A step in the right direction was certainly taken when Manchester United sacked Louis van Gaal and appointed Jose Mourinho.
Employing a world class manager, however, is not the end of the matter. Players need to be brought in and other players need to be shipped out.
At the time of writing, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Eric Bailly have been confirmed and Henrikh Mhkitaryan, whilst not yet confirmed, has also joined. Rumours are rife about other potential arrivals.
As I have stated in a previous post, Ibrahimovic appears to have been signed to generate income more than anything else. His age, failure to score any goals in the Euros and being given a one year contract all point to this as the reason for his being there. Hopefully, as he has probably been promised a starting berth next season, he will chip in with a few goals.
The other two are more long term and should prove to be very good signings. Mourinho tends not to scout average or bad players or even players who may not fit into the team, unlike van Gaal who seemed to go for quantity rather than quality.
Of the previous manager’s signings, (Moyes and van Gaal), don’t be too surprised if a few leave. The ones who haven’t made the cut seem to be Schneiderlin, Mata, Fellaini, Darmian and possibly Schweinsteiger and Depay. The fact that Mourinho would appear to be quite happy for some, if not all, of these players to leave shows how different his way of thinking is to that of van Gaal or Moyes.
Moyes jumped at the chance to sign Mata but, in fairness to Mourinho, he wasn’t good enough for the Chelsea team which went on to win the league that year.
Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger were both signings which took the fans a little by surprise as neither had been reported as being targets for long. Neither can get into the team at present. Schneiderlin because he isn’t deemed good enough and Schweinsteiger because of his ubiquitous injuries.
Darmian was signed instead of Nathaniel Clyne. Both are internationals but Clyne seems to be more suited to the Premier League, so Mourinho may choose to bring in a new wing back.
Marouane Fellaini has never really been accepted at Old Trafford and certainly doesn’t fit the way Mourinho likes to play. He’s not a bad plan Z when everything else has failed but that is about all.
Depay is more of an enigma. He started quite well and only went downhill when Luke Shaw was injured last year. He had started to build up a decent partnership with the young full back but, if he cannot produce when Shaw isn’t playing then there is no room for him at United.
So there will be plenty of room for Mourinho signings assuming that some of the aforementioned leave the club. There is also plenty of time for new signings to happen even though Ed Woodward notoriously takes forever to negotiate the price and conclude any deal.
Let’s hope he has learnt from his previous mistakes in the market.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 