Manager: Louis van Gaal
Last season: 7th
Major signings: Ander Herrera (Undisclosed, Athletic Bilbao), Luke Shaw (£27 million, Southampton), Vanja Milinkovic (Undisclosed, FK Vojvodina).
Players out: Ryan Giggs (retired), Patrice Evra (£1.2 million, Juventus), Nemanja Vidic (free, Inter Milan), Rio Ferdinand (released, QPR), Bebe (£2.4 million, Benfica), Alexander Buttner (Undisclosed, Dynamo Moscow), Federico Macheda (released, Cardiff City), Jack Barmby (free, Leicester City).
Expectations: Expectations are always likely to be high for a team that has finished in the top three in 21 of the 22 seasons the Premier League has been in existence, but Manchester United fans have been forced to take stock after last season’s annus horribilis, when the Red Devils finished a lowly seventh as the David Moyes era proved dramatically short-lived.
There were other factors – an ageing squad, the superiority of the other title challengers and the lack of investment in certain areas (i.e midfield) – but Moyes always gave the impression that the job was too big for him, something that won’t pose a problem for the supremely confident Dutchman who will slot his considerable behind into the ass groove left by the Scot in the Old Trafford dugout.
Pre-season form is never a reliable barometer of what one can expect in the season ahead, but that said, Van Gaal has made an overwhelmingly positive impression so far, wasting no time in imposing his philosophy, his style of play and his authority over his players, three areas where his predecessor failed and failed miserably at that.
Van Gaal’s influence can only paper over some of the cracks that have become increasingly visible at Old Trafford and no United fan should kid themselves that he alone can inspire a return to past glories at the flick of a switch.
With Ferdinand, Evra and Vidic all gone, United badly need experience at the back and despite the arrival of Herrera, they could still do with at least one more body in the centre of midfield and possibly a wide player of real substance.
Van Gaal will also need to clear out some of the deadwood that have been happily picking up big pay cheques without doing much to deserve them in recent years and if he can get the right men in and the right men out then a significant improvement on last season should be well within his reach.
Irish angle: Michael Keane was one of a number of young players to impress Van Gaal during the summer tour in the US and he has represented Ireland at under-age level in the past.
Both himself and twin brother Will (who is also on United’s books but hasn’t represented Ireland… yet) have made it pretty clear that their international future lies with England, but until they appear at senior level, they’ll be eligible for the Boys in Green so until then we’ll keep clutching at those straws thank you very much.
If they were a fictional character… they’d be Mr. Burns after he lost his fortune in The Simpsons. The Red Devils were the club that had become used to having it all, but complacency and some bad decisions led to their eminence being taken away from them in one fell swoop.
Like Burns (with his Little Lisa recycling plant), United are trying a different approach in an attempt to reclaim their position at the top and like Burns, they’ll be hoping that the decline is only a temporary one. Let’s just hope Louis van Gaal doesn’t end up being hauled away from the supermarket while trying to work out the difference between ketchup and catsup.
Where will they end up? Despite some serious competition – Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool to name but a few – we think that Van Gaal will just about guide United into the top four, provided there are a couple of new arrivals before the end of August.
