It’s almost 2 weeks since I joined Manchester United but it was some busy 12 days. As soon as, myself along with my coaching team officially took over the reigns, we analyzed the squad in detail, backend staffs and existing techs and identified the key areas to be improved – academy scouts, nutritionist-slash-chef, are some examples.
The objective placed before me from the management was to avoid relegation. For a club like Manchester United, this sounded crazy but it was the fact. 13 games into the season, we are fighting relegation and we are already written off and are expected to drop. Although we tried at first to go for ratings as short term and stay up, it didn’t seem to be the Man Utd way. So, we decided to build for long term, even it means we drop. As people say, one step backward, two steps forward. We felt it’s better to stay in Division 2 for a while, improve the ratings and come back to top flight and fight for glory. It’s a sustainable strategy and it’ll help anyone who follows me if in case, I were sacked. But that doesn’t mean, we already gave up the league. We’re not going down without a fight.
I just follow the footsteps of my mentor Sir Alex Ferguson. As soon as I heard the news from the United board, I went straight to him. At first, he gave me a warm hug and congratulated me. He did see the future of Man Utd in me. He said to me,
The first thought of 99% of newly appointed managers is to make sure they win—to survive. So they bring experienced players in. That’s simply because we’re in a results-driven industry. At some clubs, you need only to lose three games in a row, and you’re fired. In today’s football world, with a new breed of directors and owners, I am not sure any club would have the patience to wait for a manager to build a team over a four-year period.
Winning a game is only a short-term gain—you can lose the next game. Building a club brings stability and consistency. You don’t ever want to take your eyes off the first team, but our youth development efforts ended up leading to our many successes in the 1990s and early 2000s. The young players really became the spirit of the club.
The hardest thing is to let go of a player who has been a great guy—but all the evidence is on the field. If you see the change, the deterioration, you have to ask yourself what things are going to be like two years ahead.
I was questioned when I listed players like Aymeric Laporte, Monteiro Otavio, Daniel Carvajal and Renato Sanches. It’s risky and bold step but I went for it as our squad lacked depth and quality in many positions. Here is what the first team and backup team looked like :
The first team does look like strong squad with many 90s but the depth was very poor. One long term injury or multiple suspensions mean we have to field a low rated player. We addressed the issue by targeting quality depths even if it means sacrificing few first teamers. Thanks to few managers, who came in contact readily and tried to negotiate fair deals for both the sides. At first we sold Monteiro Otavio to RCD Espanyol (Glen Mullan) and we welcomed Gulherme Arana, Marc Roca and David M. Wolfe thus filling the hole in the middle of the park and a decent backup for our first team left back Antonee Robinson.
Our next deal did took us sometime to get what really wanted rather buy what’s offered. After lenghty negotiations with multiple managers, we came into an agreement with Valencia CF (Mark Deadman) for Aymeric Laporte and Albert Gudmundsson. The old but strong CB along with the rising star forward joined the Spanish side while Ethan Ampadu, Kyle Walker-Peters, Riquelme Fillipi joined in return. KWP, who can cover both the flanks of defence, will be a valuable backup to our ageing Daniel Carvajal while versatile Ampadu will be covering our CB and DM spot. Signing of Fillipi shows the our emphasis on building for long term.
I also convinced few of my former players, Everton Ribeiro, Zakaria Aboukhlal, Lucas Assadi to join me in Division 1 for an exciting project while we bid adieu to Goncalo Guedes who will be joining Stuttgart (Feargal Hickey). Riberio will fill the vacant spot left by Otavio while Aboukal will provide enough quality depth in wings and up-centre.
We also signed few youngsters Keisuke Goto, Calixte Ligue, Sam Tickle from the free agent market (a.ka. cash deals) thanks to Espanyol, Leicester City (Doug Earle) and Wolfsburg (Fredrik Johansson). With these new additions, this is how we’ll be lining up for rest of the season :
It may not look attractive in many managers’ eyes but it is work in progress and we’ll eventually be there. In terms of ratings, we lost 91s and replaced with a 87 and a 89 (temporarily), I’m sure it won’t affect our results much and we’ll fight with everything we got. I hope the transfer business for the season might have reached an end and we may not see any major overhauls at Old Trafford before the season break.
We definitely will be focusing on restructuring our academy and tried to build a one that will act as a conveyor belt of talents moving from youth system to first team.
I got to agree to a fact that I may have made a mistake. Selling a 91 CB without proper replacement might be that error and I’m sure I regret it. But it’s okay, We’ll learn from the past and move forward rather dwell on them. We do find it difficult to sign a quality CB to partner Dunk but as one great manager once said, It’s a marathon. Not a sprint. We won’t panic and won’t be forced into buying a player which may not suit our style or which might disrupt the whole team structure to accommodate a single player.
One good thing about these busy 12 days, I sure got many friends who genuinely wished us to succeed. We may chat (negotiate) for days but may not finalize a deal but we sure find good people to talk with. It’s more important. It’s not the destination but the journey it matters.
I thank all the managers whole heartedly whom I’ve contacted in last few days for their patience and response. I’m really sorry if I’ve annoyed / offended you in any manner in this whole process. It’s purely unintentional. I’m just trying to do the best for my team like everyone does. Thanks again and good luck to all. Glory Glory Man Utd!!!
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