Speaking of Zlatan:-

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf are reporting Zlatan Ibrahimovic has joined Manchester United.
De Telegraaf have connections with Zlatan's agent Mino Raiola, who is Dutch. He could be the source of this information.
According to De Telegraaf, there are plans for Zlatan to become an 'assistant coach' at Manchester United after his playing career. (Elko Born's twitter)

Make of them what you wish, I don't quite know if I should believe them just yet.

I know, I was using him as an example rather than any hope. Dutch press are apparently claiming Zlatan has signed for us anyway, or so I've just read on twitter. Wasn't he supposed to be asking for £300,000 a week? That means Rooney gets a pay rise if he signs doesn't it?

Batty, that's 1-1 today.

It is almost like that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game, "Fastest Fingers"

zlatan and rooney will be a titanic clash of egos, they are both used to being the main man. from a tactical perspective i don't see how we fit them both in, rooney-ibra partnership is too slow. ibrahimovic doesn't have the mobility or energy levels to lead the line for us in the prem anymore, its the same situation as with rooney. i would be ok with ibrahimovic playing in the 10 position behind a pacey striker like rashford, he has the technique and vision to play there and he can crack a mean shot from distance. he won't do anything defensively tho so the midfield 2 behind him would have to be very disciplined defensively which is not one of rooney's strong points lets be honest. no matter what line up you come up with a team that has both rooney and ibra in it doesn't work...

I would be very surprised to see a Mourinho team with two out and out strikers and I would be equally surprised to see a Mourinho team with Rooney in midfield.

That said Mourinho did want him for Chelsea a couple of years ago so it would come down to whether he feels Rooney still has something to offer as a striker.

I would expect strong athletic signings both in midfield and upfront for any team managed by Mourinho. There will be none of this "takes a few games to get in shape" excuses made for Rooney.

i hope your right, ibrahimovic could be effective for us if he has the right players around him...

I'm not disputing that LVG is gone but since this morning BBC have been running all these "BREAKING NEWS: LVG SACKED!" stories, and saying it is confirmed.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't it all technically still speculation? There has been absolutely NOTHING from the club, or LVG himself!

Terrible, gutter-rat reporting.

Do you honestly expect anything different from the BBC?

My suspicion has always been that if Ibrahimovic is here then Rooney won't be.

I agree entirely and said so yesterday, as they were doing it immediately after our great Cup win in order to displace it from the top sports news story. It's utterly pathetic. They did the same the previous evening in order to avoid making their announced cup final preview at 7pm on Radio 5 Live the top story they - spent the first 20 minutes dissecting in infinite and utterly pointless detail the 'breaking news" of Rogers' appointment to some Scottish team. Who effing cares on the eve of a Cup Final? I was so mad I just switched off.

Everything they (and many other so-called journalists) seem to want to do these days is have swipes at LVG and United and it's obvious that it's become personal for many of them, due to the way he's been responding to their incessant digs at him when they should have been asking about the actual next match and team. Gutter press the lot of em including the formerly balanced BBC reporters. Their constant speculation (guessulation) has been 90% wrong over the season and it's become really annoying so let's hope Jose can slap them down and shut them up.

As for Ibra, I have serious doubts that he's a good fit for United at this stage of his career, he would be a bigger risk than Mourinho and to have both of them there is possibly a risk too far - even though it *might* work. For a while.

Unfortunately, it comes with the territory. United are the biggest story in town. Whoever the manager is will just have to deal with it.

Moyes couldn't, Van Gaal let it get to him, Mourinho knows how to play them.

Regarding Ibrahimovic, despite it making little sense, I can't help but be excited by the prospect.

Facts I have no problem with, good or bad; it's the constant speculation, and banging on with the same old (usually incorrect) guesswork at times they should be asking about players and the team or actual matches. We the fans want to know stuff, they have the opportunity to find out, but they don't bother asking, they just want to get more digs in. It certainly didn't used to be as bad as it's been in the last couple of seasons, whatever happened to actual sports journalism?

But hopefully Jose will handle them better; I think he will.

Journalists will just go with whatever they think will sell.

If they can get the manager of Manchester United to snap, they can milk that for months.

Team news, and stuff like that, is interesting for about 5 minutes.

I'm not saying that I enjoy it, but it's the way it is, and people lap it up.

That's tabloidism though and it's always been so. But the BBC never used to be like that and they should not be like that, it's a public service news organization not a tabloid paper yet that's precisely how they have been behaving in the last few days. And it's not "people" who lap it up, it's *some people* who lap it up... and they have their tabloids, Sky News and Talk Sport to get their guessulation fix from.

BBC Sport should not be doing that on our licence fee money - they of all people should be reporting the facts. That they too have now joined the race to the journalism bottom is the issue here and it's disappointing, no, bloody annoying. By all means mention that others are speculating this or that but don't create it as they did, or lead with it in the way they've recently started doing. I did not want to hear speculation masquerading as facts leading the BBC sports news within half an hour of our cup final victory and in every bulletin since, and I don't think most United fans did either.

The bbc has been tabloid for quite a few years now. The days that it was held up as an example of quality are long gone.

The BBC report the same thing sky, and the rest of the sports media do, the fear of missing out on a story is too big really.

That's how I see things as well. I can easily see Jose building his team around Ibrahimovic and having two years of unparalleled success . Maybe he will try and fit them both in the team , maybe he'll offload Rooney. Imagine how much Martial and Rashford will learn off Ibrahmovic . I see the keeper staying alongside a few others but there are gonna be a lot of people going out the doors . Mata , Fellini , Jones , Carrick for starters will be gone. Possibly Linguard and Memphis as well. Giggs won't be staying around either . I see instant success but maybe only lasting a couple of seasons,

PS edit .

I'd Iove to see Roy Keane involved as an assistant as well.

Article from The Independent claiming that even a top-four finish would not have saved Van Gaal, who reportedly had lost the dressing room.

Coincidentally, van Gaal was linked with a Director of Football role with us a few years ago, I think it was when Damien Comolli was on his way out. Not sure the details on that or how it didn't materialise but it was going to happen. He might have experience with that at Ajax or something. Wikipedia says he returned to Ajax as a technical director but left a year later after internal conflicts with Ronald Koeman.

I don't know how someone like Mourinho would work with a DoF, especially if it's a guy like LvG, I think their personalities would clash.

Confirmed:

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Fe...er-united.aspx

By the way, the share price has gone up 2% today. My maths suggests the Glazers just made a net profit on the sacking

Well goodbye to LvG, and thanks for the big victory over City, the FA Cup, and the introduction to the first team of a fair few younger players.

Oh and just for the giggles of seeing Phil Jones taking corners!

I like lvgs statement on the website, its a shame it didnt work out but the youth was given a chance and some will grow on this seasons development.

A lovely statement from LVG, comes across as a real gentleman.
I'm glad he's gone though and just bemoan the fact that he would not listen to what the fans and tradition wanted of him

Yeah, I feel sad it hasn't worked out, despite the awful football I actually really liked the crazy Dutch man.

Chuffed to bits with the Fa Cup so his time wasn't all bad.