Manchester United’s ‘best-in-class transfer strategy’ destroyed as three main INEOS problems exposed
Lisandro Martinez should have slammed INEOS for their ‘best-in-class transfer strategy’ of targeting one Manchester United position each year.
Can you criticise people who don’t exist? A few points about Martinez’s Man Utd truth bombs.
Gary Neville and some others are complaining about what he said on the basis it was a direct criticism of the quality of his teammates. It wasn’t really though. It was stated numerous times last season that due to no Europe, then cup games, the squad was trimmed by necessity as there would not be enough games for everyone.
That’s not the case this season. The squad needed rebuilt and expanded to be able to handle competing on multiple fronts. Instead, Casemiro left, Ugarte got injured, while only Rashford returned as a first teamer. So, with only 3 main incoming players over the summer, that’s a net gain of 2 for a squad that needed substantially more. That then stretches the existing squad, fatigues them, injures them and results in poor individual performances. That’s the main point – he’s not criticising specific players, because they don’t exist.
Now, on to the club’s best-in-class transfer strategy. Can people explain how it makes sense to only target one part of the team each year?
It essentially means that every season, there will be a whole major unit of the team that is unfamiliar and bedding in together, which has a knock on to all other units and meaning things are always in flux.
This is further exasperated when you target players in late-mid 20s (Cunha and Mbuemo are both 27). At that age they must be instant impacts, but how can they if a third of the team is getting used to things each season. By the time each part is “fixed” they’ll then be at the age where you’re considering selling, so the cycle begins again.
As well as that, it means you only have a choice of who is available in that specific window. So let’s say you happen to end up in a window where a number of your main, richer rivals all want to strengthen the exact same area as you, you might end up with your 6th/ 7th/10th option, where next season an Alex Scott may be a very attractive choice. You’re deliberately limiting yourself to picking multiple options from a single shop, so you’re rarely likely to end up with the “best in class” options.
It feels like a “brilliant” idea from the xenophobic miser at the top, and everyone has been too sycophantic to point out the flaws. Going into the season, the Man Utd squad felt worse than it had in a long time, which is shocking considering the team flirted with relegation in recent seasons, so it’s no surprise to see the worst start in 40 years. Shambles at the top. Ernie
Fan power I don’t go to the games anymore because I live in Sweden. But I am loving the fan power angle that is being pushed around because as always the real strength resides with the many.
I personally have let go of my football tv package in a personal protest. This was a difficult one for me because we have no 3pm blackout here and my team Arsenal are good right now (sort of). I have to say, the defiance of the players and their fans against Liverpool really sickened me and I can’t actively contribute towards the Premier League’s revenue anymore. But for the match going fans, I have some protest ideas:
No celebrating goals against Man City. In fact, basically zero atmosphere at the game altogether. No singing or cheering. Just chatter amongst the fans. A minutes silence every 15 minutes, coordinated using the match clock. Everyone do the Poznan for the entire game but maybe a non-dancing version.
I’ve always thought the match-going fans were different. I’ve, and I don’t want to use the term ‘real fans’ here but always considered them the real fans. If anyone is going to get what needs to be done, done, it is them. Seamus, Sweden
City of confusion The city of Manchester is the most confusing in the world. The two teams, United and City, have divided it into Red and Blue. However, all is not rosy.
The red half took the lead. First came the Glazers riding into town like the swashbuckling Cowboy rodeos they are. They hoodwinked the United hierarchy, bought the club, used it as collateral and saddled the club with massive debt! Since then, the club has been a pale shadow of itself. The club is underperforming, staff have been fired and the infrastructure deplorable.
The Blue half of the City did not have to wait for long. The oil sheikhs came to town with their camels and supposed riches. They bought City and brought along their desert tendencies where you can do anything and get away with it. The City team which had never amounted to much, and was famously trolled by Sir Alex Ferguson as “noisy neighbours,” acquired the withal to buy any and everyone.
That the desert dwellers appeared in suits did not make them saints. They only reinforced the lesson of the proverbial camel putting its head inside the tent before kicking out the owner of the tent. The financial doping and manipulation involved is too much to be recorded in the Guiness Book of Records. Teams were relegated and lost earnings because of these jokers. Now that an independent commission has laid bare the 114 charges, why are people associated with City living in denial?
