by A few such anniversaries have passed at Manchester United this week. It was 12 months on Wednesday since United revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo would be leaving the club by mutual consent, a statement which was followed four hours later by news that the Glazers could sell after a strategic review was formally launched at Old Trafford.
Even with United’s enduring capacity for drama, it was an eventful day but both developments signaled that the winds of change were blowing through the club and that a brighter future was possible.
This is a club that has allowed corrosive player power to take hold for far too long while standing firmly behind its manager in a battle for its highest-profile and highest-paid star. At the same time, United supporters were eager for a glimpse of a world beyond their 18-year disastrous American owners. It emerged that brokers were targeting a sale in the first quarter of 2023.
On the pitch, United had recently claimed their eighth win in 12 Premier League games before the mid-season World Cup break in Qatar, a run that would give them fresh momentum after returning to 15 wins from 19 games. ending with a first game. trophy for six years, the Carabao Cup.
Their progressive new manager Erik ten Hag was restoring discipline and unity, Old Trafford was regaining its fear factor, new signings Lisandro Martinez, Christian Eriksen and Casemiro were on the horizon and Marcus Rashford was early in the form of his life. . Hope abounded.
If supporters had been told then, a year later, the club – with nine wins in 18 and struggling to score goals – would be beset by problems on and off the pitch and still under the control of the Glazers might be right to think about what? in the world that happened in the period that followed.
Likewise, it is perhaps in keeping with United’s misfortune this season that their trip to Goodison Park this weekend should be Everton’s first game since the club were handed a 10-point ban due to financial rules Defeat Premier League.
As it is, Goodison has not been United’s happiest hunting ground in recent years, with just two wins in their last five league visits and a couple of disappointing defeats. Now Ten Hag and his players can be pretty sure they’ll be going into the lion’s den because of the Merseyside club’s sense of injustice at the scale of the punishment and, with it, Sean Dyche’s chance create a siege attitude.
At least four league wins out of five before the international break gave Ten Hag something to take away but the performances in those games have all been unconvincing and, as with most things at United at the moment, there is a sense of vulnerability and uncertainty. still there .
Everton’s game, which suddenly looks more testing, marks the start of a terrible series of fixtures. Galatasaray will lose in Istanbul next Wednesday and United are out of the Champions League. After that, they face Newcastle, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Liverpool, West Ham and Aston Villa until Christmas, a dangerous sequence that could help United’s season if they emerge strongly from it but also have a real potential to deepen their troubles. Galatasaray survive and may still need something from their last Group A game, at home to Bayern Munich and Harry Kane, to advance.
Ten Hag were delighted to see Luke Shaw – United’s lost left-back – return to training this week and goalkeeper Andre Onana should be fit for Everton despite an early return from international duty following an injury scare . But Ten Hag are still without Martinez and Casemiro while Christian Eriksen and Rasmus Hojlund both succumbed to injuries against Luton in the final before the latest international round.
Meanwhile, Jadon Sancho remains in exile after his public fell out with the manager in early September and so many other attackers are out of form, notably Rashford, Antony and summer signing Mason Mount. United’s 13 goals in 12 league games is comfortably the fewest of the division’s top 12 and will be more of a problem the longer it continues.
Off the pitch, Richard Arnold has stepped down as chief executive, having really bounced back from his bungled handling of the Mason Greenwood saga, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe finally eyeing his £1.3 billion stake buyout 25 percent in the club to complete afterwards. 12 months of trying to find a deal that suits the Glazers.
It’s not the revolution United fans are looking for and it raises more questions than answers but they can only want to start a change they hoped to believe was already underway this time last year.
