Bruno is Man Utd’s Batman. And their fans should cheer the f*** up…

The Mailbox’s message to Manchester United fans: Always look on the bright side of life…

We have also have mails on £50million Liam Delap, Julian Alvarez to Arsenal, and plenty more besides.

Cheer up, Man Utd If I was saying what I’m about to say out loud, it would start with a really long, dragged out, frustrated moan. Sort of like an aaaaarrggg crossed with urrrrrggggghhhhh. How is that after 13 years of this nonsense, United are stuck in the same place?

For once, this is NOT Manchester United Football Club we’re talking about here, this is the FANS of Manchester United Football Club we’re talking about. Sure, the team were well beaten by a well set up and coached and highly motivated Hull side and it certainly felt like a new nadir for the side. But on the men’s side of the football club, it certainly feels like wider progress is being made. Transfers seem smarter and part of a wider plan. There are no Antonys, there is Senne Lammens. Carrington has been refurbed, there is (some) progress on a new stadium, losses at the club have been reduced and we’re back in the Champions League (for now). There is obviously work to be done (the less said about the INEOS approach to the women’s team the better) but it seems that the club has realised that it needs to improve things off the pitch for there to be success on it. It has stopped believing that success is deserved because of our history and revenue and must be earned the same as all other clubs (noting that our history and revenue are big advantages still). Though you could argue that Saturday proves that this hasn’t filtered down to the players, the long term trajectory seems positive. Be more positive without the Glazers, but still.

So why then, are the fans still in 1999 entitled mode? The season before last United failed to qualify for Europe and weren’t a million miles away from being relegated. The squad was poor. Since then we have improved on the pitch. Goals are back, Carrick has brought winning football. Even if Amorim had stayed we would have improved on the previous season. As it is we finished third last season, beating Liverpool and Chelsea twice, City, Arsenal. We even did the double over Brighton! Now the sensible among us would have looked at Carrick’s reign and recognised that it was unsustainable and had quite a lot of “new manager bounce” to it. Some sort of regression is possible, if not expected, as there are still holes in the squad as it is still developing. I suspect this why Carrick is still the manager as better ones were probably looking at the squad and having a good long think about their careers.

The squad has been improved this Summer. We now have a midfield where before Christmas we had an aged Casemiro with Mainoo sidelined and Ugarte rubbish. Ugarte is now rubbish and injured but we have Mainoo back and in good form at the end of last season, Santos and Baleba for steel and Tielemans a literal steal at that price. A lot of people will be moaning about not getting top targets and point to the Hull game as evidence of why we’ve got a mid midfield but how did our so called top targets fair at the weekend? It’s almost as if one game doesn’t prove anything.

You just see the same entitled fans moaning about United every week. We just know Badwolf and Gaptoothfreak have been waiting for one poor performance to have an almighty moan about United. The Hull game was mighty disappointing for sure, a massive let down, an abysmal performance. But it is not, on the whole, reflective of where this team is. Don’t get me wrong, there is a whole lot of football to be played and if at the end of all of it United are still poor I’ll be moaning with you, but after one game? Give your heads a wobble. Carrick has also shown an ability to get a good result the week after a poor one, unlike some of his predecessors, so let’s see what happens.

And on Bruno. If he was such a problem for everyone’s way of playing, why in the wired world of sports do all the managers keep playing him? United will almost certainly play differently when he goes as he’s a maverick, but much like Bryan Robson or Steven Gerrard for Liverpool, he’s literally Batman for United. You don’t bin off those players until it’s time. Until we build a squad capable of playing a possession based game, he needs to stay and play. Or we’ll never build that team.

Everyone just cheer the duck up. Ashmundo

…In response to Gaptoothfreak…

First off commiserations on some of the bad news, I find myself in a similar situation (although in a more affordable city and in a job that allows me to have disposable income) so I do on some level understand your frustrations.

However, maybe we look at football differently? If you’re pushing 40 then like me you grew up on the steady diet of trophies and exciting football that SAF teams generally produced. It was glorious, and really does hammer home the saying “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” That being said, even when United have been in the doldrums it’s still been a great experience and something to get excited about, just less about what’s happening on the pitch and more of what is going on around it. United still give me the opportunity to meet friends and family on a weekly basis to watch/go to games, a constant stream of WhatsApp messages about football, content to read/listen to throughout the working day, a tenuous optimism for fantasy football to be crushed by week 1 and so on.

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but we literally only have to go back to last season to see a YoY improvement? 15th to 3rd in one year? That was glorious, as were some of the results under Carrick (the Arsenal game springs to mind). So in terms of us being depressing, I’d say it’s all relative and we are lucky enough to have seen our team win more trophies than most fans will ever dream of. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be demanding the club are held to high standards, more that it isn’t something to get depressed about. I think it is the great thing about football, it has the ability to lift your spirits or… not really have any impact (results only here, obviously some of the other aspects around it are depressing as *). Sure I was angry after Hull, but that was gone by the time the Tottenham game finished – this is part of maturing, not letting it impact your whole weekend like when you were a teenager.

Finally, anyone who thinks we should drop/marginalise Bruno can * right off. See the horizon? Walk there, and then start the process over again, repeat until you come to your senses. Jack (Creative players give the ball away, it is why they also create chances. Bruno is the best in the business at it) Manchester

What’s the deal with Delap? Having a low IQ, as per a BTL commentator, could someone please help me to understand football club logic.

