"THERE'S NO ENDGAME!" Guillem Balagué & Simon Jordan EXAMINE Man United players' REVOLT!

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talkSPORT discusses Cesc Fabregas at Como, Manchester United player unrest and Michael Carrick's future

The show starts with Cesc Fabregas's coaching at Como before turning to Manchester United, where the team is seen as lacking clear instructions and a sense of direction, players are unhappy, and Michael Carrick's appointment is questioned. The overall conclusion is that United's problems involve both ownership and a manager failing to impose a coherent idea, leaving players without belief in the project.

Guillem Balagué, Simon Jordan and Jim White examine how Como beat Manchester United in the Champions League and what lies ahead for Michael Carrick. Subscribe: https://youtube.com/c/talkSPORT?subconfirmation=1 🏆 Ready to win? Check out the latest prizes at talkSPORTwin.com Enjoyed this YouTube video? 😍 🖥️ talkSPORT's Website: https://talksport.com/ 📲 talkSPORT's X/Twitter: https://x.com/talkSPORT 📷 talkSPORT's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talksport/?hl=en 👤 talkSPORT's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkSPORT/ 📱 talkSPORT's Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talksport ? 🔴 Download the talkSPORT app HERE! - https://talksport.com/apps/ 🔎 Want to see if you feature on our YouTube channel? Check out our Best talkSPORT callers playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFVMnSsi04LGLa9pS9xDvme-Gjmlu2 mufc ucl talkSPORT PremierLeague

