Yeah well bad things happen when you
- lose a legendary manager of 20+ years
- simultaneously lose an experienced chief executive
- all the while leaving an aging squad that needs an almost complete renovation to the next guy
- when said next guy is a massive downgrade and out of his depth

The transition could not have been handled in a worse way but there's no need to delve into that, that has been covered backwards and forwards.
I definitely do expect us to mount a title challenge next season and be perennial front-runners in seasons after that. Viewing LvG as a man competent enough to stem the tide and keep us from the disastrous cluster-**** that the utterly botched transition could have delivered us into is realistic, in my opinion. We are making steady, albeit slow, progress towards being once again one of the best in Europe, an absolutely key factor in that is keeping top 4 in an extremely competitive league.
The most important thing will be to ensure that his replacement after next season will be someone who can take us to that next level.

Sure, his stubbornness, flammable character and slow, toothless-in-attack variance-minimizing-in-defence playing style is annoying and I'd be very worried if he was to be the long-term solution for us, but I don't really see a lot of evidence that suggests that this is the case. He has already said that he himself is not viewing his position as a long-term one.

Big Sam deserves the Real job for that GIF alone.

If I was a billionaire I'd (1) buy a club in a real gross place, (2) spend whatever was necessary to buy the most expensive Big Sam-style players in the world, (3) hand Big Sam the keys, and (4) sit back and enjoy.

The real tragedy of football compared to American sports is that there isn't enough variance at the top of the league for a cartoonish ape to luckbox a title. Imagine watching Big Sam bask in the glory of a championship parade under the misapprehension that he'd been the major contributor to it....

over a 38 game season, maybe. big cup you can certainly do so, ask di matteo

150/1 to finish top half I'm hearing, big old price that.

meh the way I see it. Fergie retires as champion, Moyes gets no money and an aging squad but with still enough quality to finish easily top 4 fails miserably. Then comes in LvG who's given a lot of money, some of this money isn't well spent at all, he ends up finishing 4th in front of a very weak liverpool/spurs and way behind the top dogs both in terms of points and quality of football being played. Then LvG gets given some more money (a lot of it) and here we are again still far behind the top dogs in the league but is probably just about going to secure top 4 (Man utd were 6/1 to win the league last week while being top of the table). Sure you can give him a pass for the first season, new squad blabla but this excuse can only last so long when no clear progress is being made. Chelsea won the league last year and their 3 best players arguably (cesc-costa-hazard) had never played a minute together before. City went on to win the league with a shiny new squad with a bunch of players not used to playing with each other, giving him a few years for "adaptation" or "transition" however you wanna call it is a bit naive and too kind towards LvG.

At the end of the day Man Utd big resources, high wage bill a lot of £££ being splashed on transfers if just finishing top 4 is above expectation then I do wonder what expectations are but I find them way too low mainly because I believe the excuses that are given to him are overrated for the most part and that the money is a lot more telling when giving expectations. But the most concerning thing would be that 1 and a bit season in, not much progress has been shown and there doesn't seem to be any solid plan or team identity going forward

I've already got on it at 100/1 as soon as they sacked Rodgers.

so basically you'd be roman abramovich

Cina - I think that's a reasonable assessment.

lol

That's a way better way than I put it

Call me a glass-half-full type of guy but I really see no reason in crying over boring football if we're back on top a year or two from now. We're going to be top 3-4 pretty easily as things are looking right now. And for whatever it's worth I don't agree we are "far away" from the top dogs even though Arsenal trashed us last game, they are capable of doing that to any team on their day. Don't agree with there being no sign of any progress or identity either.

But there we go, our fundamental views on the matter are different and no-ones mind is going to be changed.

Norbert > Louie.

All day. Every day. Every damn day.

A+.

Moyes spent 70mil net.

40M of which he got to have for like 4 months

He wasn't denied funds though which is kind of implied. Could blame Woodward whatever but he/the club failed the market.

At least he managed to get Fellaini to United.

St James Park pitch is getting ripped apart by NZ and Tonga

Silva leaves Spain game with an injury. Good break for city

****ing city so lucky, the argie steven fletcher injured which will force them to put a multi dimensional striker in and now silva goes down which means navas is gonna start every game. title is in the bag if the two injures are long term

That guy picking up bits of grass made me lol like that's going to help in anyway doing that at half time.

He won the double with Bayern and was a lost CL final away from winning the treble. Also he was sacked because of beef with the board/directors etc, not because of results.

Also, winning the league with AZ was HUGE and recent.

Imagine winning a double in a 1 team league, congratulations on that.

Guess we've got to congratulate him on getting to the final of a cup competition. We can forget about the favourable semi final draw and the luckbox against us in the quarters Got spanked in the final too.

******g rooneys going down injured

And Steve McClaren won the league title for the first time in a clubs history when he was in that league so thats HUGE too.

oh don't worry, these dortmund fan girls came after Klopp...