I’ve often said that we should be looking more at players already playing in the English Premier League (EPL). The issue I’ve often found when I’ve mentioned players from other EPL clubs is that it’s often met with snobbery from other Manchester United fans. I think fans prefer the more exotic and unknown players signed from foreign clubs on the continent.
Yet the fact is that most of our best signings have come from other EPL clubs, players like Roy Keane, Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie amongst many others. Of course we’ve made good signings from abroad, Schmeichel, Vidic, Stam and Evra all spring to mind.
I like the idea of a 30-40-30 split in terms of squad building. 30% of the players come from our own academy. These players are brought up within the club culture, and help maintain it.
40% of the players are recruited from either the EPL or the Championship. These players know and understand the culture of English football, and are settled and proven capable in our domestic leagues. Some of them might become stars, others just very solid and dependable players. You might not have the same potential with getting a bargain, but overall the value for money is better as they are less likely to fail and guarantee at least a minimal level of performance. You know what you’re getting.
The final 30% should be transfers from abroad. These should fit into two categories; with the first category, most should be bought for lower fees than equivalent players from our domestic leagues, and they should be younger with more potential. The younger the better as they tend to adapt easier than older players.
The second category should be top level talents who have world class potential or proven world class ability. Until we are back regularly challenging for titles, I doubt we will be able to make many of these type of signings, although maybe Yoro would fit this category (he definitely would if he had maybe another year or two of experience and top level performances under his belt) .
It’s not an exact level, but it should be around 70% of your squad have either come through the academy or been signed from domestic clubs and understand the football culture in England. You need these players to be the backbone of your squad, the leaders in the dressing room, the club culture setters. That way the other 30% will fit in to that culture within the dressing room, and you avoid having a fractured and clique filled dressing room. You can foster a togetherness, a United team spirit.
I think that is where we have really gone wrong with recruitment under the Glazer ownership over the past decade. Without SAF to dictate that dressing room culture, and to vet the players being brought into it, we have lost that winners mentality – That team spirit.
Too many players brought in from across the pond, have formed cliques and groups within the dressing room, some of which our young academy players who were breaking through got pulled into. Some big stars with big egos, some players with big egos, but not proven yet as top players.
Two many sub-groups within the dressing room. Be that the ‘Remainers’ from SAF (Rooney, Carrick, Evra etc), the Spanish speaking group (DDG, Herrera, Mata etc), the Pogba clique (Pogba, Rashford, Lingard etc). The balance wasn’t right to keep the winning culture, that togetherness, that fighting for each other for the badge.
To correct this, we need to get back to what has not only been successful for us, but for every other top club in England. Such as the Liverpool title winning team that had a core of players who had come through the British academies or signed from English clubs (TAA, Robertson, Gomez and VvD, Henderson, Wijnuldum, and Mane). Seven of the starting 11 had come from their academy or signed from a domestic club. While Alisson, Fabinho, Salah and Firmino were the ones signed from European clubs (Salah did have previous EPL experience at Chelsea).
We need to look more closely at players in the EPL and the championship, for that matter. Adam Wharton will likely leave Palace for north of £60m at least in the next couple of seasons, yet could have been bought from the championship for under £20m. While Jude Bellingham left the championship to join Dortmund, and Archie Grey joined Spurs from Leeds. Many EPL breakout youngsters tend to do so after spending a year on loan in the championship. Our own Amad Diablo is one example, Delap, Palmer, Rodgers, and Bradley etc. are others.
There are many players we should be looking at from domestic rivals, Mbeumo, Cunha, Delap, Semenyo, Huijsen, Kerkez, Joao Gomes, Baleba, Verbruggen, Dibling, Mateus Fernandes, Ugochukwu, Hermansen, Wharton, Guehi, Eze, Mateta, Henderson, Robinson, Gibbs-White, Murillo and Branthwaite are all examples of players who would improve us and are all at clubs where we should be able to sign them from.
Obviously, we aren’t going to be able to sign good players from City, Liverpool or Arsenal right now, but I’ve also not included players at Spurs, Villa, Newcastle and Chelsea either as we are unlikely to be able to sign their better players right now.
In the championship, there are players like Hackney, Bellingham, Rigg, and Trafford who all stand out. We need to be recruiting more from the domestic leagues to get back to where we need to be.
Written by Shappy April 16 2025 11:49:00
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