Man Utd are in a really weird position right now. Can a Man Utd manager really survive an international break in the relegation zone?

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We are being played
Watching those two parasites in the stands celebrating that 4-4 equalizer transported me immediately to a favorite scene of mine from the movie ‘Barton Fink’ by the Coen Brothers.

In the movie, Barton Fink, a playwright going through a persistent writer’s block meets a legendary writer; W.P. Mayhew who is drunk and vomiting in the toilet when he meets him. Barton is desperate for inspiration, really anything to get writing again…so he visits Mayhew’s home, and finds out the man is just a total write off! Mayhew isn’t even writing anymore all he does is drink and be both physically and verbally abusive to his very supportive wife.

Barton is a bit unsettled by the situation; Mayhew realizes this and says to him “I pays my baby love and she pays me back with pity. The basest coin there is…”

Now, I don’t know why this scene came back to me when it did, nor how I can neatly place this into an analogy of the current situation at Man Utd. But…we the fans are being played here, everybody else is winning from this mess and all we the fans get in return is pity.

Picture it: the owners get to keep their “performing asset”, the managers get to keep their jobs, the players get to keep their bloated salaries, the sponsors and kit makers kind of love it cause their logos are all over headlines, the rival fans get their endless banter, the former players, media and content creators get their fix, the betting companies are well fed and all we the fans get is pity.

A 2-4 loss today would be immeasurably more beneficial to our future and we can’t even get that going for us 😂 we’re 18th! 1 point from being the worst team in the EPL and the top brass is in the stands celebrating??
PaddyG, MUFC, Mombasa, Kenya (currently, EPL is the Truman Show, and we Man Utd fans we are the Truman, pity is…we don’t even know it yet)

Scrum corner
Great to see all my Man Utd sporting mates celebrating their hard fought 4 v 4 draw. Even the ABUs among us were cheering them on in our bar.
Ken Charlatan
(And a goal from a pushing and shoving session at a corner. They all count)

The state of Man Utd
As a neutral observer/passionate supporter of United’s downfall, I can help but think the Leon Goretzka goal yesterday is their biggest kick in the groin. Not for anything about it other than he is exactly the profile of player they would usually sign on massive wages as the next saviour of the team only for him to become a stone in their shoe they can’t shift. That they didn’t, but he pops up and scores against them shows they are the Sideshow Bob meme in real life.
Dan

Sunday thoughts
– Who was it that said Chelsea would be Arsenal’s nearest challengers this season because they don’t have European football? It’s one of the worst takes of all time. Chelsea are as crap and as unreliable as ever.

– Palace v Liverpool was a weird game. Strong case that Alisson was MOTM. Palace were energetic, honest and lively. Liverpool were disjointed, scattergun, erratic. Yet the visitors ran out comfortable winners. It’s a funny old game, Saint (The win secured despite being Liverpool on the end of yet another appalling decision, for the Palace penalty. It is staggering how bad these refs are towards them, no other team gets these bizarre and unexplainable decisions. The Neco Williams penalty incident earlier on in the season was another similar howler. You never see these given elsewhere. Utterly bizarre).

– Villa gave an absolute masterclass in how not to manage a two-goal lead not once, but twice in one football match. Unai must be absolutely horrified at how stupid, naive and brainless his players are. They basically got gifted 4 goals by United, yet still couldn’t make the most of their good fortune. As bad as it gets.

– The MU hierarchy have somehow contrived to put themselves in an impossible position ahead of their trip to Anfield after the international break. Sack Carrick now, and it plunges the club into even more turmoil. Don’t sack him, then they go into the lion’s den pretty much guaranteed to see more of the same dreadful fare that has landed them in the relegation zone. What a laughable mess they are in.
Andy H, Swansea

Villa got done
That was a defensively calalamitous match from both sides, but Villa keeper got nailed by Lammens for the equaliser. No way Villa get that decision at the other end.

