Boss needs Ed to walk the walk as window opens
ED Woodward will address United investors on the day the Premier League transfer window opens.
United’s executive vice chairman is set to announce the latest financial results today – and is expected to be questioned about the club’s summer plans.
Jose Mourinho has already been handed £286.2m in two seasons at Old Trafford – but has made it clear he wants even more investment if he is to mount a genuine challenge to champions City next year.
He sent his latest message to Woodward at the weekend, saying: “Can we close that gap in one season with a very difficult market, absolutely difficult market? We are going to try.”
The window opens today to comply with FIFA rules.
Football’s world governing body stipulates that at least one transfer window be open for 12 weeks.
Premier League clubs will have to complete their recruitment before the new season starts on August 9 after the deadline was brought forward.
Mourinho was among the most vocal supporters of the move, saying: “As as a football man, as somebody who wants to work with the team, work with players, I would prefer the window to close as soon as possible.”
With many of the world’s leading players involved in the World Cup, Woodward will try to conclude the majority of United’s business early.
Mourinho wants to recruit as many as four players, despite securing United’s highest finish in the table since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
He wants at least one centralmidfielder to replace the retiring Michael Carrick, but that will rise to two if Marouane Fellaini leaves as a free agent.
Mourinho also wants to address his defence – targeting two new full-backs.
Juventus’ Alex Sandro is high on his list of potential left backs.
In midfield, he has tasked his scouts with the job of scouring the globe for the past six months to find the ideal successor to Carrick.
Fred, Jorginho, Arturo Vidal, Jean-Michael Seri, Marco Verratti and Sergej MilinkovicSavic have all been watched closely. SATURDAY’S FA Cup final between United and Chelsea falls two days short of the 10-year anniversary of their Moscow Champions League final, an edgy epic settled by the nervous and the nerveless in that rain-sodden penalty shoot-out.
For those who remember the timeline that extended into the early hours of Thursday morning in Russia, it should never have required spotkicks.
Carlos Tevez (twice) and Michael Carrick both spurned opportunities to extend the lead Cristiano Ronaldo gave United before Frank Lampard’s slapstick goal in added time of the first-half.
Lampard tarnished one of the most innovative tactical halves of Sir Alex Ferguson’s epoch when, in an era of the sole striker, United reverted to 4-4-2 in club football’s biggest match.
Ji-Sung Park, widely expected to start after lining up in all four quarter and semi-final ties, stayed in his Paul Smith suit while Owen Hargreaves, superb on the right flank in the quarter-final home triumph over Roma, returned there as Ronaldo moved to the left. United and UNITED supporters want David de Gea to replace Michael Carrick as captain next season.
Carrick led United out in his 464th and final appearance against Watford on Sunday and Jose Mourinho will appoint his second official skipper in the summer.
In an M.E.N. poll, De Gea amassed a staggering 61 per cent of the vote, Chelsea’s tussles were known for their reticence, yet even against the usually watertight Claude Makelele United regularly breached Avram Grant’s side and Michael Essien was the floundering fish out of water at right-back.
Grant later remarked how surprised Chelsea were that United started in 4-4-2 and the flexible formation allowed them to switch from a midfield duo to a trio, a luxury still available after the bloodied Paul Scholes withdrew for Ryan Giggs.
This weekend, few United supporters are expecting a shock from Jose Mourinho, who is bound to revert to what is United’s top six with Paul Pogba and Ander Herrera earning 17 per cent each, and five per cent of United fans plumped for an alternative.
De Gea skippered United for only the second time in the win at Bournemouth last month but Antonio Valencia has worn the armband for the majority of the campaign, since Carrick missed four months following a heart procedure.
Valencia, at 32, is United’s team. Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before – David de Gea, Antonio Valencia, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Ashley Young, Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku.
That was the XI which overcame Tottenham last month and ten of the starters lined up in the captivating 3-2 comeback at City.
De Gea, Smalling and Matic were given a day off on Sunday. Jones, Pogba, Lingard, Herrera and Valencia stayed on the bench. Sanchez only played due to Anthony Martial’s knee injury and Ashley Young came off after an hour.
Mourinho clarified Lukaku, who has spent the last fortnight rehabilitating from an ankle injury at the Move to Cure centre in Antwerp, is due to check in at Carrington.
United’s medical staff have been in dialogue with Move to Cure and should Lukaku figure at Wembley it will be his first appearance in 20 days.
“We hope he can play the final,” longest-serving player now Carrick has retired but Mourinho admitted in the summer he was not a fan of the ruling that longevity should determine who captains the team.
“I don’t like a lot the criteria of the captain,” Mourinho said during pre-season.
“Sometimes you have somebody with the armband that doesn’t have the qualities to be the captain, and is just the captain because he arrived Mourinho said. “He’s in Belgium having his treatment in the communication between the doctors in Belgium and our medical department, and we are just waiting to see if it is possible for him to be involved in the final, if not starting, at least he can be on the bench.” A possible bench berth might have persuaded Mourinho to oversee a tactical change at West Ham on Thursday night. Amid an insignificant atmosphere, United’s switch to a back three with Jesse Lingard in a striker’s role was potentially significant in what was possibly a tactical trial for a Cup final fall-back option. United’s 2-0 home win over Chelsea 13 months ago remains the outstanding performance of Mourinho’s tenure and was achieved with a bespoke formation devoid of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, regarded at the time as indispensable. Instead, Mourinho started three centre-halves and started Lingard as an auxiliary striker with Marcus Rashford. Their pace to unsettle a lan- Samuel Luckhurst before other players.”
De Gea first donned the armband in the 2015 League Cup win over Ipswich and Pogba led United twice against Basel in the Champions League group stage, as well as in the festive fixtures versus Burnley, Southampton, Everton and Derby. Herrera has never captained United.
Carrick handed the armband to Juan Mata following his 84th minute substitution against Watford.