Return To Glory : Manchester United

A big season ahead it appears!

I don't echo the thoughts on the pressure Ole faces to be in the title race, the fact is Manchester City and Liverpool are just that much better at the moment.

Finishing third and those trophies is a fantastic result.

After flirting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman for the second half of the season, which spawned widespread protest and condemnation from the media, a hero rose up from an unlikely source. Ed Woodward, the much maligned Chief Executive widely despised by the fans, managed to sway the Glazers away from bin Salman to facilitate a winning bid from Chinese business magnate "Pony" Ma Huateng for £4.5B.

Months of speculation at the end of the 2019-20 season did lead to a bid believed to be around the same amount as Huateng’s, but inside sources have reported that Woodward convinced the Glazers not to sell and open up the bidding to other interested parties. A number of financial details were keeping the bin Salman sale from going smoothly, apparently the club debt was a major sticking point that led to the Saudi bid being lowered but in the end it was international pressure that halted the sale. Woodward was approached by a number of United’s commercial partners and sponsors and was told that they were not comfortable being associated with the Saudi’s at this time. With Woodward believed to be staying on after the sale it seemed this was enough to squash the sale.


With the sale to bin Salman stalled a few suitors came forward, but it’s hard to figure out who all of them were. Rumored buyers included a list of billionaires that looked like they were just ripped from the Forbes Billionaires list and ranged from the absurd (Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg) to actual bidders (Carlos “Slim” Helu, the Murdoch Family) and beyond comical (Elon Musk). The expansion in bidders was likely tied to bin Salman’s failed bid setting the market and number of expiring sponsorships (Adidas, Chevy) leaving room for improved income. In the end Huateng, CEO of Tencent, was able to strike a deal that made Woodward comfortable and keeps the Glazers on as minority owners.

“Ma Huateng and Tencent are excited to be part of the Manchester United family, and we look forward to working toward a shared vision of domestic and intercontinental glory. At home and abroad, the United brand will once again be synonymous with victory.”

Huateng has seen his estimated worth jump from £30B in 2019 to £36B on the strong performance of Tencent as Facebook’s Libra was halted by Congress and Jack Ma’s retirement hit Alibaba harder than expected. Like a page out of Woodward’s playbook, the acquisition of Manchester United has a lot of commercial synergy with Tencent and further strengthens access to the Asian market as the NBA struggles in China. On some level United is trading one problem (bin Salman) for another (Hong Kong protests), but fans appear to be generally supportive of the trade for now as Huateng is not seen as an extension of the Chinese government.

With a new hierarchy at the club, it'll be interesting to see what repercussions this has on the club. I can see plenty of positives to the takeover at the moment, with a huge opportunity to really work into the Asian market just one of the biggest aspects. United supporters will be largely pleased with this news, but let's hope the takeover provides long-term stability.

*Mocks City for being reliant on Saudi money*

*Secures Saudi money*

Wonder how long it will take for United fans to blame everything on the board again Hopefully the new owners are just what you need!

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his new Director Of Football (more on that later) came into the season with a very narrow focus on improving his team. The back line needed some serious work, depth and eliminating injury prone players became a priority to making it through a full season without raiding the U-23 or U-18 teams. While the second squad got a lot younger and some veteran faces are gone most agree the potential for this team is much higher. A few years from now United could be sitting on a gold mine, but for now Solskjaer has enough talent to work with domestically and in Europe. Solskjaer has taken some heat for playing a little too much for the counter attack, so many are looking for him to work on United’s attack and rely a little less on soaking up pressure.


Goalkeepers
No surprises here, David De Gea (30) continues to be the cornerstone of United’s defense. He will be a United player as long as he wants to be and doesn’t have anyone pushing him out of his starting spot. A bit of a GK clear out and the return of players on loan sees Mike Maignan (25) entrenched as De Gea’s backup.

