“Amid complaints of a lack of entertainment he was dismissed and replaced by Jose Mourinho” That’ll sort that problem 😂

Mata was fantastic, criminally underrated . Often played out of his ideal position, never complained, led by example. Just a wonderful footballer and person

As a Spurs fan, we constantly berate Levy for our biggest transfer failures: NDombele, Lo Celso and now potentially Richarlison. This video made me realise that United have signed an NDombele every year for 10 years....

You missed Falcao. Di Maria and Falcao right before the international break gave us so much hope, as did the first 15 minutes against Leicester in the next game...

It still upsets me what happened to Herera at United. he and Mata were so passionate and dedicated...

The underlying issue has always been being too reactionary in - 1. Firing the manager after a string of bad results 2. Getting a new manager and letting the said manager spend money on players they think would suit their style of play 3. Not giving enough time for a proper rebuild (Man Utd’s commercial success becomes their achilles heel) 4. Not backing the manager And the cycle repeats itself from 1-4. This has happened with every manager Man Utd. has had ever since Sir Alex retired. They must not repeat this with ten Hag, but with stories like their stock price plummeting makes me wonder it’s a matter of when and not if. The problem with all this lies not on the pitch or the manager’s office, but the boardroom.

Mourinho criticized United's transfer policy over 6 yrs ago and proved to everyone how terrible it was And yet absolutely nothing has changed since then. It's comical how random lower league teams have more through transfer planning than a multi billion dollar club He had the best season and highest points tally post sir Alex and Yet he is still hated

The only manager that was capable of bringing United to the top & compete with Guardiola (because he’s proved it before) was Mourinho and ironically he got the LEAST backing. Was getting pelted by the media and the final straw was a narrow defeat to Liverpool. Ten Hag ironically who is getting the most praise hasn’t won away from home against the top 10 and lost 7-0 to liverpool and conceded 6 to City. Ten Hag also trys to play the same counter attacking style that Mourinho played, but seemingly doesn’t have the tactical strength to pull it off. They defend and when they have the ball they don’t know how to transition unlike Mourinho’s team. Only 2 managers have ever beat Guardiola to a league title: Klopp & Mourinho, one manages your rival, and the other you sacked after you failed to back him. Unbelievably incompetent board.

The recruitment towards the end of SAF's era was subpar. Many talented players who could have had successful careers at Old Trafford, such as Silva and Aguero, ended up at City. Additionally, there was a persistent reluctance to invest in a quality central midfielder during that period. While Scholes was exceptional, Manchester United had the resources to acquire one or even two replacements but chose not to do so. Also, when Gill departed along with SAF, it resulted in Woodward taking charge.

More than 10 years actually, when the club failed to rejuvenate the squad with young talented players, instead persisted on buying short term stop gap signings

When Malcolm Glazer walked into the club after crippling it with leveraged debt in 2005, he and his family got incredibly lucky. Fergie was in the final stages of building his last great team and ready to meet the challenge of Jose and Abramovich's new Chelsea. The impact of the Glazer family as a whole wouldn't become apparent until Sir Alex retired. The family thought that success wouldn't end and the club would always have the commercial revenue to line their pockets. They turned a debt free, well run club into a joke both off and on the pitch. The post-Fergie transfer 'strategy' was essentially throw money at anything and hope it works. The amount of money wasted on players that were generally a bad fit for the club is frightening. These being players on massive wages. The club then struggles to sell them two seasons later because other teams are not stupid enough to pay money to pick up their over inflated contracts. The transfer side of things is just the tip of the iceberg. Managerial policy in that decade is a whole separate debate unto itself

I cannot believe how tragic the vast majority of signings have been. A combination of buying players at the peak of their value and being unable to extract performances from players is damning.

A major issue that Manchester United's people in charge of negotiating are not good enough. Again this summer they overpaid for Mount who had a year left on his contract and sold Fred for €15m, what a joke

As a kid growing-up, I never thought these days would come. The last ten years have been absolutely hilarious. Long may it continue.

It’s amazing how Real Madrid is -240 Million in balance, yet achieved 5 Champion Leagues in the last 10 years.

