No love for Harry Kane after he won the Ballon d’Or; it’s all just a circus that rewards stat-padding rather than brilliance.

We also have lots of mails on Man Utd. Send yours on any subject to theeditor@football365.com

 
Arise, Sir Harold
Pretty funny that he won it for talking a goal kick.
Finlay x

Kane hype is mystifying
Kane is up front for an elite European team, surrounded by great players, and he’s playing against the equivalent of Premier League relegation standard fodder week in week out pretty much. No wonder he’s scored a hatful!

Let’s relegate City to the Championship, keep the same squad and then laud Haaland for scoring a million goals! Mental!
Mark LFC

The whole thing is a circus
Lots of talk about the Golden Ball trophy this week.

A waste of energy and effort really as for nearly seven decades the Ballon d’Or has presented itself as football’s ultimate individual honour when the numbers tell a completely different story.

There have been 69 awards distributed between 1956 and 2025 in which forwards and attackers have claimed roughly 50 wins, more than 70%. Defenders have managed only four victories in total. Franz Beckenbauer won twice, in 1972 and 1976. Matthias Sammer took the prize in 1996. Fabio Cannavaro remains the most recent recipient, in 2006.

No full-back has ever been deemed worthy. This imbalance is not an accident of history. It is evidence of the award’s fundamental character.

The Ballon d’Or does not measure a player’s contribution to team success. It rewards visibility, narrative convenience and commercial appeal. Goals and flair are easy to package and sell, the quieter, decisive work of organising a defence or controlling a midfield is not. Claude Makelele was so good we just named the role after him and he only managed a 13th place finish.

In elevating the highlight-reel attacker while sidelining those who make winning possible, the award teaches a distorted lesson to everyone, including our kids, that individual glitter counts for more than collective substance. Its value to the wider game is negligible. It functions as an annual media circus that inflates egos, generates predictable controversy and encourages clubs and players to prioritise personal branding over squad cohesion and tactical discipline.

The pursuit of “Ballon d’Or form” has become a distraction from the harder business of building balanced, resilient teams. So Arsenal fans take solace in your players’ results this year as fans are conditioned and expected to treat personal trophies as the highest currency, often at the expense of genuine competitive achievement. Real prizes are about facts, not feelings.

An honour that has so consistently ignored half the pitch cannot claim to be a serious barometer of excellence, hence the Ballon d’Or is not a celebration of football at its best. It is a self-regarding sideshow whose history of positional prejudice confirms its irrelevance to the sport it purports to crown.
Eoin (Actual Paolo F*cking Maldini only ever managed 3rd place) Ireland

Declan Rice the 15th best player in the world?
They’ve still not got to the business end of the “Balloon Door” yet, but as I type it’s been announced that Declan Rice has placed 15th.

I’ll say that again: Declan Rice, a cross country runner who has somehow found his way into professional football circles, has come 15th in the vote to determine who the best player in the world is.

I’ll say it one more time: Declan Rice is, according to his peers and the world’s coaches, the FIFTEENTH BEST player in the world.

Vlad – I’m not sure what your current designs are on pushing The Big Old Red Button over there in Ruskiland, but all I’m saying is, if you have been mulling it over in the old noggin, now is as good a time as any.
Andy H, Swansea

Arsenal fan defends Saka
I was chatting to a Chelsea fan last week who said he didn’t rate Saka and I also heard something similar from a West Ham recently. I saw the mail today suggesting he has ‘zero output’ and dives a lot, and of course I saw Graeme Souness’ idiotic comments. Criticism of Saka has always baffled me but it does seem that while almost all Arsenal fans think he’s elite, very few non-Arsenal fans do.

It could partly be bandwagon jumping like we see with Arteta, where people have negative opinions based on nothing but repeating other people’s negative opinions. Saka was injured for the back end of last season and still injured going into the World Cup, yet prior to getting injured (again) against Bayern he managed 13 goal involvements in 1,343 mins across four months. If that’s zero output I wish we had more zero output wingers for Arsenal and England.

It could be that for the last few seasons he has been double marked at all times, so he has to focus on being effective (e.g. gaining half a yard and getting a shot off) rather than doing anything dazzling (e.g. sprinting at his full back 1v1).

Maybe it’s also due to him playing for the best team in the country who, contrary to logic, get criticised more than any other team in the country.

Finally, I can’t remember ever seeing him dive. He is relentlessly kicked in the ankles from behind and just gets on with it. He seems like a remarkably honest and likeable guy to me. Obviously I can’t be completely objective as an Arsenal fan – any thoughts from more sensible mailboxers?

Much love
Simon Cochrane (it’s going to be a struggle for the next two months with our only elite forward injured)

Carrick brave on Bruno to a point
On the face of that was a brave call from Carrick to drop Bruno, as F365 have said. Desperate for a win the beleaguered manager has shown some real cajones in dropping last seasons player of the year. I agreed with everything Bruno said on Wednesday but he shouldn’t have said them to the press, it should’ve been a private conversation. There are some saying he was misinterpreted but as per the Athletic, Bruno has always chosen his words carefully in interviews. I think he knew what he was doing.

So Carrick was, on balance, right to bench Fernandes. That said all bravery was quickly washed away when he told reporters that Fernandes had been benched for “footballing reasons”. This is perfectly plausible. Bruno has been varying shades of poop this season (though more recently played out of position) so a benching was probably overdue. But Carrick’s declaration has two effects.

Firstly, it negates the idea that Bruno has been punished by Carrick. We all know there’s no way Carrick drops him and then doesn’t bring him on if Bruno doesn’t make that statement on Wednesday. But by calling it “football reasons” and not being forthright about it, Carrick – whether he’s seeking to or not – has attempted to protect Bruno for some reason.

Secondly, if you bench your best player and captain for “football reasons” you need to be winning. What actually happened was that United were absolutely slapped at home, against a fellow relegation candidate. That was the absolute worst performance I have seen by the home side at Old Trafford. What exactly are the reasons for dropping Bruno if the performances are going to reach a new nadir without him?

So actually, I don’t find the call from Carrick to be brave. Brave is dropping him and telling everyone how unacceptable the comments were. This was brave in the sense of Brave Sir Robin, facing the danger and then running away.

The media really has been too kind to Carrick. He is woefully out of his depth. His team is unfit and show absolutely no sign that they have been coached any meaningful patterns of play. At least under Amorim you could see what they were trying to do, even if brought you to tears. Carrick is seemingly combining the worst of the Ten Hag, Amorim, Ole and even Jose years within this last 11 games.

Club legend, but that’s the way it should have stayed after to getting us to third last season.
Ashmundo

…As an LFC fan it’s really none of my business, I can sit back, relax and just enjoy the comedy soap opera that is MUFC, I don’t hate them, I never want them to win another game (well maybe v City), but that’s rivalry not hate fuelled.

However, I do have to take issue with the backing the “fans” have exhibited towards Michael Carrick. We all know that the blame lies with the Glazers, Sir Jim, Berada and Wilcox et al, but these are the people who appointed the guy you are showing support for. If, as you (rightly) believe they are inept at running your football club, then the appointment of Carrick has to be also inept.

As nice a guy as he appears to be and also a club “legend”, his managerial record prior to his appointment was, at best, iffy. After an initial good start (familiar?), he managed a Middlesborough side to 8th place and then 10th resulting in his sacking. He’s a perfect example of a football manager “failing up”. Yes he finished third and maybe the “right” signings would strengthen the squad but there is no evidence to show that Carrick can manage out of a crisis or a run of poor results, he has done nothing tactically to change Utd’s current plight and no evidence of any players improving, his third place was mainly due to his one and only world class player playing at that level. A player he has clearly now fallen out with and alienated.

Like Carrick, I also “don’t have the answers” but after the failings of two top level managers in Van Gaal and Mourinho and a successful manager in Amorin, the answer was never going to be a mid-table Championship manager. His press conferences are now entering the Rosenior stage.

Happily, at the time of writing, the Utd powers that be, are reacting as slowly as Harry Maguire turns, possibly due to hesitancy as a result of the vocal backing Carrick received after a 3-0 home defeat, let me repeat that, a 3-0 home defeat, following a 4-1 drubbing and 1 win in ten, against the mighty Sabah.
Howard Jones

Man Utd doomed whatever happens
We’re still doing the ripping-into-United thing, right? Excellent. Let’s call it f-…well, no we can’t call it that. Let’s call it ‘anti-Fergie Time’.