Liam Delap at 20 goes out on loan to Hull City and for a 20 year old, has a very good season in the Championship, 8 goals in 32 appearances (sorry no idea about starts and CBA to look), not too shabby. This attracts newly promoted Ipswich Town who shell out £20mil for his services. Delap has another decent season, playing for a team who would eventually be relegated, his goal every 4 games stat is impressive and as such money bags Chelsea, a club not averse to spending big, negotiate a £30mil transfer, Delap’s value increasing by some 50%.

His Chelsea season doesn’t quite go to plan, 41 appearances produces 2 (TWO!) goals, one of which was in a glorified friendly against the mighty Esperance Sportive de Tunis (no, me neither). Chelsea’s two permanent managers and one interim, only see enough to give him 12 starts in the Premier League, the new manager has seen enough in pre-season to decide that young Liam is either not suitable for his style of play or simply not good enough for a team hoping to challenge on 4 fronts, he isn’t selected or included amongst the substitutes for their opening game.

And yet, following interest from Nottingham Forest, Chelsea decide that “surplus to requirements, 2 goals in 41, not good enough” Liam is now worth £50 million, a 66% increase in valuation!

I’m confused, can the F365 please help as I think I’m going insane. Howard (does that make Isak worth £200 mil?) Jones

… I’m not done… Omar Marmoush joined Man City for £59mil, he had an excellent goals to game ratio for Frankfurt and whilst this hasn’t been maintained, he has adapted really well to the harder Premier League

However, City have decided that Doku and/or Semenyo are better options to play alongside the terminator. As such they have applied the Delap formula and his valuation which Tottenham are obliged to pay, 12 months from now, is obviously £90mil.

What’s that? Proven goalscorer and “success” Marmoush is going for an extra £1mil, how can that be unless “potential” and a manager saying “I think I can get more out of him” costs 50% more(figures have changed), correction, I am confused even more. Howard Jones

Savio switch I see that Savinho would now like to be called Savio following his move to Spurs.

This name change reminded me of when Hermes changed their name to Evri, in the hope that everyone would forget how truly bad they are at what they’re supposed to do.

Just a thought. Ant MUFC

Alvarez decision I wanted to add this BTL, but my work device has so many security features, signing in is impossible, so email it is.

Something a lot of people fail to take into account with player transfers.

Getting the player on board is often only half the battle. The player’s partner, family and entourage also have to be convinced of the move, either by the club or player themselves.

How many times have we heard stories of foreign players wanting out of northern clubs because their wife’s hated it either due to the weather or sheer culture shock?.

In the case of Alvarez, his family were already having to leave England regardless of his departure from City to Atletico due to visa issues, and if those issues still exist, it would take some convincing for them to go through that again.

Apparently London is an easier sell than Manchester (wouldn’t know, not been to either) and that could help, but ultimately the decisions may not just be up to Julián.

It’s never as simple as people want to make out. NorbuckNZ

Justice for Bosnich Mark Bosnich was so terrible that he held down a very good Premiership career for pretty much a decade, playing for Manchester United over two spells, won a league and a couple of league cups. A bit of a character, sure, but that was part of the package.

Poor kicking, ‘refuelling problems’ and injuries saw his career end before his thirties. But he was 18 when he made his United/league debut.

Feels sad that he’s found himself relegated to a joke postscript when, at his mid-90s peak, he was one of the best goalkeepers in the league and certainly a great at penalties – both in shoot outs and in games.

I’ll do Lee Sharpe and Rory Allen next Rob, Brum

Justice for Jens Jens Lehman played every single game of the 2003/4 Premier League season and didn’t lose a single league game.

You’ve got him in 10th place.

Yeah, good one.

You can talk about each club’s greatest goalkeepers, and I don’t argue that Schmeichel ranks top in the Premier League era, but if the stipulation is ‘Title-winning’ keepers, Jens has no competition. Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Ta-ra Martinelli Gabriel Martinelli scored one league goal last season…

Firstly, what a f***ing goal that was! An absolute thing of beauty applying the only possible finish to lift it over one of the tallest and most highly rated keepers in the league to nestle in the far corner and salvage a point against… Manchester City! That goal turned out to be quite important in the end I reckon. At the time many pundits (even sensible ones that I usually like) scoffed and said it did nothing to shift the needle as we had not closed the gap on runaway favourites Liverpool. Lol! But still one league goal all season.

He also scored six goals in the UEFA Champions league and four (including a hattrick) in the FA Cup. So that makes 11 goals to go along with seven assists in all comps last season. Not exactly Salah numbers but a lot less chumpish sounding than 1 goal all season…

He also scored a really well executed last ditch finish for Brazil in a knockout game in a world cup. Which is the kind of thing that would have had everyone ready to throw a hundred million at him on the spot had he been a player previously unknown to followers of European football.

It now seems apparent that he is being sold to the Saudi League for around 50 million euros.

So basically Martinelli is the modern internet’s wet dream. He is Jekyll and Hyde, he is Harvey Dent, he is both ying and yang. He has the capacity to get you stuck in an infinite debate loop from which there is no escape. Is that too much? Is that too little? We may never actually know…