A Season in the Red: Managing Man UTD in the shadow of Sir Alex Ferguson by Jamie Jackson

Author:Jamie Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aurum

Chapter 15

Galacticos on Mancunian Way

Saturday, 23 August 2014 is a notable day for Manchester United aficionados. The club is back in (again) for Real Madrid’s Ángel Di María and the fee is to be a British record £59.7 million. This mega-deal signals that the post-Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United are trying to fast forward through innocence, growing pains, youth and adolescence to come of age. He-who-can-never-be-forgotten never will be. But dukes are bared and EdWoodward’s first headline foray into the transfer market for Louis van Gaal is to corral Di María for sixty million large ones. The manager wants Di María as he is a game-changer of record. His pace and trickery and football intelligence fits into the Van Gaal philosophy. Di María is talked up by Van Gaal publicly and seems more of the manager’s player than the first two summer arrivals, Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera, who were identified before he took over.

By the close of the transfer window, the purchase of Di María and the final-day deal for Radamel Falcao will be written up, imprinted in the rough draft of history, as The New Galactico Era. It marks a turning point in the grand tradition of United rearing the club’s own players. A look outward to the vistas rather than inwards to the fields of Carrington. As with all histories, this is not quite correct. Or, rather, like all histories, the yarn would benefit from a little more complexity. The truth is that United have always had a rich tradition of buying the best in show footballers – a few recent names would include Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney – and this did not stop the club continuing to develop and hothouse their own talent. So in acquiring Ángel Di María, United may simply be paying far more than ever before (a cool £22.6 million more than the £37.1 million spent on Juan Mata last January) for a footballer. Yet what Louis van Gaal is definitely not acquiring is a solution to the seemingly never-ending central-midfield issue. Di María is a pacey winger by trade. A player who turned May’s Champions League final for Real Madrid is more of an upgrade on Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia and Adnan Januzaj. This is what the evidence points to, anyway. He is an oven-ready, proven performer.

However, there is no doubt the Argentine would have stayed at Real if only they had wanted to keep him. This may not augur well as Di María tries to settle in. In a rather puzzling move he pens an open letter to Real fans saying: ‘Sadly the time has come for me to leave, but I would like to make it clear that it was never my wish.’ This is not the best way to introduce himself to United supporters. Admitting publicly that he never wanted to go means he does not really want to be at Old Trafford. The honesty is praiseworthy, but the cold truth is that Di María is a professional, signed for an astronomical fee.

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