pitch stuff we've seen this season. I think it's been really poor. I think our physical baseline is so low right now. And I think has just sent it to James just before we come on, you know, Manchester United were getting praised for being competitive in joules, just yesterday at Allen Road against Leeds. And in what is one of our biggest games of the season. And people look at that and they're actually quite surprised when you're not in a, when Lenny Euro flicks five out of these box and clears these back posts and comes back around to defend it. And Andre Santos, Carlos Balabre, Sealamons, are all getting in the mix and, you know, putting and putting in challenges, winning files. People are actually surprised by that. And that shows you how low the floor is of this football club in terms of the physical, you know, actual baseline. And then tactically, I think, from a Michael Carrick standpoint, there was a point at Athletical Madrid which kind of encapsulated it all. We had a 20 year old sent a back from Arsenal's Academy who somehow turned out to be decent, playing out of position at left back, you know, against Leeds, we played Dio Goldalo as a left wing back. We've got Bruno Fernandez, as Steve was saying, our number 10 are captain, player of the season last season, playing out wide to accommodate for other squad building headaches, Brian and Boomo is a more than capable sent a forward. He's not a sent a forward though. And he's been playing sent a forward pretty much since Carrick came into the club. He's very rare that we've actually played Ahmad Diallo on the right wing, he's usually played left wing. So all of the headaches within the squad are definitely an ownership issue. But there's no turn away from the fact that the condition of this team and what this team has produced in this season compared to the back end of last season. This isn't just the same team playing three times a week. This is a worse team all in all. - Okay, so just to say, guys, if anyone wants to jump in at any time, please, please do. But I want to come back to you there, Sam. If anyone doesn't completely understand the sort of structure of Manchester United, sort of who has the power and who carries that responsibility? I think with power then comes the decisions which drips down into the situation that a lot of people are talking about, which obviously, you know, the form and then therefore, from there, the manager. What is the sort of power structure and who's in charge of what? The fact that I can't confidently answer that question is kind of the exact problem. But the fact is, at Manchester United, it's been somehow split into a footballing ownership of control. And that's by INIOS. And that's by CEO, which is Omar Berrada, and Jason Warcox in a sporting director. But the reality is that Jim Ratcliffe is far more of a meddling owner than we ever thought he was going to be. He's the billionaire who comes in. I was successful over here. So I'll tell you how to be successful over there. I haven't got any sort of track record in football. So you don't know how involved he is in a day-to-day decisions. You also don't know how involved the glazes still are behind the scenes. Now, of course, they've sort of gone back into the shadows. But truth is, every United fan still feels that there must be some sort of involvement from them. But we don't know this. And this is the exact problem, James. We are still talking about, I don't know how unique it is in comparison to all clubs around the world, but Manchester United's ownership structure still feels like an absolute corporate mess of you don't know exactly who is in charge of what, and you don't know where the power structure truly sits. I mean, ultimately on a, I suppose, on a sporting basis, it's Jason Warcox in a day-to-day right. Well, obviously Martin has spoken out, and that's turned the heat on Jason Warcox. So in terms of many United, if many United, if the club was to change manager, increase the transfer budget or sort of change the football strategy, who gets to say yes, impress the button and do that? Well, in theory, it's Jason Warcox, because he's a sporting director. So he directs the footballing direction of our football club. It will have to be signed off. I'm guessing by Omar Barada, but then signed off above by Jim Rackliffe and Joel Glazer most likely, because that's where the, when it becomes finance, it gets involved. So you're talking about like transfer budgets, that's probably going to have to go back towards Joel Glazer. That's kind of what we've been led to believe, but again, we don't truly know where the power structure lies, but Jason Warcox. Because I guess the difficult thing is that you've got, so from what I've got here in terms of voting power, 67.9% is from the Glazer family, 29% is from INIOS. INIOS? INIOS describing themselves as having the sporting control. Yeah. It makes no sense. Doesn't it? So they own 30% of the company, but they own 100% of how that company operates. Doesn't make any sense. Right. Like that, but that's just how the Glazers have somehow managed to find a bulletproof shield to put in front of them, which is even, look, it's not even worse. It actually pisses me off that people try to say that INIOS are worse than the Glazers. I think that really under, it just, it plays down how much damage done to this club for 20 years. So the best thing that ever happened to the Premier League was the Glazers take over of Manchester United. Otherwise, we were never probably got down to this point where we're at now, but we are really down. We're not out. We never will be out. But I hate to sort of keep repeating in sound like a United fan, it's just complaining. But that is just the truth that we will consistently go through this cycle, whether it's a year and a half, whether it's two years, whether it's two and a half years, we will keep repeating the cycle. Unfortunately for Carrick. And I don't know how's the enhancement feel, but it kind of feels like, as I said, that I've reached a point with Carrick probably far sooner than I've reached from a patient's perspective with Amarim and Tenhaar before, and it's probably because it has been Amarim and Tenhaar before, and it's probably a little bit unfair on Carrick, but it's just what's preceded him as my patients' worth in quicker. So Steve, because I was reading up on the effect of the Glazers. The word that came out of what was good, it was, the Glazers kind of create a drag in every form, a drag on the club kind of financially, obviously, with the dividends they're taking and the fact that it's built in debt. In terms of the problems that are kind of inherited then from the Glazers and then those decisions that Inya have to own, how do you see that divided in terms of where you find yourselves now? It's hilarious, isn't it? Like Sam says, it makes no sense how you would own two thirds of a company and allow someone owning a third of it to take all the responsibility for the operation of that company. It just shows you the complete absent parenthood that we've had with the Glazers. I think that all they're asked about is, are they getting their check at the end of the month? Can they keep the cow being milked? They don't care about the welfare of the cow, they don't care if it's successful, they just keep the cow on live support enough, hook out. If it's, can we get into the Champions League because that brings us in more money and more prestige? Yeah. How much is that going to cost? 200 mil. Okay. What about winning the league? Well, that'll cost you four or five hundred mil. There's your 200 mil, make sure they're in the Champions League. That's it. Now in my opinion, and it is purely opinion, I don't know this for fact, I actually believe that Ineos and Sir Jim Radcliffe want Manchester United to be successful for sporting reasons. Now, there's going to be people who disagree with that, there's going to be people that disagree with the methods that they've had to achieve that. But in my opinion, they actually do want us to be successful. I just think that the problem is that you've got this two thirds of the ownership, does not care, could not give less of a fuck whether we're successful or not, as long as they get their check at