Manchester United owners’ lack of understanding football: Graeme Souness

I must say I am struggling to think of any action that the geniuses currently running Manchester United could have taken to turn more people against them than terminating Sir Alex Ferguson’s contract as a club ambassador and showing him the door.

I’m trying to compute how they could have actually come up with an idea like that, at a time when so many supporters’ goodwill is ebbing away. This decision will have turned a great many more against them. The finger of blame will now not just be on Erik ten Hag.

Ineos are in charge of a club sitting 14th in the league, having had their worst start to a league season in 35 years. So they’ve sat down in a room and said to each other: ‘Right. What can we do to lose the little goodwill that’s remaining to us? I tell you what – let’s sack the greatest ambassador we have and restrict his access to certain parts of Old Trafford.’

This is the man who led United through the greatest period they have ever known. His 26 years at Old Trafford brought success surpassing any other period in the club’s history. He is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest employee that club has ever had.

United insist that he is still welcome at Old Trafford. But surely you want someone like him around the place as much as possible? Surely you want the world to know that you are treating the pillar of your club with the respect that his endeavours have warranted? Apparently not.

His 26 years at Old Trafford brought success surpassing any other period at Man United

The legendary manager is the club’s standard bearer for his achievements in a 26-year reign

I know you get nothing for looking back in football. Nothing lasts forever. But this is not any old manager we are talking about. You only have to go to Old Trafford on a matchday and see the banners, to be reminded of the trophies he’s won, what he has achieved and the standing he is held in. Talk about the ultimate standard bearer.

When he was manager of the club, he imbued Old Trafford with a siege mentality. His message was: ‘It’s us against the world. Everyone else is the enemy.’ The new decision-makers don’t seem to have the remotest understanding of that, or of the value of loyalty at a football institution like United.

Simply by being around the place, Fergie is a reminder of the passion and quality that United should always be striving for. A symbol of the club’s great days, at a time when their dressing room looks so fragmented, with no one really believing they can be successful.

Yet he seems to be viewed as just another employee. Just another casualty of the Ineos cost-cutting measures. What a disgrace. Where on earth is the respect? I have to tell these owners that they have embarrassed themselves.

The sum of money he was getting may have been considerable but is his role really one that the bean counters needed to be looking at for their cost savings? United are a cash cow that generate huge sums of money, even when they are in the doldrums as they are right now. Their latest reported annual revenues were £661.8 million. The annual £2million they are cutting by dispensing with Fergie is a drop in the ocean.

Ferguson imbued Old Trafford with a siege mentality – something the owner don’t understand

Simply by being around the place, Ferguson is a reminder of what United should be striving for

For me, this decision is proof that the people now running the club simply don’t understand how football works, how Manchester United work and how supporters view that institution. 

On the evidence of what we’ve seen so far, the players they signed this summer – Joshua Zirkzee, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui – are not going to get United challenging for the two big trophies. We’ve not seen the fifth, Leny Yoro, because he broke down in pre-season. This weekend, the club entertain Brentford, one of the minnows, who are three places above them. Even this game is a very dangerous one for the current United.

Just a final thought to finish, for the bean counters. Manchester United is currently valued at £4.96billion. How much of that is down to what Fergie did for the club over 26 years?

Why Tuchel is the right man for the England job

I don’t understand why so many people are jumping up and down about a German managing the England team.

We live in a global society today. We’re forever talking about that. In every major business here, there are employees from all over the world working side by side with British people. What’s the problem? The only problem comes if Thomas Tuchel is not successful – and as for any manager, then the criticism will certainly come.

I think Tuchel was the outstanding candidate not in a job at this time and I don’t care if he’s from the dark side of the moon. I’ve only met him once – at a very nice restaurant in London, where I found him charming (even though he didn’t offer to buy me a glass of champagne!) It was a chance meeting and a brief one but he came across as a football man and it struck me that the quality of his English was excellent. As I recall, he had just taken the Chelsea job at the time.

If ever there was a manager outside of his comfort zone, then it has been Lee Carsley in charge of England, these past few weeks. I had Lee for nine months at Blackburn Rovers in 2000. A nice guy, but that job was not for him.

Thomas Tuchel was the outstanding candidate for England who was not already in a job

Lee Carsley appeared out of his comfort zone in charge of England in the last few weeks

Eddie Howe was the outstanding English candidate but Tuchel has had success at big clubs

For whatever reason, the poor guy couldn’t admit it publicly but he clearly really, really wanted to say: ‘This ain’t for me. I don’t want this job.’ The mixed signals after the game in Finland last weekend were bizarre but he’s been put out of his misery, now. He’ll get back to sleeping at night.

I think the outstanding English candidate for the job was Eddie Howe at Newcastle. Tuchel is a different kind of character. He’s edgy, seems up for an argument and ready to fight his corner. I think at times he might go looking for aggravation which isn’t always helpful – but if it’s in you, it’s in you. Remember his handshake with Antonio Conte when Tottenham came to Chelsea two years ago?

He has been successful at big clubs and as I’ve said on these pages a number of times before, there’s a big difference between managing the medium-sized clubs and the giants. He survived those challenges. He’s the right man for this job.

Chelsea and Liverpool face acid test 

Chelsea’s visit to Anfield this weekend is an acid test for both clubs and for two managers who have come across really well in the past few months.

I’ve been critical of the way Chelsea went about their business. I believe they should have been far more selective in their buying than that scattergun approach and have stored up problems for themselves down the road. But Enzo Maresca has bounced back from an uncertain start to the season and got his players onside, believing in what he’s trying to do. Arne Slot talks very well about how much hard work there is ahead for Liverpool, with tough games coming up. Neither manager is getting carried away.

I would always say to a team I took over: ‘We will only find out about each other when we lose a couple of games, back-to-back.’ It is the same for both of these teams, who are in strikingly similar places. This weekend will tell us more about where they stand on the road towards challenging for the top honours.

Arne Slot, left, and Enzo Maresca have enjoyed strong starts at Liverpool and Chelsea