Shaw picture shows he is ‘pre-season’ ready now
LUKE Shaw declared himself ‘pre-season ready’ after showing off the results of a week of intense training in Dubai.
The 22-year-old has spent the last few days at the Nad Al Sheba Complex, where United trained in January, with the club’s head of strength and conditioning Gary Walker.
Shaw has been put through his paces with some cardio work in 40C heat as he looks to make a big impression this summer ahead of the start of pre-season training on July 9.
And, just a couple of weeks after his holiday photos went viral, for the wrong reasons, a topless Shaw took to Instagram to declare he was ‘pre-season ready’.
Shaw is into the final 12 months of his contract at United and faces a huge challenge to leapfrog veteran Ashley Young as the club’s first-choice leftback.
The defender’s rollercoaster relationship with Jose Mourinho again came under the microscope last season and he was hauled off at half-time of United’s FA Cup win against Brighton in March.
United, though, have made signing a centre-back their priority this summer and it is understood Mourinho thinks Young and Shaw are ‘OK’ options going forward.
Shaw will get a chance to stake a claim for a spot in the starting line-up on the club’s five-game tour of the US with Young set to join up with his team-mates at a later date following his World Cup exploits. UNITED knew this summer transfer window would be complicated by the World Cup.
And the early closure to sign players before the season starts – as is the case this year – is the daftest suggestion in the Premier League era since Richard Scudamore’s 39th game proposal.
United have a mere 33 days to reinforce their squad and Jose Mourinho will spend 16 of those presiding over a five-game preseason tour in the United States.
The Reds’ final friendly is in Munich against Bayern on August 5 – four days before the end of the window. Ed Woodward daren’t leave the country.
It would be unfair to apportion blame on Woodward or Matthew Judge - the club’s head of corporate development who assists with transfer negotiations – when discussions were held with certain players’ representatives and clubs before last season ended.
Main targets Willian and Toby Alderweireld have been at the World Cup, making things harder.
“Absolutely difficult Mourinho said in May. market,”
Already, United have not discounted the possibility of deadline day dealings, something they were opposed to in Mourinho’s previous summers.
United, City, Watford, Swansea and Crystal Palace voted against a window closure before the season began.
Maurizio Sarri has still not been installed as Chelsea manager and is likely to have around a month - at best - to assemble a squad in his image if he takes over from Antonio Conte. Juventus have 56 days to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sagas such as Arsenal’s dithering over Alexis Sanchez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s participation against a club he joined days later, as well as Philippe Coutinho’s agitating at Liverpool resulted in a vote on changing the deadline day date. It was supposed to encourage early business, but has had the opposite effect.
In fairness, Arsenal have responded by concluding deals for the underwhelming trio of Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bernd Leno and Sokratis Papastathopoulos. City are hopeful of recruiting Jorginho and Riyad Mahrez within the next week and Liverpool brought in Fabinho last month, too. But their window has also been mired in farce. They confidently briefed that Nabil Fekir was likely to join them, only for Lyon to publicly announce it had collapsed, calamitous keepers Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet are still theirs and Roma priced them out of a move for Alisson. The costliest Premier League addition is the £52.8m Naby Keita, a deal agreed by Liverpool last year. The foolish 14 clubs have left Premier League clubs at a disadvantage and six are yet to make a signing this summer. The irony is three of those clubs - Chelsea, Everton and Tottenham - voted in favour of the August 9 deadline. Certain clubs operate on a sell-tobuy policy and however much Samuel Luckhurst