the end of that month. You're right, there is a drag that is created from the ownership, but everything goes back to the ownership. Is Michael Carrick doing enough? No, but he's got his hands tied because we probably didn't successfully bolster the squad enough to be able to compete this summer. Should we be able to compete with the likes of Leeds and Brighton and other teams? Yes. But obviously, to compete at the very top of the league, no. Okay. Was Jason Wilcox responsible for how that summer went in terms of getting rid of the likes of Marcus Rashford, Joshua Zerks here and bringing in other recruits? Yes. But was he told he could only spend $150 million if those players didn't move on? Probably. I don't know. I haven't spoken to him. I haven't got that information. So then it goes back up. The chain, doesn't it? All the way up to what are the glazes able to allow the club to spend? Because I'm not going to say give us because they've given us nothing. Any Manchester United season ticket holders put more into the club than they have in 21 years. You know, there's a reason it's been outlawed the way the club was bought with a leverage buyout because only Manchester United could have survived this. Any other football club would have already gone bump. And it's only the pure look of, you know, a financial crash not happening again. And the interest rates going through the roof that Manchester United is still a solvent football club. It's look, no one's judgment. And whilst they're still taking 100 and some at million out of the club for their debt for their interest payments, we're not going to be competitive. If I just said to you over the last five years, Manchester United could have spent an extra 500 million, a hundred million pound player every year for five years. Do you think the squad would look like it was in a different place right now? Of course it would. And that's the reality of servicing their debt that Manchester United have to deal with. Not just that they're not asked and they're absent parents. Not just the fact that they take rather than put in compared to some other owners. Not just the fact that they're probably incompetent and the fact that they hired a banker and there's no, you know, that's not a play on words. It was a literal banker to run a football club for a decade or more. And yes, we managed a small period of success, but all of that success was built before they came in. When you look at the few years prior to them coming in from 2000, there was a lot of money put into the Carrington, there was a lot of money put into the stadium. We had some as well. We spent serious money where we signed the likes of Sebastian Varan, Rude Van Nistaroi, Rio, Rune Cristiano Ronaldo and then you look at the summers that happened post there. There was maybe one or two good summers. The summer before we won the Champions League where you bought Nanny and Anderson, but even they weren't marquee names, it was like future gambles. All of those mega mega signings didn't really happen and they didn't happen because the club didn't have the ambition to go and actually be successful. They only want the ambition to just do that old Arsenal model of maintain top four, stay in the Champions League and let's milk this cow. The actions on the court and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Mika Lobe Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win court side seats, merch and more. Visit mikaLobeUltra.com/courtside to enter. Mika Lobe Ultra Courtside 26-27, no purchase necessary, open to US Residence 21+ begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027, multiple entry periods. To official rules at mikaLobeUltra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details. It's a wider ecosystem. You then have any of us working within that from a sporting point of view, Steve said there. If within that, obviously there's a huge fallout to the way that Manny and I are playing right now and there's a huge drop off from last season. That structure and what would you want to see from that structure to bring success to Manchester United? What would success even be for Manchester United? I think this is a conversation me and Sam have had probably had last two years, probably around this same time and I think there's always this sort of identity. not even an identity issue, I think there's a sort of like there's the understanding of what we know as Manchester United. And so, you know, the media, the press, before we were even recording here, we were talking about the amount of man United content creators that there are out there. The spotlight is so enormous. That's because Manchester United is an enormous football club. But with all these evidence that makes it so much harder for you to put together a good squad, if there was another 100 million available to the two men United this summer or just generally, would you trust Jason Wilcox and that group to spend it properly? And if they're not doing it that way, what would you want to see? What's the structure you would want to see? It's kind of a question for everyone here really, because you've all got kind of knowledge in that. It's like, what is the structure that you want to see? Because one thing I will chuck out there, and I think we're all guilty for it because we will have to give our opinions. And we're often quite results biased. We've all said it's getting there. It's all getting better. And we're seven games in. And we're in, we're talking about another crisis. Yeah, I think, well, I mean, for one, I think everyone everyone will agree with this. I think all my brother had the second biggest say in a point in ribbon hammering was Manchester United manager. I mean, that man's never appointed a manager in his life. So I don't understand why he was given, you know, such a big word. I mean, I wouldn't, James, to be honest, the short answer to your question is, no, I wouldn't trust them. This is the same group of people who hired Dan Ashworth and had him sat after four months of gardening leave and brought him back. And then the second he actually tried to direct this club in a sporting leadership way, they chose to get rid of him and bring up a technical director who had done nothing good at the club and giving him a step up into a director of football role to then make the decisions. Have you ever heard of a club paying for a director of football that they got rid of in the same, you know, a couple of months? That is honestly the most outrageous thing. And don't make it worse, what made it worse was that every single other fan of it, every single other club knew what had happened. Usually these like back, back, back, back staff, backroom staff, highers, hierarchy, highers, they're usually really nice, quiet, you don't really know the yard, they get brought in really quiet when they leave stuff for that. But for Manchester United, they paid what was it, eight million quid? For the latter, you built up Newcastle on, let's say, a massive budget led that club from being what you're describing now, James, is to take that next step just to be mildly competitive in the Champions League. He did that with Newcastle, he got brought in, he went against the decision that proved out to be a failure, which was keeping 10 hog. And then they got rid of him and then give a promotion to a guy who got that decision wrong. So straight away, this is, this is borderline, it's just borderline, it's not borderline, it is incompetence. It's the most backwards way of thinking. And then I think in doing what you say in right now, which is, would I trust them to lead this next ear of Manchester United with this or 100 million pounds that may be available extra is the answer will be no. I wouldn't trust them. So just about as that back then, what, because the problem is you, you know, you're in lads, but you're not in fans forever. So you want to trust them, don't you? You'd love to trust them. And Sam, I love to trust them. Yeah. I remember when I went Ratcliffe, came through the door, it felt, you know, you had Brailsford, you were like, the one percent, like, okay, it's going to be this and it's going to be this. Finally, there's a strategy, there's an understanding there. So you want to trust