Ons Manchester United

Who will blame Todd Boehly for such an accumulation of players in the Chelsea squad if he ends up taking the step forward that the fans at Stamford Bridge have been demanding for years? Will the farewell to Ilkay Gundogan and the welcome for Dani Olmo in Barcelona not be taken for granted if there is a good result in La Liga and the Champions League? Just two questions can lead to numerous analyses and there is one particularly interesting one at Old Trafford.

The Manchester United board, after a season in which doubts were once again raised about the ideality of retaining the managerial leadership of the team, opted for a surprising decision. Instead of opting for the short term and a change of leadership, they renewed their manager and hired two top assistants, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rene Hake, in order to spice up and nurture their boards.

The harmony between the three members of the Mancunian side staff is enhanced by their nationality. They are all Dutch, including Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee, two of the most talked-about signings of the summer in the dressing room. In addition, this is the second season for Tyrell Malacia, a compatriot of the five, after joining from Feyenoord in July 2022 for 15 million euros.

The air bridge from the Eredivisie to Old Trafford widens especially when it comes to Ajax, the project where Erik ten Hag became popular with figures like the centre-back he has just welcomed or others who have already joined him in Britain like Andre Onana, Lisandro Martinez, Noussair Mazraoui or Antony. It's more than proven that the owners trust their coach's judgement.

During pre-season, it is what led them to secure the services of Van Nistelrooy, a Premier League and Dutch legend, to accept a secondary role despite the fact that he had just been employed as PSV's head coach. Rene Hake, who landed with him, has been active in such roles since 2010 and, on his CV, you can read the names Emme, Twente, Cambuur, Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles.

That is why the Red Devils have taken a gamble: they have persuaded leading profiles to agree to take a step back and be the support of a tactician who has already used the advice of his team-mates in several games at the start of the season. It is common for the cameras to focus on them to see how they exchange impressions that the boss writes down in his handy notebook.

This, added to the signings of De Ligt, Zirzkee and Mazraoui, reinforces the feeling that United have a clear idea of what they want to do in the long term, even if, at the moment, it is not bearing fruit. The narrow win over Fulham, scored by the former Bologna man, offered some green shoots, but defeats against Brighton & Hove Albion and Liverpool brought fans back to their sad reality: there is still a long way to go.