Tag: Manchester United

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While speaking to the Stick to Football podcast, former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær pointed out his stance on Erik ten Hag and Sir Jim.

“I don’t think there’s a magic wand (at United) as in, ‘We’ve changed the owners,’” Solskjaer said.

“They’ve got their ways of working – the Glazers have still got their commercial – who knows how it’s going to be in football with that side of it, “he added.

The Norwegian manager was at the helm of the club for 2 years between 2019 and 2021, and he properly understands how difficult it was to work under the Glazers with no solid footballing structure.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær also gave his opinion of Erik ten Hag stating how he hopes the Dutch tactician is successful all the while being cautious of what the new owners are thinking on the managerial front.

“Obviously Erik, I hope he’s going to be successful. We hope he’s going to make it, but you never know what the new owners are thinking. It’s about results and consistency the rest of the season.” Ole added

He is right about one thing: it is all about results and consistency for the rest of the season: ten Hag’s reds have struggled for results and any form of consistency this season.

The season has been nothing short of dire this season, well into March: out of Europe, languishing in 6th and 11 points off top 4.

A season like this is not befitting, nor does it make for a good reference in ten Hag’s CV if he is looking to stay longer at the Theatre of Dreams.

It stands to reason that Sir Jim and his INEOS contingent will be judging ten Hag based on results from this point towards the end of the season as they seek to make a decision on his future.

The only hope for a trophy rests entirely on winning the F.A Cup which will be quite a tall task with our next round being against high-flying Liverpool in 2 weeks.

 

 

 

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German giants have handed Manchester United a double transfer blow by offering to extend the contract of forward Mathys Tel and upping their interest in Antonio Silva, who were both United transfer targets.

It was rumoured that 18-year-old Mathys Tel was unhappy at Bayern under Thomas Tuchel and would have given in to suitable suitors, and suitors don’t come more suitable than Manchester United.

The young Frenchman joined the Bavarians in July 2022 from French club Rennes for 20 million euros. He has since made 59 appearances for Bayern scoring 13 goals in the process.

After reports of not enjoying life under Tuchel, he has reportedly had a change of heart about leaving the club at the end of the season.

According to L’Equipe, Mathys Tel will sign a new contract for Bayer Munich, one that would keep him at Bayern until 2029 with the official announcement being imminent according to Florian Plettenberg.

It is reported that he is ‘convinced’ he can be a Bayern legend ergo the change of heart.

Just a few weeks ago, football365 had reported that Manchester United had made contact with Tel’s representatives with ten Hag keen on securing the youngster’s signature.

Because of a lack of playing time, Tel’s agent, Gadiri Camara, confirmed that they may have to consider options in the summer, but with Tuchel’s departure at the end of the season now confirmed, the Frenchman’s future is at the Allianz Arena.

This comes as a huge blow to Man United, who had their sights set on Mathys Tel.

The other blows comes in the form of Antonio Silva, who has been on United’s radar for a while as they seek to reinforce their defensive department. The 20-year-old defender had been linked with lots of clubs, more so Manchester United.

Florian Plettenberg reports the defender is now on Bayern’s list too as they are impressed by his development. They could be eyeing up a summer swoop with his release clause set at 100 million, albeit it is rumoured that 70-80 could be enough.

Bayern joining the race for Silva could knock United off their perch as the favourites for the Benfica man.

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Kobbie Mainoo has made an unbelievable start to his young United career with performances well and beyond his age and he just may get rewarded for it.

According to Manchester Evening News, talks for a contract improvement for the young maverick have begun.

He recently signed a long term contract with the club, February 23 to be precise, and he may receive new terms and a pay rise in these new negotiations.

His rise has been a meteoric one, and his potential is truly mind-blowing.

United hierarchy have acted fast to ensure the 18-year-old remains the backbone of our midfield for years to come, and that is good, good news for the United faithful.

The even better news is that according to the report, there is no sense of panic or immediate urgency between both parties.

It is reported that both parties are willing to wait until the end of the season to ensure that the terms they agree on will be favourable and everyone goes home happy.

