Man United must stop throwing money at every problem
Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has vowed to back manager Jose Mourinho to the tune of £200m in the summer, as per the Sun.
However, surely United know by now that just throwing money at their ills in the transfer market is not a foolproof solution.
What’s the story?
Mourinho signed a new Old Trafford deal in January, extended his projected stay at the club until 2020 and Woodward wants to show that he believes the former Real Madrid manager is the right man for the job.
The report claims that Woodward’s faith will manifest itself as a £200m war chest in the summer transfer window and that he will work closely with his manager to secure yet more expensive transfer targets.
It is also claimed that some of that cost will be offset by player sales with Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones all at risk.
The fact that the aforementioned are all defenders may give some indication where Mourinho plans to spend the windfall.
Money won’t solve all Mourinho’s problems
Of course, on the whole, having better players means that a team will play better but the turnover in the playing staff at Old Trafford has been dramatic in recent years and it has only really led to disjointed football from a squad built by three different managers.
Mourinho needs his own men in and some of the players that are leftover from the days of Sir Alex Ferguson are patently not good enough.
But the former Inter boss is paid big money to coach an improvement out of his players, not to ostracise them and then buy new ones all the time.
Of the signings Mourinho has made at United; Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have left the club already, Eric Bailly has had injury problems, Victor Lindelof has failed to settle and Paul Pogba’s problems have been well-publicised.
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Nemanja Matic has been the holding player United have lacked for years but still shows signs of fatigue, while Romelu Lukaku has scored goals but has often failed to convince in the big games.
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So, why do Woodward and Mourinho think money is the answer? Look at their two biggest rivals – Manchester City and Liverpool and improvement has been coached out of players such as Raheem Sterling and Roberto Firmino.
United need to catch up and do that. Mourinho can’t just buy his way out of trouble every time.