Wayne Rooney, one of the most iconic players in Manchester United history, has some ideas about how his former club should go about their roster rebuild. And given their first signing of the summer transfer window, they might be on the same page as Roony.
The addition of winger Daniel James from Swansea City could represent what might be a shift in the club’s recent transfer strategy. If you could even call their recent practices “a strategy.” It’s really just been more of “throwing money at the problem.”
The regime of EVP Ed Woodward has brought huge spends on older, much more established footballers and then essentially building a fantasy football team, as little regard was made to fit. This strategy has definitely not worked, not at all, as the club has not seriously contended for Premier League or Champions League trophies since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
It’s time to try something new- how about going with less expensive, younger, homegrown up-and-comers?
“For Ole, I think the first thing he’s got to do is try and build the squad,” Wazza said in an interview with BBC Radio Five Live.
“I don’t think bringing one or two players in for over £100 million is going to really help with the squad and the players who are there. I think he needs to try and look at maybe five or six players who have got potential to be top players but you’re not spending £120m-£130m on these players.”
“I think you spend £30m-£40m and then try to improve them, which will also give you longevity out of the players and allow you to build a squad around the five or six new players that come in, plus a few of the players who are still there.”
Time and time we’ve seen United essentially try and throw a band-aid over the problem, and go for the quick fix.
Wayne Rooney is on board with the idea of having patience for a long, slow rebuild. Club legend Gary Neville has purported this idea as well.
Wayne Rooney continued on, mentioning some players who would never come to Old Trafford in the first place.
“You could bring Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and Messi in, or Gareth Bale for instance, and it’s going to cost you £300m-£350m which you’d get what? Maybe two years out of Ronaldo, a couple of years out of Ramos and then you’ve written that money off,” the club’s all-time leading scorer continued.
“I just think the club needs to rebuild with younger players, but they need to be good enough and allow the manager to improve them, and I think the Man United fans will understand that they are probably not going to compete for the Premier League next year.”
“So let them have that time, let Ole have that time to build a team for the next two or three years who are going to compete, not only at Premier League level, but at Champions League level.”
It’s very possible, if this indeed the strategy that United are really going with, Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka and West Ham’s Declan Rice could be the next additions to the United roster.
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 appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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