Nah Rashford looks a far better prospect. Welbeck's a clumsy grafter that has good movement off the ball.

I think your memory is playing tricks. Back in the summer of 2012 people were very excited about Welbeck.

They weren't really robb

Yeah I wasn't really. I do think he complimented our style of play quite well because of his pace but never thought he'd become a top striker. Doesn't have the talent.

comment by Roy's Keen (U11635)
posted 2 minutes ago
They weren't really robb
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Of course they were. He was a great young prospect. Forget how it's turned out - back in 11/12 he was a hot prospect and scored some very important goals

Great young prospect is over egging it. But people were excited about Welbeck back then.

Back in the days when people thought Cleverson would be a thing

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Brightdave, you are what this forum needs. A man who presents valid points and backs them up.

Scholay will likely come back with some angry retort, claim to have read your comment and then brush it off before not actually properly replying at all. Sadly, poster says like him clog up a site where it's a real joy to see well researched and substatiatied claims.

*posters like him

comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - 2017 joy squids (U2958)
posted 16 hours, 21 minutes ago
Win tomorrow and we will have the same amount of points that LvG got in the entire season.

Context is your friend.
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Amusing as you ignore context in your post.

Since the legend retired we've all (myself included) tried to measure his successors against him but I think it's best we leave SAF in the past safe with his achievements and concentrate on the future rather than saddle each new guy with the impossible task of replacing the irreplaceable.

+++

Good advice. This is why it took over 25 years to finally replace Busby.

We move on. Past is past.

I don't believe the Ferguson comparison has been made this season as much as the op maintains

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Dave, forgive any lack of context as I've arrived late to the discussion and admittedly neither read back in detail nor checked all those links you posted, but I'd like to chip in with a couple of points...

First up, any idea when the incident Rio talks about in the video took place? I ask, because "I thought I was still good enough" seems to suggest it was in the latter part of his career. If so, he would've been a much more experienced and mature player (despite which he admits to his confidence going through the floor for a couple of days).

Another of the links speaks about how he was sorry about his public criticism of another player.

It raises the question of whether Fergie might not have been a lot more selective about laying into his players publicly.

I see people using examples from SAF's 26 seasons at United (and before) to argue both managers behaved in the same manner, but isn't the reason to suggest Mourinho might have gone overboard considering just how often he's spoken out against his players before he's even completed one full single.

Just because it worked for Fergie to do it on occasion, it doesn't make it's a good idea to do it every other bad result.

Just a view on the outisde, but in the knowledge that one of the big reasons things fell apart for Mourinho at Madrid was precisely that he started laying into his players much more often.

I don't know if it was actually well-earned or not, but Mourinho used to have a great reputation for putting himself in the firing line in order to protect his own players, but that doesn't really appear to be the case nowadays. Rather the opposite, his last two appointments have both been said to have gone down the drain precisely because of fractious relationships with his players.

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Yep, I'm a fan of nuance, though you get plenty of B&W portrayals on both sides of the fence.

Don't really agree with your approach in your last line though. The fact that top level sport incontrovertibly requires a winning mentality, personally I don't subscribe to means-to-an-end or win-at-all-costs approaches.

This is ioag, btw.

comment by Roy's Keen (U11635)
posted 41 minutes ago
I don't believe the Ferguson comparison has been made this season as much as the op maintains

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Robbie make sht up? No! Not possible.

Decent people will find Mourinho's comments about Shaw bang out of order.

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IRL, I'm often a fine example of nice guys finishing last haha.
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Explains why you're such a hit with the ladies.


So ... Jose is your Trump?


Nah, not my real name. Arthur Johnson was our first-ever goalscorer, captain and manager.

Alf will do you want a name to call me by.

If the media are to be believed, James is almost certainly off. Where to is anyone's guess.

The big debate at Madrid right now is whether our second string attack doesn't actually play better than the first string. They've certainly put on some very convincing performances.

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But if it was win at all costs, we wouldn't have sacked him.

Sacking a winning manager in the hope that the next provides more entertainment isn't win at all costs.

Take the other night. I'm butted we lost, of course I am, but I actually like that despite being a man down we put everything on the line to try to beat Barça the other night. We might have tried to see the game out and conceded anyway, it happens all the time.

So yeah, maybe it was reckless and we've put the league title on the line as a result, but it actually sits well with me.