Monthly Archives: August 2014

There is little surprise in supporters’ obsession with the transfer market; new faces, new names and the hope of better results to come. In Manchester United’s recent decline this fixation has become all the stronger – a collective yearning that fresh blood will cure many of Old Trafford’s ills. Certainly, United’s summer spending will revitalise a squad that has been grossly mismanaged by Sir Alex Ferguson, David Gill and the Glazers over the past five years. An imbalance remains that Ed Woodward may fill in the days to come. It is, however, sales that will definitively mark the beginning of the Louis van Gaal era.

David Moyes, it was often said, worked not with his own squad but that of Sir Alex. Little surprise, perhaps, that so many turned on the former Everton manager when training, performances and then results did not go to the collective’s liking. So quick to bite the hand that fed them. One year on Van Gaal should face little of the mutinous atmosphere that engulfed Moyes’ time at Old Trafford. Not least because the Dutchman’s distinct gravitas will simply not allow for it. More importantly, though, for the significant squad evolution now underway.

Indeed, in the 72 hours before the transfer window closes, five United first team players could top up the 10 already granted a transfer, released or retired this summer. Yet more would be dumped but for the logistics, and economics, of eliminating high-paid players from United’s payroll.

In the months since Moyes’ sacking last April Rio Ferdinand, Nemnaja Vidić, Patrice Evra, Alexander Büttner, Nani, Federico Macheda, Ángelo Henríquez, Bebé, Ryan Giggs and Wilfried Zaha have left the club. Giggs retired at the age of 40, Henríquez, Nani and Zaha left on loan – with an assumption the trio will never play for United again – and the remaining six departed permanently.

The Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra axis provided over 1,000 games for United; Giggs another millenary again. The absence of that vast experience will certainly be felt. By contrast United will miss nothing of Büttner, Nani, Macheda, Henríquez, Bebé, or Zaha.

Büttner was never of requisite quality – a knowledge that most observers considered true less than 30 minutes into the Dutchman’s United début. Macheda, Henríquez and Bebé each failed to establish themselves at Old Trafford despite, at times, promising contributions, albeit very different in nature. Meanwhile, Nani, and to a lesser extent Zaha, will remain misfits unable to harness talent to more positive effect.

Add Anderson, Anders Lindegaard, Tom Cleverley – and one of Danny Welbeck or Javier Hernández – to the probable departures by Monday evening and the exodus contributes to a sense of chaotic revolution and not planned change at Old Trafford. That the club’s executive vice chairman is desperately putting together deals for Daley Blind, and perhaps a midfielder and defender, in the coming days says much for the lack of control in the post Gill-Ferguson era. There is something ‘just not United’ in the chaos of frantic negotiation, yet a pattern has clearly been set over the past two summers.

Anderson has spent much of the past seven years resembling a character in Waiting for Godot, with United supporters hanging, absurdly, to the notion that the Brazilian’s talent will flourish. It has always been a tragicomedy of the club’s own making. The final twist is likely to be a year-long loan to the continent, with a free transfer following in summer 2015.

Then there is Cleverley and Welbeck – a pair so often the subject of heated supporter debate. While Cleverley’s United career has been on hold for three seasons, Welbeck’s talent and background ensure local-hero loyalty remains. Neither, in truth, has the capacity to drive United to new heights, although far fewer supporters will miss Cleverley than Welbeck. The Longsight-born forward’s record is patchy, but with neither Wayne Rooney nor Robin van Persie guaranteed fitness, the 23-year-old will enjoy plenty of minutes if he stays.

Hernández is another whose career has stalled. Once the subject of serious transfer interest by Real Madrid, United will probably accept a bid of less than £10 million for the Mexican forward. Old Trafford’s top brass would fall over themselves to include the 26-year-old in any prospective deal for Juventus’ midfielder Arturo Vidal.

Meanwhile, Lindegaard has been offered a free transfer with little prospect that the Dane will usurp David de Gea in United’s goal. Ben Amos is set to occupy United’s bench while Lindegaard seeks pastures new.

