The tweet from the Manchester United account read: “We hope you were paying attention to last night’s training video.” The link provided supporters with a refresher of five things they may have missed in the footage from the second day of training at St Andrews.
More interesting than some of the perfunctory pointers was the return of Fred, in the background of the lead image attached to the round-up. ‘Jesse Lingard gives it the eyes’ made the cut instead.
There has been a bit of hullabaloo from the frenzied faction of United’s internet following over the training squad this week. Where is Sancho? Where is Pogba? Where is Cavani? Where is Fred? A friend even texted on behalf of another friend asking those questions.
Fred and Pogba crossed the border on Tuesday and Sancho is due at Carrington on Friday. Cavani’s absence is curious (Uruguay were eliminated from the Copa America almost five weeks ago) but this is a 34-year-old striker who was at loggerheads over his availability with United in February and March. The duration of his break will have almost certainly been agreed.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s man-management has helped extend his premiership into a third year. He has never nibbled at the bait Mino Raiola has dangled and Paul Pogba has hitherto had an excellent 2021.
Fred enjoyed a second July wedding in 2019 (to the same woman) and missed the Perth leg of the pre-season tour. That would be an unforgivable decision in the eyes of many managers. Solskjaer understood and Fred has become one of his most pivotal players.
Everyone feels valued. Solskjaer awarded Andreas Pereira United’s goal of the season before the season had started for his Tony Yeboah tribute against Brentford. Phil Jones has travelled to Scotland and earned sympathy from a manager who endured the mental and physical toil of a knee injury. The ‘true’ Lingard has returned.
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What the aforementioned three players share in common is they are all surplus. Pereira nor Jones would get into a second United XI and almost every decision Solskjaer has taken with Lingard over the last 18 months has been to marginalise him.
Lingard is 29 in December, out of contract next year, has not started for United in the Premier League since New Year’s Day 2020 and he spent the second half of last season on loan. Lingard’s only starts for United in 2020-21 were against Championship opponents.
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Still, he is one of the fittest footballers at United and has enjoyed a superior calendar year than Anthony Martial and Donny van de Beek. Lingard is reaping the benefits of a full and fruitful pre-season and most United supporters would rather have Lingard off the left than Daniel James.
There is also the mitigation of Martial and Van de Beek’s fitness and form, Cavani’s return date, Sancho’s eight-day pre-season and Marcus Rashford’s shoulder surgery. Little wonder Lingard is still a United player.
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There is now indecision for what appeared to be a straightforward decision. It is still straightforward: Lingard is inessential and, if an acceptable fee is submitted before 11pm on August 31, his sale has to be sanctioned.
Pereira and Jones should also be in the departures’ lounge. Maintaining an unwanted player’s resale value in the final weeks of a window is a tactful balancing act. Jones, seemingly unsellable, has no value and Pereira is not an eight-figure footballer.
Solskjaer is not the type to ostracise a player, like Louis van Gaal was with Victor Valdes or Jose Mourinho with Bastian Schweinsteiger. Romelu Lukaku pushed Solskjaer to the brink by posting sensitive training data and avoided sessions with the Under-23s only because he absconded to Anderlecht.
The last time Phil Jones played for United, the club had still not signed Bruno Fernandes
Teden Mengi, Hannibal Mejbri and Shola Shoretire have not been visible in training this week. Anthony Elanga has also not been accounted for, though it would be perverse to omit a forward under consideration for a full-time first-team promotion.
Pereira has played 169 minutes across United’s three pre-season games – 108 minutes more than Mejbri and 75 more than Shoretire. Mejbri, 18, and Shoretire, 17, signed three-year contracts earlier in the year while Pereira was warming Lazio’s bench. Whatever the nuances, they are being bed-blocked.
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If Jones, 29, is serious about prolonging his playing career he will actively seek a move, accept a salary cut, possibly even drop down a tier. He has started two league games in the last two years and this is not a season for sentiment at United.
Sancho nor Raphael Varane are with the squad at St Andrews and the top and bottom of their intended first XI are also missing. Victor Lindelof and Nemanja Matic could conceivably start against Leeds next Saturday.
Almost every squad is having to contend with player shortages. Manchester City’s front four against Blackpool on Tuesday night read Mahrez, Edozie, Palmer and Knight and Caoimhin Kelleher has been in goal for Liverpool. City and Chelsea are scrambling for a striker, a market United have sensibly eschewed.
It is high-time they entered the seller’s market. United have not been proactive sellers since they felt shortchanged by the fire sale Van Gaal lit. Jonny Evans, Michael Keane, Wilfried Zaha and Javier Hernandez became substantially more valuable after they left United.
The pandemic has made clubs more obdurate and an eminently sellable asset in Chris Smalling was only sold to Roma last year on deadline day. Pereira, Jones and Lingard were always destined to be in Manchester in August.
With United now placing an emphasis on outgoings, the eyes are on Lingard.
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