With the exception of Belarus, global football is currently suspended. There is talk of the Premier League eying a potential mid-June return, and with that in mind, a possible return to team training in the next couple of weeks. Right now, there are just more questions than answers with Project Restart.
The English top flight just doesn’t seem to have the same coherence and direction as the leading leagues in Germany, Spain and Italy right now. Today it was just announced that the German Bundesliga will return in the later half of this month. The good news is that United have reportedly called their foreign players back home, in the belief that training will restart soon.
Until we get there, we still have plenty of news items to cover, so with that in mind, let’s take a spin through the Manchester United community cyberspace. For today’s MUFC transfer rumor round-up go here. We start with the team Captain himself, Harry Maguire, who laments the opportunities missed out by United as they’re still on the outside looking in in regards to the top four.
United are in fifth, three points behind fourth place Chelsea. The 2019-20 season has seen the Red Devils drop a lot of points against relegation fodder and lower table sides. Obtaining some of those points would have made all the difference, and Maguire knows it.
“As a Red, our toughest opponent, probably, is ourselves,” the world’s most expensive defender said during a Q&A with MUTV.”
“I would say that, at times this year, as a team, we have probably let ourselves down by being a bit too inconsistent. Not just for a full game but during games.”
“There have been times when we’ve been so good in games and then we’ve come off it a bit and been punished. We need to be mentally strong. We are a young group but we don’t really want to use that as an excuse.”
Turning to Paul Pogba transfer narratives, a storyline that never ever goes away; we have a new twist today. Now there’s a potential swap deal angle, according to Calciomercato. The Italian outlet says that Juventus’ efforts to bring Pogba back to his former club now include the offer to send Aaron Ramsey the other way.
The former Arsenal man and Wales international hasn’t settled in since moving over in the summer on a free.
The belief is that he could help fill the gap, with the two sides reportedly oceans apart on potential transfer fee amount.
Finally, Angel Di Maria was a bust, to say the least, at Old Trafford, and his wife is still very bitter about his time with the club. He’s a very talented player, but he just didn’t fit, on any level, and it wasn’t long before he was shipped off to Paris Saint-Germain.
In an interview with Los Angeles de la Manana, Di Maria’s wife Jorgelina Cardoso ripped the city’s culture, weather, food, you name it. She described it as “horrible.”
“Manchester is the worst. It is all horrible in Manchester,” she said.
“In fact, I fought a lot with Angel about it. We lived in Madrid, Angel played in the best team in the world which for me is Real Madrid. We were perfect, the weather was perfect, the food was perfect. And suddenly he said that there was a proposal to go to Manchester. I told him, ‘Not a chance. You are going alone. ‘No, come on. Let’s go’, he replied.
“There was a lot of money involved, and afterwards, the Spanish were calling us money grabbers. And they were right. If you are working for a company and the competition comes along and offers to pay you double, you take it.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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