I called it the "woodward disease'. United inability to align a long term strategy for building up a trophy winning squad , because commercial values ( players popularity on social media almost guarantee shirts and merchandises sales) were always the deciding factor in recruiting players. The transfers at United were always as follow: Out of 2 players acquired, one would suit the manager style and the other one would suit the commercial side. The commercial player would always get substantial contract length and crazy salaries, whether they perform well or not, and they had a tendency to act in a petulant manner towards the manager since they know their importance in the eyes of the board and usually got the managers sacked ( i won't name names, we all know them very well).

Spending is not the issue… Main problem is their reluctance to sell underperforming players. Keeping them in the squad is massively unhelpful as they are not only filling a spot that could otherwise be used by another player but also they’re unhappy and spread discontent

modern game is ALL about midfield, and how they play in the system, how they complement each other and their skillsets. You can look at downfalls of teams and link them to downfalls of their midfields either thru transfers, age or injuries, Real kept winning UCL's with their midfield, once Barca lost Xavi and Iniesta, there were holes everywhere, Liverpool has been at it's best during Rafa's years and Klopps years with strong midfields but regressed when their midfields did, AC milan fell once their midfield turned into shambles, Arsenal was at their top with top midfield and had a slow decline along with their midfield, you can paper over the cracks and hide how bad things are with incredible striking forces or crazy years by strikers, Luis Suarez almost title winning year, him and Sturridge terrorized teams, Wegner and Arsenal got their 4th place trophy with prolific scoring with Henry and then Robin Van Persie and other scorers to support them, Alex Ferguson papered over the cracks with forward lines that included Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez, with Carrick being a hub and some good midfielders around him. Arsenal finally got the midfield right and it returned to top 4, spurs cracked top 4 when they had good midfields.

The minute they bought Pogba for the hashtags on the advertising hoardings, the minute you know they’re not buying people for a team. They’re buying for brand recognition.

Remember when Mourinho was sack because of Paul Pogba because the club wanted to protect him and left the club one season later to join Juventus 💩🤦‍♂😂

One thing that is so important is recruitment and the motto of the culture within a club. At city the hierarchy needed almost 10yrs to set the foundation and finally had Pep as the final piece to their puzzle. For every Ruben Dias there was a Mangala but the City hierarchy had a long-term vision and style of football culture that was gonna define city, mainly also because most of them were already with Pep during the prime Barca era as well. But now City has a great youth academy that runs through to the first team where all coaches are being made to play a certain way so when they reach the first team, they are already programmed to fit inside the system. Just take Rico as an example. So yea, investment and money for sure but it needs to gel well with the culture and vision of the club

If you look at Sir Alex Ferguson's first five seasons at the club, finishing 11th, 2nd, 12th, and 13th, 6th, you can be pretty sure he would have been sacked if he had been subjected to similar requirements such as van Gaal faced. The problem with Man Utd is the fixation to their previous success and the lack of understanding how to start anew in rebuilding the club culture based on the vision of the manager and the board. And if the board lacks vision, then they just need to trust the people whom they hire.

I as an Arsenal fan have never been fearful of any ManU signing in this last decade apart from Di Maria, Pogba and Mata( 2 of these flopped pretty bad). This wasn't the case under SAF. I feel if SAF was still running things, Harry Kane would have been a Red 4 years ago. He would have pushed for likes of Stones and Declan Rice too( young English talents who are leaders). Man U's success was dependent on buying best English talents from upper midtable teams conveniently weakening them. Biggest knock on Man Utd is they are seen as the graveyard of young talents now. So many player's promising careers gone awry at Old Trafford.

The problem is that United threw money on high profile signings, many of whom did not fit what United needed. They also failed to invest in player development, meaning that players were not made even better than they were or adjusted to fit the team.

