Stretford Haddock - The Unofficial Manchester Utd Thread

fletcherpost

sosh's feckin' poet laureate
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Jul 15, 2005
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I think it's a poor show that we don't have a proper Man Utd thread. They are one of the more compelling soap operas in English and World football. Right up there with Chelsea, who have a dedicated and official thread.

Because Utd are not winning everything and because Zomp has a job, kids, golf and general well being as more important priorities i have decided to start an unoffical thread. I'm not a fan. My dad is. We talk about Utd a lot. But I'm not a fan. I'm a borderline hater if truth be told. But we need a dedicated Utd Thread...even if only to mock the afflicted and for some of their fans to drop in once in a while...maybe, i dunno.

Anyway, I wonder if any in our community have any thoughts on:

1 The whole Jadon Sancho business. (I elected not to use the term debacle.) But it appears he;'s been banned from The Traning Ground and even the bloody staff canteen.
He might be having too many late nights playing video games https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/26/jadon-sancho-doesnt-sleep-enough-and-plays-too-many-video-games-19561731/?ico=mosaic_tag
He might have mental health problems as well though. He's from Kennington, i know the area well, rough place, lot of gang violence...i dunno anything about his family life or what might be (if anything) troubling him mentally, but there's a lot of information we're not privvy to in this saga.

There's been chatter about how he's not the most committed on the training pitch, that his punctuality leaves much to be desired. It's clear only one person wins this war though and i doubt it's the man from South of the River.

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has no intention of backing down in his stand-off with Jadon Sancho.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12970359/jadon-sancho-manchester-united-manager-erik-ten-hag-will-not-back-down-in-stand-off-with-winger

2. The on off on off sale/non sale of Man Utd

3 The state of the actual stadium, leaks an all. 'It'll take more than a lick of paint' as my grandad used to say.

4 The 'will he stay or will he go - how much?' saga of Harry Maguire, Old Trafford's least wanted.

Anyway Man Utd are currently 2-0 up against Palace.
 

SoxFanInCali

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Thanks, Fletch. I was actually looking for a thread to talk about Sancho an hour ago, but Zomp would probably ban me if I tried to start this one.

Sounds like his England teammates on the squad are trying to get him to apologize, but neither side is budging right now.
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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Sep 14, 2002
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One would think that with the aforementioned Antony’s current predicament keeping him out of the lineup for the foreseeable future there’d be a clear path back into the first team for Sancho. He never really impressed me in his previous flirtations with the starting lineup but he’s clearly a pretty good player - good enough that both player and management should be highly motivated to patch things up.

Speaking of Antony .. regardless of the legal outcome - given Greenwood’s exile is this the end for him at ManU ? Or indeed, English football ?

What a debacle.
 

fletcherpost

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https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/manchester-united-takeover-news-ratcliffe-27789269?int_source=nba

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is preparing a "restructured" offer to speed up the takeover process at Manchester United.

Proposals headed up by Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe - via his INEOS company - have yet to be accepted by the Glazer family. It's understood current offers are worth over £5billion.

However, there are differences when it comes to the structure of those bids and the Americans are, also, thought to want closer to £6billion for their shares. Supporters continue to await concrete updates, but the whole process has been drawn out since November last year.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/sep/26/sir-jim-ratcliffe-to-restructure-his-bid-to-buy-manchester-united-after-concerns

Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s richest people, has made an offer to become the majority shareholder in United by purchasing shares owned by the six American siblings. It is understood this was unattractive to the shareholders who own the remainder of the club, who include Lindsell Train, Ariel Investments LLC and Eminence Capital.
A couple of recent articles above relating to 'sale' of the club. Not much in the way of details to be fair. Both articles refer to a Bloomberg article that's behind a paywall.

My dad and I talk about this most days. One thing we agree on i=s that when the Glazers sell up they will never set foot in side Old Trafford again. I know they're not regular visitors by any means, but the point is...Utd never was or will be their club, they are as one journalist put it some time ago, custodians of the club., The heart and soul of a club, any club, belongs to the fans. They'll be their in person or spirit long after the Glazers are gone, like they were before they showed up. Same for any club really.
 

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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Looks like Reguillon is out through the next international break, which leaves them devoid of a senior LB. And Lisandro Martinez is out for 3 months with a lot injury.

But Antony is back! I wonder if they consulted the women's team captains about that...