Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ANALYSIS
MANCHESTER UNITED are a club at war. Hostilities between Jose Mourinho and Executive Vice-chairman Ed Woodward have been raging for months.
The failure to recruit summer reinforcements is the key battleground.
There is belief in the boardroom that maybe it’s time for the manager to show he really is the Special One by getting the best out of the £700million squad already at his disposal.
When Mourinho isn’t taking aim at the man who signs the cheques, he has often felt the need to switch his sights to the dressing room to fire verbal volleys at those players he feels are letting him down or just aren’t good enough.
And, just two games into the new season, fans who can’t understand how the richest club in the world can find itself in such a state of crisis are once again plotting revolt against absentee owners who have stripped a staggering £1.2billion from the Old Trafford vaults during their 13-year tenure.
As one insider said this week: “The atmosphere is toxic. It’s worse than anyone can remember – and there have been some really low points in the five years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.”
Something has to give – and it won’t be Woodward or the six Glazer family siblings who are happy to let their man run the show while money keeps pouring into their bank accounts.
Only this week, shares in the club trading on the New York Stock Exchange hit an all-time high of UNITED have scored
four times in two games – and
their conversion rate of
23.5 per cent is a slight improvement
when compared to the
opening two matches of the 2017/18
season. But this time last
year, the Reds had already
found the back of the net eight times.
Their 38 attempts on goal last
year makes this season’s
tally of 17 look pitiful.
Romelu Lukaku lived
£75m up to his fee last season, but
Alexis Sanchez, Marcus
Rashford and Anthony Martial
must step up. MOURINHO has spent £60.75million on Eric Bailly
and Victor Lindelof, but both
players look lost without a dominant central defensive partner.
The United manager’s plea
for further reinforcements
were ignored with Chris Smalling,
Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo
still at the club.
But United’s biggest mistake has been the failure to
sign fullbacks with more proven
quality and experience than teenager Diogo Dalot. Mourinho remains unconvinced by Luke Shaw. IN two seasons,
United the League Cup
and Eu League, qualified
twice Champions League,
fini second in the
Premier L and lost in the
FA Cup fi But this is a manager that must win
the bigges He must stop alienati likes of Paul Pogba,
Rom Lukaku, Anthony
Martia Rashford and
Luke Shaw make the most
of experi stars such as
Phil Jones Smalling, Matteo
Darmia Marcos Rojo.