Steve Hemsley retweeted
It is a sad reflection of modern football that the man who cares most about Manchester United, who will loyally, diligently again go into Carrington today to try and tackle the mess, is the one being eased out by those gathering in Monaco and via a link to Florida who don’t truly have United in their heart. Those who are primarily responsible for the mess.
Michael Carrick will leave the club sooner or later but the club will never leave him. United mean too much to him. He gave everything for the team in 464 games. His son plays for their academy. Being United head coach is not simply a job for Carrick, it's an honour he feels deeply proud of.
The manager who last season masterminded home wins over Manchester City, Aston Villa and Liverpool and away triumphs at Arsenal, Chelsea and Brighton has undoubtedly made mistakes this season. Diogo Dalot at left-back, not bringing Shea Lacey on earlier, etc. The poor run, and tumble into the relegation positions, inevitably means his job is on the line.
It is possible to understand why Carrick should lose his job but also why others should be held accountable, too. The decision on Carrick would be more palatable if it weren’t being formulated and then executed by Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the loathed Glazers. What good have they done to this great club? Debts and decline, holes in the roof and in the squad.
Carrick’s contribution to the history of Manchester United is substantial and his legacy secure – winning five titles and taking responsibility for a penalty in the 2008 shootout that helped win the Champions League.
At the very least, Carrick deserves to be treated with far more respect than is currently being shown to a dignified, hard-working individual as the clock ticks down on his departure. His exit is being handled appallingly by the club. Red man walking. At least United fans are showing all the class their board lacks. The Stretford End sings Carrick’s name because they know he is not the real problem.
It will be no surprise in weeks to come to spot Carrick standing, hood up, with United fans at an away game. They will welcome him warmly. He’s done it before, being a fan again. Carrick loves the club. He has ever since he was an apprentice at West Ham United, charged with keeping the away dressing-room tidy, and admiring how Alex Ferguson and his smartly-dressed collection of winners strode into the Boleyn Ground. They had an aura, and Carrick wanted to be part of that.
Carrick will leave the club physically, dismissed as much for the failings of underperforming players, those incompetents in charge of recruitment and the unpopular owners, as for his own undoubted mistakes. But Carrick will never leave United emotionally. It's sad that someone who cares so much will go, and those who don't care as much remain. #MUFC
Steve Hemsley retweeted
Manchester United’s No 6 shirt has been worn by such distinguished servants to the club as Gary Pallister, Martin Buchan, Nobby Stiles, Jaap Stam, Duncan Edwards, Wes Brown amongst others. It’s now worn by Lisandro Martinez, who embarrassed the club again today #MUFC
Steve Hemsley retweeted
Some thoughts on the mess at Manchester United, including the crisis of leadership throughout. The only blameless people are the fans. #MUFC
Steve Hemsley retweeted
Manchester United's rabble of pathetic, over-entitled players push Carrick towards his place in the club's endless winter. But the chaos that has gripped United is not on him. It's on the Glazers, Ratcliffe, Berrada and Wilcox. dailymail.com/sport/football…
Steve Hemsley retweeted
Get them out Reds! Boycott the club!
#BoycottMUFC #BoycottManutd #GlazersOut #IneosOut #GlazersAndIneosOut
Steve Hemsley retweeted
🔥 WATCH THIS: Paul Merson RAGING at Manchester City over their industrial-scale cheating, and the moments they’ve denied other teams, players and fans.
Merse is saying what a lot of fans have been feeling since the guilty verdicts. The cheating didn’t just help City. It won them the Premier League. He says there’s “absolutely no chance” they would have done it without it.
Without the ability to ignore PSR the way everyone else had to, they would have been miles off the top teams. They simply wouldn’t have been able to compete with the legitimate revenue streams the others were generating.
The players didn’t win those leagues, “them upstairs” did, by buying all the best players and building a squad no one else was allowed to match.
When Clinton Morrison tried to defend them (“they still have to go out and play, Merse”), Merson nearly exploded:
“OH COME ON! They had all the best players! They had two best players in every position and they dominated!”
Then he went further. Medals and trophies are almost irrelevant next to what actually matters. Life is about moments, and City’s ownership have taken those moments away from other people.
