RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Why Manchester United must NOT bring Mason Greenwood back – and the six letter word that will follow him everywhere

The finer arts of lip reading have eluded me a bit, so a few weeks ago I was captivated by a comment on MailOnline. It came from Jeremy Freeman and he has credibility in that area. He said he was 97 per cent certain that Jude Bellingham called Mason Greenwood a ‘rapist’ during Real Madrid’s win at Getafe earlier this month.

An interesting number, that. It’s quite precise and it makes you curious about where the steps are. How much is the R worth? And the P? How much of the missing three percent is attributed to not quite detecting the T? But again, Freeman mentioned context and context that counted in his reasoning.

Of course, we all know the Greenwood context. You know it. I know. Sir Jim Ratcliffe knows. Get rid of the fairies and feed off someone else’s money, the Glazers know it too.

Everyone knows Greenwood was accused of attempted rape and everyone knows the case collapsed when key witnesses withdrew. We therefore know that he is innocent within the definitions of the law and we also know that the public operates with fewer restrictions because most of us are now aware of those gruesome recordings.

If the lip readers are right, we can assume Bellingham gets the gist of it. Did he call Greenwood a rapist in that game? I don’t have the skills to reach 97 percent there, but I would safely enter the bid for 100 if I had to predict how the crowd here will sing when Greenwood shows his face again at Manchester United.

United’s new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has left the door open for Greenwood to return to the club this summer, despite backlash from fans when this was considered last year

One lip-reading expert said he was “97% sure.” Jude Bellingham (right) called Greenwood a ‘rapist’ when Getafe faced Real Madrid earlier this month

That’s for sure. It is the stench of six letters that will follow him to every match and every ground. It will cling to United like a green cloud surrounded by flies. And being a smart man, Ratcliffe is well aware of that, which is why I was surprised by his comments on the subject this week.

While the club had previously given the message that Greenwood would never play for United again, Ratcliffe was more ambiguous and that felt like a misstep on the way to an otherwise strong start.

“No decision has been made yet,” he said, and you can understand the business complexity of that decision if the player still retains significant financial value to his club. We could also see the benefits of not showing your hand before negotiations with potential buyers this summer.

But United certainly will not and should not accept the idea of ​​bringing Greenwood back, because that would be a Glazer idea. That would be a classic from the Glazer book of blunders.

Through detailed reporting, we are aware of how close they and the club’s senior managers came to having him return before catching the whiff of a public backlash and then resorting to a loan evacuation.

That was Glazers’ United in a nutshell: weak, immoral, with their noses in the money bin, unable to realize how grim the place looked until it hit them in the face.

But Ratcliffe has generally positioned himself as the polar opposite of the Glazers. He won’t say that explicitly, because, as he reminds us, there’s a legal document in his bottom drawer that prevents mud-slinging.

But he has done this in ways that are subtle and also incredibly obvious. In words and deeds, his approach during this acquisition process was to study the Glazers and plot a 180-degree course in the other direction. Again, smart guy.

Greenwood has been in excellent form for Getafe, scoring seven goals in 24 games

Greenwood was arrested in January 2022 and charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behavior and assault

Greenwood denied all allegations and the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges in February last year

So far, it’s mostly easy to be impressed. I loved the way he talked last week about dethroning Manchester City and bringing back a bit of style. Playing a little Alex Ferguson bingo will always be good for the gallery.

The reference to eleven years of ‘misery’ was also wonderfully candid. As does the recognition of his ‘stupid mistakes’ in other sports projects and his dismissal of the United Museum as ‘nonsense’. His message was simple: United are on their way back now and they are coming for you.

It all sounds like a new start for the club, a new era where the man in charge doesn’t hide from interviews for a decade, and whether you support United or not, the Premier League will be more energized when they to do that. competitive again. If Ratcliffe is involved, this is significantly more likely to happen.

Of course, for now it’s just words and slogans, the pursuit of easy victories in the game of hearts and minds before the real business. But it’s refreshing to see a United frontman able to bury open goals, even though we all know the substance will come from action.

So far they’ve been encouraging: the noise around the Old Trafford redevelopment is promising (leaving out some of the nonsense to get taxpayers to foot part of the bill) and the same goes for Omar Berrada’s landing and the pursuit of Dan Ashworth.

Erik ten Hag was believed to be open to the idea of ​​bringing Greenwood back when United discussed his future in a private inquiry last year

Ratcliffe’s comments have seemingly opened the door for a shocking return

The INEOS boss has also spoken out about the need to renovate Old Trafford

Ratcliffe suggested United may have to demolish their historic ground and build a new one

These moves indicate that they are finally seeing the need to focus on football and improve recruitment. It’s hard to imagine any of these individuals seeing merit in the vain signing of Cristiano Ronaldo a few years ago. That was the Glazers United of the quick fix; now they seem to have a vaguely sensible approach to structure, construction and environment.

If they get it right, the timing could be perfect: Jurgen Klopp is set to fly off Liverpool. There are 115 reasons why City could lose their footing and then there’s the question of whether Pep Guardiola will still be around after his contract expires in 2025.

Put another way, this is undoubtedly the point of greatest optimism at United since Ferguson retired.

It is a time when Financial Fair Play is an annoyance to Newcastle and when giant clubs with the biggest turnovers should be able to go the distance.

If Ratcliffe’s United play well, they have a huge amount to gain in the coming years. If they did that to the ambient chorus of “rapist,” that would be the kind of mistake they shouldn’t be making anymore.

Joe Hart’s spell at Celtic is the perfect end to his career

With Joe Hart’s announcement this week that he will retire at the end of the season, my thoughts turned back to 2016 and a trip to Turin. He had just joined Torino on loan from Manchester City at the start of his wilderness period and one response to a loaded question at his unveiling stood out.

He was asked for the best quality in a goalkeeper and Hart managed to say a lot in a short response: ‘Keeping the ball out of the net.’

Joe Hart will retire at the end of the season after a successful spell at Celtic

Hart did that part excellently and perhaps it has been a bit forgotten in recent years. His performance in City’s 1-0 defeat to Barcelona in 2015 has to be among the finest shots of recent years; another goalkeeper might have played well and conceded eight that night.

But he was never keen on his distribution and Pep Guardiola wanted a sweeper-keeper, so the rest is history. City would eventually sign Ederson, who has been tremendous, and Hart progressed to four clubs in five years, including two seasons in which he did not play a single league match.

I’m glad he was able to have a successful second appearance at Celtic because regardless of how the game has changed, he has earned the right to stand on his own two feet.