Martin Samuel: End of the Glazer regime is no silver bullet for misfiring Manchester United

Between now and the end of the season, the team must look after themselves. Club ownership at this time is irrelevant. Does anyone think that Antony or any other player cares who owns United as long as his pay cheque clears? A manager may pick a club based on the owner, but the players do not. There is not an individual at United who was not signed on the Glazers’ watch. How can their continued presence be a factor in this sudden decline in form?

Yet that is what is heard. United are stalling, because the process is stalling. The whole club is mired in uncertainty. And, yes, it matters to Erik ten Hag for future planning purposes. He wants to know about budgets and transfer options and these are decisions tied up with ownership. Yet the 11 versus 11 isn’t.

Men in suits didn’t shape defeats by Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United. United went 2-0 up against Sevilla in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final, and then conceded five goals without reply. They lost to Brighton in the league, again, drew with a Tottenham Hotspur team that they had beaten comfortably earlier in the season; lost to West Ham in the league for the first time since September 2019.

It can be argued that this is an ordinary team and poor recruitment under the Glazers has made it that way. Yet few were railing against the expensive acquisition of players such as Antony, Casemiro or Jadon Sancho. Ten Hag wanted Antony and he cost £90 million. The owners facilitated that deal; the rest is up to him.

When Sir Alan Sugar and Terry Venables were at war over Tottenham Hotspur, the turmoil was also claimed to be affecting team performance. Jimmy Greaves was aghast. “We hated Bill Nicholson [the manager] and Bill hated us,” he said of his playing days at White Hart Lane. “The only thing we all agreed on was that none of us could stand the board of directors.” His point was that everybody didn’t have to get along to produce a successful Tottenham team. So even if United’s players want the Glazers out at much as the Stretford End does, it shouldn’t have an impact on results. Linking the takeover – which is taking its time, as £6 billion transactions tend to do – to a dip in form is little shy of ludicrous.

United should qualify for the Champions League. They have a point and a game in hand on Liverpool, and Brighton look exhausted. United’s run-in is favourable too: Wolverhampton Wanderers, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Fulham, four opponents struggling for consistency. Yet, whoever is in charge when the smoke clears, familiar problems will remain.

It isn’t as simple as getting the Glazers out. The club also need a refit. United have always been able to attract stellar names so it would be no surprise if Harry Kane ended up there next season, or Declan Rice – whose undervaluing by various United stalwarts seems increasingly comical after Sunday’s performance – but where is United’s equivalent of Julian Alvarez, say, or Bruno Guimaraes? Where is the value, the player that no one saw coming?

Alvarez cost Manchester City only £14.1 million. Guimaraes was £33.3 million, plus add-ons, for Newcastle United. Where are those insights at Manchester United? Alejandro Garnacho was a steal from Atletico Madrid, but at youth level. He had never played first-team football. Alvarez, by contrast, represented River Plate of Argentina 122 times before arriving at City. Guimaraes made more than 200 appearances for Athletico Paranaense, in Brazil, and for Lyon in France. It is very easy to wrap every misstep at United into a jaundiced ball and aim it at the Glazers, but it’s not as simple as that. Rivals are streets ahead in the area of talent identification and, as the season wears on, it becomes increasingly apparent how much work there is still to do.

It doesn’t all change when and if the Glazers go. And it is not up to the owners to beat Wolves on Saturday.

Is Gallas really the best we can get?

Graeme Souness has left the Sky studio so last weekend when Newcastle played Arsenal, we were treated to the thoughts of William Gallas. He was a fine player when he wanted to be but also possibly the only man whose club – Chelsea, in 2006 – issued a statement saying they couldn’t pick him because he’d threatened to kick the ball into his own net. And this is the best opinion we have?

Vote for Pedro will have clubs asking questions

It is becoming a strange end to the season at Brighton, with six goals past Wolverhampton Wanderers and beating Manchester United, but also heavy defeats by Nottingham Forest and Everton. It’s Arsenal on Sunday, so anything could happen. Yet one thing is certain: given their record, every recruitment department in the country will be checking to see if they have missed a trick, now that Brighton are paying £30 million for Joao Pedro of Watford.

When in Rome

The row about European broadcasters undervaluing the women’s World Cup continues, with the revelation that the offer from Italy’s state broadcaster RAI amounted to less than £1 million. It paid £100 million to cover the most recent men’s event and Italy did not even qualify. By contrast, Italy’s women are in a group with Sweden, South Africa and Argentina. They reached the World Cup quarter-finals in 2019. It seems very disrespectful.

Yet what is women’s football worth to RAI? That is the key. The interest across nations in sports is not consistent. I was on holiday in Sardinia in 2012, at a time when this country was enthralled by the Paralympics. Sell-out crowds every night in London, blanket television coverage, huge space in national newspapers. In Italy, the main sports paper, with 30-plus pages to fill each day, covered it in a single brief feature each morning, buried way back. An insult, or simply a reflection of their readers’ interests? Maybe RAI are denigrating the women’s game; or perhaps they just know their audience.

Finding ’keepers may be a game worth avoiding

Hugo Lloris increasingly appears to have played his last game for Tottenham Hotspur and there are many who would like this to be true of David de Gea at Manchester United too. Be careful what you wish for. Both men have flaws and have looked increasingly exposed, but good goalkeepers are hard to find. Chelsea broke the world transfer record for Kepa Arrizabalaga and two years later had to recruit Edouard Mendy. Now, neither looks certain of a future at Stamford Bridge. The successor mentioned is Andre Onana of Inter Milan, but word is that Mauricio Pochettino is unconvinced. And too right.

Pep Guardiola had several tries before finding Ederson, the same with Arsenal and Aaron Ramsdale. Jordan Pickford would be a good option, and almost certainly available even if Everton survive, given their financial plight, but can he do better than Tottenham? May he be waiting for change at Manchester United?

The fact that Erik ten Hag spoke so staunchly in support of De Gea after his costly mistake on Monday suggests he doesn’t see the position as an urgent problem that needs solving. And he has a point. De Gea may not be as reliable as he once was, but he saves Manchester United more often than he costs them and who is out there that comes guaranteed? Very few. As for Tottenham, replacing Lloris is not as daunting as replacing Harry Kane, but no one should be convinced of its ease.

Fair play-offs

Everyone enjoys the play-offs and we are comfortable with the injustices now. Even so, had Notts County been eliminated by Boreham Wood this week, it would have been little more than a travesty after their league campaign. There were 35 points between the two clubs when the season ended, Notts County’s total of 107 being the second-highest number of points ever recorded in the top five divisions, after champions Wrexham. The team they now meet in the National League play-off final, Chesterfield, were 23 points adrift. We can surely all agree that Notts County’s promotion is more than deserved.

The same with Sheffield Wednesday in League One. Their 96-point total for third place was the highest ever amassed by a team in that position across the 92 professional clubs, even assuming three points for a win. And, yes, Wednesday’s players knew going into this season that only a top-two finish would guarantee promotion, so play-off heartbreak was always possible. Anyone who values fairness, however, can only wish them well.

Loan couldn’t have come at a worse time

This is already a miserable season at Southampton and there will be obvious concerns at the prospect of a £110 million loan, taken out by Dragan Solak, the owner, to buy the club, which is due to be repaid by the end of 2024. Solak insists this repayment will not come out of Southampton’s coffers and is not relative to the club’s financial performance. Even so, the giant hit of relegation could not have come at a worst time. It seems precarious.

– The Times

Originally published as Martin Samuel: End of the Glazer regime is no silver bullet for misfiring Manchester United