Mainoo has become one of the first names on the team sheet for Erik ten Hag, and he had started every game for United in 2024 before he was rested against Nottingham Forest in the F.A Cup last week.

He was thrust back into the starting 11 in the derby defeat over the weekend.

His displays on the pitch have been unbelievable for such a young man, a true testament to an old head on young shoulders.

The poise and composure Mainoo exhibits on the football pitch sometimes will have you asking for his birth certificate just to confirm he really was born in 2005.

Mainoo has benefited from playing next to two brilliant footballing brains in Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro.

According to Manchester Evening News, Mainoo loves playing with Casemiro, as the former’s defensive discipline and effectiveness allows Mainoo to play further up the pitch and control the game better.

All in all, Mainoo deserves that new contract and then some.

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Sir Jim Ratcliffe has clearly not been messing about since his minority take over in terms of building a structure above the manager ten Hag.

INEOS has already poached top executives including chief executive Omar Berrada from rivals Manchester City and Dan Ashworth from Newcastle.

As The Telegraph would have it, the British billionaire now has his sights set on Southampton’s sporting director Jason Wilcox.

Sir Jim and INEOS are looking to make the highly-rated executive the new technical director and performance director.

According to the report, it is still unclear whether Jason would be open to the approach, although the team Sir Jim has already put together would be impossible to say no to.

Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth have sparkling reputations and CVs – it would be nigh on impossible for Jason Wilcox to say no to the prospect of working with them.

The 52-year-old Wilcox has previously worked at Man City, with Omar Berrada I should add.

He was an academy director at City, overseeing the development of numerous City superstars, most notably Phil Foden, Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.

He was appointed sporting director for Southampton in January last year, and he oversaw a massive summer in terms of rebuild and profits for the Saints.

Southampton were relegated and naturally, other clubs were after their stars. The go-to move for a club in such a position is to maximize on the exodus and raise profits for a rebuild.

He oversaw the departures of big names like skipper James Ward-Prowse, Roméo Lavia and Tino Livramento – with all of them returning to the Premier League.

A lot of income was generated from these sales, and some was injected back into the first team for a rebuild.

All in all, the job at hand will not be easy for the incoming executives on account of the mess created by the Glazers. The project will be a tough gig for whoever is sitting on the board when all is said and done.

 

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Transfer wizard Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Manchester United are interested in highly rated 19-year-old Benfica midfielder Joao Neves.

“In terms of possible midfield signings coming in for United, the race remains open for Benfica wonder kid Joao Neves, who has been scouted by the Red Devils, and also by Manchester City.” the Italian journalist said in his Daily Briefing.

The 19-year-old Neves is one of the most sought after young talents in Europe at the moment. He has impressed all and sundry with his displays in the middle of the park for Portuguese club Benfica.

He is already a key player for both club and country. At only 19 year of age, that is very impressive.

He is a natural central defensive midfielder with all the qualities needed in a proper modern-day 6. He can also play as a number 8 and on the rare occasion, he has been deployed on the right. He is one for the future with buckets of talent and potential.

He has caught the eye of numerous European bigwigs, including both Manchester clubs City and United.

Benfica have set his release clause at 120 million euros, which is an astonishing figure for a teenager. As such, whomsoever wants him enough will have a huge dent left in their wallets.

It will not be an easy deal to complete at such an astronomical fee.

“Benfica will insist on the release clause of €120m [£103m] being triggered, so it’s not an easy deal, but the interest from Premier League clubs is there in terms of scouting. So far, no club has approached Benfica to start a negotiation yet, so it remains absolutely open.” Fabrizio added.

United’s midfield options are not as star-studded as their noisy neighbours. Erik ten Hag prefers a midfield combination of Casemiro, Mainoo and Bruno, which works most of the time.

Casemiro however is nearing the twilight years of his career amid interest from Saudi Arabia. Neves could be a fantastic replacement for the Brazilian destroyer, given his age and quality.

 

 

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Things have not been going particularly well for Jadon Sancho since his much-anticipated move to Manchester in 2021.

The 71 million pound move tuned sour after his public fallout with manager Erik ten Hag in August 2023. He in fact hasn’t played for the club since, and was shipped out to Dortmund on loan in January.

