The United Conundrum

As we prepare to play the old enemy this weekend, I cant help but feel but recollect on the sheer buzz before the opposite fixture that started the season. Varane was unveiled, Mason scored a beauty from a stunning Pogba pass and Bruno delighted a first fully packed Old Trafford post the pandemic with the perfect of hatricks. It was as close to eutopia as you can get from pre match to game to post match. Everything looked great, but that was the last time it did this season.

 

Going into this weekend, like many weekends this season, I long to watch United, but no longer experience the pre match nervousness. Hell, I am in a United fan panel this weekend to top my overall matchday experience. But increasingly watching United feels less like a experience and more like a ‘chore’. The only reasoning I have for it, is that the calamity this season has been has numbed me into submission. I literally have no expectations left atleast as far as this season is concerned.

 

Do I feel optimistic about United in the long run? When Ralf was appointed it felt like we were turning a corner. But very much like our actual on pitch ‘corners’ it has been an exercise in nothing. Only at this football club, would we appoint the mighty Ralf Rangnick and ask him to just ‘coach’. Wont sign him a single midfielder in January even though its as gaping a hole as any in world football, wont give him a say in appointing the next manager even though his track record identifying managers is outstanding. Hell, we are even thinking of getting Murtough a deputy, it would most likely be another “compliance” appointment. Will Ralf have any meaningful inputs in areas he is supreme at – absolutely not?

 

So then, what does the inbox of the current interim manager who replaced the caretaker manager who replaced the caretaker and later permanent manager – looks like? For starters, in the middle of the season he has been tasked with finetuning a team built on the ethos of freedom of expression and individual brilliance…..into a system oriented structured football group…GOOD LUCK RALF. He has to do this while finishing in the top 4 and deal with a squad that due to no incomings, loan outgoings and the off field incidents around one of its players…..has been weakened as a squad post January. On top of that, there are some frankly nauseating debates around United:

 

1. Ronaldo doesn’t press, why did we sign him?
2. De Gea saves the chances that he allows oppositions to create
3. Bruno cant play if he doesn’t have freedom
4. Pogba can still give us something if used properly
5. Rashford isn’t right in the head
6. Maguire is worst than Phil Jones
7. Wan Bissaka the 50m spider footer who had an FC is suddenly incapable of playing football

 

Its not that each of these points don’t have a modicum of truth behind their origin stories, but the culture wars between fans over this has reached nauseating levels. And I feel sympathy for them, because United have in total been nauseating beyond belief this season. The incessant dressing room leaks, the curious case of not signing a target that may not suit the next manager (even though we are briefing that we want Rice without knowing if the next guy wants him), hell the circus we will get our self ingulfed in for the next manager chase in a shorter summer (with winter WC) is yet to fully unfold. We will claim to be laser focussed on Pochettino, but will chase the un-gettable Enrique, while waiting for things to unravel between Julian and Bayern, all the while briefing about our doubts re Ten Hag because Dutch league etc.

 

Whenever I read criticism of any players, it’s like we have erased from our collectively memories the strengths and the weakness of each player we had.  Did we not know what they were or did we suddenly discover them these last few weeks? We want to be a modern football club with a core of unmodern players, led by a unmodern hierarchy. The truly nauseating cycle of the post Sir Alex era is the constant jugglery between evolution and revolution. We are either too obsessed with building what we have or too obsessed with starting from scratch. And that is The United Conundrum we all live in!