It’s the “silly season” in the Manchester United Twitterverse, blogosphere, cyberspace and media world. Time to talk some transfer rumors. The Daily Mirror has an article on June 17th mentioning four United players who could potentially be jettisoned as Jose Mourinho takes over the club and starts to reshape the roster towards a unit that is more in his mold.
None of the four players named by the Mirror: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Memphis Depay, Juan Mata and Marouane Fellaini are a big surprise, but it’s worth revisiting this topic given the comments newly minted manager Jose Mourinho made today to MUTV.
“It’s a new chapter in the club’s life,” Mourinho said to the club’s official website. “Always when you change a manager I feel it is a sad moment, but it is a new chapter now.”
“We have brought a few new faces in, we will keep some others but, in the end, it doesn’t matter who the manager is, who the new players are, or who is staying or leaving — it’s Man United and Man United is much more than any one of us.”
Mourinho implied that more players, thus far it’s only been Nick Powell and Victor Valdes who have been jettisoned, could be sent through the Old Trafford exit door. The special one also reiterated his big plans for further building up the side. He’s already added Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and he’s got huge plans to get some more big fish- like maybe Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi.
“I’m not humble when I talk about targets,” Mourinho said. “I’m quite aggressive on that. I want everything and everything is to win matches, play well, score goals, don’t concede goals.
“I know that we are speaking about a hypothetical situation, which is very difficult to reach, but I want everything.”
Also, in a related story, you should check out our Manchester United Starting XI of all transfer rumor linked players at this link.
So, who could be out the OT exit door? Time to revisit that Mirror story now:
Jose Mourinho has contacted all of Manchester United’s players to assure them they will get a chance to prove themselves to him.
Mourinho has sent text messages to each of United’s squad, indicating he will not make any judgements on them until he has seen them play. That includes midfielder Juan Mata, whom Mourinho sold to United from Chelsea in 2014, because of the Spaniard’s perceived lack of industry.
Despite that, Mourinho is understood to be willing to give Mata, who failed to make Spain’s squad for Euro 2016, a chance to show he has developed the required work ethic.
Mata broke the club transfer fee record of £37.1 million when he came over to Old Trafford, a last gasp effort made by David Moyes in a desperate attempt to salvage his regime. Mata has reportedly been seeking assurances over his future at the Theatre of Dreams.
Fellaini was Moyes’ big summer signing of 2013, so right there you have half the hypothetical list comprised of “The Chosen One’s acquisitions.
Only time will tell if either (or both) leave for another club, but we shouldn’t surprised if and when they do. Fellaini seemed to see a revival in playing time under Louis van Gaal, despite many United fans being against it. (Or at least Man United Twitter being vehemently against it).
Moving on to Depay and Schweinsteiger, their commonality is being defined among the Premier League’s worst signings of the 2015 summer transfer window. Both made many publications top flops lists, but for very different reasons.
For Schweinsteiger, perhaps the most fun name to say in all of global football, a series of injuries have held him back. “Der Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer even wrote that Schweinsteiger is currently “miserable” at United. He may have a temporary escape route in the works, but keep an eye on what his role is with Germany at the Euros. That could be an indicator of what his future may look like.
As for Depay, the season long narrative in the media conveyed that he just wasn’t ready to handle the big step up from the Dutch Eredivisie to one of the biggest clubs, if not the biggest club, in the entire world. We saw numerous stories, all year long, claiming that United took some issue with his lifestyle. We all took issue with some of his ridiculous wardrobe choices.
On a more serious note, Depay himself admitted that he has to prove himself this season, as being left off the FA Cup roster was no doubt a very humbling experience.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram