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In an exclusive column for talkSPORT.com, Mark Goldbridge delivers his verdict on the latest coming out of Manchester United.
Is Erik ten Hag the right man for the club’s long-term future, should the Red Devils cut their losses with Antony and Jadon Sancho, and just what is going on with Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes?
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Backing Ten Hag
If Manchester United change their manager, it would be the sixth one in ten years – it’s instability and it would mean another backlog of players those sacked managers have bought.
I think, like many fans, that we’re not in a good place at the moment and that will naturally put pressure on the manager, but my course is clear that we need to stick with this manager.
Anybody who has watched Man United for the last few years knows the manager is not the problem. There’s a collection of players who don’t suit the way we need to play, there’s a new vision from Sir Jim Ratcliffe that needs to be followed and patience is required.
If you change the manager, whoever comes in will want to buy his own players and will probably say to everyone here, ‘Let’s have another chance’, but we can’t afford to do that anymore, we need the clearout and we need stability.
Whether Ten Hag is the right guy or not, I think for the next year it’s just the right thing to follow through on removing some players and sticking with this. So let’s not sack the manager for once, let’s rebuild and see what happens next year.
The problems at Manchester United are not the manager and it’s easy to target him. We’ve done this so many times, it’s a cycle – we’ve done it with David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and we’re going to do it with Ten Hag.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results, INEOS are a new thing, so if they’re going to sack a manager it just feels like a Glazer decision again, and they don’t want to be associated with that.
I think the majority of Manchester United fans deep down know the best way forward is to stick with that, like Arsenal did with Mikel Arteta, and let’s see what next season brings.
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Rashford and Fernandes won’t win you a title
There is no doubt at the moment that Man United fans are very frustrated – it’s been really disappointing all season from Rashford and Bruno has fallen off a cliff as well.
The difference between them is that although he is not playing well Bruno never stops running, whereas Rashford won’t go in for a 50-50 very often, he won’t track back and the body language is really bad. It’s a major issue because going into the season they were our two most important players, and then neither of them are improving.
They can both play better and I wouldn’t be making a decision on selling them at the moment because we’ve still got loads of the season left and we need them. If they recover their form in the next three months then things will change.
But what I would be looking at in the summer is they’re light switch players now, you never know whether they’re going to be on or off, and if you want to close the gap on Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal, those teams don’t have these players. Bukayo Saka, Mohamed Salah, Erling Haaland, they’re ridiculously consistent and that’s something Rashford and Bruno struggle with.
If they’re to stay, you’ve got to swallow them up with better and more consistent players. Are they willing to be second-best players because they’ve been the star players? I don’t know.
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I think there’s still a decision to be made in the summer because I don’t think you can win a Premier League title with Bruno and Rashford as the key players.
I think they can become side-acts and be part of the team, but that’s not what they’ve been at Manchester United, so you’ve got to have an honest conversation with them in the summer and say, ‘Look, if we’re keeping you you’re probably going to have a reduced role in terms of the star status in the team – can you deal with that or is it time to part ways for everybody?’”
All over for Antony?
Antony is a really interesting one, I think most people have made their minds up on him and the fact he’s been dropped by Ten Hag – the manager who insisted on signing him – is quite damning for the player.
Is there a way back? I still think there’s a good player there, but the problem we’ve got is, is he a good player in the Eredivisie and not a good player in the Premier League? If that’s the case then we’ve got to cut our losses.
He has got time, like Rashford and Bruno, but if we hit the end of the season and we are where we are now, where he’s still a bit-part player doing nothing, then after two years we’d have to say it’s over.
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But we’re not going to be able to sell him, he will have to be loaned with an option to buy the following summer, because he can’t have another year like this where you’ve got kids starting ahead of him like Garnacho or even Omari Forson at the weekend, and he’s probably on the pathway to being a flop.
The next three months are key and if it doesn’t work out, I would expect a loan deal somewhere and then a slow exit from the club.
We never should have paid that fee for him in the first place, we paid £80m for a £50m player, it’s a ridiculous amount of money. He’s never looked like a £40m player in a Manchester United shirt, let alone £80m.
Sancho’s a busted flush – he’s done
Again, the next three months seem to be key for so many Man United players, and that’s the case for Jadon Sancho, too.
I really hoped that when he went to Dortmund he would recapture the form in a league that is nowhere near as strong as the Premier League. Let’s be honest, there is a lot of cannon fodder in the Bundesliga where you can get a lot of assists and goals, and I thought that’s what he would do.
But this is the worst case scenario because he’s a busted flush, he’s not the player he thinks he is and it’s a bit of an ‘I told you so’ moment for Ten Hag, because the manager was right, he isn’t reliable or consistent.
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It is concerning because he’s not playing well for Dortmund at the moment and therefore there’s not going to be a list of clubs wanting him, which means it’s another big hit.
I just hope he turns it around, I hope it’s just a slow burner and by March or April he will show some form, because he needs to move. He can’t be coming back to Manchester United, I think he’s burned his bridges. He’s been given a really good second chance at Dortmund and I really expected him to kick on – point to prove, back in similar surroundings, we heard all the hype at the start.
There’s no doubt Sancho is a good player, but he’s not the player we thought we were buying and he’s got to look at himself for that. He’s made big mistakes over his time at United. Whatever your issues are with Ten Hag, that’s on you, but fans see it as a refusal to put the shirt on and that’s never a good look.
Nobody wants to see those pictures of Sancho and Donny van der Beek rolling up for the first day of pre-season training because no one else wants to buy them.
A Glazer signing
If Manchester United sign Ross Barkley I don’t think Sir Jim Ratcliffe is really running the football club, I think it’s still the Glazers, because that is the exact sort of thing that Man United would do over the last ten years.
Ross Barkley has been fantastic this season for Luton, but Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal are not looking at him. If he leaves Luton, West Ham? That’s the sort of mid-table club that he should be going to.
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But Manchester United? We’ve done this so many times before. There’s a big list, but the one who jumps to my mind is Christian Eriksen. You bring in a player who’s had a good Premier League career and who’s 30, he might have one good year but you’ve given him a three-year contract and he’s burning out at 31 or 32.
I’m not against those types of signings and it does fit certain clubs, but Manchester United have been swamped with this kind of deal over the last decade and we need to be looking at a different profile of player – hungry players between the ages of 20 and 25 who want to take the next step and become better players.
Ross Barkley is having a great renaissance and I always liked him in his early days at Everton, but he’s not a player Man United should be looking at.