Best Player : David De Gea (Captain)

Defenders
It was pretty obvious to anyone following Manchester United that their back line was weak to Route One football, and one of the remedies to this was faster CB. Everyone was certain that Solskjaer was going to clean out this unit and spend big on faster CB who could help offensively and keep up with the faster forwards that kept blowing past them, but after everything this unit stayed exactly the same. Harry Maguire (27) wasn’t going anywhere after being purchased for a King’s ransom, and when Victor Lindelöf (26) hit the transfer list he became rather upset along with the rest of the team. Offers from Arsenal didn’t change his mind and Lindelöf insisted he didn’t want to be forced out of the team, so he’s back with Maguire as the first choice CB pairing. Eric Bailly (26) survived the CB purge by having a pretty solid 2019-20 season and he’s the type of quick CB United were looking to add, he’s joined in the second squad by Axel Tuanzebe (22) who played much better than Timothy Fosu-Mensa and managed to kick him down the depth chart. Armel Bella-Kotchap (18) returns from a decent spell at Wigan to be the primary bench option for now, but he’s only an injury away from getting a trial run as a starter.

The wingbacks are also mostly intact after all the defensive bellyaching, the primary driver of change here was health and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (22) is likely the next on the hot seat. RB is all his, but he missed so much time due to injury United might be better off moving him and bringing in someone who can play most of a season. 2020-21 is going to be a big year for him, another season of ill health might see him shipped out or sent to the second squad to take Diogo Dalot’s (21) place. Dalot looked really good at times and could easily bump Wan-Bissaka. At LB Jorge (24) returns after being added midseason and looks like he won’t be going anywhere soon, he was very good going forward and Solskjaer hopes he will fuel an improved offense. New signing Luca Pellegrini (21) was overlooked at Juventus and might be a massive signing, he made Luke Shaw replaceable although Shaw did that on his own with a long string of injuries that saw him miss more time than just about anyone on the team.

Best Player : Harry Maguire

Midfielders
Once a point of concern, the United midfield is now two deep at both positions and could be in place for 5-10 years. It’s hard to see anyone having a better set of deep lying midfielders, especially after a transfer scare spurred Solskjaer into splurging on a midfield partner for Paul Pogba. Pogba (27) remains the best player at United and has the DLP position all to himself with Ryan Gravenberch (18) given the keys to the position for the second squad. The newly acquired Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (25) will be paired with Pogba in the BBM role and Eduardo Camavinga (17) will man the position in the second squad. Scott McTominay (23) finds himself the odd man out, much like Juan Mata last year the acquisition of a single player booted him from first choice starter to the bench. Depending on how he handles it he might be one of the first players to leave next year, though the depth of youth players behind him isn’t great aside from wonderkid Danny Ginger (15) who is… still 15.

No real change at CAM as Bruno Fernandes (25) returns as an extremely good starter who had a great year. Taking corners did fluff up his assist numbers a bit, but he still created chances and put teammates in a position to score on a regular basis, he isn’t going anywhere. Andreas Periera (24) formed a solid partnership with Mason Greenwood and it helped Solskjaer keep him as management were keen to find a bigger name player to replace him in the second squad, Angel Gomes (19) will act as the bench option at CAM as well as LW. Lucas Lourenço (19), unable to get a work permit, is on loan at Napoli and could send Periera packing if he ends up being able to play in England.

Best Player : Paul Pogba (Vice Captain)



Forwards
While Solskjaer worked to address defensive issues it was actually their ability to score that hurt them last year. They finished the season with the 3rd ranked offense in the EPL and often struggled to score when they dominated games, the blame landed on the wingers and Solskjaer is hoping they can turn things around this year. Anthony Martial (24) returns as the starter at LW with Antonio Marin (19) taking over the second squad. Angel Gomes (19) is the bench option here, also available at CAM. Solskjaer was very open about holding off on spending here, trusting they would develop further, but if they don’t produce this would be a prime area to spend at the winter transfer window. Victor Tsyganov (22) comes in as a budget signing with solid upside and experience in the Inside Forward role. Early reports have him as the first choice RW over the returning Jesse Lingard (27) who played well but isn’t as effective as an IF. Tahith Chong (20) finds himself back on the U-23 squad, but he’s just one injury away from being back on the senior squad.