Neville: "The owners don't spend any money"

We are still paying for Ed Woodward / Glazer Bimbros mistakes in heaving out massive wages that make our players un-sellable.

the lack of long term vision for the club at board level has been a huge problem at all levels of the club, the players, the coaches, the stadium, et al. the Glazers don't look at the long term, just short term profit which for them means Champions League qualification and little else besides. a well run club would invest in the stadium, give more chance to young players, be consistent with the kind of managers and coaches it appoints and far less reactionary and cavalier in the transfer market, we've spent all that money for little return because there's never been a strategy to bring success, just the constant revolving door of players and staff to sate the Glazers bank balance by keeping us in the champions league. sadly I can't see any of this changing whilst they remain in control.

Moyes is a great manager, but man utd was the wrong club for him at the time, he's better suited at building up a midtable team and making them competitive, like he's doing with us and did at everton

As a neutral premier league watcher, I believe Solskjaer could've had better results had he been trusted more and had better transfers. He took one of the weakest United sides in the 19-20 season to a respectable 3rd place against a very strong Liverpool and city teams. His caretaker period was also quite impressive with over 14 games undefeated with a bunch of underperforming players.

Would love a deep dive into United substandard facilities, I went on your there recently and it’s genuinely appalling how far behind they are

In the last chart you can see united spend less than city and Chelsea and slightly more than juve and barca. But the issue is sales, 2nd lowest in the list. United sign players based on the recommendation of manager and once they leave the value of those players plummet, also we dont sell players quickly enough. We sell once it's clear for everyone the player has failed.

This is only half the story. There’s also the contract renewals and exorbitant wages given to players that makes it impossible to get rid of them.

That was the highest spend in the last decade. Until Chelsea spent nearly the same amount in under 2 years. And finished 12th. Thats real epic failure.

Ah the pick me up we all needed, thanks guys. The haphazard nature of the strategy is the failure. We have had and wasted some huge talents trying to retrofit players into a different Manager's objectives. The Board support a manager 60% and then it all falls apart... The concern here is seeing this repeated this last summer gone.

The video production value is crazy, guys! Really great - that's why I keep coming back to these videos. Seb's voice and Marco's illustrations suit these videos incredibly well. But I must say that I find that these sort of videos from you guys often lack a purpose. I see you strive to "cover football with depth and insight", but these videos barely scratch the surface. I often find that you are merely listing and stating facts, but also very basic and well known facts - so I rarely leave with more knowledge than I had before I clicked the video. Tifo IRL does a great job with all the tactical breakdowns, and it's great to hear JJ Bull's and Jon MacKenzie's take on what's happening in the world of football and THESE videos would really benefit going a lot more in-depth. Ask questions, find out what people think about this, how can it be things are like this? - give us different sides to the story, why did they do this?, what was their goal?, how did it turn out?, how do they go from there?, what should their next strategy be? which options do they have? pros/cons. Please do some more analyzing and interpretation - and please do a lot more research. This video required next to no research - maybe you looked up the exact price of the players, and nothing more. Im not trying to be negative, but I just wanna say these videos have SO much potential. More than a nice voice and pretty illustrations. We all agree on your statement "there's an appetite for thoughtful, intelligent content" - but this is nothing like that. This is barely content at all. And it's a waste that so much energy is put in to the creation of the videos, but you don't actually manage to convey much unique information or any thought-provoking content - but with this production value, you have the opportunity to create great, meaningful and entertaining videos. All the best - keep going at it. :)

Van Gaal made some good signings… most of those guys were promising at that point but I guess something happened within the club

Used to be a time when us Arsenal fans used to be very envious of Sir Alex Ferguson's transfers for Manchester United. Tevez,Vidic, Evra, Berbatov, Anderson, Van De Saar all were good signings despite him spending a considerable amount of money. As a rival you knew these players would work for the club and help them win trophies. Nowadays their big money transfers are laughable. Nobody ever looked at Antony and Sancho and went "you know what these are players that are going to win the league for United". Every big money signing post SAF has been a flop at the club.

Van Gaal was the most destructive in the recruitment department for me. Got rid of players such as Rafael, Welbeck, Evans, RVP etc. Who even if they weren't at their best at that stage still understood what the club was about and weren't replaced by anything better. Players such as Rojo, Darmian, Di Maria, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Depay, Falcão had no business signing for us for various reasons.

