COMMENT: Not a matchwinner, so they say. Not a gamechanger, apparently. Behave. Manchester United fans should be celebrating Casemiro’s arrival today, not running it down…
Need to know what this deal actually means? Then go to the source. To Madrid. Where there’s real concern about the Casemiro sale. The Madridistas of Marca. The Los Merengues of AS. No-one’s celebrating this sale. Not even at Casemiro’s price.
He may be the second richest transfer for an over-30 player, but as Tomas Roncero, of El Chiringuito fame among others, pointed out, in a world where Marc Cucurella is now rated at over €75m. Or Morgan Gibbs-White is now a €55m prospect. United paying €70m for a player of Casemiro’s quality is a snip.
And Roncero isn’t alone. In Madrid, there’s a collective pundits’ lament. Yes, Casemiro’s departure is tempered by the summer arrival of Aurelien Tchouameni. But like Eduardo Camavinga, Tchouameni is still learning the game. He doesn’t have the consistency, nor authority, to run Real Madrid’s midfield as Casemiro has these past 6-7 years. Indeed, the plan was for Casemiro to mentor both French youngsters before eventually handing over the baton permanently.
But that plan is now up in smoke. And the beneficiary is Manchester United.
Not a gamechanger? These cynics need to have a look at themselves. Casemiro changes everything at Manchester United.
Now David de Gea’s back four has a defensive screen to protect them. Now Harry Maguire has a ball-winner ahead of him to ease his workload. Now United’s green midfield has a leader to organise them. You want to talk about a difference maker? A player to parachute in and lift everyone around him? Then Casemiro is that man.
No longer will it be left to Scott McTominay and Fred to learn their roles on the run. Fred arrived at United as an inside-forward from Shakhtar Donetsk. McTominay, now 25, is still trying to get to grips with the defensive position demanded of him. They have their good games and their bad. Which is all the result of two players still trying to learn the art of the defensive midfielder.
In contrast, Casemiro is the epitome of that player. The example. The role model. Is it a fluke that Fred has played his best football these past 12 months with Brazil and not United? This is what awaits this United team. And inside the front office, whoever was behind this one should be celebrated.
We know it wasn’t Erik ten Hag. Casemiro has no connection to United’s manager. The Brazil international an outlier in United’s approach to this summer’s market. And that’s a good thing. Indeed, it’s another gamechanger.
As we warned in previous columns, Ten Hag is getting it wrong in the transfer market. At least for the here and now. Lisandro Martinez, given his career arc, has everything to make it at Old Trafford. Ditto Tyrell Malacia. But a Premier League manager signs such players as projects. They’re not expected to step in and immediately compete at the highest level in club football. The intensity is relentless. The scrutiny ruthless. Lisandro is copping all that now – and much of it is down to his old Ajax coach.
Wim van Hanegem, of that great Dutch team of the 1970s, made a plea to Ten Hag in the aftermath of Brentford: “…what I also find strange is that there are all the names of possible purchases that Ten Hag has already worked with. I wouldn’t do it and certainly not at Manchester United. Lisandro Martínez was already burned down and they charge extra for that to the trainer who worked with him.”
Frenkie de Boer. Antony. Marko Arnautovic. They all could be wearing Manchester United shirts today – and would be in the same position as Lisandro and Malacia. That someone inside the club, whether it be John Murtough, the football director, or chief exec Richard Arnold, managed to wrest back the shopping list from Ten Hag and act on that agents’ chatter of an unsettled Casemiro, could well have rescued the manager’s job.
As we said last week, Ten Hag’s position isn’t in doubt. And internally he isn’t under pressure. But again, you go to the source, and inside the Dutch game they’re not whispering the name, but screaming it from the rooftops: Frank de Boer. There’s a real concern in Holland that Ten Hag will be eaten up just as De Boer was by Inter Milan and Crystal Palace after his success in Amsterdam.
So there is precedent. Particularly for Dutch football. Mark van Bommel another to suffer, lasting just months at VfL Wolfsburg before getting back in the game at Royal Antwerp this season after a call from Marc Overmars.
But that won’t happen at United. And not to Ten Hag. Not now with Casemiro to call upon. The one signing to knit it altogether. Problems at the back. Inconsistency in midfield. The Brazilian’s arrival fixes that.
Not a gamechanger? Behave. The arrival of Casemiro changes everything at Manchester United this season.
