Leading up to and mostly after the EUL final loss, the press has been awash with Alejandro Garnacho leaving United based on a falling out with Manager Ruben Amorim. For me this will be the final test case of how bad INEOS are.
I say how bad and not how good, because so far, they have been bad management-wise at Manchester United judging by the results on the pitch and off the pitch with too many pointless penny-pinching cuts made under the guise of financial wizardry.
Personally, I do not condone indiscipline and I will “default” back the one applying the discipline against the one being disciplined except there is overwhelming evidence it is unjustified.
ETH – Sancho: my view was and still is, Erik Ten Hag could have handled it better by not bringing it to the press (coaches do though), but it didn’t invalidate the fact that I thought Jadon Sancho was wrong to go to Instagram to basically call his manager a liar.
Now we have another situation [Amorim – Garnacho] that I am not sure of the details yet as it is all still developing, even though in my opinion Garnacho’s ego has been writing cheques his talent cannot back up nor cash.
Players have left my beloved United in the past, great players in their prime as well and the club has continued to exist and win laurels after their departure, so I am not overtly burdened by the thought of another leaving. If I were writing for just a Nigerian audience, I will simply say in local parlance “soja go, soja come, barrack go remain” (soldiers come in and leave, the barrack continues to exist irrespective of the comings and goings).
ETH was backed against Sancho with INEOS never trying to find a solution that reinforced the notion of discipline while not comprising the sporting strength of the club or the value of assets: I have no issues with this. INEOS backed ETH in this case and then gave him £200M to spend only to pull the plug 🔌 on his tenure in October of the following season, a little less than 3 months into the season.
Everyone thought ETH should have gone or would go during the summer, INEOS kept him on. I wanted him gone in the summer, but I was quite upset that he was kept on just to sack him 2 months after. What were you thinking in the summer, what did you see in the first 3 months that was not evident the previous season?
Now we have the Amorim situation with large echoes of the ten Hag last summer. By all wisdom known to football aficionados, Amorim should be gone by now, but by a combination of fate and the context of his appointment he is still there.
He has basically devalued two club assets by his methods – Marcus Rashford and Antony. Though we can say Antony was never as valuable in the first place and Rashford did his best to put himself in that situation, but Amorim single-handedly made sure that no matter what these two did on loans, their values were never going to rise as he had made it obvious to all and sundry that they were not wanted. Unwisely if I may add. INEOS backed him.
Now we approach the summer with Amorim in a worse situation than ten Hag was and by all indications he will keep his job, he will get investment and club assets will be sold off cheaply due to his man management techniques. We all know though that the jury is out and a start like Amorim finished this season with will mean he is gone by end of September. Yet the club will sell off assets cheaply at his behest and buy new assets when you know he may be gone in a twinkle of an eye 👁️ in the new season.
Not sure if Sir Jim Ratcliffe actually bears a grudge against MUFC and buying the club was just high stakes revenge. I would not rule it out though judging by the myriad of decisions they have taken so far with predictable outcomes.
As a United fan I strongly hope my fears fall flat spectacularly and INEOS do not turn out to be as bad as I think they have been so far.
Bola Adegbonmire wrote in from Lagos, Nigeria. He is on X @Bobokons