Just here to say how great this thumbnail is. Tifo has come a long way. Love it 💯

They have had a lack of football men or directors at the club for a bulk of signings since SAF retired. United essentially had a bank manager (Woodward) making the signings for the last decade. You could argue Ten Hag has turned that tide with the signings he has made, their current slide I feel is due to off field antics and situations. 2 players with clouds over them, 1 who won't leave and another who came out to criticise publicly. Until the club get's a refresh from top to bottom, it won't get back any glory.

As a United fan who grew only knew the SAF sides, the last decade has been painful. SAF was a one off - he was a manager and a DOF rolled into one. He worked closely with Kenyon and Gill to have side after side rebuilt. We cannot have that anymore - they don't make them like him. 1. We need a director of football who is a football man, not a money man. We don't need a commitee, we need an experienced head to run things. Someone who is responsible for thinking about where the team will be in 10 years time, not 10 days time, not 10 months time. 2. This person can then shape the managers we sign. Moyes, LVG, Mourinho, Ole and now ETH are all very different to each other. The playing style have been different, the squad has always been adapting and the signings sometimes were unsuitable for the new managers style. 3. Disneyland - There has been too much emphasis on the names and not the players. We've signed Pogba, Matic, Schweinsteiger, Ronaldo, Lukaku, Sanchez, Cavani, Ibrahimovic even because the name was box office, not because they were what was needed. Pogba and Lukaku could be argued were the right sort of signing as they were young and top players, but no thought was given to how they were going to fit in or if we were going to build around them - they were just dropped in. The older guys, some of them were successful, others not - but we should have been signing a decent second striker, not aging strikers and random loanees.

One big part that is omitted in our failures is the fans! Fans tend to be very impatient and unrealistic. At this point we aren't the best team in England by a stretch, we need a manager to be given time to build his squad and not be ostracized at any mistake, but the toxic fan culture does not permit that, evident by fans already calling for Ten Hag's head after 4 games, I mean 4 games into the season. Then when he is sacked we restart from square one and the vicious cycle repeats. We have to accept we aren't in the Fergie era, (and even Fergie will have found it challenging to win the league with this Pep team), let's keep that in mind rally behind someone with a process we can trust and move with him. Let's take the example of Liverpool. If Kloop was at United the fans will have called for his head after his first season where he finished 8th. It took him 4 yrs to win a trophy and look not he's won it all. Even as it pains to say Liverpool's fans got it right and trusted the process, why can we do same? Isn't that what we're supposed to be "supporters"

That spin on "long term transfer strategy" search is hilarious, and somewhat on point 🤣

You can not overestate just how bad the Alexis Sanchez transfer was. Dude barely played, complained constantly on social media and broke the wage structure of the team. Not to mention he was let go for free.

Cursed Moyes thumbnail will haunt my dreams

Is Shaw the only player who has been consistently good? I am really surprised how long Martial has been at Man Utd - and how is still only 27. He's like a 💩that won't flush

We clearly would have had a long term strategy had we stuck to a coach for 5-7 years like Liverpool and Pep had done whilst they built teams capable of winning and challenging seriously for the EC and the PL. Hopefully Erik can be that man and the Takeover will go through soon enough to allow him to build the full squad he needs rather than just plugging gaps or dealing with injuries with loan signings. It's only been 4 games and Spurs and Arsenal away were hardly 'easy' games and the performances were not terrible and with a bit more luck it would have been 2 decent away draws. I'm not gonna panic yet but Brighton will be a test next game with a few injuries and they will have to step it up and show that last season's progress wasn't a one off.

this is true! there isn't a long term strategy, the owner of brighton actually said they sign not on the basis of the coach at that time but how a player fits for the club regardless of the coach at that time. and the selling of d james was poor

Mourinho will be the best united since Ferguson for a long time it seems

a video about the massive squad turnaround of Barca would be cool, there are like 5 or 6 players left from when Xavi took over, the squad looks better overall and that was achieved while having like 15M net spend over that period

