Manchester United’s Old Trafford is often billed as the Theater of Dreams. This season, however, it’s been more like the vaudeville show of half-waking mediocrity—at least by Man U’s demanding standards. Although they look favored to finish in the top four, thus earning a Champion’s League berth, with a fifteen point gap between them and Chelsea, Manchester United still look to be far off the pace when it comes to title contention. Can the Red Devils turn it around for next season?
Football has many awards; the Golden Boot, the Golden Glove, the Golden Ball, all famed trophies coveted by many. But to these we might add a more infamous, but still impactful, piece of ‘silverware’: the Golden Ankle Brace. And it is to this award that many Man U fans will likely point as the scapegoat for their troubles, as Manchester United have, to this point, the most injuries of any team in the Premier League this season. With so many injuries—68, to be precise—can the manager, the team really be faulted for coming up short of expectations?
Absolutely. Arsenal, two points clear of Manchester United with a game in hand, are only just barely second to Man U in injuries with 66. While a team like, say, Swansea might feel devastated by the loss of a key player, Manchester United’s payroll suggests they should be able to field a winning squad even while dipping into their reserves. This is, after all, exactly what Arsenal have been forced to do, as they have the infamous record of most injuries in the EPL over the course of the past decade. That United have been plagued with injuries is something their fans can lament, and certainly something that has impacted their play (perhaps we’d have seen a better showing against Everton with RvP in the lineup), but their shortcomings are not reducible to this.
Summer Transfers
Whenever a club like United are eliminated from title contention before the final matches of the season, speculation about their summer spending is bound to arise. And so it has. United have been linked to a bevy of players. Ilkay Gundogan, Mats Hummels, Nathaniel Clyne, Memphis Depay, the list of players to whom Man U have been surmised to pursue this off season goes on and on.
But there’s one name that clearly sticks out above the rest: Gareth Bale. What’s more, it seems that Manchester United may have some leverage in their favor, should they wish to acquire the former PFA Player of the Year winner. There’s been speculation that David De Gea, among United’s best players in this rough season, favors a move to Real Madrid in the summer, and while his loss would certainly be a blow, it might also open the door for United to arrange a player + cash swap for the remarkably talented Welshman.
Bale has been the subject of criticism at the Bernabeu this season, and while Real Madrid can hardly be seen as a club to push around in the transfer market, the girth of their war chests also means they sometimes jettison amazingly talented players who’ve fallen out of favor, simply for the depth of their squad and their concurrent ability to sign most players in the world. It may be hard to imagine Bale leaving Madrid, but then again, it was not so long ago that Mesut Özil’s departure seemed unthinkable.
Falcao: The Anti-Cash Cow
Regardless of which players end up arriving at Old Trafford this offseason, there’s one piece of business that simply must happen: Falcao has to go. £190,000 a week is a lot of money to pay a striker who is only a supposed “super sub,” and yet proves to be ineffectual much of the time (again, cf. their recent drubbing by Everton, in which he failed to make an impact in the second half). Whether their loan-with-the-option-to-buy deal was a shrewd piece of bet-hedging, or just dumb deadline day luck, United fans will be grateful that they’ve only sunk one year of wages into the Colombian striker.
Falcao offers United fans a cautionary tale, one in which the thrilling, last minute signing ends up panning out poorly. Van Gaal seems to have taken this lesson to heart, insisting that United get their transfer business done as early as possible this summer, to give him ample time to set up his team, with all the pieces in place. Although it remains to be seen whether or not all is done and dusted by July (unlikely), it’s at least a laudable goal to pursue.
But Falcao’s failure at United isn’t just having the new boys signed early; it’s about prioritizing the team, and giving players time to settle within it. David Moyes never got the production out of Marouane Fellaini or Juan Mata that United supporters had hoped for, indeed had expected. However, as this season draws to a close, both players are beginning to come into their own within the squad.
Manchester United can certainly use a few new faces around the ground, perhaps especially so in defense—Hummels and Clyne would improve most any back four—but the squad on hand, if healthy, is a formidable one. Let’s not forget: this is a team that is still in fourth place, a full seven points ahead of Liverpool for the final Champion’s League spot; that’s no small feat. Of course United fans want their team to compete, want to be neck and neck at least, far out in front at best. But this season, if more tumultuous than hoped, has not entirely been a wash. Imagine a 2015/16 team with Mata and Fellaini in peak form, Hummels at the heart of defense, and Gareth Bale racing up the wing with Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie waiting in the middle. Say what you will about their underperformance this season; the Theater’s next Dream may be nigh.