He said they'd win one title in 4 years. He didn't specify which one.

Sack everyone at United for letting Klopp go to Liverpool.

Virtually every United fan i know would swap LVG for Klopp in a heartbeat.

Seeing him at Liverpool is a bad joke gone really bad.

Every united fan was delighted with lvg after the world cup. Now they want to upgrade because of irrational fear liverpool will do something. You're going to finish above pool.

(1) You have dozens of clubs trying to accomplish what Swans and Saints are currently accomplishing though. Sunderland and Newcastle are still way ahead of most of them. Someone is bound to catch lightning in a bottle for awhile. (This is the same reason assuring a top 4-6 finish has become so damn expensive. You don't just have to hold off Everton or Swansea, you have to hold off the field. One year it'll be Aston Villa who the stars align for. then it'll be Newcastle. Then Everton. With all these clubs out there *someone* is gonna wind up in the juicy part of the bell curve. You have to pay a pretty premium to make sure you can outperform whoever that is, which you can see in the price tags on guys like Lallana, Lamela, Nasri, Fernandinho, etc. You're forced to pay double, triple, quadruple the fee and wages for a player who might only be 10-20% better than the alternative bought by Southampton or West Ham.)

(2) I don't think anyone is implying that any club's position is set in stone. Looking to a club's budget is simply a useful way to establish a benchmark for identifying over- or under-achievement. From that point different clubs will have different standards based on the circumstances. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the team with the third or fourth highest budget will be more or less satisfied if their league position stays in line with that. There will be temptation at times to roll the dice and maybe win the league, but ultimately the fear of losing the bird in hand will cause them to stand down. The calculation is much different for a team in the position of Spurs or Liverpool, or a team plummeting towards relegation. They will have far less fear of abandoning the status quo. I know some people get their kicks by mocking LFC's ambitions, but they seem to be rooted in logic to me. Getting where Arsenal have been would be a tremendously rewarding coup, whereas the only consequence of tumbling down to 9th would be avoiding the Europa league and giving American* Spurs fans something to crow about. I think the owners who should be targeted for criticism are the ones who *should* approach decision-making this way but are instead content to sit on their TBTDITW profits and call it a day.

*Edit: I should probably explain this comment. Maybe I'm wrong but in my experience it seems like UK-based supporters are a little less consumed by schadenfreude. My theory has always been that many American viewers chose to support Spurs because of a perception that they were the happy medium between feeling like a front-runner and feeling hopeless, and therefore enjoy the suffering of anyone who wasn't so honorable in their choice (kinda like: "picking the Yankees or Red Sox would be cheap, but I don't want to never win anything either......I know, I'll support this fun young Cubs team! That should pay off in a year or two without being tacky!" Only if you then found out that baseball was structured in such a way that unfortunately no, you in fact weren't going to win anything ever). No offense -- I'd perhaps be right there with you if I'd been team-less when NBC came along and brought five games a weekend into American living rooms.

Lol at all the knee jerk reactions, opinions of naive Germans/Austrians who think that Klopp is going to do what he did at BVB at plop.

I think they want him because he is better than the incumbent. Him going to plop is just additional bad news.

Fair I guess. But I don't think Man Utd have an idiot as a manager and they have incredible resources. They are fine. People always want something new or see something they like they can't get and are jealous. Maybe pep will be at united next year and they'll shut up.

Stopped reading there.

And not every United fan wanted him. I remember getting slated on here for saying he was sacked by Bayern and only went into int football because he couldn't get a club and that he hasn't done anything of note for 20 years plus.

I did expect you to reply kw. I disagree and he's had successes and failures last 20 years. He may fail ultimately at United. Thinking he's an idiot and doesn't have a clue is just well I dunno, can't say it.

Yeah this isn't really correct but whatever

If he does leave after his third year and we've had CL football all 3 seasons his tenure has been a success. Simple as. Expecting us to be title-ing or playing some unbelievably great football already after we literally got nuked only 2 seasons ago and had to rebuild everything from the ground up, it's just unrealistic.

Louis van Gaal almost won a treble with one of the most mediocre, almost-Klinsmann-trainwrecked sides FC Bayern has ever had.

It is harsh, obviously he's not an idiot but for me his methods are out dated and simply don't work in the premier league and will be found out by any big team we play.

We rely a lot on DDG pulling worldies - especially last year. We don't create nearly enough chances and the football itself is so boring. He's getting away with it because we seem to be winning these matches by scoring with every shot we have on target. He stumbled on a team last year after being forced to use it with injuries when most where crying out for a change and could see things didn't work. Factor in all the stuff with AdM, falling out with players. United players bored and the dressing room not happy - although that seems to have been sorted after Rooney and Carrick spoke to him.

What really pisses me off with him is when don't create anything but keep the ball in our own half, he thinks it's great and we're playing excellent.

What planet is the bloke on

LVG is the perfect United manager for neutrals. I can't hate the guy. Absolute gold at press conferences and his football doesn't scare me.

Mourinho would have been the nut worst but thank Fergie for being a deluded drunk and recommending Moyes.

What I miss most about United is that ability they had pretty much all years under Fergie to press the other team completely back, when chasing a goal, and just bomb crosses into the box again and again till Fergie time payed off.

I guess what let Moyes down was just being in a different time zone.

Who said anything about being title winners? I didn't mention that. Neither did I mention unbelievably great football either. With the money that has been spent, you should at least be on the front foot in most games. There is no pace, tempo, excitement etc in our play. It's just keep ball.

Every non united fan wants united to keep him and that tells its own story.

Thats another thing, when we go behind in games. You never feel we can come back into them. LvG had a similar record to Moyes in his first year, only difference was Plop lost Suarez.

guys stop being obsessed with LvG

Fair enough kw, you watch them more and you're entitled to hate the way your team plays. Believe it or not, I know some chelsea fans who didn't want mourinho back because of that. Not saying he's done an amazing job at united or anything or got the maximum but I think he's good enough to keep at the job and he's hilarious (intentional or not - that's my impression of the few dutch people I've engaged with - sometimes hilarious without meaning to be, must be the accent and delivery.)

I won't start being upset with LvG until CL football comes under threat.

My 2 cents anyway

Allardyce confirmed as Sundireland's manager.

AIDS meets Ebola.

Those are very low expectations to have for a Man United fan.

I love having a variety of characters like Mourinho, Klopp and LVG in the league. Makes the whole experience more entertaining. Getting wound up by Jose is fun. Posting GIFs of Allerdyce clowning that chump from Swansea is fun (lol, right on cue). Complaining about Fergie time and making jokes about old Whiskey-Nose's wife packing a bag for her sister's was fun. Lol'ing at Klopp's ridiculous faces will be fun. The more absurd cartoon characters in charge the better if you ask me.

Sunderland fans rejoicing at Allardyce. The same people during the week calling him "a fat Mag".

You do wish they would just **** off. That clubs a pot of piss.

Samuel allardycio will be the Savior of sunderland.