Can't buy me love: Manchester United lack credibility, despite their huge pockets
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Updated 04/09/2015 at 15:01 GMT
Tom Adams says football figures have been gladly telling their stories of dealing with Manchester United, who aren't being taken as seriously as they'd like.
Manchester United director Sir Bobby Charlton (L), executive vice chairman Ed Woodward and co owner Avram Glazer (R) in the stands before the match
Image credit: Reuters
There is a necessary decompression process which takes place after the close of every transfer window: the exposition of deals not done and the explanation of the deals that were. It prevents us all from suffering a bad case of the transfer bends, lest we rush too quickly to the surface and breathe the fresh air of pure football before we are ready.
The transfer window post mortem has this year been dominated by Manchester United - almost completely, bar recriminations over Arsenal's half-hearted pursuit of a striker - and this is because they were responsible for the biggest and most astonishing deal anywhere in Europe on deadline day - and the most calamitous IT failure, too.
Even FIFA's in-house publication couldn't restrain itself from comment:
United, with their negotiating team led by Ed Woodward, have got football talking. More precisely, United have got football’s money men talking, with chief executives, presidents and assorted other management types falling over themselves to discuss their dealings with the commercial giants of the English game in the days since the window closed.
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France's national football team forward Anthony Martial gives a press conference in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines on September 2, 2015
Image credit: AFP
Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev was the most enthusiastic, giving the press an unusually detailed account of how his conversations with United progressed as he sold 19-year-old Anthony Martial for a deal worth a total of £58m:
Initially Martial was not for sale. It was absolutely not planned. Since last week United started to make offers which we declined several times – £21.6m, £28.8m, £36m, even £50.4m with bonuses. On Sunday the player got such an offer that he couldn't have declined. He asked us to find a solution and on Monday morning Manchester United made an offer to Monaco which the club couldn't refuse. It's absolutely unique. It's the price of Luis Suarez or Neymar – the best players in the world. Right now English football is on a different financial level and if Manchester United decides to buy somebody, it's very hard to stop them.
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Germany's national football team's midfielder Thomas Mueller (L) laughs as he gives a press conference with Germany's midfielder Toni Kroos in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany on September 2, 2015 prior to the Euro 2016 qualifier Germany vs Poland on Se
Image credit: AFP
Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge did not mention United by name, but the implication was clear as he spoke of the huge offer the club received from England for known United target Thomas Muller:
I'm talking about figures which were very high indeed. If I were a bank manager then I would have had to accept it. But as a football club we allowed ourselves to close the door on it, and this door is remaining closed. I can promise that to everybody. But one thing is for certain, in view of the increased television money in England things are not going to get any easier for Bayern in future.
But such money, though it may seduce the Russian billionaire owner a of club located in the ultra-rich enclave of Monte Carlo, and strike fear into the hearts of vastly experienced administrators at one of Europe’s most powerful sporting institutions, does not necessarily buy you respect. On Friday, we had an insight into how the more established faces of the European game may view Woodward and his recruitment team.
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Manchester United's goalkeeper David de Gea arrives at Las Rozas' Soccer City on September 1, 2015.
Image credit: AFP
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez delivered a patronising and quietly brutal appraisal of United's role in the De Gea debacle:
I think what they lack is experience. We have missed out on players before, Franck Ribery and Patrick Vieira for example, but what is surprising is that someone wants to do a deal and only starts the process 12 hours before. It's the inexperience of the new people in charge. We have worked with them [United] before, with Peter Kenyon and David Gil and with Sir Alex Ferguson. We still have a good relationship with Manchester United but this is the exactly the same as what happened before with [Fabio] Coentrao and [Ander] Herrera and we thought they would have learned from what happened in the past.
Perez undoubtedly has his own agenda to pursue – the De Gea failure happened on his watch and encouraging the perception that it was the fault of callow administrators at Old Trafford helpfully obscures his own club’s perplexing decision to leave it so late – but his comments chimed in with widespread perceptions of Woodward and his team as football ingénues.
It is necessary to recognise at this point that Woodward did do a lot of good business over the summer. Matteo Darmian (£12.7m) and Memphis Depay (£25m) were purchased at what might reasonably be called market rate, while Morgan Schneiderlin (£25m) and Bastian Schweinsteiger (£14.5m) were within the realms of reality too. Four excellent additions to the squad who improve United’s options significantly.
Woodward and United also had success at the start of last summer. Even if the prices were a bit higher, Luke Shaw (£27m) and Ander Herrera (£29m) were two fine acquisitions; two impressive players with plenty of room to grow at United. Daley Blind (£13.8m) has also proved useful in a variety of positions and Marcos Rojo (£16m) might have done had he not had a falling out with Van Gaal during pre-season following some passport issues.
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Memphis has shown real promise, albeit in flashes, in his early weeks at United
Image credit: AFP
United’s recruitment of players of this calibre has been far from terrible. Perhaps more attention should have been paid to areas such as central defence and centre-forward, but Woodward has shown he can get medium-sized deals over the line pretty successfully. The problem comes with the club’s parallel recruitment strategy: the search for a global superstar.
Last summer, after Bale proved impossible to recruit, the answer was £59.7m British record signing Angel Di Maria. The cautionary tale of his United career did not put the club off though, and the unrequited desire for a 'Gaalactico' was discussed by the Dutchman during pre-season as he conjured up the unforgettable phrase: “Ashley Young had a fantastic season last time, but he is not a Neymar.”
Barcelona’s Brazilian forward was said to be one of United’s most ambitious targets this summer in a race around Europe’s top clubs which reportedly included attempts at Muller and Bale. It is a collection of unobtainable targets; the kind of players who clubs have built tactical plans and commercial strategies around; the kind of players you are just never going to be able to buy. Trying to do so opens you up to ridicule - it's a failure to understand football reality on the ground.
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Neymar was never going to join Manchester United
Image credit: AFP
Perhaps United should be lauded for their ambition, but expending energy on deals of these nature, and seemingly briefing the press about them, does rather seem like a waste of resources. United’s problem is that while they have the means to sign 99% of players with little fuss, the kind of superstar they so desperately want is not likely to join a club still embarked on a rebuilding process.
And as a result, with the hours ticking by and Wayne Rooney looking lonely during attacking sessions at training, they arrive at a situation where, desperate, they are forced to hand over galactico money for a 19-year-old forward with less than 20 goals to his name. As Monaco’s Vasilyev said: “[Martial's fee is] the price of Luis Suarez or Neymar.”
Paying up to £58m for Martial is entirely ridiculous, but it just shows how little United need to conform to conventional budgetary guidelines. So too does the trend which has seen them sell off established players for relative pittances – Robin van Persie for £3.8m, Javier Hernandez for £7.3m and Nani, fortified with a five-year contract as recently as September 2013, for £4.25m. Chelsea would have achieved far higher prices for marginal figures; United simply don’t need to.
But however big their pockets, they cannot buy credibility. Acting as Europe’s bank or as the interested party of choice to help a player leverage a new contract, a trick Sergio Ramos performed expertly with Real Madrid this summer, does not a true power-broker make. While that superstar signing proves elusive, and they chase it so wildly, United may not be taken as seriously as they would wish by their ostensible equals.
Tom Adams - @tomEurosport
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