SOMEONE worked out that it was 43 in the first 10 days after the Premier League season finished. Someone else that it’s over 60. Less than a month after the football season finished, that’s the number of players who’ve been linked with a move to Manchester United. It’s the silly season alright, the number will soon shoot into three figures and it happens for several reasons.
One, media outlets know that transfer stories do well. People can’t help reading them, just like they can’t help but gossip. These tales don't even have to be credible because transfer junkies still read them and invest in the idea of a certain player joining their club. They might feel cheated or relieved if that doesn’t happen.
The obsession can be depressing for journalists. I spent five days doing a piece on the Belgrade derby a few years ago. It was an incredible story, the photography was superb. It took months to set up contacts, to develop trust and it was a frightening assignment. The article was well read, but a 10 minute call to Madrid and an update on David de Gea’s then position when Real Madrid wanted him was seen by ten times as many.
United linked to Griezmann and De Ligt when they're seemingly on the brink of joining Barcelona… #mufc pic.twitter.com/1rzAXv7t1B
— Full Time DEVILS (@FullTimeDEVILS) May 24, 2019
Two, United are the biggest British club so there are more transfer stories about them. People are fascinated by United as much when things don’t go to plan in the same way that car crashes draw rubberneckers.
Three, there’s seldom comeback. The stories wash over United as they bulldoze through the sporting media agenda. They keep the club on the back pages. Players are usually not unhappy to be linked to one of the three biggest clubs in the club, even if they have no intention of going there. It’s the same for their agents.
They’re also not unhappy when a client they are trying to move on is linked to Old Trafford. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t true but if, say, Everton were to sign a player that had been linked to United, it wouldn’t do them any harm either.
The reality can be different. From Phil Jones to Nani, Anderson to Javier Hernandez, there was no media speculation. They were signed and sealed before anyone had got a sniff as United acted in stealth. The club didn’t want to alert other suitors, they even rewarded clubs who kept their mouths shut. Chivas of Guadalajara got a friendly with United for not letting Chicharito’s transfer leak.
We're delighted to have agreed terms, in principle, with Swansea City for the transfer of Daniel James to #MUFC.
Further details will be revealed in due course.
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) June 7, 2019
Then there’s the type of player bought by United. They’ve signed some of the biggest names in football, often with less than the desired results: Angel di Maria (after a month of speculation as Madrid wanted to cash in), Radamel Falcao (an ill-thought out deadline day job) or Bastian Schweinsteiger (he wasn’t at his best when he signed).
After failing and overpaying with a muddled recruitment, United need a clearer strategy. Rivals have left United behind with smarter buys who may not have been world stars when they joined even great teams. Bernardo Silva wasn’t a big star when he joined City, nor Andy Robertson when he joined Liverpool.
United are looking for players who have the talent and attitude to play for the club, but that’s a wide net. Swansea winger Daniel James is, the club hope, an emerging talent who can be improved and who has a smaller ego than some in the dressing room.
From the Busby Babes to the treble winners. United’s greatest successes have come with teams well stocked with home-grown stars – or players signed young. Roy Keane was 22 when he joined United, the same age as Paul Ince when he arrived. Gary Pallister and Denis Irwin were 24. Lee Sharpe was 17, Andrei Kanchelskis 21.
Those players, mixed with experience and homegrown talents, were the core of the team which won the league for the first time in 23 years in 1994 and then the double in 1994. It took time for them to bed in and fans need to be more patient than they have been.
Man Utd's release list:
❎ Ander Herrera
❎ Antonio Valencia
❎ James Wilson
❎ Regan Poole
❎ Callum Whelan
❎ Thomas Sang
❎ Zak Dearnley
❎ DJ Buffonge
❎ Tyrell Warren
❎ Matty Willock
❎ Matthew Olosunde
❎ Callum Gribbin
❎ Millen Baars
❎ Josh Bohui
❎ James Thompson— Goal (@goal) June 8, 2019
Too many United fans wrote off David De Gea, a teenager, in his first season. They wrote off Victor Lindelof, Memphis Depay and Wilfried Zaha. Fans only had the evidence presented to them to judge, but ultimately they were wrong. Those early 1989-early 90s signings which included the current assistant manager Mike Phelan, took time to bed but when they did they were a fantastic side.
This is happening at the behest of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but United won’t limit what they do to the UK. The club have hugely expanded their scouting network around the world, but the manager wants a better focus on the type of players that the club should be recruiting.
Given that he was a virtual unknown 23-year-old when he arrived at Old Trafford in 1996, Solskjaer can relate to it. He’s assisted by some good watchers at United. Assistant manager Phelan was the man trusted to go undercover to Mexico to check out Chicharito.
Phelan is a good judge of a player, though there are no guarantees that anyone will do well. He scouted Shinji Kagawa extensively and United fans were excited when he signed, but he was another who underwhelmed. There have been too many.
United fans just want a lift. Any lift. New players, evidence that the club has some kind of strategy. Several young emerging talents will do that and give a sense that the club know what they are doing after a dreadful end to the season.
