How Manchester United lost their ambition?

Manchester United have not won the league in 6 years. Let that sink in folks. The Glazers are owners that are only driven by increasing their profit margins rather than winning trophies. A creative midfielder and a right-winger were needed at the club but through their henchman, Ed Woodward this wasn't forthcoming.  The Glazers must realize that if the team continues to perform poorly on the field, sponsors will pull out and the profit margins that they value so much will be diminished drastically. It doesn't matter if Pep comes to manage just like previous managers won't be backed in the transfer market. I have issues with Ed Woodward as C.E.O. but he is not to be blamed for poor buying in the transfer market because he doesn't have the experience of dealing with football agents and clubs. Even if he is removed from his post how do we know that the owners won't hire somebody similar to Ed Woodward? The Glazers need to change their mindset from making money to winning trophies which should be the goal of Manchester United. If they can't there will be a long goodbye for themselves.

Living on past glories

I have been a Manchester United fan for 20 years and a Los Angeles Lakers' fan for 22 years. Both of them are two of the iconic sport franchises in history but they are both in decline. Manchester United have not won the league since 2013 when Sir Alex Ferguson retired. I didn't make this up but the Lakers have not made the playoffs since Kobe retired in 2013. What a coincidence that both of them have gone through a similar period of a lack of success.


For Manchester United the root of their problems begin at the front office, where the owners, The Glazers appointed Ed Woodward, who is qualified as an investment banker to be in charge of football related matters. It is amazing that they appoint somebody with no experience on acquiring and selling of players. What were they thinking? A similar question can be asked about the Lakers. Why did Jeanie Buss hired Rob Pelinka, agent of Lakers' legend Kobe Bryant to the post of president of basketball operations. Not only did he have a reputation of being a liar among  NBA executives but he lacks experience as an executive. Did Jeanie hire him because he was Kobe's agent? You can't hire individuals, who are not specialized in their respective fields. If that wasn't bad enough, yes it gets worse, Linda Rambis, wife of former Laker, Kurt Rambis is who Jeanie consults. Again she is another individual with no basketball knowledge.


There is a common theme among the both teams where they appoint individuals who are not experienced in these high profile positions. Both clubs need to just hire based on experience. Its very simple not rocket science.

Manchester United 2018-2019 Season Review

To say that the season for Manchester United was shambolic and a disaster would be an understatement. First of all they had Jose Mourinho, who created a dressing room of players that disagreed with his style of play as well as his managerial style. The fanbase rejoiced when he was fired and hired Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer in his replacement. When Ole was appointed this same set of players who played under Jose was almost unrecognizable. They pressed, passed quickly and played like the Old Man United. It was not a surprise to me that they went on an unbeaten run. I knew it won't last but the poor run of results that followed was astounding to say the least. What is the reason for the team's poor form? Is it that the players are not fit enough or has Ole told a few members of the squad that they are no longer needed? It is a combination of both. The squad is just not fit enough and there are players that have been poor for a long period of time, like Ashley Young or players that don't fit Ole's system like Romelu Lukaku.

We as fans need to be realistic that the gap is wide between us and Manchester City/Liverpool. Manchester United are not in the UEFA Champions League and therefore it will be difficult to attract top tier talent. It is better for them to sign a combination of young promising players and players who can improve the team instantly. They have to move away from attracting players by inflating their wages. This is Manchester United! They should be attracting players based on the football and history but that's not the case because they are other teams whom history is not as rich as Man United are attracting top talent because of the style of football. Case in point the noisy neighbors, Manchester City. In the summer they have to realize that there is no quick fix and a rebuild is needed.

Lakers Drama

Going into the just concluded season, my expectation is that the Los Angeles Lakers make the playoffs. Before the trade deadline they were the 4th seed in the Western Conference. Lakers were exceeding my expectation and may even surprise a few teams in the playoffs but trade speculation of Lakers acquiring Anthony Davis for some of the young core as well as injuries to Lebron, Lonzo, Kuzma and Ingram played a part in Lakers not making the playoffs.

I see a bigger problem why they didn't make the playoffs. One reason only, direction. Direction starts at the front office. It seems there is a lack of cohesion among Jeanie Buss, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, which resulted in Magic resigning. I questioned from the start Pelinka and Magic's experience in running a NBA team. Magic is a former player while Pelinka was the former agent of Kobe Bryant. Going forward there need to be one goal, shared by all involved. They need to decide if they are going to develop the young core of Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram or they will try to acquire superstar type talent to join Lebron James and help Lakers contend again. 

Fresh Start For West Indies Cricket

If a genie had to grant me three wishes in relation of fixing West Indies Cricket, my first wish would be getting rid of Dave Cameron as president of Cricket West Indies. Maybe genies do exist because that wish was granted, as Ricky Skerritt gathered the votes required to unseat Dave Cameron. In fact both Cameron and Skerritt to this day are still surprised by the margin of victory. Cameron had so much bad blood with current and past players that he needed to go. West Indies Cricket needs a fresh face and a fresh approach in order to compete with the rest of the cricketing world. What Skerritt needs to put as priority is to foster a better working relationship with W.I.P.A. and by extension the players. He has already lifted the selection criteria, where a player has to exclusively play in regional competition to get selected. That is an archaic system, where you exclude players who participate in leagues all round the world. I wish Mr. Skerritt all the best in developing and improving West Indies Cricket in the years to come. 

Big club with small club mentality

I was so thrilled when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was hired as the permanent manager of Manchester United but it only tapered the cracks that have been gradually widening. It is absolutely shocking how business as it relates to the football side is conducted. They have allowed players' contracts to run down because they want to save money. Instead of negotiating a new contract, they agree to a 1 year extension. This kind of action indirectly signals to the player that we, the board want to save every cent before we agree to your contract extension.This can affect team morale because the squad of players could interpret that the board only care about their profit margins rather than the players' welfare. That is bad by itself but when they prioritize to which players get new contracts is even more shocking. What have Ashley Young, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones done to deserve new contracts. It can't be that they were with the club for a long time. That is a small club mentality. You know who is more deserving? Ander Herrera and David De Gea. They may end up leaving.  Just shocking! I don't know if the board is to be blamed or the Chief Executive Ed Woodward but somebody at the administration level, has no idea how to run a football club. Manchester United are a laughing stock to the football world, banter for days! I hope that a Director of Football can be hired to run the football business of the club and let good ole Ed conduct the business side

Manchester United have their groove back

The virus that was Jose Mourinho has been finally cleansed from the club. I dreamt of waking up to the news that Jose got the sack. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating that anybody lose their job but Jose had to go. He continuously criticize players in public and his pragmatic, boring playing style is not what us fans expect of Manchester United. Under his watch, I didn't look forward to Manchester United games. I am sure many will share that belief.

Finally, an antidote was found in the short-term, in the form of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, an ex-player who in his prime was one of the best finishers the club ever had. Ole not only has the experience of being a manager but he understands what the club is about. For me in the short-term it made sense. We can already see in a couple of games, the benefits of Ole giving the players freedom to express themselves.

What needs to be done now is that a football director has to be appointed to be responsible for scouting and making transfers and a manager must be appointed who understands what playing style is expected at Manchester United.