them. What, what could, or would earn your trust of any of that in your trust at this point? And trusted this, what is it? Any awesome Ratcliffe earning trust at this point? Yeah, because obviously, like, it's because the one thing we could say, and I should be down if I'm wrong here, is there was an element of, there was an element of strategy, was like, we wanted to sort that bit out first, the midfield bit. And then the Lewis Hall transfer was one where, obviously, the one in Lewis Hall, of course, you'd want Lewis Hall, but they didn't want to spend too much money on it. Just like an, an arsenal of God and said, no, Morgan Rogers, that's too much money. So these decisions kind of have to be made at different times. I'll be honest, I think like, when any of us came in, and when Ratcliffe came in with Brailsford, there was like an immediate, because we'd lived with the glaze and the shadows were so long night, Ratcliffe was visible. I think he went and met fans groups. There was a bit of communication at the start and all United fans, because we had no communication to have that, it's a bit like that first half against leads. That's kind of the bare minimum, but I've watched shit all season. So I'm going to think, I actually have a great performance. From reality, we should just have that communication, but we've never had it. And last season, I think they, I didn't agree with signing Cheshko, not because I didn't want Cheshko, but because would I have put 70 million into a striker? Or would I have put 70 million into a midfielder last summer? I would have chosen a midfielder. Now, of course, we tried to go for believer. That was a little bit too optimistic. It's a strange transfer, I'll probably be on it, going after the Ford, one from a midfield next summer, defense summer after, because you know, next summer, you're going to have to look at the attack again, because you waited three years between signing it. So I think allocation of funds, it's not just about funds, James. It's about allocation of funds. And if you want to talk about allocation of funds, and again, I'm not really, this is kind of, if you imagine at a time when Manchester United have lost a billion pounds in interest payments, we're severely in debt. You know what we need right now? It's a two billion pound new stadium. That's exactly what we need. And this summer, we spent 60 million pounds, which is Lewis Hall on buying a piece of land next to Old Trafford. That could have been the new leftback. We may never have had a leftback conversation this season, because we had Lewis Hall there the whole time. But instead, we're basically the, the, any of us in the glaze are trying to do two things at once. Well, maybe the glaze are, well, they're not trying to do anything to do with getting us ambitious again. But we're told that we're going to project 150, right? This thing that prod that Omar Berader has told us, we're going to compete for the title in 150th anniversary of the United's existence. So by 20th, 20th, 15th year. Yeah, okay. You didn't tell you how many 150 years, folks, like, but you can't sell this concept of this massive new two billion pound stadium, and all the investment it's going to require, you're not going to need to over invest to catch up with our rivals. And that's one of the things that pissed me off the most was this summer was first season without Guardiada in 10 years, new manager at Liverpool, new manager at Chelsea, question marks, right? They were, they were starting new things, our rivals. And it was an opportunity for you know, I did to have the Champions League and to build on it. Because again, that's one of the glazes did before. As Steve mentioned, you invest heavy get back instead of Champions League, and you pull back. But it's because us fans have been told about project 150, because us fans have been told the idea that the footballing ambition is coming back. But if the finances were never there, then we've been told something that was never really going to happen, because you can't close the gap on our rivals. If 150 mil really truly was to budget the whole time. Okay. So, like for example, Brighton cut with the league, Brighton cut with the league, because they can't exceed certain payments, same as Newcastle, same as Villa. They all get, they all get ballets by PSR and FFP, and they have to keep a, keep a lid on it type thing. That's what that fans are champion about. We've also got that, but instead of the league putting the cap on the spending, it's the owners putting a cap on the spending. That's the difference. So you did same for the same reason that you knew Castles, your Brightons and stuff like that. They will never win the Premier League. It's the same reason that this ownership on this model can't win the league, not to mention as well. They're whole thing about running a football club on a shoe string of a budget. Arsenal are spending more on average every single year, the more they're in the league. The more that article stays there, they're spending more on players, spending more per match day, everything, everything is more. So I don't get as businessmen how you try and win the most competitive league on the planet with a shoe string budget or with it by cutting costs and marginal gains. But then on top of that, they're going to bring back our most expensive player per week with Marcus Rashford who's on reported £350,000 a week. They're going to bring him back, not sell him, and then not actually use him even when he's available. So your most expensive asset in a football club is not dinner ladies and all that stuff. It's, it's the guys that on the bench and they've either refused to a cut tie to get rid of him or b, at least choose to play him because he's an asset and they're not choosing to do either. So I think the reality is it's just, it's just a great, it's just a really bad time to be a Manchester United fan because they just feel like there is a little bit of a block on what he's actually doable here. And to be honest, like I was pretty decent on the midfielders that we were signed bit in the summer. I've been championing Ballet for a long, long time, tealermonds for me league proof in midfielder, but let's not, let's not argue and say that they were the first choice for Manchester United. It was Ternalli and Mattias Fernandez. It was so obviously them too. And I, and I think the fact that that's turned around to be Tottenham. They were in a similar situation and their owners have gone turn around and gone less and we've got we've got a church, a church in sync. It just kind of shows the difference between us and even from Tottenham. So, that's the thing. I think again, I always got, I'd go back to the start of the season and we're, we do it every year where we're like, they'll keep, you know, this is it now, okay. Those five, those guys that came in last year, were successes weren't they overall, you know, could you and Burma? Lamonds was a, it was a huge success in terms of coming in for small amount of money. So, I'll come back to you, Steve, with context, because I think that, now we sort of, I think we understand that, that side of it. You guys are all pretty clear on that. When we then get to get to the pitch. That's where I understand that ownership element of it. I understand the fact that really the purchases are between 50 and pushing it as far as you can when it comes to sesco when it comes to the money side of it. But on the pitch, that's where I have a lot more empathy for Carrick and the situation there. And again, there's an issue between finding your feet and moving forwards and becoming a, because man United, as well as they did last season, that squad still feels in and amongst it, because I was watching the game yesterday. And there's always that phrase of this is much united. So I found myself writing down, this is the premier league. And what I meant by that was this league, the mediocre teams in this league are physical and win their headers and are good set pieces, defending and attacking and a solid on the board. The floor of the premier league is so much higher now. So as much as this is about United, you got to understand where you are when it comes to the premier league. And so then if you haven't got