UNITED WE FALL<\/p>\n
The modern football manager might wear classic Reeboks, or knackered Converse, or trackie bottoms tucked in socks but, to continue paraphrasing the Arctic Monkeys song, there ain\u2019t no romance in our game no more. Nothing endures. The average managerial tenure tends to last between 18 months and two years. For Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r at Besiktas, it was a little more than seven months; Jos\u00e9 Mourinho got 14 at Fenerbahce. And so the pair, intrinsically linked by their sequential spells at Manchester United<\/a>, find themselves on similar paths again, their sackings from Turkish nearly-clubs coming within hours of each other this week. Both have been caught in the meat grinder of Uefa\u2019s endless European qualifiers. Solskj\u00e6r\u2019s brave Besiktas boys were downed by Ineos-owned Lausanne in the Tin Pot playoffs on Thursday night. A day earlier, Mourinho\u2019s men were ousted by Benfica in the Bigger Cup equivalent.<\/p>\n It feels rather timely that these two former United bosses should be chucked through the door marked Do One just as the latest man to suffer the Old Trafford meme factory is put to his limits. Ruben Amorim<\/a> will rue the day he popped into Sports Direct to buy that magnetic tactics board, for it was instantly imbibed into the internet\u2019s collection of looped two-second videos for merciless and eternal social media use. Amorim, the sweet-talking dogmatist whose principled management was the exact reason for his appointment at United, is now being viewed with ridicule and derision, just as Solskj\u00e6r and Mourinho were before him. It comes for everyone. Solskj\u00e6r was a club legend who ended his reign by crying on MUTV; Mourinho was the managerial great living miserably in a hotel room after alienating his squad. The scythe\u2019s swing is remorseless.<\/p>\n The United fanbase has always been divided regarding how to view the aforementioned duo. Without question, they occupy the top two in the post-Ferguson cartel of managers, albeit Erik ten Hag and Louis van Gaal won domestic cups where Solskj\u00e6r won none. But the Norwegian came second, produced fluent football and endeared himself to United supporters. The romanticists loved him, how he paid lip service to the club\u2019s history by playing counterattacking football and refusing to use Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s old parking space. It is widely agreed that sacking Solskj\u00e6r in November 2022 was a premature move by United, given they had no idea how to replace him. There are now even some whispers among supporters about bringing him back. You know the drill: an interim spell, 4-2-3-1 and good vibes. Isn\u2019t that what football is about? Oh no, sorry, romance is dead \u2026<\/p>\n Instead United and Amorim plough on together<\/a>. The dreaded vote of confidence. The rigid formation. Mason Mount at left wing-back. The apologies from Diogo Dalot after another defensive disasterclass. There are rumours Amorim may be considering walking away from it all<\/a>, shunning a hefty payoff, believing there is a desert island somewhere for him to sit on and fiddle with his laminated tactics tablet forever more. As Solskj\u00e6r and Mourinho prove, however, the most likely future awaiting Amorim is a bleak spell managing Trabzonspor, eventually getting the bullet in late August 2028 for a meek Big Vase qualifying defeat to Lens. Be warned, Ruben.<\/p>\n QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n I used this word unintentionally, just to make it very clear. I had no intention, there was no message, there was no hidden agenda. I fully understand it\u2019s my responsibility that I created these headlines. I\u2019m sorry for the upset and for the headlines that I created. I\u2019m experienced enough, I should have known better and should have done better. I thought I have a little bit more credit with you guys, that I do all this in my second language. I did it on the morning after a loss and not a lot of sleep. I did it in a live interview and I used the wrong word. I made straight away contact with him, of course and I got in touch with him straight away. Jude\u2019s focus is now in his rehabilitation\u201d \u2013 a contrite Thomas Tuchel explains<\/a> how and why in June he used the word \u201crepulsive\u201d to describe some of Jude Bellingham\u2019s on-field antics.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Friends again? Composite: Guardian Picture Desk<\/p>\n So Jos\u00e9 pointedly said that after Galatasaray, he wanted to manage a club at the bottom of the Premier League, where he wouldn\u2019t have deal with UEFA \u2026 Taxi for Potter, anyone? \u2013 Declan Hackett.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Amorim on the brink, Mourinho sacked. We can all see how this pans out, but I bet David Squires is properly happy\u201d \u2013 Kev, Uffculme.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n My mate in Newcastle congratulated my team on knocking \u2018the vile Mackems\u2019 out of the Carabao Cup (but we were a mere two divisions below them so it won\u2019t have registered with you guys and it is likely to be a league game next season anyway) and then went on to comment on his team losing at home to Liverpool. \u2018Always disliked them, but it\u2019s now visceral with all this Judas Isakariot business. T-shirts with his picture on are on sale outside the ground with a free box of matches\u201d \u2013 Richard Askham.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As the transfer window draws to a close, Zian Flemming\u2019s permanent switch to Burnley for a reported \u00a37m fee may not have caused the same headlines as Gy\u00f6keres or Eze, but let me tell you that Zian is worth his weight in gold! Quite literally, with Flemming reportedly weighing in at 84kg and gold prices hovering around $3,466 per Troy ounce, he would be worth \u00a37m in gold. To use the old football idiom and question whether he is worth his weight in goals however is quite another matter \u2026 \u201c \u2013 Sam from London.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Fulham suit on the phone with Shakhtar suit: \u201cWe need to talk about Kevin\u201d \u2013 \u200eLean Ka-Min.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n JJ Zucal \u2013 deservedly \u2013 won Thursday\u2019s letter o\u2019 the day. But Tom Dowler deserves a special award for actually making me laugh out loud while reading Football Daily \u2013 Mark Waters.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com<\/a>. Today\u2019s winner of our prizeless letter o\u2019 the day is \u2026 Richard Askham. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/strong>\u200a<\/p>\n RECOMMENDED BOOKING<\/p>\n On Thursday 11 September, join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and Football Weekly favourites Jonathan Wilson, Nicky Bandini and Jonathan Liew for an evening of unfiltered football punditry at Troxy in London. The pod will also be livestreamed globally. Book now<\/a>.\u200a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNITED WE FALL The modern football manager might wear classic Reeboks, or knackered Converse, or trackie bottoms tucked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-383025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115113300062146178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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