Last night there was a major upset when 4th division Grimsby Town football club defeated Manchester United from the Premier League. We all know Manchester United are not very good, but even this is a new low even by their standards.
The scary part is Grimsby should have won the game in normal time and not on penalties as they had a goal ruled out which would have seen them leading 3-1. The game eventually ended with the scores tied at 2-2 and they went on to win the penalty shoot out 13-12.
When we look at the squad values it tells us very little as what counts is the performance on the pitch and make no mistake Grimsby would have raised their game having such a big carrot especially with a televised live game.
The price of each squad has a difference of 248 x so one would expect a team with a £769 million price tag would crush a team valued at £3.1 million. The wages would be an interesting stat to see and I would comfortably say that one players weekly wages of United would cover all the wages of the Grimsby team.
The difference is not the value or the reputation of certain players, but the passion of the Grimsby team. You cannot buy passion and flair which is non existent in this Manchester United team. This season United have been the biggest spenders this far in this transfer window having spent north of £250 million and has made zero difference in their results. The difference between all the sides in the Premiership is very small as there are no easy games and United are now seen as fragile and a sitting duck.
What was telling in this transfer window is not one defending player has been purchased and they have bought attacking options. Last season saw United have the most goals conceded in one season since 1976-77 season totaling 81 in all competitions. Surely any statistician would be targeting this area for improvement, but no they have not bothered.
Last season Manchester United finished 15th and in all honesty got lucky during the season to not be relegated with some results going their way. For most of the season they were on par with the teams that were eventually relegated. Nothing is a given with this team and this is the clubs fault for not doing a rebuild like they should have over the last 10 years.
The problem United have is their history and the name of the club so players that are being purchased are over priced due to the name of the buying club. The players they are trying to move on in this transfer window have interest for loan spells, but selling them seems a tougher deal showing the quality and value of the players is not there.
The bigger problem United have is their shirt sponsorship deal with Adidas which has penalty clauses embedded in the agreement which United now owe a £10 million penalty. This is for failing to qualify for Champions League football which for those that do not know is the top 4 teams in the league. This contract requires them to qualify every 2 years and this season even though only after 2 league games has them down near the bottom and every team in the Premier League is looking forward to a United game. These are seen as easy pickings as the team is not cohesive and up for the fight.