Graeme Souness is the best pundit in the business. Forthright in his views, I sit up and pay attention whenever he appears on TV. But adopting a strong, instinctive opinion can haunt a football analyst.
Especially someone as authoritative as Souness. He made a bad call on Casemiro last August, branding the Brazilian sub-world class and part of Manchester United’s ongoing sickness of overpaying for players. Paying £70 million (€78.8 million) for a 30-year-old is worth questioning, and that’s Souness’s job, to swim against the tide. But within weeks everyone could see Roy Keane 2.0 had arrived.
Not Souness. Confirmation bias is difficult to shake. As recently as January, he softened his cough and doubled down in the same breath, clearly unable to see a player made in his own likeness. The killer line for me was: “Real Madrid, obviously, decided that there is someone better in that position and chose to sell him.”
Aurélien Tchouameni was outstanding for France at the World Cup but Real’s 23-year-old replacement for Casemiro has, so far, paled in comparison. Tchouameni can reach Casemiro’s level but he’s some way off being the best midfielder in the game. Being number one demands the ability to make everyone around you better.
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I watch far too much football. La Liga tends to be top of the list and Casemiro is the embodiment of Jürgen Klopp’s recently outdated description of his Liverpool players. He’s United’s “mentality monster”.
Souness was right on one point, Casemiro was only a cog in the wheel as Real won five Champions League titles. On entering Old Trafford, he knew precisely what needed doing. Night one he found Roy on the sideline doing television for Sky and paid his dues, before taking control of the Premier League.
The Brazilian’s headed goal in the Carabao Cup final defeat of Newcastle United had a strong whiff of Keane in his pomp. A natural leader, Casemiro will relish entering Anfield at 4.30pm on Sunday. Seasons rise and fall with this fixture.
Oh how the worm turns. United are primed to correct recent humiliations while Liverpool are losing sight of Champions League qualification. Swings and roundabouts. Football cliches in Technicolor, all because the penny finally dropped in the Glazer household.
Erik ten Hag was always the right answer; a modern coach with a clear philosophy as opposed to failed investments in once great managers – Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho – or blind faith in former United players lacking any discernible pedigree.
To be fair, Alex Ferguson handpicked David Moyes as his successor in 2013. Arguably the right man for the job, just at the wrong time, it took 10 years, zero league titles and £1.4 billion in transfer fees on 54 players before Casemiro was acquired.
[ ‘Because they didn’t spend’: Pep Guardiola jokes about Manchester United droughtOpens in new window ]
Casemiro was the second club-altering decision Ten Hag made since arriving from Ajax last summer. The first was getting rid of Cristiano Ronaldo, with undeniable proof coming via Marcus Rashford’s 25 goals across all competitions.
Suddenly, having ended United’s six-year trophy drought, everything seems possible again. If United can go to Anfield and match Manchester City and Arsenal’s wins on Saturday, there is still the possibility of a three-horse title race. Nobody could have predicted that after the 4-0 drubbing at Brentford last August when Ronaldo played 90 minutes with Rashford struggling wide left.
The club had all sorts of problems, none greater than their Ronaldo albatross. On the pitch, David De Gea looked incapable of playing out to feet and future World Cup winner Lisandro Martínez appeared too small to survive as a centre half in English football.
The Spaniard and the Argentinian are currently indispensable.
Right up to the World Cup, Ronaldo tantrums were still dragging the club into disrepute. Then the dam broke. One of the game’s great strikers stained his legacy with that Piers Morgan interview, reaffirming one of the oldest rules in the book; no one person is bigger than an institution like Manchester United.
Ten Hag held his nerve and restocked the squad, spending £220 million on players, all the while guided by the data. With a modern manager at play, United fans can realistically expect to finish runners-up in the Premier League and win two trophies come season’s end.
Even the Qatari takeover threat appears to have been the Glazers merely testing the market.
United go to Anfield 13 points clear of the dishevelled hosts in free fall under Klopp. The fickleness of it all is stark. Even “Sir Alex” has reappeared, with easy comparisons to his European success at Aberdeen needing four years to translate into a trophy, the 1990 FA Cup. In the modern world, four years needed whittling down to seven months as Ten Hag captured the Carabao Cup.
The history of Man United never repeats itself, but it rhymes again. The same Strongman message Ferguson delivered by chopping Paul McGrath and Norman Whiteside, was evident when Ten Hag dropped and removed Ronaldo.
Unlike previous bluffers out of their depth as United manager, Ten Hag definitely means what he says. The resurrection is real but so is the Glazers intent to siphon millions out of the club year on year. It’s their cash cow. Why would they sell?