Transcript

We are joined by a man who lives up to his billing because one minute he's in Eastanbul, the next minute he's in Paris, the next minute he's in Birmingham covering Aston Villa. He is European football expert. He is GM Balag and he's live in studio. GM, good morning. >> To you, Buenos. >> Wes Diaz. This is Simon Jordan. >> Yes, I know Simon. I know you too. >> I know you. I know you and you know us. And I'm delighted you're with us again on the show, Gim. Thank you so much for being with us. Uh listen, Ces Fàregas, >> the toast of Italian football this morning. Uh Ko, did you honestly see that one on the horizon? Ko for Manchester United one? >> No, I I didn't even see Ses Fàregas becoming a manager. Uh I know him since he was 15. And I I I cannot think of many other players that were so focused about one single person themselves. It was just all about them, all about him. uh he will spend hours on what used to be called forums on the internet just looking at what people were saying about him and he will get really mad about it. Yeah. >> Uh and he wasn't you know he will defend himself with another name. He be like no but Ces had a good game. >> I was like really do you have to worry about that? But he was he was somebody that was obviously out of his comfort zone out of his his family were back home. He was on his own and it was all about him. So for him to transform that into caring about 25 people and the families and the ones that play, the ones that don't play, it's been a a fantastic transformation. But you hear him talk about football. Oh my god, he gets it. He knows it. He understands it. And he has the ability to communicate it. So he's convinced everyone for me that's the hardest thing in football. Everyone to think the same way. On the on the other hand, the ones in red, I think there were a lot of people thinking differently about the same game. >> Well, sure. We'll talk about the ones in red in a second, but Simon, you were with the KOMO president the other day, and this is one hell of a a relationship that he has seemingly got with Ces. And when you hear from GM there, I mean, no wonder um it's going well because Ces Fàregas, as you might expect, takes the job enormously seriously. So he should they spent €350 million euros on players for him over the last two and a half years. Um but you look at the nature of the relationship I mean it was an interesting dynamic there. Merwin described their ascent to success as a lot of luck. I'm I'm sure there was a lot more than just luck attached. I mean they've got a a very wealthy billionaire that has um gone on a journey with this football club. Interesting people have been involved. Dennis was over there. Dennis Weise was over there until recently. I I'm not sure that Dennis and and and Ces share the same footballing framework in their viewpoint, but notwithstanding it, it was part of a journey. Yeah. And now you've got a club that's gone through. CES has grown into the job, got better and better. He's now he's, you know, he's more than invested in the club. He's a shareholder in the club. He's part of the fabric of the club. They seem to have a very lass fair relationship with him, which means if he wants to leave at any time, he can leave. I'm not sure that's a a healthy dynamic because the club's got to be bigger than the individual. But where they are now is they got a very very serious owner, very serious individual, very wealthy. They've got ambitions. They're in a very interesting part of the world and there's a lot of infrastructure that's being invested in, wonderful training grounds, wonderful things that are being built there. Yeah. >> So, it's a fabulous opportunity for Ces to have grasped because he's got it at a very early stage. He's made it his own. It's got the sort of look and feel of him all over it. Um, it doesn't mean that with respect, it doesn't mean that if he comes out of that environment, he can translate into another environment. But it might be a good indicator because he's done really, really well. >> You're not in gear. >> No, I'm just thinking that uh you have to have that coach that understands the environment, which club he's in, the players he wants, the idea he's got, and convince everybody about going that way. But he was given the job after a win because the previous manager ownership and the decision makers decided was not right for the club. That that bravery and a time where they were in Syria B and more or less within the target of of going to Syria A but then they felt no he's not the guy out. >> Yeah. >> And again you know you think of other clubs that had the opportunity to do that uh but then for emotional reasons or other reasons decided to stick with the the manager in charge. Yeah, good for Ko and God love them. No disrespect. You travel everywhere. You speak to people all the time about football. What is the out there out there? What is the perception about Manchester United at the moment? What are they? Ge >> I think the that's a question that is asked for many people. What are they? What's going on? What's wrong? And there's not one single answer otherwise it'll be easily sorted. Uh but it is quite clear the case it seems from the outside when you discuss it with owners or with managers with players but people that have tried to be there but weren't given the chance. I'm thinking Pochettinoi Ernestto Alberto people that I think could have sorted the situation the discussion tends to be the same one which is I get that what the owners have done we all get that and they've been taking money out of the club value out of the club and they haven't created a winning culture that is bad and I get that there's been a lot of money spent um and not properly because sometimes to defend one idea one way of playing a bunch of players that don't match the following manager, all of that. But watching the game yesterday and I I was watching some some bits this morning, I see a team that they don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. And the minimum you should ask the managers to actually impose his idea into everyone so the captain doesn't come out and says, you know, we didn't press. And I asked somebody what he meant. What what is he talking about not going man-to-man? And this coach told me, well, seeing the game, I saw a team that were defending badly. They were uh the timing of the runs to get the ball wasn't right, to close channels wasn't right. So, a solution to that was like, let's go man-to-man. We are physically stronger than them. Let's go manto man and let's see what happens. But there was none of that. Those instructions were not given. So, you've got no instructions. You've got no clear idea what you want. You've got players that are feeling that their time has been wasted there. That is as important as the ownership and the money spent. >> The players have a feeling their time's been wasted. >> I mean, the way Lisandro talks, the way Bruno talks, these are players that is like, "What what are we doing here?" >> Are you surprised to hear long will he Landre Martinez? Because he hasn't been offered a new contract. So, his is steeped in other things like being underpaid in comparison to what other players are being paid and not being offered a new contract. So, his time won't be wasted much longer, will it? >> Whatever happens next, that's fine. But he's there now and he has been there for a few years and he's been given the opportunity through the different managers to go different routes to try to see to get to the top and they haven't been able to do it. >> Yeah. >> And that is whose fault is it? Everybody's no doubt. But as I'm saying, players don't want to be in a place where there is no endame. And that's why seems to them >> there is no end game. >> So it can only mean one thing, can't it? They'll change it. >> If they don't, they should from what you're saying and Carrick will go. But is it is it going to be changed by the same people that chose him to stay or >> they're in situ though game, aren't they? >> Then then I don't know. It's hard, is it? It's it's hard if they if they think Carrick was the solution and it happens to that he's not the solution. Then then and it's the same people taking the decision again. Well, it's trouble, isn't it? >> It is trouble, isn't it, Simon? The way the way game has just explained that when you when you get players operating as they are with Martinez >> shooting his mouth off at one moment game and then Bruno given the interview he gave last night. I mean we're talking about a rudderless ship Simon. >> Well, it's flawed thinking and in flawed thinking in perpetuity is problematic. But like most things in life, it's very easy for people that have never actually done things to observe on people that are doing things wrong. If the flawed thinking changes and they adjust their thinking because that the appointment of Carrick like we have discussed to me is steeped in flawed thinking and I can't understand the logic of it. I don't think 18 games in a season where Amaran was stinking the place out and someone coming in being sensible and nice to the players and playing them in right positions is not a blueprint for going forward. So the flawed thinking to me if that changes and people look at things differently then the management team that have made appointments are capable of making better ones. and making better decisions. We can argue I don't remember Martin Edwards and other people that own Man United being philanthropic, generous people, but because the Glazers are running a football club like a business, which is apparently is how football clubs should now be run according to the regulator, people don't like it. And at one time, Manchester United were a flat track bully. They could buy everybody. They had the most turnover. They had the most revenue. They dominated the early stages of the Premier League. And over the years, that's been eroded because other clubs have just as much money, just as much prestige. So they don't get to operate in their own little space. So you can blame it on the ownership model which in part has to be responsible because they're the standard bearers. But you also have to get to the bottom of you're never going to find it unless you get get to ask these people direct questions. What is the thinking behind certain managers? Amarim to me like I've said was photobombing bloody West Ham in the summer to get a job. Is that how a Man United manager arrives at Manchester United? >> I mean you you that has to be addressed doesn't it? Yeah. And at that moment, what did Manchester United inherit in Amarim? Same as what have they inherited, albeit a great United player in Michael Carrick. Roa Murim is a top coach that yes was seen an opportunity to get into the Premier League, which was his dream when he had the chance to have an interview with West Ham. He didn't mean that he was going to get the job, but he wanted to go through the process. Wrong decision to actually go and fly to it. Should have been like, "Come to me if you really want me." Yeah. which is a top man what a top manager would do. But he had already uh overseen transformation of a football club from the inside, not just from the ch from the changing rooms or from the bench. He had known what it meant to actually convince everybody to go the same direction. Uh at Manchester United, he never found that. Now, he did it and said the most absurd things. He selected teams that purely weren't capable of playing the way he wanted to play with an ideology of this is the way we will go. And then in the meantime entertain the media no end. >> Yeah. >> By saying things against the system and making observations that made no sense to anybody. And you look and you look at it and say with respect winning something in the Portuguese league is not the same as managing a huge football club like Manchester United that has a if you fart in a corridor at Carrington everybody hears it around the world. >> The nobody cares about the Portuguese. I think Portuguese clubs, the big ones have got as much noise as in Portugal. But but that's fine. I mean, if you actually surrounded by people that make noise, the same noise you can find at Manchester United. You can look obviously you look abroad and then you see Manchester United much much bigger. But in terms of negotiating what happens within a football club, I think you know a top Portuguese club will find the same difference. Amarim >> is gone. Carrick is still there, but for how long? More from Gam after this.