OPPOSITION VIEW: MAN UTD

Ahead of Saturday's game at the Stadium of Light, we had a good chat with United We Stand editor and journalist Andy Mitten about all things MUFC, memories of Sunderland and thoughts on how the season has gone for both sides. Plus, of course, we asked him about Amad Diallo...

3rd in the league with Champions League football secured, what's been the overall story of your season?

A slight surprise. At the start of the season the aim was to finish in a European spot - top six, before we started thinking about whether Conference League would be sufficient. If you think Man United’s standards have dropped, you’d have to look at where the team was a year ago, we finished 15th last year. Summer recruitment was perceived to be positive and when the season started the team were around 6th and 7th under Ruben Amorim. There were some frustrations but also some good moments - beating Sunderland at home with a clean sheet was one of them, beating Liverpool away was another.

Amorim lost his job in January, basically talking himself out of a job by being critical of his bosses twice in three days. Michael Carrick, a Geordie, was brought in as the interim manager after a week where Darren Fletcher had been caretaker manager. Carrick has overachieved, results have been excellent, he’s taken us from 7th to 3rd, Champions League qualification has been achieved for next year, he’s hit his targets.

He couldn’t do anything in the cups because we were already out of them! It’s been a really unusual season for us, we’ve gone from playing around 55-60 games down to 40 games. We went out of both domestic cups at the first stage and we also didn’t play European football, which for Manchester United is really unusual. It affects us - we do the UWS fanzine, I also work as a journalist, and your whole life changes because you’ve got 30% less of everything. That’s been the reality for Manchester United this season. We’ve had a week to prepare for most matches, that’s been advantageous. We’ve got quite a small squad but been fortunate with injuries. Carrick’s pretty calm and cool, and he’s beaten the rivals at the top: Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal… results have been really good. But nobody’s looking at this thinking ‘this is vintage Man United, this is a team that’s going to win the league next year’.

Do the fans WANT Carrick to get the job? And do they THINK he’ll get the job?

Yes and yes. I spoke to him at the press conference and he can’t give full answers, because he doesn’t know his future yet. Manchester United are running a process, which is what they have to do and they said they would, but he’s got the team into the Champions League and he’s got good coaches around him, and he’s done very well. He’s the clear favourite to get it. He might not want it - I strongly sense he does, though - but he’s gotten the team into a really good position. I think when he gets more of the players that he wants at the club, then things can hopefully improve even more. Recruitment has been decent but Manchester United can no longer blow other teams out the water with transfer fees. They can’t go to Tottenham and take a Dimitar Berbatov, or ironically a Michael Carrick, because the teams around them have bigger wage budgets and have European money. Man United have got to watch what they spend. We’re still an attractive club to come to, but they’ve got to be smart in recruitment - and they have been, under the new decision-makers.

What do fans think of the INEOS group and Sir Jim Ratcliffe?

It’s important to call them decision-makers, rather than owners, because we’ve still got the Glazers in the background. The Glazers will be viewed entirely negatively - they’re a cloud that have hung over Manchester United since 2005 when they took over the club in a highly leveraged and controversial buyout which I don’t think should have ever been allowed, for any football club, but it was because limp governance allowed for it. I wouldn’t wish it upon anybody. They loaded their debt onto the club which is like buying a house then getting someone else to pay your mortgage. So first, they are deeply unpopular and that’s why you see protests against them every single year. But since January 2024 you’ve had Ratcliffe and INEOS hold a 27% stake in United. Crucially for them, they’re in charge of all the footballing decisions. That was welcome, because they’re not the Glazers, but football fans are always ready to turn! Ratcliffe had a fair wind of support but the minute he started making unpopular decisions, that quickly diminished. He became an unpopular figure with some fans but he’s still nowhere near as unpopular as the Glazers and there are some who are realistic and say that anyone in charge of a football club has to make unpopular decisions. He’s put his foot in it a few times, in my opinion, with some of his public comments. The one about colonisation didn’t go down well with a lot of supporters, although some did agree with him. Whether you should be saying that when you’re in charge of Manchester United is another matter, because the club has got global support.

Recruitment under them has been good and they deserve credit for that. They made a lot of redundancies which were unpopular but you could argue strongly that they were needed, because the club was losing £90 million per year and the workforce had become bloated, with recruitment particular poor. I think you can absolutely push the positives on INEOS and Ratcliffe, and in football you are largely judged by what’s happening on the pitch. This season has been a good one. I’m not saying saying it’s one of the greatest seasons ever but it’s been a good one for Manchester United. We’re third, there have been some good games and results, and they just hope that this improvement continues.

We love Amad Diallo here, what do United fans think of him?

