For as long as I have been properly atuned to goings on in soccer – in England in particular – Manchester United have been linked to whoever the top talent in football happens to be at a given time. Now read on…
From Alan Shearer to Paolo Maldini, Roberto Baggio, Gareth Bale, Harry Kane and any other superstar you care to mention, they were all linked with moves to Old Trafford at some point or other.
None of those listed above ever did become a Red (Kane hardly will at this stage either) but in their stead they acquired Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and – perhaps most significantly of all – Ole Gunnar Solksjaer.
All of those signings coming on top of the likes of Ryan Giggs and the lads who were infused from the Class Of ’92. Meaning the Neville brothers, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes. So they never did miss any of the ones they didn’t get. In fact, some of them wouldn’t be fit to carry a gear bag for the likes of Cantona or Keane or Solksjaer or plenty of others.
It’s different now though. United need big signings and by and large can’t get them. Yes there have been glorious exceptions like Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez and getting Ronaldo back – until he was shamefully treated by the club – but the amount of players they were linked to but either turned them down or the club made a balls of the transfer reads like a whose who of A-List footballers.
Including but not limited to: Jordan Pickford, Jorghino, Matijas De Ligt, Erling Haaland, Frenk De Jong, Cody Gakpo and – most likely – Harry Kane. On the credit side, the recruitment of Casemiro was indeed a coup but a club like United must have more status and credibility in the transfer market.
To be fair to Erik ten Hag he is trying to rebuild it. He had a lot of other people’s mess to clean up. If, as expected, he does engineer a clearout of a lot of the deadwood taking up space in red jerseys it will mark another step. Getting Martinez and Casemiro on board already has.
However, the greatest indication that ten Hag’s team may again be in a position to genuinely contend for the biggest tropbies in the game surely arrived most recently with the scaling of the hill to get the Mount on side. Mason Mount, that is. While wholly understanding that Mauricio Pochettino wants and needs to put his own stamp on Stamford Bridge, I am surprised he was willing to let the England midfielder go.
Mind you, that the player was suitably enamoured to head to Old Trafford – not to mention goalkeeper Onana being on the verge of doing likewise should be enough to let United fans sleep a little easier, while the rest of the pack will be looking over their collective shoulders.
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