It is indeed tough being associated with the two Manchester teams. Yiembe, Mombasa, Kenya
Ben’s advice to me (f### off) in yesterday’s mailbox perfectly illustrates the behaviour of a lot of Man U fans I know and is demonstrative of why I made my point.
Perhaps Snowfakes isn’t the best word but Man U have not been “eaten alive from the inside out for the past 20 years”. They are just going through a relatively poor spell that all clubs go through. The continuation of that spell is because the club has constantly changed their Manager and have bought more poor players than good players. Supporters took success as a given because Sir Alex was so good.
So, maybe Snowflakes isn’t the best word. Maybe I should have said entitled brats?? Ken Charlatan (With Love)
‘Shameless’ Manchester City, excellent article, praise where praise is due.
Us city fans are sick and tired of being told what to do, how to react, and how to support our team, we are 100% behind our club and OWNERS now and in the future, that will never change even with the City pile-on from the media, journalists, pundits and other fans (mainly the 3 American owned red shirt cartel clubs mardarses!!! ).
This media onslaught has been biased, bitter, boring, pathetic and impartial. So many thanks editor, we have not seen eye to eye on past articles but this is a refreshing change,
Yours, a proud Mancunian Mcfc supporter and season ticket holder for over 50 years Steve jones
Strip titles We are continually told that the Premier League’s case against Manchester City must run its “full legal course” through an independent commission, wrapped in years of arbitration, appeals, and high-court challenges. But this procedural paralyzation is killing the sport.
Surely, the cleanest, most decisive solution is for the Premier League board to present a simple, binary choice to the Manchester City board: accept the stripping of your disputed titles, or refuse, have them stripped anyway, and face immediate relocation out of the Premier League. Predictably, the immediate rebuttal from sports lawyers and institutionalists will be that the Premier League rulebook has no framework for this kind of high-handed ultimatum, and that doing so would violate the principles of independent arbitration, triggering a multi-billion-pound lawsuit.
But here is the answer to that rebuttal: compliance is universally expected to lessen sentences in all legal and sporting arbitration. Clubs like Chelsea, Everton, and Nottingham Forest received significant leniency precisely because they cooperated or self-reported. By offering City a choice, the league would be providing a final, structured exit ramp for voluntary compliance—allowing the club to preserve its top-flight status in exchange for accepting historical accountability.
If City rejects that final olive branch, their non-compliance becomes absolute. At that point, expulsion and title-stripping aren’t arbitrary punishments; they are the natural, rulebook-sanctioned consequences for a club that has spent nearly a decade actively frustrating the discovery process.
The Premier League doesn’t need to be paralyzed by the fear of a legal battle. It needs to give City a choice, put the ball in their court, and protect the integrity of English football before it’s too late.
Regards, Dan McG LFC Esq
Rest defence, midfield and attack Wouldn’t it be a breath of fresh air if Villa too could rest 10 players before all their European games?
They can be the feel good English side in this season’s Champions League.
Like Fergie giving young Wayne his debut v the same Turkish club in something like 2003 , Emery played his new ‘3 degrees’ up front to amazing effect (WBA’s Brendon Batson ,Laurie Cunningham and Cyril Regis back when level playing fields were all the rage.) Peter . Andalucia .
‘Red cartel’ Seen this utter tripe appear a lot over the last few weeks.
Some facts.
Manchester United: 2 titles in 16 years (will be 17 years by end of this season)
Arsenal: 3 titles in 27 years.
Liverpool: 2 titles in 36 years (barring a preposterous series of events, that’ll be 37 years by the end of this season)
If it is a “cartel”, then it’s the world’s sh*ttest cartel ever, it’s the Juarez cartel in Breaking Bad, choking to death en masse around the swimming pool after being poisoned by Gus Fring.
Do me a favour. Andy H, Swansea.
One header, Jeremie? Just watched the Liverpool highlights. To be fair to Frimpong, it was some jump. Finlay x