Good match for neutrals though.
Paul

Villa need to do better against relegation fodder
Some stats on a creeping issue with Emery’s teams at Villa. In his first 2 seasons, we averaged a little over 2 points per game against bottom 6 sides; in 24/25 this had become a shade over 1.8 ppg; and last season was just over 1.7.

A respectable output, but to get a top 6 finish while handling a European campaign, it needs to be higher. So far this season, in games against teams from Hull downwards, we’ve picked up only 3 points from 12 available.

This needs to get better sharpish, or we’ll need a lot more points from elsewhere. But there are some very shrewd teams in the top half nowadays, plus we only get to play Spurs twice.

Simply put: to have a good season, even with a lot of injuries and departures, we cannot afford to go away to relegation threatened minnows and let easy points slip through our fingers anymore. Game face needs to be properly on once the international meh is over.
Neil Raines UTV “It’s a contact sport!”

Ozymanudias: A poem
After Joel Glazer’s award-winningly arrogant quote that Man U do not need sporting successes to make money, I feel the need to butcher a classic in response – this is Ozymanudias.

I met an arrogant traveller from a northern land
Who said: Two scarves of red and Golden Green stand in the desert.

Near them, on a plinth, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies,
whose scowl, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of

Sir Alex,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
pale imitations yet survive, names stamped on impotent shirts,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Old Trafford, Theatre of dreams:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Of recent triumphs nothing now appears.

Round the decay of that colossal mess, boundless and bare
The leaking roof, neglected, stretches far away.

Unless Man U fully understand the lay of the land, not now, or tomorrow, but soon, they could end up being Kodak or Blackberry.
Ian H

The Invisibles
1-0 to the Arsenal. Very little entertainment value. I can’t see this ending well. Remember the all conquering Invincibles class of ’04? Unc Wenger must be crying into his tea and croissant because in 2026, The invisibles are here.
Muthama Gitonga back in Nairobi

Stop being obsessed with Arsenal
So let me get this straight. RHT/TS hates watching Arsenal so much that they write in every week to tell us how much they hate watching Arsenal. Yet on a weekend where they don’t have to watch Arsenal because they aren’t on telly, they still decide to watch Arsenal. They either watched the game illegally or on Game of the Day despite knowing it was 1-0 or they live in a country where the game was televised and actively sort it out to watch. Do they not have a life? Imagine hating something so much but you actively put yourself through it. Gooner gobshites? What an attention-seeking cretin.

Also, take a look at the reaction to the penalty that was (wrongly) denied on social media. 90% of it is from Liverpool fans telling Arsenal fans how they should feel about it given Liverpool didn’t get a penalty last week. Most Arsenal fans have just said ‘meh, we didn’t get it but we still went on to win the game’.

Yes, Andy H, Swansea, that is a victim mentality from Liverpool fans. There aren’t any hidden connotations behind it, Liverpool fans really do have a victim mentality when it comes to their club being hard done by. They do go on and on and on. Just like Arsenal fans did when they thought they think they are being hard done by. Don’t dare try and hide behind history to say fans of your club can’t be called victims now. It’s distasteful at best and just plain tacky at worst.
Stewart, London

…I trust your resident Twilight Shift Cobbler enjoyed the entertainment provided by the downright amateurish performances delivered by both Man U and Villa on Sunday because it had a bit of everything to keep his paws up, tongue hanging out and tail wagging. Some manager I think once said: “if you want entertainment go and watch clowns!” Well, I admit it was entertaining and well, isn’t that what I was doing… watching clowns? I must say Forest were impressive against Citeh and I thoroughly enjoyed that match.

Now on to the Saturday game he slated in Sunday’s mailbox to which some chap summed my thoughts up exactly in the comments section by questioning why would he go out of his way to watch something that offends him that’s not being televised and then write anonymously into a forum about it? Very peculiar behaviour methinks, go and speak to someone about this problem you have I would suggest to him.

