Erik ten Hag left Manchester United 14th in one Premier League table and second in another. Had the Dutchman figured in the top two in the standings that mattered most, he would probably be overseeing today's game against Chelsea. Instead, a meeting of the 2008 Champions League finalists represents another summit clash.
Because, over the course of Ten Hag’s reign, United’s transfer outlay topped £600m. It put them behind only one club, albeit one who spent more than twice as much. With Chelsea’s £1.3bn expenditure, it means these squads should have been bolstered to the tune of almost £2bn in two-and-a-half years.
It is an understatement to say it has not all been well spent. It is also pertinent to note that there are times when Ten Hag wanted to spend even more: on a senior striker in the summer of 2023, on buys in two winter windows when his budget was severely limited. It is a subplot that some of Chelsea’s buying – or the facility to buy within PSR, anyway – came courtesy of United, paying them £55m for the homegrown Mason Mount.
There is unlikely to be a reunion with his former club for Mount, whose injury-interrupted United career has produced just seven league starts and a lone goal.
この記事は The Independent の November 03, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は The Independent の November 03, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Trump charges ahead with his vision of a Maga future
As always with Donald Trump, caricature is the easy route. It takes some chutzpah and self- regard to deliver a line like I was saved by God to make America great again”.
Israel's top general resigns over 7 October attack
Palestinian officials say nine killed in West Bank raid
Confusion, revenge and the weirdest inauguration ever
The last time this many Maga hats descended on Washington DC, American democracy faced a mortal threat. Four years later, many believe little has changed, writes Richard Hall
'Goldilocks Britain' needs Reeves to deliver in Davos
In the lead-up to the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said in an interview: \"We've got to be explicit and say the only way to turn around the UK's growth performance of the last 15 years is attracting greater amounts of private capital.\"
England back Test stars for white-ball assault on India
Brendon McCullum and Jos Buttler are close friends. Which is lucky, because at McCullum’s unveiling as England’s new whiteball coach in September, he had a quip at his mate’s and now captain’s expense.
Churchill bust reinstated to Oval Office table by Trump
Donald Trump has reinstated a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office, having also brought the sculpture back into the room in 2017.
'Awful' Tory response to child sexual abuse inquiry
‘Huge disappointment and anger’ of victims and survivors
For viewers who don't want movies to distract them
Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx's dismal 'Back in Action' is proof that style and craft have completely dropped out of a particular kind of action comedy, writes Adam White
Harry to accuse The Sun of deleting 30 million emails
Duke will allege cover-up’ as phone-hacking trial delayed
History repeating itself in the 'disease of a generation'
Historian Laurence Rees focuses on a dozen warnings in his compulsive new book on the Nazis’ rise to power. Nine of them have a contemporary relevance, says Robert McCrum
