England legend John Barnes has warned Manchester United that their issues stem deeper than the squad at their disposal, as the club enters the Erik Ten Hag era.
United axed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer midway through last season and drafted in Ralf Rangnick on an interim basis until the end of the 2021-22 season – which ended with disappointment as the club failed to secure a top-four finish and Champions League football.
Ten Hag was lured to Old Trafford from Ajax to take the club into a new direction, becoming the fifth permanent managerial appointment at United since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013.
The arrival of the Dutchman comes amid further changes in the United hierarchy, with Ed Woodward departing and Richard Arnold coming in as chief executive officer.
While fans are hoping for new signings, having seen rivals Manchester City land Erling Haaland and Liverpool capture Darwin Nunez, Barnes isn't convinced that additions will solve their problems.
"I don't know whether other players coming in is going to be better because Man United have spent money and brought players in and it hasn't worked," he told Stats Perform.
"So, it's not a question of just buying players in and automatically it's going to work because you know, everybody has their problems, adjusting when a new manager comes in when new players coming in.
"What I do know is they've spent money and they've had players. So, I don't know anything about the institution as to how an institution should be run. But what I do know is they’ve got good players.
"If they have good players and they're not performing, I don't think you can blame the hierarchy, blame the owners for them not playing well on the pitch.
"Because what they have on the pitch, the players they have on the pitch, the money they've spent, they shouldn't be where they are. And they shouldn't be in the turmoil that they are.
"I think it's too easy to blame that rather than looking at the players who should take responsibility for performances."
Barnes also made it clear that Ten Hag needs to establish himself as more powerful than the players in the United squad, as Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel have done.
"Once you don't have a manager who you give the power to make decisions, you will then keep changing the manager and then the players get very complacent. Because they know they're not going to get blamed," he explained.
"I can think of the three clubs in England who don't blame the manager and who the manager is more powerful than the players, Klopp, Guardiola, Tuchel, there's not one player at those clubs who could undermine the manager.
"I suppose you could put Conte and now Arteta in that position after the decision with Aubameyang where he [Arteta] won that battle, and that has to happen at any football club to be successful.
"Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened at United for the last four or five managers. So that for me is the issue, not the manager."
Dujon Sterling urges Rangers to change mentality after poor run
Dujon Sterling has called for a mentality change from Rangers for the season’s finale after a string of poor performances.
The goalless draw at Dundee on Wednesday night in their game in hand left Philippe Clement’s side three points behind cinch Premiership leaders Celtic with five post-split fixtures remaining, which includes a trip to Parkhead.
The loss of a valuable two points which swings the title further towards Celtic came after their first ever defeat against Ross County on Sunday and a 3-3 draw against the Hoops at Ibrox, where they had to come from behind twice to salvage a point.
Now the Light Blues need to focus on Sunday’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-final against Hearts at Hampden Park and Sterling, who signed from Chelsea last summer, was brutally honest about the current state of affairs at the Govan club who now have two wins in eight in all competition and he is looking for rapid change.
Asked about possibly owing a performance on Sunday to Clement, who put up a stout defence of his players after the Dundee disappointment, and the fans who booed the players off in angry frustration, utility player Sterling said: “We owe ourselves a performance as well because we have been s*** the past three games.
“We need to re-set and do it for the fans as well because they have come home and away, backing us, singing for 90, 95, 100 minutes and we owe it to them.
“Obviously the results have been disappointing in the past two weeks and I know they have seen it before over the past years. Hopefully we can change that but we will see.
“We are fighting for a title and the way we are playing is as if we are not playing for anything, like the season is dead and it is a dead rubber game.
“Somehow it has got to switch. I don’t have the words to do it or know how to do it. It is a team thing, not just one person and not just the gaffer.
“We just have to have that belief that we can (come back). We had the togetherness, we had the belief. We still have the togetherness but I don’t know if the belief is there.
” I think everyone has to switch their minds that we can have that belief that we can do this. It is not good enough on our part. We have a lot of work to do and we need to re-set.
“We need to get our heads in the game, switch our mentality because for now, it is not going in the right direction.
“There is still a lot of games to be played and there’s still things to fight for.
“Of course anything can happen. We have five games left, five cup finals and hopefully the fans can push us to get through them.
“The dressing room is down at the minute. But we dust this one off, get back to the training ground and review it, park it and focus on the semi-final.”
Aldershot move into play-off places with victory at 10-man Gateshead
Kwame Thomas headed Aldershot into the National League play-off places in a 1-0 win away to a Gateshead side who played almost half the match with a defender deputising in goal.
Gateshead had goalkeeper Nathan Harness sent off in the 47th minute for bringing down James Daly outside the box and, with no stopper on the bench, Louis Storey went between the posts for the rest of the night.
Storey made a good save to keep out Cian Harries’ free-kick in the 51st minute, but could do nothing as the visitors took the lead 10 minutes later.
Thomas got on the end of a looping cross from Josh Barrett to head in, and it proved enough for a win that puts them one point above FC Halifax, who host Oldham on Thursday.
Respect the process – Cesc Fabregas committed to long-term plan at striving Como
Cesc Fabregas says Italian club Como must remain committed to their long-term plan even if their progress is expedited by winning promotion to Serie A this season.
The former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder is assistant manager at the lakeside club and, working under Welshman Osian Roberts, has guided them into the automatic promotion positions in Serie B.
They currently have a three-point lead over third-placed Venezia and if they do not falter in their final five games they will return to the top flight of Italian football for the first time since 2003.
The club have been declared bankrupt twice since then, but the 2019 takeover by Indonesian company Djarum Group heralded a new dawn.
They are owners with big ambitions and they sought out advice from people in the game, with Thierry Henry and Fabregas becoming minority shareholders, while former England international Dennis Wise has also acted in an advisory role.
Fabregas is currently earning his full coaching badges and his goals are aligned with the club’s.
Returning to the top tier of Italian football has always been the plan, with further ambitions of titles and European football in the coming years.
But Fabregas insists that will only happen if they “respect the process”.
“We are pushing, we have a clear vision of where we want to go, where we want to get, we know who we are,” he told the PA news agency.
“We know where we are at the moment and we need to respect the process, take the right steps.
“We are working well, people are very dedicated, the owners are investing well and smartly.
“We are all on the same page, evolving every single week to try and create this family, this union, let’s see where we are at the season.”
When Fabregas joined Como as a player in the summer of 2022, it could have been easy to think he was easing into retirement in an idyllic part of the world.
View this post on InstagramBut that would not be fitting with his work ethic and drive, which sees him one day wanting to be a manager in his own right.
“I agree that Como is beautiful but if I am being honest my life is work, home, work, home,” he said.
“Then when I am home I try to be with my family. Even if I was at the end of the world or in another place my life would not change that much.
“Como is beautiful, we appreciate it so much but my job and my life doesn’t change too much.”
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