What game could one be moaning about…yes, the Arsenal game! He even decided that Arsenal were hanging on at the end. I’m not sure what game he was really watching but Hull had died a death by that time after their bright start. Looking at two of the games with one dubbed as entertaining and the other boring: Arsenal had 21 shots with 10 on target and Man Utd 26 with 9 on target with Villa about 12 with approx 7 on target. I’ve lost track of Hull’s stats but Arsenal weren’t sitting back, not in the second half anyway. What I’m getting at is although the Arsenal game wasn’t as open it’s not like Arsenal were not playing attacking football, again it depends on how the opposition sets up.

Another thing relating to the Arsenal game that your writer covered in his piece on the game was the expected backlash from various fans if a certain penalty decision had been given. I too would have expected such a backlash and a social media meltdown if Arsenal had been given a penalty in respect of that ambiguous ruling. The penalty was not given so I actually breathed a sigh of relief.

However, there was still a huge meltdown on social media because a penalty decision was even considered in comparison to last week’s error at Anfield. So Arsenal were still labelled VARsenal for it being given and then overruled by our beloved Michael Oliver at Stockley Park. Arsenal equals VARsenal for having a decision go against them because of a VAR ruling… some football fans’ mentality is becoming as confusing as that of our current government’s! Most hilariously, just briefly researching controversial VAR decisions so far this season it’s Man Utd and Ipswich who have had the most in their favour and Arsenal are amongst those with the most go against them.

Before I conclude I would actually like to once again mention Madueke who appears to be improving game by game now he’s getting a run. If he can work on his decision making he could nail it under Arteta’s coaching.
Chris, Croydon

VAR is a VARce
VAR has ruined football, it has allowed referees to abdicate their responsibilities to officiate the game and VAR teams are not willing to call out poor decision making.

A multi billionaire industry officiated by morons. Fans just look at the decision making, the inconsistencies and are left numb by the poor level of officiating both on the pitch and in the VAR booths.

Watching the Sunderland Chelsea match yesterday no one had a f***ing clue what was or wasn’t a foul or a pen. Riley and his team in Stockley were just winging it. The Palmer incident, Riley watches him fouled, doesn’t call it and Palmer is then taken down by 2 defenders in the box. VAR review the incident and call that the FOUL that Riley didn’t call started outside the box. But what they conveniently leave out is that Law 12 states that if contact continues inside the box a penalty should be awarded.

Move to Brobbey (great game btw), he and Colwill fighting a grappling with each other as they move into the box Colwill pulls his hand away, Brobbey is now pulling Colwill into the box this action sees Colwill nudge his foot, he then kicks is other leg and falls down. Ref gives a pen for the contact. Soft as f*** and ridiculous given it was Brobbey who initiated it.

With the bar set Palestra drives into the area and his foot is stepped on and he goes down, Riley ignores it. WTF,

Giving up on the game it’s a farce.
P Didi Not

Put your phone down
I, like many others who will read this mailbox, despair at some people being unable to watch a football match (or concert, or play, etc.) without having their phone in their hand filming every f***ing thing! Quite why they need a sh*t quality recording of every event in their life is beyond me (perhaps they are wannabe ‘influencers’, surely the most vacuous occupation ever invented!).

I watched MOTD Saturday here in Canada and it had, as is tradition, coverage of the Last Post being played ahead of Remembrance Sunday, just after the title sequence. And sure enough when the footage moves to the crowd there is a fella there with his phone (with an Arsenal scarf on, so could be a tourist?) seemingly filming. He’s trying to be sly about it, holding the phone against his body, but he’s been caught fair and square. FFS sake have some respect.

You may or may not agree with the message of Remembrance Sunday and poppies etc, but that is beside the point. Filming something like this to post on your socials or simply for ‘posterity’ is seriously f***ing weird. I hope the guy reads this mailbox (he probably hasn’t got the intellect for reading) and then takes a good long look at himself, and realises that filming a memorial event for dead people is never going to be cool, whether that is at a football match or in any other circumstances.
A, LFC, Montreal