He pointed to Manchester United at Sunderland in 2012 — the day Aguero scored in the last seconds against QPR to clinch City’s first title, while United were left standing on the pitch at the Stadium of Light. That was at the height of the cheating.
“Life is all about moments and you’ve taken it away from other people. Them upstairs at Man City have nicked other people’s moments in life.”
Well put, @PaulMerse 👏
Steve Hemsley retweeted
🚨 Sir Alex Ferguson on Manchester City being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules:
“I read the news and the first person I thought about was Carlos Tevez.
Funny, isn’t it? After all these years.
We wanted Carlos to stay. David Gill spoke to his representatives, we made our offer, they said we’d left it too late and eventually he went across Manchester.
Then City put up that bloody ‘Welcome to Manchester’ poster.
I remember looking at it and thinking, ‘They haven’t just signed one of our players. They want us to know they can.’
That was when I called them a small club with a small mentality.
But there was something else happening around that period that people forget.
Suddenly City could walk into conversations for players that previously would have been choosing between United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Madrid, Barcelona.
I remember one summer hearing that Adebayor had agreed to join City, then apparently his people were still contacting us and Chelsea.
I thought, ‘What a strange situation. Players who would rather be somewhere else are signing for City anyway.’
At the time, you simply accepted that they had enormous financial power. You competed with it.
That’s football.
But if you then discover years later that rules were being broken during the period in which you’re trying to compete with that financial power, you’re entitled to look back differently.
Because people will say, ‘Ferguson was just angry because City became successful.’
No.
I was angry before they were successful.
I was standing there in 2009 watching them take Tevez, chase players everywhere and put his face on a building to celebrate taking him from us.
Imagine telling me then, ‘Alex, one day the Premier League will investigate how all of this was being financed.’
I’d probably have pointed at the poster and said, ‘You might want to start there.’
And that’s the part people miss when discussing what happened afterwards.
Once you change the financial strength of one club, you don’t only change that club.
You change where players go.
You change what everybody else has to pay.
You change which manager gets which footballer.
You change title races before the first ball is kicked.
People can spend the next twenty years asking whether this player would’ve joined United, whether that player would’ve joined Chelsea, whether somebody else would’ve gone to Arsenal.
Nobody can prove those alternate histories.
But I know this much.
When I was fighting them, I thought I was fighting Manchester City.
Apparently I should’ve brought an accountant.”
Steve Hemsley retweeted
It is always (or should be) easy to understand and excuse on-field refereeing errors. It’s such an incredibly difficult job.
But listening to the audio, the VAR cock-up at Old Trafford on Sunday — turning an offside into a goal because, seemingly, they forgot to check whether Fernandez was interfering with play — was so sooooo bad. It’s a total failure of process rather than just interpretation. Two and a half minutes studying the goal forensically, only to allow an offside goal because you’ve lost track of what the rules say about interfering with play … staggeringly bad.
nytimes.com/athletic/7595027…
Steve Hemsley retweeted
It's #ThankAGreenkeeper Day today and here is a message from @padraig_h filmed during the@DPWorldTour #BMWPGA ProAm at @wentworthclub_
Thank a Greenkeeper Day is a day for the world of golf to give thanks to greenkeepers. We hope message these will encourage more golfers to do the same.
#Golf #Greenkeeping #ThankASuper #Golfers #Thanks #Greenkeeper #ThankAGreenkeeperDay #GolfClub
A pleasure to help out @FCTrafford this summer to bring the pitch back up to speed, now ready for the new season starting tomorrow. Thanks must go to all the volunteers who have worked tirelessly to keep on top of the watering during this turf stress time. Brilliant job everyone – at Chapeltown, England
Steve Hemsley retweeted
Catch the touts, don’t alienate the innocents. Manchester United are a great club but they can go about handling sensitive situations naively and, in this case, aggressively. On the way to a works do but needed to address this issue. Work with fans, not seemingly against them.
Steve Hemsley retweeted
Mexico genuinely has one of the best stadiums at this World Cup, yet it's barely getting the recognition it deserves. That view is absolutely unreal. 🇲🇽
teapawt.net/WorldCupXtraa/status/2…