Those were some pretty good signings. Lisandro and Casemiro are some of the best. Ander Herrera and Zlatan were great too. What I want to know is where is all the great Academy talent we always hear about? Thats what is needed to supliment the squad. One stud graduate every 6 years is not enough. Maybe our academy is not nearly as good as it used to be

do you guys happen to have information whether the people in charge of recruitment/scouting had changed or the method had changed? it seems like that other clubs (not only big clubs) manage to find excellent young players from other leagues

As an Arsenal fan, I love how Man U are floundering now. It’s great

Pogba. Representation of all things wrong at United

Great video but I think you missed the opportunity to emphasise the sacking of Ralf Ragnik. It’s the whole reason we still have no coherent transfer strategy till this day. He called out the board and challenged the club saying that we need “open heart surgery” and what did he get for it? A sacking. Now some of his recommendations like Julian Alavarez is flying at City whilst we still need a back up striker to Rasmus. And that’s only part of our problems.

Impossible to have a long term strategy when each new manager is completely different in style. Can't imagine that changing while the current owners are in place

I don't want to hear the Glazers don't spend enough money when your team just behind CIty in spending.

Can't all be these managers fault, some of the players are rotten and the Glazers are evil

Some good players on paper coming in over the time like Pogba, Fernandes, Martial but a lot just never pushed on and then the fees for some of the players like Fred, Martial, Sancho we’re shocking

Chelsea spent that over the last two years... Waiting for Tifo video on that in a few years

Atleast there is Chelsea to cover up Man United blunders lmao

Our tracking team is not smart enough to evaluate and select which players we should buy. Heavy price on players who do not perform.

The problem has always been United fans demand big name signings season after season. They aren’t interested in building players they have to make a big money signing. And that can’t work as transfer policy

Almost all of these transfers made sense at the time, it just seems like almost eveyone who joins us goes backwards, that has to be a coaching issue

Even Pep couldn't fix United

I've always thought the issue was that they look at potential jersey sales and basically nothing else.

Amazing video, thanks for sharing!

And the blame for this disaster resides squarely on the shoulders of...THE GLAZERS.

I'm completely baffled by how you failed to mention the Glazers in this video. Glazers as owners -> Not appointing the best in class in executive positions -> Failure to ensure long term strategic thinking. The signing have been manager-centric because the people at the top of the club are unable to run a world class football club. So the managers are asked to succeed despite of the club.

The cycle is this: Hire a manager. Let him spend 100-200m on players that would suit the style of play. Get rid of the last managers team. Lose a few games, fire the manager. Hire a manager. Let him spend 100-200m on players that would suit the style of play. Get rid of the last managers team. Lose a few games, fire the manager. Hire a manager.

Tifo thumbnail artist really gave Moyes that Emperor Palpatine look 😂

Man United of the 2020s are the Liverpool of the 2000s. A famous club slaved by American owners, with fans living off past glories and overhyped players that don’t deliver.

Fergie is singlehandedly the reason for our demise Appointing Moyes as his successor

You need to update your net spend for the teams you listed as they are not up to date.

I think 1 of the suitable terms for MU is 'fail to move on'...they're so caught up in the past when they were great, but when SAF resign they're refuse to realize it, realize that an era was end & new era is emerge Even until now their mindset-especially those legends who have been undar SAF - still don't & won't move on, which bring more pressures to the current squad & staff. If comparing w/ a bit same situation in for example Arsenal, the club & the elements around it quicker to realize this tendention. When Emery in charge, they don't give him so much burden to him & the squad. That's why by now, just at the second manager in Arteta (not includes Ljungberg), Arsenal start to gain momentum & moreover identity. We're agre that no one ever bigger than the club, but it's undeniable that the manager contribute so much identity to the team. Arsenal bravery to deliberately choose Arteta as a manager is starting to get paid. As he stated: 'trust the process' is really true. This was the point MU failed & found them self wasting many years in rebuild

That Arsenal game got the world clowning us smh

I think CFC & MCFC have brought in more money than is shown in that table. Transfermarkt is a bit inconsistent on academy sales

Great video. Loving this football content! Keep it up.

Being a united fan in the 90s meant you were on the bandwagon, being a fan now feels more authentic lol

Managers and Players are the issue, it's the management issue which will not change until top order leaves which will not happen.

