Reds board fall for blind panic in contract dealings
LET us remind ourselves of how Victor Lindelof’s recent United contract renewal came about, via his agent Hasan Cetinkaya.
“When Mathijs de Ligt chose Juventus, Victor became Barcelona’s first choice. They contacted Ed Woodward multiple times with concrete offers. I met with their head of transfers Matt Judge to try and get a deal through.
“But they said ‘There is no way. Victor is one of our best players’.”
Cetinkaya sounded very pleased with himself whilst detailing Lindelof’s improved deal to Sport Bladet, having been mildly rebuked by his client for claiming a ‘big club’ had touched base in July. Perhaps the only dubious detail relayed by the agent was Barcelona’s interest was concrete.
It was remotely believable, just as it was believable Cetinkaya adopted a scaremongering tactic to capitalise on a client’s form and stock.
True to form, United negotiated another contract and the announcement coincided with Lindelof is in the midst of regression. Aside from the Leicester win and dreary draw with AZ Alkmaar, he has struggled this season. Cetinkaya caused blind panic that only money men would fall for at a football club.
United keep on frittering coin and Roy Keane’s possibly apocryphal quote from that 2005 MUTV evisceration endures: “It seems to be in this club that you have to play badly to be rewarded.”
Andreas Pereira made his United debut over five years ago and, prior to this season, had only started 11 matches. United decided he was worthy of a new four-year contract in the summer and Pereira has confirmed this season what most knowledgeable football followers already knew: he is not currently good enough to be a regular starter.
Luke Shaw, Chris Smalling, Anthony Martial and Phil Jones posed with pen and paper on the back of purple patches last term. Juan Mata adopted the Marouane Fellaini tactic of sweating it out and securing the minimal two-year deal he craved.
Lord help the United Twitter administrator should they have to announce a Jesse Lingard renewal any time soon. Lingard, like Lindelof until last month, has an arrangement that expires in 2021 and there is a plus-one option. The priority cannot be to extend his shelf-life but for him to contribute a league goal or assist this calendar year.
If Lingard fails, the solution is simple: sell. That is why United require a qualified director of football; an objective voice who will not yield to players the club can afford to discard.
Even Jones’ representatives were surprised United rang to open discussions about new terms.
The contract handling is not without successes; Scott McTominay and Axel Tuanzebe have kicked on, the latter in particular. Tuanzebe inked his threeyear deal in pre-season but always knew the tour would determine whether his first-team squad status would become permanent.
He surprised Solskjaer with how impeccably he performed, received the rank of third-choice centre half and has been one of the few shining lights this season. His importance could be gauged by the fateful decision to switch Tuanzebe to rightback at 0-0 against Newcastle.
He is becoming undroppable. Lindelof has become droppable.