that star striker, which the pods called the ripple effect, I can't get away from, yeah, I think you said at start, didn't you see that not having an out and out striker to sort of entertain and battle with two center backs to stretch your ought to come short to allow and burmo to play on the right and then be able to get in behind as a sort of wide forward as much as a winger to allow Bruno Fernandez, as someone is a bit of a backboard to play off. You don't have all of that within this light squad, it feels like the more you look at it, it's going to get really difficult. That's what that's kind of where I sit on it when it comes to carrot because I know Sam, you've, I'm not trying to free you under the bus here, but you're done with carrot a little bit, aren't you? You think he's kind of out. Steve, you're on the other side of it. Am I right? Larger, yeah. I mean, especially yesterday, I saw some stuff that I thought he needs a lot more credit for the box midfield with the ball and the shape without the ball. I thought that was quite ballsy for a manager that's under the level of pressure that he's under. A lot of managers when when their under pressure will just go, I'm sticking with what I know and I'm going to vote for the best. And I thought that that shone some real tactical innovation that, especially with all the noise about what had happened with Martin as midweek at the metropolitan. I know it would have been so easy to be like, I'm just going back to basics this week. It's leads is what we're going to do. But the fact that we actually saw some tactical innovation, I've got to say well played and I've got to say that took some balls to do. And I think the context is important and I think the patience is important. The guys are 10 games in charge of Manchester United as permanent manager. That is a different job to come in and be the interim and get us back in the Champions League or whatever the the the remit was the day that he came in. And I think we have to remember that. And like I said at the top when I was like, you know, you've got Bruno. It's a it's a political problem as much as it is a selection problem at the moment. If you drop Bruno Fernandez with everything that he did last season, you better win. Because if you don't, you're going to get absolutely raked over the calls. But Bruno Fernandez right now isn't just defying getting a start. And that's a really awkward position to be in. And it's not like you've got two other players that you go, Joe, if I just throw him in, he's absolutely going to score for us. Brian and Boomo is the only threat on a pitch in the Manchester United shirt at the moment. I wouldn't put money on anybody else coming close to scoring a goal for us. So it's a horrendous predicament. You may create a, ain't creating your main goal scorer, ain't getting on the pitch. The only other guy that scoring goals, if he gets injured, just shut the shut, just shut up shut us and forget about everything. We've decided that we no longer know how to defend crosses and set plays, which is absolutely killing us. So we can't even like win again, one deal at the moment. Like there's, there's issues at the top. There's issues at the back. Midfield might be the only saving grace in the club at the moment. And like one of the lads said a second ago, like you're going to have to reinvest into the attack soon because we've got these sort of like number 10s. If you like not really out and out wingers in CUNYER and in BUMO, yes, they were probably a success. But they're not really everything that we need. And they're kind of now being played as either as a false nine or as an out and out striker rather than in a position that actually suits them. Just because we don't have any other options. And one of the other things that I'm seeing as well is and this was against spurs. It was like one, why are we pressing against the deserbi team? Like, deserbi himself couldn't have text you a better thing that he wanted you to do. Like he wants you to try and press his center halves and his goalkeeper. Meanwhile, we're committing six players to try and do that. Well done, lads. Did no one watch any football of what this manager likes beforehand. And at the same time, when we're trying to see the game out late on in the game, two things are happening. One, we've sank back into our box, which we don't know how to defend. So why would you do that? And the second thing that we've done is we've brought on zirkecy. We've got kune. We've got Bruno, all of them are occupying the exact same space on the football pitch. You can throw a blanket over the three of them, meaning Brian and boom always the only person on the pitch that wants to stretch the opposition and spurs just went two of us. Sort of. Yeah, all right. Cool. No problem. And then all of our attacking outlet is done. So you're looking for maybe a little bit of interplay and look back in front of the edge of the box. But how often are you going to get that one spurs is sitting so deep? Like there was two really almost monumentally dumb things that are so far from us in that particular game. Is that not and it's another game that that's the way we went against ever and add that to the way it went against leads where we just can't hold on to a lead because we're not good enough at the moment. So because I want to give Sam a right play after throwing him under the bus. Yeah. What is because to see what Steve's got to finish on there is are this, you know, two point decisions from the manager in terms of in terms of the pressing. So so why do you feel why are you on the other side of this when it comes to to carrot? It's this isn't me throwing Michael Carrick under the bus. You know, the reflection of that is I feel like it's an inevitability at this point. I think when it comes to Michael Carrick and the lads of touching this as well, when it comes to the squad building like the idea that Jim Rackliffe said at the start up, we're going to stick to a start of play. That was something they did say at the very beginning, but I lost three managers. We've gone from a three at the back to Michael Carrick last season, who let's be honest, Carrick adopted that deeper like the first game against city Steve Holland comes in, you know, to go 442 out of possession. We defend our box really well. We kept the clean sheet and we won. And that's kind of what we did all for that season. We're a transitional team. The physical output dipped as the season went on. Was that because Amarim left and the fitness sort of left a little bit. We were hearing about short training sessions with Carrick. Well, in my opinion, that meant this summer, which is kind of what Carrick said. That sort of clip that went around from a Yuri Tiedemanns and Rio about the fact that, you know, not running as much because obviously the World Cup happened. So we're kind of focusing on the technical side of things. In my view, I was expecting Michael Carrick's, you know, I'm not saying he's going to do exactly what he did at Middlesbrough, but it was a slower pace of play. It was more about possession. It was more about control. And that's no surprise like we as the United fans have seen Michael Carrick and his pump and we know how he plays football. And I'm not saying that's exactly how he wants his teams to play. But there were elements and games this season. I think it might have been Everton, where it was I think it was Kobe. I think it was Telemanns and we were actually some good central progression. Like that's kind of not really happened too often at this club. Central progression hasn't existed. We've gone down the fullbacks and down the wings because we're so crap. We can't string four passes together through the middle, but Kobe has developed this season. And that's why I understood Telemanns. I understood Santos was a, I called it underwhelming at the start. I think he's actually looked good in the last couple of games. But is it a little bit strange? It's been a 50 million on Santos. When you're thinking, is he really going to be exactly what you want? Or is it just the fact that you've missed out on Mateus Fernandez? Well, so far he's not played that much. Been the last couple of games. I think we've, there's been elements, but if we're going to forgive the fact that we're, I suppose not, but running isn't everything, right? Dynamism, I think, who was it? I think it was Wayne Mooney that said it the best on BBC. It said, it's more, if you can be dynamic in a mid block, you just have to go up to you man quickly and come back to your space, whereas, I suppose, was the most passive 45 minutes you'll ever see from United. And that's, that was the game that made me go, because that was after 20 days, by the way. That was after a three, like we had the city defeat, then turn it up against Brighton, then we lost against Brighton, and then we had Fullham where it needed to couldn't be a late equalizer. 