Man United’s Shambolic 2018-19 Season from the Transfer Window till Mourinho's Exit
After finishing 2nd in the Premier League, Manchester United's
highest league finish since the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager,
albeit ending up with 19 points lesser than the winners & local rivals
Manchester City, and getting knocked out by Sevilla in the Round of 16 of the
UEFA Champions League in embarrassing fashion, there was a lot of hope and
aspiration from many a Manchester United supporter.
We looked forward to building on the previous season,
make necessary transfers in positions that needed strengthening, give our
standout youth players a chance in the first team, play better attacking
football, compete for the Premier League title, hopefully win the FA Cup or EFL
Cup, and have a good run in the Champions League.
After anticipating that we would
sign 3-4 first-team players in the summer transfer window at the minimum, including a top-level established Centre
Half (CB), a young Right Full-Back (RB), a central midfielder (CM), and a Right
Winger (RW), when the transfer deadline passed we were disappointed at our
incomings. We managed to sign only a CM in Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk for around
£47m, a young RB in Diogo Dalot from FC Porto for £19m who was
injured at the time, and an unnecessary third-choice aged Goalkeeper in Lee Grant from
Stoke City for £1.5m. This is as far as the incomings go, totalling up to
£67.5m, and not addressing many key areas and weaknesses.
Coming to the outgoings, fans were confused with
the transfer of Daley Blind back to Ajax for an initial £14m
(potentially rising to £18.5m) who was consistent, a good reader of the game
and displayed his versatility playing in different positions such as a CB, LB,
and a DM (Defensive Midfielder) for United, instead of selling any of the
inconsistent, under-performing, or injury-prone Defenders such as Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling or Matteo Darmian. United also parted ways with academy
graduate GK Sam Johnstone for £6.5m to West Bromwich Albion,
while the loans, all of whom were United academy graduates were - Defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah to
Fulham, CB Axel Tuanzebe to Aston Villa, GK Joel Pereira to the
Liga NOS Portuguese side Vitória Setúbal, LB Cameron Borthwick-Jackson
to Scunthorpe United, ST (Striker) James Wilson to
Aberdeen.
The outgoings brought in
£20.5m, taking United's net spend to a meagre £47m, not even 10% of United's
all-time high revenue of £590m for the year ended June 2018, at a time when the
squad clearly needed improvements.
The summer transfer window was underwhelming for Manchester
United, to say the least.
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| Manchester United fans |
We started the season by scraping a win against
Leicester City, a game we were lucky to win.
The worrying signs were there, but most of us
wouldn't dare think that the next few months would turn out to be as disastrous
and soul hurting as they did. Not only were we abysmal on the field in terms of
the football and results, but also there seemed to be major disagreements,
fights, and fallouts between José Mourinho (the Manchester United manager at
the time) & the players, including Mourinho publicly criticizing players or
as some call aptly call it "throwing players under the bus"!
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| Mourinho animated at a Manchester United game |
Mourinho's arrogant and uncalled for statements in
which he unnecessarily tends to boast about himself and his achievements didn't
help the situation. An example of this characteristic of Mourinho is when
Manchester Evening News Football reporter Liam Corless asked Mourinho about his
love for United, after being humiliatingly thrashed 3-0 in the previous Premier
League match by Tottenham Hotspur at our home ground Old Trafford, you would
have expected Mourinho not to big himself up in any way, but Mourinho being
Mourinho, he replied by saying “I am the manager of one of the greatest clubs
in the world but I am also one of the greatest managers in the world.”
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| Manchester United Press Conference |
He publicly slated Luke Shaw & Anthony Martial on occasions. Previously José had already publicly blamed
the defender after United were defeated by Watford in September 2016, and on
another occasion when United drew 1-1 versus Everton in April 2017, that too
thanks to a penalty earned by Shaw that was consequently converted, José said
that the LB used his own body but with José's brain and said about the LB
"He was in front of me and I was making every decision for
him".
In a Spanish TV interview with
Hristo Stoichkov, Mourinho called United's younger players such as Martial,
Shaw, Rashford, and Lingard spoilt kids and said they
lack maturity, character, and personality.
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| Mourinho & Pogba |
José told Pogba he is no longer United's "second
captain", reportedly because he was concerned about Pogba's attitude.
"The only truth is that I made the decision for him not to be second
captain any more but there is no fallout, no problem," Mourinho said. He
also casually remarked, "I am the manager I can make these
decisions".
There was even a video leaked of José Mourinho having
a sudden uncalled for verbal go at Pogba as the latter seemed to be routinely
greeting United's coaching staff at Carrington, United's training ground, that
indicated an evident fallout between the manager and player to the public.
Mourinho had created a toxic atmosphere around the
club. He beamed negativity to the fans, players and many others associated with
Manchester United. All signs pointed to him heading towards the exit door.
After enduring the lot, Manchester United's fans,
players and other stakeholders breathed a sigh of relief when José Mourinho was
finally inevitably sacked on 18th December 2018 after losing 3-1 to our
arch-rivals Liverpool FC.