It has to be one of Nagelsmann, Howe or Conte for the poisoned chalice because (a) Utd can’t afford the compensation on anyone else (in terms of SCR), and (b) Fabregas and Hurzeler swim in a larger pool when it comes to potential suitors.

Conte is the ultimate short-term solution; the squad avoids relegation but combusts under him a season later.

Howe would be a disaster; he’s not suited to this squad and won’t have time to build the ‘we’re-all-in-this-together’ environment he requires to thrive.

Which means Nagelsmann; they still won’t get CL football for next season because Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Brighton, Villa, Bournemouth and Brentford, but they’ll survive.

After that, the club is doomed though. It’s going to be mid-table fights for Europa and Conference places for another decade, withoutthe   to attract or pay A-level players. They’ll be saddled with OT, because the Wembley of the North dream will die after a couple of years without CL. They’ll still have a massive debt, because the Glazers aren’t paying that off until they sell (and they aren’t selling until the dividends stop coming in – let’s say 2032). INEOS might even jump ship; they’re an investment company that seeks to increase valuations, not fund spiralling causes.

I joked in a previous mail that Trump may be well-suited for a takeover; that was based on a dual hatred of herr drumpf and United – they deserve each other. But there is no white knight scenario, not even if the Glazers literally sold tomorrow.

Regardless of who owns Utd now, they’d be in the same situation squad-wise (and also eventually saddled with the decrepit stadium and the aging fan club). That’s likely the realization that INEOS has come to over the past few months; there’s no tea ladies left to trim and the club is actually worse off (worst premier league position after 8 games, 7th year in a row of reported financial losses despite massive revenue, lowest position in 30 years of Deloitte) than it was when they started.

United’s deceptively good financial health is based entirely on ancient successes. Within ten years, the valuations of Liverpool and Arsenal will be double that of United because those organizations have been built for long-term success on the field and financial stability off it. United are a stately home that’s been converted into slum tenements and mortgaged to the tits by absentee landlords. And ‘tearing it down and playing the kids’ might work if it’s done when there’s time left to spare and there’s a decent number of kids, and it’s the nineties. None of those conditions currently exist.

Somebody in the mailbox mentioned minnows recently, but I don’t thinkthe guy was an aquatic expert. I don’t know minnows, but I do know   pistol shrimp renders its prey senseless and utterly vulnerable with a 60mph/200 decibel shockwave. United fans must know exactly how that feels.
George, True North, 2nd in size, 1st in potential

…It doesn’t matter who the next manager is. The club is a shambles, and while a new manager may have a decent run of results and maybe a couple of decent years, they’ll ultimately end up being shafted by a lack of investment from the parasites in charge, or by the pathetic, whiny attitude from some of the players. Whether that be posting or liking ridiculous memes on social media, or just sulking on or off the pitch because they don’t like the managers tactics etc. Diddums. You’re paid an absolute fortune, just do your ****ing job.

While the Glazers and that bellend Ratcliffe are in charge, the club will be stuck in the same cycle they’ve been in for more than a decade.

Perhaps the best thing to happen to the club, would be to get relegated, so it’s maybe not as much as a cash cow that it currently is for the w**kers who have used the club as a piggy bank for the last 20 years, and they finally decide to sell up and **** off.
Ant MUFC

Relegation? Maybe it’s for the best
Their current owners treat Manchester United as a financial asset, debt-loaded, dividend-extracting, and prioritising profit over sustained on-pitch investment. Premier League and European revenues make their current cash machine model viable but relegation destroys those revenues.

Once parachute payments end, the club loses top-flight broadcast money, elite commercial deals and European income. For owners focused solely on extraction rather than glory, the asset quickly loses its appeal as its balance sheet lurches to the wrong side of the page, making a sale or exit the rational choice for them. A reduction in status to a Championship club would then provide the opportunity to impose the discipline the club currently lacks, tackling the institutional habits that have held United back.

