Manchester United remain on the market. Manchester United remain in limbo. Manchester United remain a club of historic meaning and strength, yet Manchester United are also a sporting institution confounded by myriad modern issues.
Just two games into a new season, the club feels strangely fragile. Two less than convincing performances have brought three points and a lot of concern regarding the positional and attitudinal make-up of Erik ten Hag’s team. Is new captain Bruno Fernandes a captain? Mason Mount is a fine player, but is he an appropriate one for this side in this moment? Has Casemiro, at 31, lost a yard?
Does it not seem rather early to be considering these questions? After all, Ten Hag got to grips with his squad last season. He has ability and authority and he has so far been unable to use the summer signing who could reshape not just the formation of the starting XI, but the mood inside and around the club – Rasmus Hojlund.
Hojlund could make his debut today, possibly off the bench, against Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford – though Ten Hag suggested yesterday next week may be more likely. Regardless, United’s fans desire to see a ‘proper number 9′ again in red means Hojlund arrives amid panicky anticipation.
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He is 20 – and the initial €75 million United paid Atalanta for the Dane may reflect their free-spending as much as his talent – but Hojlund is not Wout Weghorst, nor Anthony Martial and United supporters are grateful for that alone. Hojlund should also be able to take some attention off Marcus Rashford – the Dane says he has done 100m in under 11 seconds, so opposition defenders will watch him go. Compatriot Christian Eriksen will help him assimilate and find him with passes.
Expectation is great.
A successful Hojlund introduction would have other benefits; because while we can say United are just two games into a season, it has been another drifting fortnight 18 years into the Glazer family ownership of the club. Architecture and morality have been themes of the 21st century at Old Trafford and the latter has dominated the week in the shape of Mason Greenwood and United’s hierarchy’s approach to his “situation”. The former, as in the state of the stadium, has been a worry for much longer.
So you can imagine it is not just at the Stretford End where hopes of Hojlund scoring a goal, making a difference, are high, it is in the boardroom too. A Hojlund winner, for example, would drag some of the focus away from Greenwood and the overall tension, which sees an hour-long sit-in planned by The 1958 grouping begin after the final whistle against Forest.
They have not had a good week, the people who make decisions in the name of Manchester United. Greenwood, not Hojlund, is the United forward everyone has been discussing and not many have been persuaded by the hierarchy’s motivation, process or conclusions.
It feels like Greenwood was viewed principally as an economic and sporting asset to be protected, rather than as a cocksure young man charged with attempted rape, coercive behaviour and assault.
Greenwood is not alone in his football bubble, where women and girls are seen as groupies to be ticked off, but that does not make the audio and video we have heard and seen any more palatable. There are, dismally, enough examples in the modern game to show that clubs cannot control their players 24 hours a day, and perhaps the Greenwood case says more about the conceited, sexualised off-pitch culture of professional football than United’s governance of its playing squad. Nonetheless, United emerge from this looking no more than a business concentrated on the bottom line.
That will not surprise supporters. The Glazers have been around so long opinion has hardened, so when fans read The 1958 statements such as “the club is rotten”, many nod in agreement. Rotten – that’s a big word, but it is accepted.
There is a difference between nodding and action, however. Fans – not just at United – generally want to be that, they do not want to be organising marches or protests against anyone. So while an undetermined number will stay in the ground post-Forest to show their ongoing displeasure, the majority would be satisfied, at least for one Saturday afternoon, by a sharp display of attacking football. They go to Old Trafford to be excited by the team in red, not to participate in the class struggle.
Essentially United fans wish these “owners” would depart and leave them to “their” club. The Glazers are meant to be in a sales process but it is into its ninth month and could be done tomorrow or five years from now. It’s opaque and unsatisfactory.
And each week Old Trafford gets older. It is still “gold Trafford” on matchday, when the queues at the megastore snake out the door and across the concourse – against Wolves on the opening night of the season, the queue almost reached the protesters – but as Real Madrid and Barcelona and Liverpool redevelop their homes, United fans look around Old Trafford sentimentally while wondering if it is fit for purpose. Theatre of Dreams doesn’t quite cover it any more.
At Tottenham last Saturday they were given a glimpse of what could be, a monument of a ground.
There Ten Hag was also given more than glimpses of what is. As he summarised: first half, proactive; second half, passive. End result: 2-0 loss. He has a team that has scored one goal in two games – defender Raphael Varane heading in defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross – after last season when United scored the fewest of the top six. They scored 30 fewer than Arsenal, one place above.
Hence the Hojlund hope. It is all the more prominent because the Varane goal camouflaged much of the reality of the game against Wolves, who broke through United’s midfield with pace and regularity. Wolves missed sitters and were denied a penalty in added time. It could easily have been a 2-1 away win. Those inside the stadium know this, which is why there is fragility and there is evidence Forest are as capable as Wolves on the counter. Steve Cooper’s team have the potential to make this distinctly uncomfortable.
This is why United fans do not know whether they are on the cusp of a bright season – back in the Champions League, no more Thursday nights, new signings – or this season’s Chelsea, ownership distractions included.
Next Thursday brings the Champions League draw; United’s participation will be a sign of renewed status. It is followed on Sunday by a trip to Arsenal; renewal and status will be assessed there as well.
