Manchester United is definitely one of the biggest clubs in the world, in 2019 positioned itself as the world’s third most valuable football club, being worth an impressive £3.15 billion($3.81 billion). In 2016-2017 was the highest earning football club in the world, with a annual revenue of €676.3 milion.
It is also one of the most successful clubs in Europe in terms of trophies, they managed to win a record of 20 top-division titles since 1889. They won the FA Cup 12 times and are only surpassed by Arsenal who won it 13 times.
Internationally, they won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League three times, and the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup once each.
THE MANCHESTER UNITED DILEMMA
Manchester United has millions of fans all around the world and in the recent years they didn’t have to many reasons to be happy, their team being just a shell of the team that was dominating Premier league 10-15 years ago.
There are some important problems that the club has and it seems that nobody it’s taking responsibility for them. Probably if you were to ask any Man United fan, they would be able to identify them easily and offer a few pertinent solutions.
Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, they just weren’t able to adjust and bring the suitable players or coaches to ensure that the team continues to be a force in the Premier league and in Europe.
What’s interesting is that they spent a lot of money each season, so it’s not a problem of not having money to buy the best players. It is more a problem of not having a reliable and well thought strategy to buy the best players that fit the Man United profile.
Who plans the transfers and how they decide which players they need?
There are a lot of talented players everywhere and it’s easy to buy the ones you like most. At a club as big as Manchester United, things should stay a bit different and a very smart strategy should be in place to ensure they bring players that can rise to the occasion and are able to perform at a club of this calibre.
Who ever is dealing with bringing new players should be replaced, if he wasn’t already and the management needs to find a “mastermind” that can plan and supervise all transfers. A person with great experience and knowledge that can create a strategy for the years to come. Right now, they just seem to buy random players and pay a lot of money for them also.
Manchester United didn’t managed very well the transition period after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement and failed to bring a capable manager that could fill the whole left by the legendary coach.
You need to have a vision and to know football when you’re taking this tipe of decisions that affect the entire outcome of how team will express itself in the future, if you do it wrong, you’ll have what’s happening now with the team.
For example look what a talented manager like Klopp managed to do with Liverpool in a few years and they don’t have nearly as much money as United.
The only capable manager manager that they managed to bring after Ferguson is Mourinho in 2016 and it seemed like he had to deal with some players that didn’t belong there.
He still won the UEFA Cup in 2017, which is the first one in Man United’s entire history and proves once again that he really is a “special one”.
Things didn’t go his way and was sacked by United in 2018 and this proves that sometimes it’s not enough to be the best manager, you got to have a few top players that can “carry” the team trough tough times.
A key element in making sure you sign the right football players is to look not only on how talented they are. To play at this level they need to have more than just their talent.
An example of a good method of selecting the right players and probably a lot of clubs use it, is this one:
After you made a list of 20-30 “talented” players ( the number can be lower or higher, doesn’t matter), it’s then time to analyse which ones are the alpha males, have the highest IQ, are the most physically gifted, which ones are the most disciplined and driven. In the end you’re left with 4-5 players that fit the profile and this ones have extremely high chances of confirming the expectations and making an impact on the team.
From all the players that Manchester United has, only a few fit this profile:
1. David de Gea – excellent goalkeeper, one of the best in the world.
2. Bruno Fernandes – very good midfielder, a proper playmaker.
3. Carlos Henrique Casimiro, known as Casemiro – he proved what kind of a football player he is in the years spent at Real Madrid.
4. Lisandro Martínez – keep an eye on this one, he will be one of the leaders of the team in a few years and a fans’ favourite.
5. Scott Francis McTominay – he is a good midfielder and with a bit of confidence from his coaches and a injuries free couple of seasons, he can make a good impact on the team’s performances.
6. Antony Matheus dos Santos, simply known as Antony – great winger with a lot of potential.
7. Cristiano Ronaldo ( 7th position isn’t randomly chosen and is ment as a homage to one of the greatest footballers to ever play the game)
The reason why he is not scoring a lot of goals like in the previous season isn’t related to his age like some say and are more a series of events that influence his performance on the pitch: the death of his child, Manchester United failing to qualify for Champions league and him wanting to leave, the fact that his coach doesn’t know how to handle a big superstar and treats him like any 37 years old player.
The current manager
The new Dutch manager that is in charge of Manchester United at the moment hasn’t really proved too many good things since he came, and are some concerns about the fact if he can manage such a big club.
Looking at how they choose their managers and players, things are not going to get better for Man Utd any time soon. There are clubs like Manchester City, Liverpool or Chelsea, who do a far better job than them.