Top post Len.
The board probably does care as it would less prize and tv money to line their pockets ..... or divert into the construction business.
Maybe relegation would be the best thing for the club. Perhaps we need to get worse (although this seems pretty difficult at the moment) before we get better. Going down to League One we would probably lose dead beats like Quinn, Monty, Cresswell, Ertl and Evans. Speed would have the chance to build a squad and bring in some youngsters. Plus we might actually win more than we lose. Ticket prices would go down for the fans and it might actually be fun to go and watch United again.
Ok Olle, I'm going to bite now!
From where we were at the end of last season we needed a change of manager and to refresh things on the coaching side. We needed fresh ideas, but for whatever reason that decision wasn't taken at the time and we went through a full preseason with the old regime and then terminated the previous manager's contract after two games of the season. The timing of this was a major failing on the part of McCabe and Birch.
Whilst I think that Speed could be a forward thinking decision by the board, with the look to getting us playing a more attractive type of football, it will take time to change things. I don't believe that it makes the players that we have bad players, but some may not fit the bill. I'm sure Speed will work that out.
To suggest relegation will be "the best thing for the club" is ridiculous. To suggest relegation at this stage in the season is also a tad premature to say the least. I'm not suggesting that I'm too arrogant to believe that we can't go down, but I honestly think that with the current crop of fit players in the team then things will slowly pick up.
However, your suggestion of losing "dead beats" as you so eloquently call the the under performing players, is even more ridiculous. The players that we would lose would be the ones that other clubs want. The rest, providing they are still under contract would stay, unless we could find a buyer. So Speed would still be restricted.
Further suggestions that the board wouldn't care if we went down are also ridiculous, especially when they come from Lenners a man who himself doesn't offer his support to the team, complains constantly about the Senior management of the club, but offers no solution even when asked directly by others on here.
Yourself, Lenners and others may well be correct that we're on a downward spiral, but the constant jibes at the players, the manager, the coaching, Birch and McCabe and the clubs involvement in other activities without offering a way out do nothing.
Speed himself is less than two months into a difficult job, has had little time or money to freshen things up and is now feeling it even more with injuries and suspensions. For now at least he has the support of the fans, but for how much longer. Frankly i'm fed up of reading a lot of this "what if the world ends" rhetoric.