These last 10 years are all Ik as a United fan. I can't even desribe to you how painful it is. I've become numb

Hot take - but we were actually dominant against the top teams under Van Gaal. Im pretty sure hes the last United manager to win at Anfield, and we played them off the pitch that day. Van Gaal would never have lost by 5 or 7. His issue was drawing too many games against the lesser sides, as we just had a real issue scoring. (But controlled games quite well and didnt concede a lot) I say, honestly, Van Gaal probably would have won us one league title at least with a bit more time.

Enjoyed that mate good video

The problem wasn’t signing the players and still isn’t. It always has been persisting with players for years on end and not moving them on. This is still the case at the moment. Just giving chances to okayed who don’t deserve them. The 2018/2019 season window were the let Mourinho down and never signed any players he wanted lead to the collapse of Mourinho who wanted to win but clearly the board had no interest. Whenever Manutd finished in the top4 the summer transfer window following that have been a joke

A footballing strategy does not come from the owner, it comes from the Manager. Of course the owner, really the Board of Directors, are there to fire the manager when he doesn't produce. It would help if the manager was given time to establish his style within the team, these days a season and a half is about the limit of a Boards attention span. When I looked at the montage of players bought in the last decade it seems incredible that no one was able to fashion a really top class team out of them. Mind you, the montage of managers was equally perplexing.

Best part about the Man U mess (I’m a LFC fan) is that every month your manager nearly gets sacked. You had one of the top 3 managers in the world in charge, and won the UEL. Didn’t get backed much but did that. LFC looked at that and stuck with Klopp, and look what happened

Should have been mentioned that although United finished 2nd in 2017/18, that was City's centurion season. United was 19 points behind City at season's end.

They just read out players bought under specific managers and closed it. Didnt add any value beyond that

It’s ironic how solskjaer gets the most criticism when his period represented the most stable league form whilst maintaining competitive level of football, prior to 21/22.

Remarkable how much of a difference a manager can make

The only ceiling-raisers have been Pogba, Bruno, Varane, Casimiro and that's pretty damning. Pogba underperformed, Bruno is overrated, Varane and Casimiro are past their best. One day they will win the PL again, but none of the current squad will be there to see it.

crazy just how quickly the market has been inflated. im sitting here looking at these deals and thinking some of these are insane bargains. then i remember, they are not in 2023

Absolutely crazy the money spent on players and coaches over those 10 years. A shadow of what they used to be and will continue to be

"In the past decade Manu have spent £1.3 billion in the transfer market" Todd Boehly spent that on breakfast.

I guess the reason why managers haven't been given enough time is because if they did, Man Utd would then be seen as modelling themselves off their biggest rivals Liverpool, who kept their manager around for 3 and a half years before he finally won his first major trophy with the club, and would then go on to win 3 more within the next 3 years. Well when Alex Ferguson was FIRST appointed in 1986, it ALSO took him 3 and a half years before his first trophy with the club. Since Alex Ferguson's retirement, no manager has been given more than 3 years at the club. And yet 3 of them had already won at least one major trophy before walking out the door.

The glaring absence of any mention of Ed Woodward or the Glazers is problematic for me on this video. Its sad to see so many bad players brought in, and other good players who were sent away.

It happens all the time in American football. By the time the coach gets the players he needs they are fired. Than the players don’t fit with the new coach.

This shows just how much edu n Arteta has stuck to there plan n made Arsenal a strong team that keep strengthing.decent players

Utd should have given LVG a few more windows. The best Utd have looked since Ferguson's latter years was a few months spell under LVG when they beat City, Liverpool, Spurs. They just needed to add a new GK and some pizazz in the attacking third, and all that boring structure he had created would likely have clicked more long term.

I as a coach wouldn't coach United... There are too many players who don't fit together... Different playing styles.. You see that when one player is injured.. The player that's supposed to replace him is totally different.. It's not like City, Brighton or Arsenal where players complete each other... United just buys players like Pokémons without thinking about how they could play together... Don't expect a coach to just make guys who come from different styles of football to do "tiki-taka" or play total football like Holland in the 70s...