Then there is the question of those who have outstayed a generous Old Trafford welcome: Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia and Marouane Fellaini. The former pair were complicit in United’s sub-par performance against Burnley on Saturday; in truth neither has played a positive role for United in some time.

The club would certainly take a fee for Young, although two years on the Englishman’s contract and £115,000-per-week in wages remain genuine barriers to moving on a distinctly limited player. Valencia, so long a duff product at Old Trafford, remains if only to cover for Rafael da Silva’s extended periods on the treatment table.

Fellaini’s fee, wages and injury present a similar roadblock; one that means Van Gaal may well have to integrate the Belgian into his squad this season. In each case a significant upgrade is required.

And in truth few of the potential departed will be seriously missed. Not, at least, in the way of greats from the past. United might even significantly benefit from slimming down and rebalancing a squad that consensus now concludes was not left fit for purpose by a retiring Ferguson. It is a damming indictment of the Scot’s succession planning.

Van Gaal, meanwhile, welcomes five new signings this summer: Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Angel Di Maria and Daley Blind. Woodward may yet land the experienced central defender and another midfielder Van Gaal seeks before the 1 September deadline. It would take the club’s spending well beyond £150 million this summer.

In this process of renewal Van Gaal is seeking not only to improve his resources but to make this ‘his team’ at rapid speed. There is little doubt the Dutchman will succeed.

In the meantime, Woodward is busy not only buying, but offloading United’s ample dead-wood. That’s in addition to negotiating new arrivals, driving United’s global marketing strategy, and leading a $2.5 billion organisation. Little wonder, perhaps, that the 42-year-old has found the market more than a little challenging over the past two years. Woodward probably needs some help; a director of football to sit between the boardroom and coach – and, most importantly, to so the heavily lifting in a busy transfer market.

Either way United supporters will be watching with intense interest in the coming days – Jim White, Sky Sports News, and all.

These are celebratory times indeed. Not only has Manchester United’s executive vice chairman Ed Woodward closed a deal, some 12 days before the summer transfer window shuts, but in a position where the Reds are desperately short. United’s calamitous showing against Swansea City last weekend served only to highlight just how desperately the club requires new blood in defensive positions. So to the rescue comes Marcos Rojo, Argentina’s World Cup left-back, who will play on the left side of United’s back three this season after Woodward secured a £16 million transfer from Sporting.

Rojo’s signature takes Nani in the other direction, where United will pay the errant Portuguese winger around £5 million to play for the Lisbon-based side this season. Good deal all round, those of a more cynical bent might add. Meanwhile, the Argentinian will compete with Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Tyler Blackett for a place in Louis van Gaal’s side, while offering a useful option at left wing back.

Not that Rojo was anywhere near van Gaal’s first choice this summer, with United mooting deals for Thomas Vermaelen, Mats Hummels and Mehdi Benatia. The former transferred to Barcelona after Woodward spent an entire summer dallying on the deal with Arsenal, while the latter is still mulling over offers from around Europe. Hummels – always van Gaal’s first choice – is unlikely to leave Borussia Dortmund in the current window.

Strange, though, how the club has once again left execution of transfer planning to the very last moment, more than six months after former captain Nemanja Vidić announced his departure for Internazionale. In truth the club has known at least as long that Rio Ferdinand would not secure a new deal at Old Trafford. In aggregate, Rojo serves to highlight another omnishambles of a transfer strategy played out by Woodward and company this summer.

In between Vidić’s January announcement and the Premier League kick off last weekend David Moyes was sacked and van Gaal appointed, with seemingly little continuity in club strategy. True, the Dutchman signed off on more than £55 million worth of acquisitions in Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw, although those deals, instigated by Moyes, remained the sum total of United’s market activity this summer until Rojo’s arrival was announced by United and Sporting on Tuesday.

