Even before Manchester United kicked off its 2023-2024 season, fans gathered outside the team’s home ground, Old Trafford, to deliver the latest in a long line of strong messages for the team’s owners to sell the club.
Fans have been protesting against The Glazers ever since reports of a potential sale were confirmed sometime last season.
For many a United fan, this was the chance for the Red Devils to get the sort of cash injections from a wealthy person or group of persons to lead a heavy recruitment drive as witnessed especially in the English Premier League with reigning league champions Manchester City leading the way.
Realistically, Man United is a tier or two below Man City’s level and minus a good stroke of fortune and a shock and spectacular collapse on the part of City and the team’s biggest threat, Arsenal, the Red Devils have to spend their way into legitimate title contention.
This is the main source of motivation for the call for Qatari billionaire Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani to take over the club since he has shown the willingness to spend his enormous wealth on the team.
The poor start to the season is adding major fuel to the disdain shown towards the owners who are viewed as indirect contributors to Man United’s early malaise.
As unpopular as the Glazers are and have been for a while, this is a harsh stance on the the rich family from the super power across the pond. There are many things the Glazers have failed to get right at Old Trafford but one thing they have done right is to invest in the future of the club.
This is evident in the capture of top young talents for costly fees in a bid to secure the team’s future at a time fellow top teams like Chelsea, AC Milan, Real Madrid and Arsenal are doing same with their youth movement. Chelsea for instance, have had a near billion worth of players brought into the team since the Todd Boehly led consortium took over Stamford Bridge but still looks quite an ordinary side.
The Blues though, are betting big on the young talents to come good in a few years to make good on their investment and turn what at the moment is a very good team with a ton of talented players with low profiles into one that has the talent and massive profiles.
However, the Red Devils are missing the mark this season as pressure mounts on the Glazers to pump more money into the team by buying more players to compliment the present group.
The likes of Sofyan Amrabat, Jean-Clair Todibo and Amadou Onana have been heavily connected to Man United in the transfer market and the dragged out transfer negotiations for these players in the eyes of many United fans is the owners’ fault.
While the rich American family has its flaws, Man United’s underwhelming start to the season is down to the Erik ten Hag-led technical team and the players.
Both parties are connected in this mess, with Ten Hag failing to find a proper fit and role for the very expensive buy, Mason Mount. The former Chelsea player looks lost in the team, especially in attack, and isn’t much involved in building attacks.
Playing him very deep next to Casemiro in a double pivot doesn’t suit his playing style as a high pressing, creative player who plays centrally or on the wings.
Christian Eriksen’s creativity is better suited for the deep lying playmaker role -regista- than Mount and Ten Hag needs to play Mount in that role even if it means yanking Antony out of the starting lineup.
At some point, Ten Hag needs to accept that his big money capture of Antony is yielding average returns and that he needs to upgrade quickly by starting Eriksen with Casemiro in the double pivot of a 4-2-3-1 system with Mount, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford lining up behind striker Anthony Martial until Rasmus Hojlund is ready to play.
Beyond tactics, Ten Hag and his backroom need to be questioned over its run of transfer business since taking over at Old Trafford. Aside Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, Tyrell Malacia has regressed to an average full back while Marcel Sabitzer and Woug Werghorst didn’t pan out as expected, and Antony has woefully under-performed.
Andre Onana has impressed so far but Hojlund is yet to play and Mount is struggling badly. This track record doesn’t exactly scream “I deserve to be given more money to get new players” and rightly so, the Glazers should be hesitant to give Ten Hag more money to get new players. It therefore shouldn’t be a surprise Man United is set to sign Jonny Evans to a contract beyond this transfer window.
Adding to the complications of Man United in the transfer market is the inability of the Red Devils to sell players and raise money to get their replacements. Man United players get juicy salaries compared to the average footballer and barring a contract restructuring, there are only a few teams in the world that can service these wages.
The Glazers sign the cheques but they can only sign contract extensions and improved salaries based on the recommendations of the technical unit.
Ten Hag hasn’t been around long enough to fall culprit in this instance but his predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was heavily involved in getting Eric Bailly, Scott McTominay, Phil Jones, Martial and Axel Tuanzebe lucrative new deals.
Harry Maguire was captured for a world record fee for a defender under Solskjaer to boot. After handing out this hefty amount of cash, how can The Glazers be blamed for Man United’s struggles to ship players out?
While it is very early to panic, the overall play from Man United players is distressing, considering the overwhelming quality the team has in games it has played against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspurs.
The Red Devils’ failure to win one-on-one duels as well as out-muscle and out-work the opponent in both outings has had the opposition score big time performances against the Red Devils even if Man United sneaked a win in one of those games.
This has made Ten Hag’s system look very bad in real time play despite it fitting the demands on paper and all this is in no way the fault of the team’s owners, the Glazers.