We like him. I know he loves Sunderland and I really like that. He had a very good loan spell at the Stadium of Light after a not-so-good loan at Rangers. Sunderland is a great football club and it was a great stepping stone for him - I don’t say that in a patronizing way but you were in the Championship at the time and he did well, playing every week and he was an exciting player. He’s popular here, although he was better last season than this season, and has lots of talent. I thought he’d do better this season but he’s good. Good isn’t good enough if you want to be winning league titles, and I think he knows that. He’s spoken very affectionately about his time at Sunderland and I totally get that.

How much money would it take to bring Amad back to Sunderland?

I speak to all the relevant people, and I’ve heard no indication that he’ll be leaving Manchester United. I was onto his story when he was still at Atalanta, he cost us a lot of money and took some criticism at the time but I think that decision has been vindicated. I know Sunderland fans reading this would love the idea of him coming back but, being realistic from all the sources I’ve got, I have not heard any indication at all that he might be leaving.

Who is your best player currently?

Bruno Fernandes is the best player. Casemiro has had a very good season but Fernandes is easily the best, and I don’t say that to reduce the players around him. Harry Maguire has come in and had a good season, Senne Lammens has been really good in goal, and all of the summer signings have done good - I’m deliberately saying good, not great - Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo. There have been hits and not many failures. Luke Shaw has had a very good season and Kobbie Mainoo has been very good since coming back in under Carrick. He wasn’t getting a game under the old manager. I would be saying, for the best player in the team, Bruno Fernandes and then Casemiro for this season. It’s a final farewell for the Brazilian, I spoke to him last week and he’s loving it, but he’s also one of the best-paid players in the world so it doesn’t really make much sense to keep him on those wages.

Do you reckon Bruno will break the assist record?

He’s close to it, on 19 which is staggering. These records are a sideshow though. It’s good and it’s impressive, but Man United want to be talking about winning league titles and cups, not assist records. He is one of the players that can make a difference. He’s hugely popular, the best signing of the post-Ferguson era by some distance. Hopefully he’ll break the record at Sunderland so you can all buzz off that and do the Poznan like you did in 2012!

Any weak spots that RLB will look to exploit?

It’s not a big squad and this isn’t a team who can dominate. I went to Everton the other night and watched Man City completely dominate the first 30 minutes, it’s very difficult for United to do that. They haven’t quite got the players and that’s why they’re not winning the league.

Thoughts on Sunderland?

I’ve watched Sunderland a few times this season. Away to Burnley in August, I met a few Mackems, really liked them, had a good chat outside the ground, and loved the huge numbers of Sunderland coaches heading back after the game. I had a really good feeling about the football club and I love the fact that you’re back in the Premier League. I’ve been up there so many times.

I was at Anfield when you got the draw in December, I went to write a piece about Liverpool, sitting in the press box and the away end was absolutely bouncing. Obviously I didn’t really want Liverpool to win that game and I was just sitting there smiling to myself. It just felt like it was just good to have Sunderland back.

I should mention Louise who ran the media at Sunderland for a long time and passed away a few years ago, she was lovely to deal with.

In 2006, a Spanish footballer friend of mine told me ‘I’ve got offers to go to three football clubs: Hearts, Southampton or Sunderland. Where should I go?’ and I told him to sign for Sunderland. He went, did a trial and got given a three-year contract under Niall Quinn. I went to see him in Sunderland several times. That was Arnau Riera. It didn’t quite work out for him but he was very good friends with Julio Arca, who I also got to know really well. I wouldn’t have recommended Sunderland if I didn’t have a high opinion of the club, being a proper football place.

He would pop into ALS often and actually joined the ALS five-a-side team!

I could tell you loads of mad stuff about Arnau, I’m still really good friends with him now. I spoke to him the other day - the agent who did the deal actually died this week. Arnau is now living back in Mallorca as a social worker, helping children from very troubled backgrounds. He doesn’t tell any of them that he used to be Lionel Messi’s captain for Barca B! He’s the most modest lad, a great lad, and Julio is a top lad as well.

Thoughts on our fans?

I went to Gateshead last month so I know it’s not a given to get the support you get, but you get around 47,000 and it’s brilliant. I really like it. I have happy memories of Roker Park, apart from when it pissed down, and just respect for the city. I’m looking forward to going because I think it’s eight or nine years since we’ve been up there. Bring it on. I love the fact that ALS is still going, and still going in print as well, because there’s not many. Leeds do, Everton have got a new fanzine which was great to see the other night, and I’ve known lads involved with ALS for a long, long time. I’m talking in complementary tones because I mean it.

Finally, what's your score prediction? Goalscorers?

I’m going to go for 2-1 to Manchester United. I would have said Marc Guiu actually because I really like him, but he went straight back to Chelsea at the start of the season! I’m not watching you closely enough to know who’s going to score for you. I’m hesitating for United too because we haven’t got one main goalscorer who is prolific. I think Sesko could become that person. Given your struggles defending set pieces recently, I could see Casemiro scoring a header from a set piece - Bruno with the assist!