20 days we had to stir on that. And 20 days to think we can come back with a little bit of a fresh start, which is the word that Michael Carrot used after Leeds. And then we had Spurs, which like couldn't, the worst, the least fresh start you could ever have. Of course, we couldn't hold onto that lead, same like we couldn't hold onto Everton. It just, I felt that I was expecting to see a lot more of a technical improvement from United in terms of how good we are on the ball. And I do agree with C. And this is where I've got a lot of empathy for Carrot, because it's not just the case of like Wave the Magic Wand Hell, Spurs are in the fucking relegation zone, Liverpool last season. It's not just about spending a shitload of cash. You got to spend it correctly. All right. I'm not just saying that more money was automatically the solution. But we don't have a striker this season. We play one game of season last season. We have played 10 games so far, and we've used five different leftbacks. It's just, it's insane that they are the two clear weaknesses in the squad. And the, in the summer, they just decided, no, you know what? We're not going to do anything. Not even going to go for an EGALO emergency deadline signing, which is our classic striker. But definitely going to do that in January, by the way. You can choose whatever 30 plus your old striker we're going to sign on deadline day in January, because we're going to sign one. But it's just, it's, the reason I've sort of reached this point with Carrot, as I said, it's because it's like, here we go again. Like the same things, it if you like, if you take a plaster off and you put a fresh one on the wound eventually comes back through. And that's kind of what we're seeing. It's a different manager. It's a different approach, but the same things just keep, do you not think that that's just going to occur again though? Yeah, I know it's going to occur again. It's the exact fucking point. We are stuck in a forever cycle. Yeah, we are stuck in a forever cycle of every, whether it's 18 months, whether it's three years, I think Ollie's been the longest manager post-furgey. I think, I think he has like two and a half seasons. I think it might be in Jose before that. And he went in third season. No managers lasted past the third season that united. And I can't see that ever changing until the ownership changed at this club. Hey, Chad, do you feel about this? Because so for me with Carrick, again, context is crucial in all this. Like, I think the leads game he's gone, it was old school in the sense of, let's not lose this game football. Let's, let's, we're going to have to play on the counter attack a little bit here. Lamonds went long, and I think his ass has fallen out a little bit in terms of wanting to sort of get on the ball, play the ball through the thirds. There was a 10 minute spell in the second half after Leeds is scored where you were, you were having those sort of small, cut smaller connections and combinations playing the ball in. And because you had that overload in the middle, which are quite like, but I do think not having certain bodies that you need out there, in particular, that striker. That's just not going to change regardless of who's up there. And Burma is doing the best job. That was the other thing I wrote down. I wrote the word asking. You're asking and Burma to be up top for a bit. You're asking DeLo to be left back. All these things are actual occurrences. But I know, I know that you're not happy with some of the decisions from Carrick. So how do you feel about Carrick? And if he's going to retrieve the situation, find that footing, which I think to that Liverpool put a leads game, but Steve's saying, if you're solid, you've got a guy who can finish up top, you get yourself a goal. You don't give away a silly goal down the other end from across another cross. You've snuck a one new win, you know, blood and thunder. We've got it done. That's, that's that foundation. Everyone who's spoken about that midfield too, who didn't really get on the ball much because they weren't really given the ball much, right? But the word that everyone used was solid. So that's that's a foundation, but you need the results as well. You need to kind of get away with one sometimes. So with the ball and without the ball, how do, how does Carrick retrieve the situation for you? Is it just a personal thing or is he just not good enough? Well, I think it was all right. I think I agree with Steve most of what he said, he's said, he took bollocks to go and do that on roll. I do agree with that. I think I said, to be honest, the reason why he's the news because United can't press back for easy without a problem with it. Like literally since Carrick have come in, we do four, two, four, lead even massacred us in preseason in general play, same as AC Milan at every banana and play the same exact shape, day massacred us in preseason, leads a old truffered last season, day battered us doing the exact same thing. So we talked about, felt it was quite brave. United can not press back for easy. I honestly, every single time United play back for you this season, if Michael Carrick still in charge of going watch it, it will be a blood buff in terms of press versus build up. He's really bad. So I think it made sense to do it. I think it was also a pretty damn in line up. I mean, he went to three, four, three, because we've got no wingers. I mean, I think this is like, well, you left winger, wasn't he? Yeah, I just think it's still a point. This was like the bit where I was like, yeah, it makes sense to match him up, but this has like a bit of an underbelly to the line up, which is like, well, we've got loads of midfielders now or four who he wants to play. And well, five if he would club it, we've got no natural wide players. So why not just try and go over boxing the center. And to be honest, I think a few people have been saying to try to use a diamond and stuff like that. Yeah, maybe he, maybe he should, because this is the handy still. And I think he does, I think he does deserve credit for adapting because I've had it so many times these last few weeks about Michael Carrick, where he's getting battered for this idea that he's a really, really, really stubborn tactical coach. He's one that never, ever changed. He's rigid. I watched his last game in charge of Middlesbrough at Middlesbrough. Like I watched it. He was doing the exact same thing because when I analysed him for the first week that he was there. So yeah, there was a point. The difference is that team, it looks completely different to this man United team. And the main reasons are is that, well, we don't have the wingers. So everything comes through the center and everything comes in the center. And I know some were saying before that we saw central progression at Everton. And this is what Michael Carrick is wanting to do. He wants to get everyone in the middle, in the middle of the pitch, who want to play nice, little cute passes in there. But I don't think that is how Michael Carrick wants to play. I think that's just because he's got a team of wing fielders or number 10s or wide number 10s, whatever you want to call them. There's so many of them. And even Brian and Bumo, who we're all saying, maybe in a good, maybe in a not, you know, alternate world, maybe he's playing right wing and we got Cessko up front, that he's still going to come inside everything's inside. I think one of the good things that I actually fought was in the Everton game, which I do agree was probably one of our better performances