Dear David,
Back in the summer when I was asked to pen an open letter of welcome to you on the eve of your official first day as the new United manager I wrote that there would be some wretched times ahead and you would need to develop Rhinoceros skin to deflect the heavy criticism that even your predecessor had to deal with at times.
I never for one minute thought it would ever get as wretched as it did in Athens.
And if your skin has got thicker over the last eight months then I suspect you are going to need grow another heavy layer quickly so that the latest bombardment of flak doesn’t penetrate and wound you fatally.
If you thought the ride was bumpy so far then I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it is going to be like riding along a pot-holed road in Fred Flinstone’s car for the foreseeable future.
Fergie will have warned you that even during his glory years there were some bad performances both home and abroad and I was there to witness many of them. My first Champions League match covering the Reds for the MEN was in Turin in September 1996 when United were torn apart by Juventus.
But then the Old Lady was at least a super power of Europe and Marcello Lippi’s heavyweights were champions of a strong Serie A and also European Cup holders, Olympiacos don’t even come near that category of foe.
It was bad in Paris in 2005 when Lille beat an inept United side but at least then you could see the seeds of another new Reds generation being honed.
Tuesday night in Greece was as embarrassing as it gets and it is becoming increasingly hard to find some comfort in that a new team is developing.
You fronted up the press conference in the Karaikakis Stadium and took responsibility for an abysmal display that ranks as arguably the worst in United’s Champions League history.
Just as your predecessor always did you defended your team in public and that is commendable. But the fact none of them spoke to the English press in the mixed zone to explain their woeful display or even appeared in front of the club’s own MUTV channel spoke volumes.
They should have been explaining to the fans who travelled all the way to Greece to witness such a shambles just why they were so bad. It is only to be hoped they were shell-shocked and stunned from the tirade you presumably delivered in the dressing room. I certainly hope you didn’t spare them because they let you down badly just as they appear to have done for the majority of this season.
The worrying fact for you now is that the United support is beginning to turn. Social media was awash after Athens with vitriol as disappointed and angry Reds vented their spleen.
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Back in September after you were beaten at Old Trafford by West Bromwich Albion I was told a tale of a bunch of United fans on the Stretford End who attempted to start up a ridiculously early ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ chant. The mini-uprising by the younger generation who have known nothing other than a procession of silverware was put down rapidly by older pre-Fergie United loyal Reds.
It is fair to say that even some of your backers then are now beginning to defect to the other side.
United might still be selling shirts in the Far East and according to your chief executive Ed Woodward still will no matter what happens, but more importantly for how long will the match going fans put up with the kind of dreadful quality seen in the Greek capital.
A shirt sale in Hong Kong, Beijing, Australia or America is not going to appease those who are going to be asked soon to part with a chunk of money for next term’s season tickets. They want to see some evidence now that their investment will be worth it.
What is bewildering and concerning is that all the pluses of late like the signing of Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney’s contract just hasn’t sparked a revival. Eight points from a possible 15 in the league since the Spaniard arrived isn’t an impressive return for the so-called mid-season booster that was demanded and delivered in the January transfer window.
And now that putrid effort in Athens so soon after the major PR coup of getting Rooney on board despite the prospect, now an almost certainty, of no Champions League football next term, is a criminal waste of such confidence boosting headline stories.
We all know that you inherited a team who over-achieved last season in winning the Premier League by the length of Chester Road. I can understand you and a lot of fans not openly wanting to admit to that obvious fact because it is condemning the achievements of Sir Alex’s final few seasons in charge. But Roy Keane was probably right when he said you would have privately been shocked by the quality you are working with.
For that reason you deserve a proper summer transfer window to land the targets you have identified as those needed to strengthen your Old Trafford project. You need to be decisive in the window this time around. It’s okay doing lengthy due diligence on potential targets but decisions have to be swift in a frenzied market.
There’s dead wood and those who have come to the end of their Old Trafford shelf life to be cleared out and the task ahead is even larger than any of us truly suspected, yourself included no doubt when that phone call came almost a year ago from Sir Alex to invite you to his Wilmslow abode to inform you you were the Chosen One.
By all accounts you are going to get the time to implement all the plans you have drawn up for this colossal rebuilding job.
But for goodness sake let’s see something in the final weeks of this torrid season to show that in the future the dissenting voices starting to grow might look as stupid in years to come as those who flew the ‘Ta ra Fergie’ banner in 1989.
Yours,
Stuart Mathieson