Sources confirmed to TEAMtalk that the English winger is hoping to come back to the club after his loan deal runs out and become an integral part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s rebuild.

Jadon fell victim to ten Hag’s no-nonsense approach after the Dutch manager called him out before the Arsenal game last August and even left him out of the squad.

It all went sour when the manager called Sancho out for not training properly and left him out of the squad for the trip to Arsenal. Sancho responded publicly on X (formerly twitter) retaliating that that was not the case.

A huge spat out followed and ten Hag said all Sancho had to do was apologize, and he would bring him back to the fold, but Sancho’s ego got the better of him.

That sourness would last for months on end, with Sancho completely refusing to give in – although he did delete the tweet.

The club has been backing ten Hag in this approach, letting him ice Sancho out and even shipped out perhaps one of the greatest players ever in Cristiano Ronaldo for his fallout with the manager.

His relationship with ten Hag is very likely beyond repair and as such, lots of reports had it that Sancho would never play for the club ever again.

Sources have however confirmed to TEAMtalk that the winger is open to a return to turning his career around at Manchester United.

With a rebuild being in the works under Sir Jim, it is possible ten Hag won’t be the manager after the season, which may be the reason why Sancho is of this persuasion.

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A report by TEAMtalk suggests that United are very confident they will beat out other teams in the race for Crystal Palace ace Michael Olise.

The former Reading man has been gathering interest of the ‘big 6’ clubs due to his very impressive displays for Palace since signing for the London side in 2021.

He is a left-footed midfielder who can play as a 10 or on either side of the striker. He plies his trade with magnificent dribbling and the ability to play quick passes that can open any defence.

Furthermore, he is also a dead ball specialist, even scoring an amazing free kick against Manchester United last season.

Chelsea are also very interested in the winger, who had a stint in their youth system from the ages of 7 to 14.

It has been reported that the 22-year-old is aware of the big clubs he’s attracting, particularly Chelsea and United. It is very likely he will leave Selhurst Park come the Summer.

Despite spending some time at Chelsea as a young lad, Olise is and always has been an avid United supporter which may give the Mancunian side an edge in this particular race.

Chelsea had activated his 35 million pound release clause last summer, and it looked set he would leave Crystal Palace before he signed a contract extension with the Eagles, keeping him at the club for another four years.

Crystal Palace should expect the activation of his release clause this summer again – although the actual figure remains unknown, but it is reportedly considerably more than the initial 35 million.

Olise who was born in London but represented France in the youth level, has been in fantastic form this season, although his participation has been greatly hampered by injuries. He is currently on 6 goals in 11 Premier League games, which is very impressive.

TEAMtalk reports United are ‘super confident’ Olise will pick them over the Londoner’s Chelsea.

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Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have accelerated plans to sort out the executive positions in part of his Manchester United takeover.

As part of that, they have set their sights set on Crystal Palace’s sporting director Dougie Freedman as the new head of recruitment.

According to The Independent, the Eagles are awaiting an offer anytime this week.

Sir Jim has already made some big moves on the executive front, nabbing highly rated CEO Omar Berrada from city rivals Manchester City and closing in on Newcastle United’s football director Dan Ashworth.

The Berrada heist particularly caught just about everyone by surprise. This was especially so considering how hush it was kept with absolutely zero rumours about it until it was confirmed only a few weeks after the takeover.

The fact that the former City chief football operations officer was willing to leave a winning project in Man City and join a club that is in absolute shambles goes to show just how big a club United is.

Berrada is best known for his stance against overpaying players and agents – something United have been guilty of one too many times in the past.

Dan Ashworth, on the other hand, has already been placed on gardening leave by Newcastle on the back of the United interest. He has done an amazing job at St James’ park after the Magpies’ take over in 2021 by a consortium of the Saudi Public Investment fund.

He was previously at Brighton, where he performed just as well.

INEOS have their eyes firmly fixed on Dougie Freedman as the head of recruitment on account of the fantastic work he has done at Crystal Palace.

Under his leadership, Palace have recruited some quality talent like Ebe Eze, Michael Olise and Marc Guehi who are all key players for the club. He was also involved in arranging Connor Gallagher’s loan from Chelsea, which turned out to be a very positive spell.