in terms of playing. I thought that best player in that game was Marcus Rashford. And that's because he's a proper winger. He's an actual winger. Everything that Manchester United did yesterday against Leeds at Ellen Road going forward came down. I'm a Diallo side. Whether or not it was the past played by Diallo, whether or not it was a run made by him, everything was either still played through him or off him. Look at the Tealamons assist for the Brian and Bumo goal. He's played off a natural winger who he's playing wide. And I just think these are really key points that whilst I do agree that at the moment, I think there are massive problems with with what Michael Carrick's trying to do at Manchester United. I do think that the 424 high press is well, well to, well to adventurous for this team right now. You've still got Lassandra Martinez and Maguire in the back four who were not mobile enough to, to cover the wide channels when the four back jumps high. We saw it in them same games that I'm telling you about AC Milan in preseason was the most obvious one. I'm a rim new to stick the ball in behind the center halves and make them defend wide because they couldn't. Fans have been calling for Lenny Euro because he's got more mobility. Fans have been calling for Carlos believe it because there's so much space in the field. The moment that Steve was referring to in the Spurs game, whereas Spurs play literally walked past our forward front six as he's walking out the back and we're trying to press high. Then moments dwindle so much more if you've got Carlos Belabor in there. I just think that right now, I think some of the bigger injury problems that we've got in this team, well, some of the lesser injury problems aren't as big as it seems. Like, I think I'm a Diallo. Marcus Rashford's Cesco in Bumel, Cunya, they've not really been fit at all all of them this season. And I think you're not really seeing what Manchester United want to be this season because of that. So I do have massive sympathy for Michael Carrick when it comes to that. But all in all, I still think that the manager, the manager will be the one to blame after all of this I do think physically Manchester United are the worst team pamphold in the league. I confidently believe that that, in my opinion, is a conditioning point of view. The coaches have to take responsibility for the amount we've run. You were mentioning before that when we were saying we could be dying, I'm making a mid block. The distances could be shorter. Do you remember the full-arm game where I think it was, I think it was actually Gary Denver who called it out and said he's one of the most embarrassing 45 minutes he'd seen at Manchester United. Maybe it wasn't that to me, but what it was was mannequin football. You can defend in a 4-4-2, Arsenal defending a 4-4-2. They're the hardest mid block team in the world. Why do you think that is? Because they're aggressive over small spaces. They step out. The distances are tight. None of that you can compare to what my United are doing right now. And the problem is, is that United want to go from being this 4-4-2 deep block team that we've seen last season under Michael Carrick where we were, you know, snatching away from home, you know, getting goals on the break. Then what we can't be that long term, and on the underlying data, there is so much that points in the way of Michael Carrick is trying to instruct more build-up play longer sequences of passes, higher pressing situations. But then as soon as you take your back line and you put it from the edge of your own box and put it on the edge of their box, that's when all of my United's problems unfold. Sent about not more by enough midfielders, not more by enough car control games, forwards can't stretch out wide because we've got no wingers. We've got no center forward for a focal point. The fallbacks aren't going to fall overlapping. They're not going to run in forward. So everything just unfolds as soon as you move Manchester United, 30 yards higher up the pitch. So I do have sympathy for Michael Carrick, yes, because I do think there are a lot of squad headaches that he's having to deal with. But I also agree with the flip side, which is the tactical, Manchester United are physically very, very poor. The speed of the ball is so poor. And to be honest, I think there was probably one sequence in that lead game in the second half where United got the ball down and played and it actually resulted in a chance apart from that. We were just not passing the ball. I still got a result, literally an hour after was going to the city ground up for us. It was one of the worst games I've ever put on my television. They got it because they had the ball, not because they threatened, not because they were running in behind all the time, not because they were competitive in joules, because they had the ball high in the opposition's half. It gets you territory and it equals danger. Manchester United and that game, and in the games gone by, Tottenham especially, they do not have enough danger or territory to threaten to score. And that's why my United never looked like scoring when they're on the ball, because they're nowhere near the area that need to be to score goals. The actions on the court, and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Mikalobe Ultra is getting fans closer to the game, with a chance to win court side seats, merch, and more. Visit Mikalobe Ultra.com/courtside to enter. Mikalobe Ultra Courtside 26-27, no purchase necessary, opens to U.S. Residents 21 Plus, begins on October 1st, 2026, and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods, to the official rules at Mikalobe Ultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. Everyone knows what your vote is, and to what Steve was saying about Bruno's struggling right now. But at the same point, if you drop Bruno Fernandez, you know the manager is getting hammered for it. That said, if you were able to go to a cubicle, no one ever knew what your vote was, but you got to decide if Bruno Fernandez was sort of rested or taken out of the side, would you drop Bruno Fernandez? There's no way that you can take Bruno Fernandez out of Manchester United at start 11. For the mere fact that you can correlate this, so I can't be bothered to do the research, but you can correlate the fact that Manchester United won a game of football. Ah, Bruno Fernandez has played well. He's probably scored. He's probably got an assist. Bruno has a shit game. United don't win a game of football. There is nobody else in this squad right now. You can point at Kunya, and Bruno Mano has got four in six this season. You can point at Ahmed Rashford, anybody else. Nobody takes the mantle. I'm surprised it's taken Bruno this long to crumble under carrying this whole fucking team, which he did last season. And he hasn't been able to do this season. And while I wouldn't, I wouldn't take Bruno out to start 11. I think the mistake that Carrick is making is like, but leads, for example, 45 minutes. He was hot headed in that game. Bruno has an emotional player anyway, but leads. It was hostile. They were playing on him. He was getting, was it Ampedo left to foot? No, no, he was, he left one on him. I think it was an Ampedo. I don't know whether it was going to be half time or not. But Bruno for Kunya would have been an earlier switch to I would have made. I think if I was going to speak about resting Bruno, I think it's more that when it comes to around the 60th minute mark, Eric's got to look at him in the same way that he would look at Teedermans or Manu or Belieber or anybody else and go, I can take you off now and put somebody else on. And I think that's a slight mistake that Carrick is making is that Bruno's just getting full 90s, even if he looks absolutely shagged and out on his feet. You said it was political, Steve, what did you mean by that? I think if you drop the club captain, who was your player in the year last year, it's political. There's no two ways around it. I think that if you, there's certain players who get the benefit of being played through bad form and clearly, Bruno for Nandez has earned that right this season. But I think that it's to a detriment to his own ability