Manchester United manager David Moyes has challenged his players to prove their critics wrong.
Moyes started his Old Trafford rebuilding job by smashing United's transfer record to bring Juan Mata to the club from Chelsea.
That £37.1million outlay is destined to be the last bit of significant business Moyes does in the current transfer window unless the Scot is given some unexpected encouragement with any of his other targets.
It means he must now trust his present squad to haul themselves out of the hole they have dug for themselves with so many tepid performances this term, particularly on home soil.
And, in his programme notes ahead of Tuesday's encounter with Cardiff, Moyes has made it perfectly clear what should be driving United on now.
"I do believe now that we are playing for the Manchester United jersey and for pride in where we are," Moyes said.
"There is still a long way to go this season and by the end of it we have to have shown we are much better than many people are making us out to be.
"On the training ground and in the dressing room I see determined and committed players who are desperate to put things right."
Moyes revealed he had been made aware when he succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson last summer changes would be required, even if the scale of the task has caught many observers by surprise given United romped to the Premier League title by 11 points last term.
Moyes added: "When I joined the club, I joined knowing I was taking over a great squad who had just finished the season as champions, but I was also made very much aware that there would have to be changes made.
"Namely... a long-term plan and also looking within our own academy to introduce young players to the first team as often as we feel they warrant selection."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article