Not that United’s acquisition of Herrera and Shaw should pass without scrutiny either, the club having paid a significant premium for each. Or, to paraphrase former United right-back Gary Neville, Chelsea secured seasoned internationals Cesc Fabregas and Luis Fillipe for around £18 million less than the United pair.

Elsewhere, the outlook is less positive for Woodward, who is said to be acutely aware of the growing reputation he has gained for being outmanoeuvred in the transfer market. Not least because the former JP Morgan executive has talked such a good game, asking fans to “watch this space” while United “moves in the market” far more aggressively than in previous seasons. Supporters have watched, and waited, with less reward than the club requires.

van Gaal certainly remains an experienced defender short. After all, Rojo has played just three seasons in Europe and must quickly adapt to the rough and tumble of the Premier League. Moreover, the former Estudiantes defender is yet to complete more than 33 games in all competitions during any one campaign. It is likely to be a challenging first few months in England and a very steep learning curve.

Play he must though. After having lost four defenders in the summer – Ferdinand, Vidić, Alexander Büttner, and Patrice Evra – van Gaal has little choice but to risk his new man. Rant suspects few in United’s hierarchy will take responsibility for the abject failure in planning.

Meanwhile, in midfield the ease with which Swansea negotiated United’s triumvirate of Darren Fletcher, Juan Mata and Herrera last Saturday is a significant cause for concern. Mata was largely anonymous, first as United’s creative fulcrum in van Gaal’s 3-4-1-2 system, and then in a more conventional role behind Rooney in a Moyes-esque 4-4-1-1. Herrera was neat, but lacked real influence, while Fletcher, who excelled during the summer tour of the USA, was as rusty as one might expect a man to be after returning from two years out of the game.

United is seemingly no closer to sealing a deal for either Angel di Maria or Arturo Vidal. The former is available, although United’s is not the only game in town, with Paris Saint Germain attempting to construct a deal that circumvents Financial Fair Play regulations. The latter has long been considered by United’s hierarchy despite repeated denials behind the scenes.

The prevailing intelligence is that Woodward must land at least one superstar to bring United’s squad up to top four quality. On the evidence of Saturday’s performance the Reds are further short of Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal in the chase for Champions League places than feared. Failure to qualify for next season’s premier European competition is an option, but one that will cost United tens of millions in lost broadcast, matchday and sponsorship revenues.

More pertinent, however, is quite how the club finds itself in this position once again. After all, this was the summer of supposedly strong investment, with the club having deleveraged over the past four years, and more cash available to the new manager than at any time in recent history. This was the summer when all those regional sponsorship deals, Chevrolet’s millions, and broadcast rights combined to proffer United overwhelming financial muscle.

The £750 million kit manufacturing deal with adidas, announced in July, should have further embolden Woodward’s team. Not so it seems. In fact, not only has the scenario of hyper hyperinvestment failed to materialise, but the club enters the last days of a transfer window desperately chasing players in the most embarrassingly scattergun fashion. Whatever planning went into United’s summer strategy – for want of a better word – it has proven to be wholly inadequate.

The rub comes in May and not August, of course, although it takes not any foresight to predict some of the travails that van Gaal’s side faces in the coming months, no matter the Dutchman’s genius. His squad is light in central defence, central midfield and in wide areas, both of the attacking and defensive variety.

Meanwhile, the Glazer family announced last month it plans to sell another 12 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, raising almost $200 million in revenue for Malcom Glazer’s six children. Nor will the sale precipitate a change in strategy, with the family retaining more than 80 per cent of the voting power having devised a dual class stock structure on IPO some two years ago.

Neither are the Glazers minded to remove Woodward from the equation – the man who has successfully executed on the Americans’ commercial vision. Woodward, to his core, remains a company man; a Glazer favourite.

It leaves United supporters little confidence that the new manager will hold a full complement of tools come 2 September. Boasting an unbalanced squad, short of world-class talent, and with his stars’ confidence seemingly absent, van Gaal faces one his greatest managerial challenges. Woodward the scorn of many.