and his own form that he's being played through to us at the moment. I think he's tired. I think he's played injured and I don't think it's helping him. I think a couple of weeks off, not because it is kind of because he's not playing well, but at the same time, it's not because he's playing well. It's a case of let's have a couple of weeks where you're not running yourself into the game. There's a guy that plays 90 minutes every week no matter what for years. It's intensely so. He's telling me that he couldn't do with a couple of days, a couple of games off. Work on your rehab, get your sleep sorted, come back fresh and let's have a right good look at it. I think you'd get a better version of Bruno for Nandez. It's not a case of dropping and we'll figure him out. No, like take him out of the squad on a couple of games where you can, but who is that at the moment? I have no idea who that would be. That's the political part of it. You drop Bruno for Nandez, you better win because if you like some just said Manchester United win when Bruno plays well. So the balls on you to be like, I'm going to rest him because I think he needs a rest. Even he won't agree with you because he won't play every single week. So if you do drop him like, that's why it's political is because it's more than just resting Bruno for Nandez because it's tired. That is your talisman. That is your club captain. If you drop him. God help you. I drop him. Did you drop him? I drop him. Right. I don't think this is, I don't think it's that big of a, like honestly, like I'm really sorry. When you were speaking then you're talking about winning when Bruno for Nandez plays well and losing when he doesn't play well. We're not winning. We're not winning games. So what's to lose if we drop, if we drop him? I don't, I just think it's probably a few, sorry, it was just one for me where Phil Folden was pretty much dropped to the bench after E1PFA player of the year. The entire season. He struggled. And I know we're talking about little old city and stuff like that. And I know this is Manchester United and I know he's called captain. Footballers do not play 90 minutes every week. Every game. He didn't. And it's not possible. But Kyle Sakker does not play 90 minutes every week for Arsenal. He doesn't. He's just, this is just something for me where I just think, yeah, I do agree that if we don't win, and Bruno and Nandez doesn't play the entire game, that yeah, it'll probably go, well, what have you dropped Bruno, stuff like that. But there is nothing, there is nothing in my mind that could go against trying something new. We're talking about him being bossy at Leeds and trying to find out a solution. If that, if he thinks that solution could be potentially to get, coming out of New Belay, but Teedermans all on the same line of midfield and proper pack it out in there and leave three players for instead of four, I could not sit here and say to you, that would be a flat out wrong thing to do. We're talking about Manchester United's midfield, getting ran through. We're talking about playing with four forwards, high pressing on their, on their buildup. If he went four, three, three, change the shape out of possession and balked out the midfield and took Bruno or even took, even if he took Bruno's position and moved it down one, just to give us a bit more weight for that midfird, I don't really see how that would be looked at in a negative view. I don't think it has to come with completely eradicating Bruno from the line up, but I mean, go and look at some of the line ups that city, Arsenal, playing in the Champions League. This doesn't have to be a massive, massive thing. It's only a massive thing because we're losing games or drawing games because we're not losing. I think it's easier to rotate as well when you're winning games time and time again. I think that's like every game of crisis, isn't it, or feels like from the outside, even if the fanbase and the stadium are keeping their shit together. I think that's the point, isn't it? And I think managing them in it's like Steve said is makes sense, especially when you've got some options knocking about there, that can play in that similar role. Final question, I've got one each for each of you, right? In terms of solving Man United and they return back to the glory days and finally, we'll free you smile on this podcast when we do it again in two years time. So here are your questions each, Harrison, start with you. What must Man United stop doing immediately? Jesus, playing football matches. It's got every game called off, it's got every game called off. Jesus, in the, on the pitches, there's one thing you should do, stop this. Hoof in it? Just hoof in it. There was a moment against Leeds and there's this funny video that we played. We played Newcastle and it's got like Ronaldo and Tellers in it and they're all running over the ball, kicking it, it's like crash band wall at ball. And that's like the last 30 minutes of a game against Leeds. If you watch the game, Kun use trying to smash on from 40 yards, Bruno is trying to whip one in from the center circle. Someone tries to cross it back into the box on our halfway line when it comes out for a corner when there's a player to the right about to me as well, they could just square it and then start walking on the pitch. Man United are just so frantic on the ball and I understand it's hell and roll, then it's funny because we went to have like a coma dread and we actually put our foot on the ball and we actually started to play. I don't see how and it all starts with lamonds and then they got on the back too and then the fall back and all that. But can we just have like just a little bit, a little bit of like calm, like we bought we bought ceilamonds and Santos because they're supposed to be good at receiving on the edge of the box. We go watch Asden Villa and what Enri does every goal kick right? You'll tell the meat ceilamonds can't come and get the ball off the edge of the box and play with it. That's their entire thing, that's all Villa do, they play on the edge of the box and then they suck you on and then they hit you big space. That's what we're supposed to be good at. So I just like to see, I've been going to coma, I think we've got like born within there at some point. I can't remember somebody of the games but I just want to see United sort of play a bit more and just be a bit cooler because we know we can't run and I just think just mask a few minutes and weaknesses by just having a bit of respite on the ball and just being a bit calmer overall because there's no way that Carrick's going to be buzzing with that on the touch line or at least instructing us to go along all the time and it's not like we'll unpin it forward to Sasco. It's in Boomer. When you've seen it, you've seen a different type of football last year as well, that's the other thing. Steve, your question is this, what should Manchester United commit to the two years? Not forever. two years committing to one thing, what is it? - I'm happy I didn't get that question. - Probably the same manager, to be honest, because like some said, we haven't had anyone that's had a long period of time. Let's go through the rough patches. Do you think anyone would be allowed to finish eighth consecutive like our title was? Now it's not to say that everybody that finishes eighth consecutive gets to go on and win a title, but even Jürgen Klopp struggled for a couple of years in second heavily before, you know, and was being poorly compared to Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool. But I think if you believe in what someone does, give them the time and the resources. 