When Brazilian midfielder Casemiro left Real Madrid for Manchester United in the summer of 2022, he told a teammate he couldn’t believe how much he was paid. Just over a season and a half later, United are still counting on the costs of that decision.
Casemiro could leave United in the coming week and Saudi Arabia could be the destination. No surprise there. Who else will take a player who, at the age of 32, is earning over £300,000 a week and has two and a half years left on his contract?
Even by modern standards, the numbers surrounding the Casemiro deal are extraordinary. A transfer of £70m over four years at £1.2m per month. That’s a total spend of almost £150 million.
In return, United got a good season from the South American last time out. He gave Erik ten Hag’s midfield some balance, security and intelligence. He scored a goal in a Carabao Cup final and helped United back into the Champions League positions.
Even by modern standards, the numbers surrounding the Casemiro deal are extraordinary
However, he subsequently found the physical demands of the Premier League too high. He has barely featured this season due to injury and as a result has become a symbol of the short-term, overpriced transfer policy that United must now abandon under Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Clubs have always made mistakes in the transfer market, but few have done so as spectacularly and extravagantly as United in recent times.
Once upon a time – when life was simpler in the top division – it was possible to overpay for a short-term lift. When there were no profit and sustainability rules yet
In the Premier League, clubs can hit a player financially as long as it gets him where he needs to go.
This is no longer the case. So when United were working under a £150 million transfer cap last summer to balance the books, when they simply couldn’t bring the quality and depth to Ten Hag’s squad that it so desperately needed, it was transfer deals like Casemiro that stuck. around their necks like a band.
There have been others over the years. Angel di Maria, signed despite the scouting team’s warnings, was one. Alexis Sánchez was another.
So did Anthony Martial, who was signed by Louis van Gaal and Ed Woodward without the knowledge of the recruitment team in 2015 and is now heading towards the end of a nine-year residency that has yielded little more than a debut goal against Liverpool.
So as Ratcliffe prepares to welcome his first major signing, Omar Berrada, to his United squad, this is the culture of ill-conceived, injudicious spending that should be consigned to the past.
Much has been said and written about Berrada in the past week, largely because he has been lured from Manchester City.
The French-Moroccan, 45, will become United’s new CEO. There is some excitement about this. The appointment is apparently a ‘coup’, with the Manchester Evening News quickly compiling a list of Berrada’s ‘Six Best Man City Signings’. Erling Haaland is, unsurprisingly, one of them.
The new CEO Omar Berrada can have an important influence here. He can stop United’s overspending – or perhaps we should say errant spending – in an instant
I’ll reserve judgment on Berrada’s impact at United until we start to see his fingerprints on some smarts, some common sense and some progress.
But what I do know is that he didn’t do the recruitment at City.
Berrada is incredibly highly regarded at the Etihad Stadium and leaves with a reputation as a good man who has made a huge contribution to the club’s success in recent years.
City don’t want Berrada to leave, but he didn’t do the recruitment. Not at all. That has always been the domain of football director Txiki Begiristain and coach Pep Guardiola.
Berrada’s role included arranging contract arrangements for a new player once he has agreed to join the club.
The case of Casemiro, who has barely played this season due to injury, has become a symbol of the short-term, overpriced transfer policy that United must now abandon under Sir Jim Ratcliffe, photo
He can therefore exert an important influence here. He can stop United’s overspending – or perhaps we should say errant spending – in an instant. But in terms of preventing his club from looking at 82 right-backs across Europe and opting for one player at Crystal Palace – as United did by signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka for £45m in 2019 – that will be down to which Ratcliffe also, presumably with Berrada’s input. , decides to take on as football director.
According to those in the know, and this includes people at City, United appear to have added an important piece to the puzzle by hiring Berrada. He is a great talent.
But it will take more than a new CEO to ignite a culture of waste, short-termism and poor judgment overnight.
Someone from Etihad said to me this week that City usually start looking for new players two years before they feel they need them. This means that, for example, the search for Kyle Walker’s replacement is already underway.
United claim Casemiro was always in their sights and had long been on a wish list. If that was the case, why did they ultimately decide to buy it when it was too expensive and, quite frankly, too old?
It is this shock-and-awe approach to transfers that has partly held United back for a decade. They won’t even start making up all this lost ground until it stops.
On our It’s All Kicking Off podcast on Monday, Chris Sutton and I talked about our favorite managerial meltdown from our post-football years.
Kevin Keegan, Arsene Wenger and Phil Brown were on my list, but Chris made it a little further down the pyramid.
Make a cup of tea and type John Sitton into YouTube. You will have no regrets.
It took new boss Ange Postecoglou about a fortnight to change the mood on matchday at Tottenham.
Antonio Conte left behind a funeral home and the Postecoglou team turned it into a nightclub with Robbie Williams on stage.
Meanwhile, in London, at Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino blames the bad atmosphere on the sins of the past. “The disappointment for the fans comes from last season,” said the Chelsea manager.
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This is very tangible nonsense. Football fans respond to what they see in front of them, not what they remember from another time.
We don’t need the Postecoglou equation to help us here, but we’ll do it anyway.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has spoken out harshly this week after racist abuse marred matches in Italy and our own championship, at Sheffield Wednesday.
“The events that took place are completely abhorrent,” he said. ‘The affected players have my unqualified support. FIFA expresses its full solidarity with any form of discrimination.’
This is the same Infantino who brought his World Cup to Qatar and his Club World Cup to Saudi Arabia. He is the most empty vessel in football. He is as stupid as he is insincere and that is quite an achievement.
Kalvin Phillips is on his way to West Ham on loan from Manchester City and I’m happy about that.
The midfielder is a very good player with a good attitude, but his City career was over within weeks of joining from Leeds two summers ago.
The three medals he took last season must feel a bit worthless on reflection. He will play regularly at West Ham and that should please England manager Gareth Southgate, as much as the return to form and fitness of Ben Chilwell at Chelsea and Joe Gomez at Liverpool.
The European Championship starts in five months in Germany and Southgate will certainly welcome some tough decisions to be made.