I am aware that the pain would be real and there are ordinary working people who depend on the club for their livelihoods and that relegation may lead to redundancies. This is the main argument and a valid one, against any Man Utd fan encouraging a surrender. Yet survival will only prolong the same ownership model and the same cycle of mediocrity. Losing the fight, however bitter in the moment, offers the clearest path to forcing change.
Eoin (Oh to read the future Mailbox the day after that) Ireland

Eddie Howe should jump at Man Utd job
“Dont touch Manu they are a bin fire”

That’s what people are saying to other people…

If a job offered you 2 years at 10mill a year. And you know all the staff under you at that job are so egotistical and self centred that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, they will not help and you cannot change them, that you will be sacked in 3-6months or maybe a whole year and will get your remaining wages paid..

2yrs pay for 1 years work..and that’s in the millions not the tens of thousands.. Why would you not take the job?

When you do get sacked (and paid) everyone outside the workplace says, well mate you never stood a chance anyway but well done for trying, it looked ok there for a few weeks and we thought you were going to be ok.. but then it all went the way it’s gone every year for the last 13yrs and no one is shocked!

Eddie Howe would be a fool NOT to take the job. He will be £5mill better off in 12months time whatever happens.. and he will always have Bournemouth and Newcastle to show how good he can be..
Al – LFC – Still none of my business!

They’re not even laughing at us anymore…
Enjoyed Victor MCFC’s email. Good to see there is still humour in the increasingly dogmatic world.

Watched the United match whilst some Liverpool acquaintances watched their match on another screen. One of them leant over and said “We’ve been talking and reckon there isn’t even any fun to be had taking the piss any more. It seems cruel.”

Bugger. That hurt. More cutting than I am sure he realised.
Ged Biglin

Craig has touched some hearts
I reckon you’ll receive a tsunami of mails commenting on the mail from anaesthetist Craig, from Australia – and I feel compelled to do the same.

That was possibly the single most life affirming mails I’ve ever come across on this website (as an avid reader of over 15 years or so). I’m sitting here, a middle aged man, at the airport with tears in my eyes after reading his story.

I, like Jodie Foster in Arrival (ask your uncle), have no words. No words. Poetry.

Regards
Haukur, LFC

…Over the last few months, I’ve very slightly got out of the habit of reading the mailbox every day. I’m very pleased that I chose today to break that barren spell and had the privilege to read Craig’s incredibly poignant mail, which had me pretty choked because, sadly, I’m not a double-hard b**tard.

You see, today is a weird day for me. I’m attending a funeral. I’ve not attended many funerals in my life. In this case, it’s not someone I knew well, but I wanted to attend more for the benefit of mutual friends as for my own grieving process. And, in a rather tragic coincidence, were I not attending that funeral, I’d probably be attending another wake elsewhere. Both those services are for men in their early 40s, who fell catastrophically ill, while on the football pitch doing what they loved.

And, while that situation has me feeling a little melancholic today, Craig’s email served as a reminder to me of the power that football has to unite people and why that community can be so important, especially in moments of grief and trauma. The funeral that I’m attending will have, amongst its congregation, about a dozen attendees turning up in the football shirts of the veterans’ team that they, along the departed, all played for, as a reminder of what he enjoyed in life. I should point out that this is at the specific behest of the family, otherwise that’d just be weird; turning up to a funeral looking like a bunch of Essex boys on a stag-do.

The other celebration of life, which I can’t attend, appears (as best I can tell) as if it will be attended by almost every person with any connection to the Isle of Wight football community over the last 25 years – a fitting tribute to a wonderful and incredibly warm-hearted man; an old schoolmate of mine who I had carelessly lost touch with since we left school.

In these days of polarised opinions and divisiveness stewed up by social-media bots, it’s nice to be able to take solace that there are still communities out there – sometimes made up of relative stranger – that are brought together by something as simple as a game of 22 people kicking pig’s bladder around a field; who are there for each other when shit gets real – like Craig and his elderly, Liverpool-supporting patient.

And to anyone reading this; if you get the opportunity to get first-aid trained, and particularly with the defib devices that are thankfully becoming much more common around the UK, I strongly recommend you do so, because you never know quite when that training could be the difference between life and death for someone.
Chris Bridgeman, Kingston upon Thames

…I’m not crying. What are you talking about?
Minty, LFC