10 games is not enough, especially with the context of the injuries and the situation that we find ourselves at the club, and I agree what Harrison was saying about hoofing it. If you had CESCO up there, that's one thing because that's a player that I think has got some level of holder, but I don't think we're talking primary to a drug, but I think we've got someone that can actually get all of a ball and maybe even knock it back and then spin and run in for someone to knock it through for him. But when it's Brian and Boomo at five foot nine, I'm fancy my chances against being able to stop him winning that, drop me. So I think like a little bit of intelligence would be nice, but go down the path, let's actually go down, whether it was Louis, whether it was Josie, whether it was Oli, whether it was Tenhaar Gorhamrim, we haven't gone through the process of seeing what someone's final form actually looks like as a football club. And I don't actually know if you'd get there in two years, it might take three, it might take five, but let's try and go down the road. Any of us tell us that they're about long term and they're about data and about this, that new level. Well, there's data, 10 games out enough. So let's go down the road and let's find out what it actually looks like. Let's go to say, right, okay, what does your final form look like and be realistic about it? Can we get there with seven eight signings? Okay, well, how long is that gonna take? Cause two, three windows, right? Okay, and let's work towards that. And maybe you have to come out and say, it might require a bottom-up finish, but we believe in this project and it will be a project that ends up with Manchester United challenging for a title. And you'd say that as much as there are fans as you do to the players that you're gonna try and bring in on the project, rather than just thinking that one bad finish is gonna get a bullet for this manager and we'll just find the next little hipster manager across Europe and we'll bring him in. And then we're like, oh, you don't understand Manchester United, you've been in, get somebody else in, and before you know it, they end up with Conte, like everyone thinks it's probably gonna happen anyway. Are you asked, sorry, James, just once I think of it. Steer, are you genuinely asked about who the manager is? Are you asked about the, cause the one question I always get given is, are you asked about the way we win if as long as we win? Are you asked about who the manager is, what type of person he is, what type of character? Are you asked about any of that? Do you just simply want to give whoever it is in charge always two years? - No, I am asked. I think it matters. I think having an identity that suits who Manchester United are matters. I don't think it's win at all costs. I think that does matter. It's not the be all an end all. I think you can overlook a hell of a lot of things, but I think it does matter broadly, yeah. - I think I consider that as well, cause a lot of people just want to win. A lot of people just want to win and they don't really care how to win so they don't get Conte in, but like if I want to, if I want to see my club win, I want to do it in a way that's like, that's not like our way or my way or where the way I would prefer it. Like for me, I would think it may never happen. It's probably not a massive chance of not happening, but I'd rather see Michael Carrick with the Premier League title on the picture or Trafford parading it than Antonio Conte, that type of manager. I just think it's quite, I'd rather buy into something now than, for example, the reason why I'm massively without the Rubin Ameriman sort of what he was doing is because they're talking about us being a family as you night and stuff. I think Carrick does that. Carrick literally bends over backwards for his players in press conferences, no matter what he defends him with an inch of his life, he never slugs off any player. That's a polar opposite of what Rubin Ameriman did. And I know it's different types of love, but I want to see my manager truly, truly love this club and then go on to do it. I don't want to see someone come in, take heads, win it, fuck off and then leave us in a state. You know what I mean? I want to do it proper. Sam, find a question for you. I'll find a question to the pod. What evidence do you need to see to not change your mind and Carrick as you've explained that you just kind of feel like it's inevitable at this moment in time? But what makes it not inevitable if that's even possible? Well, Michael Carrick was successful. He was more than successful when he came in as the interim boss, right? He was, I think he was top of the league by the end of the season in terms of points gained from when he came in to the end of that season. But it like Harrison's touched on it there, like, when it comes to watching United and like being asked about a manager being asked about how they play, if United played how we did against leads in every single game of the season and then we won the league by going, won the lap and then by sitting into a deep back five, I mean, we win the league, but that for me wouldn't be Manchester United. So I would be asked about that. If I'm talking about what I need to see from Carrick, as I said, clearly there was an emphasis on the technical approach and I was expecting United this season to have, I suppose, not just more possession, but more intent in build up. I want to see the patterns. That's all I really want to see. I'm not expecting United to be glorious in every single game, but you're talking about who from the ball up there to fucking nobody. There's like, there's different ways of playing long ball. There's a long ball with intent or there's crap. Let's get this ball as far away from our goal as we possibly can as quickly as we can. So it was panic mode clearing. It is about the build up. And I think we've got the midfielders there. Like obviously Cobb has been injured for the last couple of games, but that's why we signed Belieber, Telemanns and Santos. It is to make United. Hey, let's bait the press. Let's have Telemanns drop in between your two centerbacks. Come at me because I can play around you. Like Spurs, for example, United and we did this and we've done it so often, not just under Carrick, by the way, but under a lot of teams. We invited the Spurs press forward. And then it went from McGuire to Martinez to Luke Shaw, our crap, nobody's passed it to. Let me knock it long. Back the ball came you if you're going to bet. And that's what I would love to see is us to actually encouraging teams to come at us towards the edge of our own box and creating our own big spaces by forcing the opposition to come forward. And that's when those balls over the top from Bruno, who might be deeper or Telemanns to Rashford or to Ahmed or to and Bumo would actually be with intent, rather than a fact, let's just get rid of it. That's what I was hoping to see more of this season. That's why I mentioned the Everton game because there's been certain games and certain moments and actually, if let's go as way, we actually did it, we had some good progression and some good moves. And Telemann's playing a little bit further forward, actually created two really nice chances and I'm Bumo didn't finish them. But that's what I'd like to see. There's been elements of passing patterns. I think that's what Carrick really wants to bring in and I'll just, we kind of revert into sort of a fact, we got to win games now. Let's go with the back five. And that's not going to, it's supposed to be the build. And I know that at these points in time, you can sort of go back against the wall and say, right, we've got to get the result. I don't really think that's going to be something that takes Carrick forward. - Yeah, I think we all can appreciate the leads game. It was one of those where I think isolation, it's like, get through this one. - Absolutely, and I met one all draw away at Enemro for United in any season in isolation. It's going to be like, that's pretty fucking decent result. I'm taking that. But it's the six results that have preceded it, which have created the context. - Yeah. Boys, I know you're all so, so busy. So I can't thank you all enough for spending well over an hour with me. I know I presume you're all fuming. So I'll let you all go. But links to all of you, your channels will be in the description. Guys, obviously, I'm sure you watch all of them, but make sure you do, 'cause the insights there, the integrity's there, and the quality's there. So massive thank you to all three of you. I hope you don't get to see your legs at some point in person soon. (laughing) Guys, follow the podcast, subscribe to the channel, all the different things, click the buttons, and we'll speak to you soon. (upbeat music)