United paying price for contract madness /Pages
FIVE pages of reaction, ratings and analysis of United’s trip to Brighton
ALL the attention will be on the new arrivals at Carrington in the next nine days as United try and save a transfer window that is rapidly turning into a nightmare.
So far only £35m man Donny van de Beek has turned up to introduce himself to his new team-mates, but if the Reds are to make a success of this season more must follow before October 5.
United have so far had a one-in and one-out window - welcome Van de Beek, goodbye Alexis Sanchez. As the window approaches the end of its ninth week, the revamp needed to carry out on this squad has still not been done.
Forgetting about the pursuit of Jadon Sancho and Alex Telles for now, it’s as important that United trim a bloated squad as well before October 5.
Getting Sanchez’s astronomical wages off the books was an achievement, but that no others have followed him is surprising.
Chris Smalling may well do so and you can understand United wanting a reasonable sum for a defender who was one of the best in Serie A last season. But even if the 30-year-old does return to Roma, the Reds still need to find a way to shed more of the excess from their squad.
Every successful manager in the modern game will preach about working with a streamlined squad, where every player feels that a start is within their grasp, with any gaps supplemented by youngsters.
United would have no issues with the latter, given the success of their academy at the moment, but when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his coaches arrive at training they are greeted by senior players who must re realise they are a long way from getting ti any game time this season.
Even if Smalling does depart, it would take a remarkable turn of events for Phil Jones or Marcos Rojo to make an appearance this season.
In midfield, the arrival of Van de Beek has pushed Andreas Pereira fu further down the pecking order. Jo Jones, Rojo and Pereira could le leave United without weakening Solskjaer’s hand.
None have done anything to stick a few extra quid on their price tag in recent years. In the case of Jones and Rojo there would be uncertainty from any buyers over exactly what they were getting, given their recent injury records.
But all three players have still been rewarded with long-term contracts at a point when their United careers certainly weren’t in the ascendancy. The Reds are paying for those decisions now when none of them look to have a future at the club.
Rojo’s last contract extension came in March 2018 at a time when he was out injured and had made just 10 appearances that season.
Since signing that three-year contract, the Argentine has played only 17 games for the club in more than two years. There have been only five Premier League starts.
Jones signed a new deal early in February 2019, at a time when Solskjaer was still very much the caretaker manager at United. He’d played 16 times that season, it had been 25 the year before and 26 the season before that. Jones signed a four-and-a-half year deal and Solskjaer spoke of him coming into his ‘prime years’ as a centre-back, even though the evidence suggested he was now injury-prone and inconsistent.
In the 18 months since that new
deal was awarded, Jones has played 16 games for the club and made eight Premier League starts.
Pereira’s four-year deal was signed in the summer of 2019. United may have seen that as an insurance policy, given he had entered the last year of his old deal, but he’d only made 35 appearances then and, at 23, the jury was still out.
Last season he played a further 40 times but after Bruno Fernandes arrived at the end of January there were only two starts.
He hasn’t made the matchday squad for either of United’s two games so far this season and with
Van de Beek since joining, his chances of playing look remote. He still has three years left of his contract.
United have handed out deals like confetti in recent years. While Pereira’s deal makes some sense, although less so at four years, the decision to hand Jones and Rojo new deals looked bizarre at the time and even more foolhardy now. As a result, Solskjaer still has a heavy squad to work with. The incomings will focus the attention over the next week and a half, but the outgoings could be just as important.
Even if Smalling goes, the Reds still need to find a way to shed more of the excess from their squad Tyrone Marshall