Ed Woodward to MUTV in July 2015: “When people see Bastian Schweinsteiger on the teamsheet, that’s going to send some shivers down the spine.” This prediction by Manchester United’s then executive vice-president, about Louis van Gaal’s new midfield signing, proved to be badly off-target as the World Cup-winner’s career at the club proved to be a disappointment.
Two years after Woodward’s bullish statement, Schweinsteiger departed for Chicago Fire with a paltry 35 appearances and two goals for United on his CV, having been forced to train for a while with the youngsters by José Mourinho, Van Gaal’s successor. Here, in microcosm, is the story of virtually all midfield recruits by United for a generation. The hope at the club is that this trend changed this summer, with the arrivals of Youri Tielemans for £35m from Aston Villa and Andrey Santos for £48m plus £2m in add-ons, from Chelsea, with the manager, Michael Carrick, also closing in on Brighton’s Carlos Baleba for a fee in the region of £70m.
You have to go back to Carrick’s own £18m transfer from Tottenham in 2006 for the last elite-level midfielder bought by United, who arrived with his peak years ahead of him and went on to be a consistent force for many years, a strange dereliction of duty for a lineage that boasts Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Paul Ince, Bryan Robson, Nobby Stiles, alongside other A-list acts.
Since Carrick, Paul Pogba purchased by Mourinho a decade later for a club-record £93.2m possessed the highest ceiling, but the Frenchman was unable to return even seven or eight-out-of-10 displays in most games. Casemiro, who departed Old Trafford in May, came from Real Madrid in 2022 as a five-times Champions League-winner but, at 30, his best years were firmly behind him, and of his four years at United, only the first and last could be rated as high level.
Cite any other signing who has patrolled United’s midfield since Carrick and you are naming mediocrity in a United shirt, at best: Fred, Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera, Sofyan Amrabat, Daley Blind and Manuel Ugarte among those on that list. The exception is a home-reared player – Kobbie Mainoo. And even a teenager who scored the winner in United’s 2024 FA Cup final triumph against Manchester City and started England’s 2-1 Euro final loss by Spain that summer, was discarded by Ruben Amorim before Carrick’s mid-January appointment, after the Portuguese’s sacking, saved his United career.
So we arrive at the start of a new campaign and Carrick’s move to end this poor engine-room policy reaches Baleba. If the 22-year-old is acquired, he will join Santos, another No 6, and Tielemans, a No 8 who will compete with Mainoo, in a central cadre that has legs, skill, aggression and knowhow. Mason Mount has also shown to be a another viable midfield option during pre-season. The 27-year-old operated with accomplishment as an attacking midfielder before sustaining his latest injury in the draw with Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month.
It is the latest setback for Mount, but Carrick has brushed aside any concerns regarding his robustness. “First of all Mason is a top player – we have seen that he was one of our best players in the first games,” the manager said. “He was outstanding and has picked up a bit of a knock. But there are no dramas. He has missed some football over recent years and he wants to be fit and be in full rhythm and we want to help him. Mason will be back soon.”
United travel to Hull on Saturday before hosting Ipswich a week on Sunday. Games against two newly promoted teams represent a favourable launch to Carrick’s first full campaign in charge, albeit he branded as “ridiculous” the view that it was an easy start. Yet factor in how a trip to Everton is United’s third game before Manchester City arrive at Old Trafford on 13 September and this is undoubtedly a golden chance for United to plant a flag as a potential title contender.
Reviving United amid the chaos of Amorim’s departure and finishing third last year was a fine effort by Carrick. Yet when he took over, the team were already out of both domestic cups and not in Europe. That left 17 games for the then caretaker to navigate. Now Carrick has a full programme of Premier League, Champions League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup fixture before him: a litmus test of his side, as well as of the 45-year-old.
A squad with the requisite depth of quality is beginning to form. If Baleba is added alongside a left-back – Newcastle’s Lewis Hall and Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly remain on the radar – by 1 September, then Carrick will have been bolstered by four new major transfers. There remains question marks regarding the centre-back unit but ultimately the manager can have no excuses.
Of Hull being an unknown quantity, Carrick said: “That is the beauty of the new season, for teams coming up there tend to be a few changes, that is the challenge playing against them – we are fully aware of that. Mentally and physically we have done a lot of work”. The last comment applies especially to the surgery undertaken to United’s midfield. At 12.30pm on Saturday, at the MKM Stadium, the picture of how good this has been will begin to emerge.
