Predicting Armageddon ??

The Grim Reaper For Old Trafford I am sure you will receive a whole sackload of mail today from Man U and non-Man U fans alike and I just wanted to try and add some concerns to the mix. Firstly, can i say, well played Leeds Utd. You might be a hated rival to me, but you thoroughly deserved your moment yesterday.. On to my main point. I am not one of these knee jerk supporters that immediately call for SAF to be ousted the moment we have a bad result. I am old enough and have spent much of my life going to OT (the only way to watch pre-Sky TV). I have seen SAF build teams and I have seen him rebuild teams - winning teams! Always with a familiar pattern of replacing the ageing/outgoing players with new young talent and talismanic figureheads. The simple fact of the matter is and I think its plain to everyone that watches Man U week-in and week-out is that the current rebuild process is failing and this is due to some blindingly obvious and simple facts: 1. The current crop of players that should be replacing the old guard - are not and never will be up to the task (Anderson, Nani, Park) 2. Many of the youngsters also show worrying signs of following suit (Wellback, Obertan, Fabio, Macheda, Gibson) - Raphael being the only possible exception. All these players will clearly have a future in football- but not at Man Utd. 3. Reliance on fading talents.. Giggs/Scholes etc. Giggs has the odd good game.. but anyone in doubt should just spend 10 mins on Youtube to be reminded of the real Ryan Giggs. 4. The 'Big' Talisman signing Berbatov is a flop.. I don't really care about how good technically he is.. for Utd, on the whole he is average at his very best. 5. We allowed the best player in the world to leave + another very good player and we have not replaced them. These are all team matters that clearly SAF is accountable for. It maybe the case that the Glazers are not able to release the kind of funds needed to buy our way out, but that is only half the issue even if true. We have still spent plenty of money on players in the last 3/4 years. We have simply spent it poorly and again for this SAF is accountable... I have had the feeling for the last 12 months that SAF knows he doesnt have the right ingredients at the moment and is always chopping and changing, desperately trying to find the solution. However its blindingly obvious to me that we are bereft of real quality in many areas of the team and we currently have NO talisman (Ronaldo, van Nistelrooy, York/Cole, Cantona). Our results/defeats/performances from 2007/08 onwards testify to this. We are in decline with no clear direction. In the past I have always had faith that SAF has a longer term grand plan - but if I am honest, this time - I am not so optimistic... In the end, it doesn't matter what I or any other supporter thinks. With crippling debts and the need to find 100M per year just to meet interest payments, success on the pitch is mandatory for Utd. It is not that far to fall (as Scousers everywhere will testify) before the money draw of Champions League football is by no means a certainty. The Glazer takeover is a timebomb and it is 100% certain that one day it will explode.. One or two years of rapid decline will be more than enough to light the fuse- a chain of events that not even SAF can halt..

Richard @ football365.com