INEOS believe Dougie will be perfect for the role and trust he will be ready to start as soon as expected. Palace rarely stands in the way of their employees, so this may be a straight forward deal.

Furthermore, the prospect of being part of the new structure at United and working under Omar and Ashworth may be too good a deal to turn down for Dougie.

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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has been under fire constantly for his substitutes this season.

It now seems rightly so, according to the statistics.

Statistics from Football365 show ten Hag’s substitutes have only contributed 5 goals and 3 assists off the bench.

This makes him 12th for these stats from all Premier League managers this season.

That means he’s in the bottom half of managers for whome subs are making an impact on games.

Scott McTominay has a reputation for chipping in with clutch goals, and he is solely responsible for 4 of these 5 goals along with an assist.

Erik ten Hag’s substitutes have been bested for impact by 11 Premier League teams which is unacceptable to say the least.

Part of this could be attributed to the club’s struggles in front of goal this season, which have come as a major disappointment to fans.

There was this cloud hanging over the club that a proper number 9 was the missing piece to conquering all of England.

Lack of a 9 was the bane of all our attacks last season, with ten Hag coaching numerous easy 5–0 wins, but that lack of cutting edge meant the games only ended 2-0 or 1-0.

The signing of Höjlund teased to be that, but it remained a fantasy as he and a tough start to life in Manchester, although to be fair to him, the whole team struggled a lot.

Scott McTominay, a defensive midfielder, was and is still our top scorer with 7 goals. We are in March already, and 7 goals for a top goalscorer in March is unheard of.

Rasmus Höjlund has caught fire in the recent weeks and has caught up to McTominay’s 7 goals in only two months before getting injured.

Injuries have greatly hampered United’s progress and the constant search for some consistency.

Multiple injuries throughout the season have left ten Hag with squad depth so fragile he has to sometimes play Amrabat at LB and youth players like Omari Forson have been his options on the bench.

Compared to United’s rivals who sometimes have the luxury of bringing on players like Alvarez, Trossard and Jota off the bench, it is like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

To put our goal-scoring struggles in context, Arsenal have scored 31 goals in their past 6 matches while United have scored 37 goals all Premier League season. An unbelievable and absurd stat!

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Manchester United legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has questioned ten Hag’s substitute decisions in Sunday’s 3-1 Manchester derby loss.

He was especially critical of the removal of goalscorer Marcus Rashford for Antony.

Talking to talkSPORT, the former United man slammed ten Hag for his questionable substitutions, while addressing his super cautious approach in the match.

“When you need to change the game at the moment they’ve equalized, they’ve scored again, the substitutions that you make… you take all your pace off, you take your driving force in midfield off, you take your best defender off. I don’t get that.” Peter pointed out.

“Are they being rested for the next game?

“I really, really don’t get the substitutions.

“When you look at what Pep’s doing, Pep is only substituting two players. Generally, he doesn’t substitute a lot.

“Yesterday, those substitutions, from that moment on, I just don’t get it.”

This was particularly in reference to ten Hag taking out Rashford, Mainoo and Evans.

Rashford’s pace was absolutely important in a game like that on the counter and is he capable of holding up and sustaining attacks by himself unlike his replacement Antony.

He had already proved his worth with a magnificent top corner strike, putting United up 1-0 in the 8th minute.

Taking him out eliminated all potency upfront as Antony is not as direct as Rashford who always runs at his defender.

Erik ten Hag also took off young Kobbie Mainoo who was perhaps our best midfielder.

Under pressure and in tight spaces, his composure and elegance is unbelievable for an 18-year-old.

The possession stats were 72/28 in favour of the blue side of Manchester and the little possession we had, Mainoo’s player profile is best for retaining possession.

The other substitution that did not make much sense was the Jonny Evans substitution.

His composure and experience in that backline had kept City at bay for the better part of the match.

He was replaced by young Willy Kambwala as ten Hag does not have another first team defender available.

In the manager’s defence, he did explain that Evans was not at 100% and was not in the right condition to complete 90 minutes.