The CF position is untouched and based on the way Marcus Rashford (22) and Mason Greenwood (18) were scoring last year it might not change for many years. The only concern is that United’s system is shallow at CF, if either player were to be injured it looks like the next in line would be 16-year old Luís Nazário.

Best Player : Marcus Rashford

Nice squad update there and things are really looking good for the upcoming season.

SMS is the standout acquisition and a huge capture. The midfield looks a lot stronger these days with Pogba, SMS and Fernandes. Not many can argue they have a trio as strong as that!

While the new owners might not be calling on club legends to help run the team they are looking back to classic designs for this season. Unite have scrapped some of the home kit shenanigans and the classic red-white-black design is back with a very simple black trim on both the home and away kits. The away kit is also more like designs of the past, specifically the mid-70’s, and United have indicated this is going to become a standard going forward. The third kit is based on one of the last kits worn as Newton Heath, the club has not confirmed it but many see this as a nod to the change in direction the club is set to take. Inside reports and design leaks appear to indicate United’s third kit will rotate between blue, yellow-green, and an unknown color every year.

The owners are obviously keen to bring back the good old days in more than one sense with these designs.

Ditto to my comment in the previous story haha

Interesting to not add a center back to the squad but SMS is a great addition to a very good midfield. Looking like a promising season.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has come into his second season with a solid base of players and a focused vision on improving that squad. He’s also traded on-field pressure for off-field pressure, with many assuming that he’s on the hot seat with new owners who are looking to rebuild the club. Many in the media are assuming this season is an extended trial for Solskjaer, at the moment it is unclear what Ma Huateng expectations are of Solskjaer. While improving on last year would make fans happy, if United fall short on loftier goals there is a chance he could be sacked in favor of a more seasoned manager. Getting rid of the Glazers has created some uncertainty in the front office, so far there has been little indication of how much Huateng wants to retain the current feel for the club and that has observers a little nervous. Depending on how things go the reliance on club legends, such as Sir Alex Ferguson, might be one of the first things to go and Solskjaer might go with it.

The preseason went very well, so that didn’t give anyone a reason to doubt Solskjaer had improved as a manager. As usual, there were a few concerns that would impact the season. The primary issue popped up almost immediately as Victor Lindelöf broke a few of his ribs while the team was in Sydney, the injury would knock him out for (6) weeks and put a damper on the rumors United were trying to sell him. This is exactly why Solskjaer was focused on improving the depth and quality of their back line.

“This is part of the modern game, you need depth, not just world class starters” responded Solskjaer when asked about his approach to their back line. “It sounds crazy, but I want to head into the season with six players available. We can’t call on the U-23’s every week, we won’t make it to January if we play like that.”

United looked solid in all of their games, shutting everyone out aside from Bayern Munich. The Sydney FC game also featured an eye watering 82-18 possession advantage where they didn’t allow the hosts to register a shot in the first half. The only other injury came when backup GK Mike Maignan suffered an abdominal strain before the Ternana game, the injury would keep him out 2-3 weeks but as long as David De Gea is healthy it won’t be an issue.



Manchester United would be picked to finish 3rd in the Premier League by the media, a solid goal considering how well they did last year. Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal will all be very good after a season that saw Liverpool falter during the beginning of the year and repeat as Champions League winners. Marcus Rashford, coming off a solid (2) goal game against Bayern Munich, would be the odds on favorite (2-1) to lead the league in scoring with Sergio Agüero (5-2) trying to repeat. Solskjaer’s biggest task will be getting the second squad ready for a tough season, they are much younger and less experienced than last year. Ryan Gravenberch and Eduardo Camavinga are going to face a fire by trial, fans and the media will not give them much time to settle in.

2020-01-27 20:44#265839 TheLFCFan : Interesting to not add a center back to the squad but SMS is a great addition to a very good midfield. Looking like a promising season.

I kinda did by getting Bella-Kotchap back. I literally fired my loan manager and left the job vacant so they wouldn't go off and loan out guys I need, especially ones I just bought to fill a desperate need.