United's interest in Mbeumo has drawn approval
United's interest in Mbeumo has drawn approval
We have double-checked and triple-checked the calendar. Manchester United take off for their pre-season tour in exactly four weeks.
Their friendly schedule begins in roughly three-and-a-half weeks with another Scandinavian-set friendly against Leeds United. It is their third in six years against their local adversary on foreign turf. It was only three-and-a-half weeks ago that United's post-season tour ended.
Pre-season medicals will be conducted at Carrington in two weeks. Cameramen and photographers are likely to cover both entrances into training complex on July 7 in an effort to spot their personas non grata.
Such is the pettiness of Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford it would not be a surprise if either were unaccounted for. Jadon Sancho does not have a squad number and might as well have cleared out his locker nearly two years ago.
Rashford, Garnacho and Sancho jeopardise squad harmony. Sancho also derided United with a one-word comment on Rashford's Instagram post in February. "Freedom," Sancho wrote. Sancho has freedom of movement, only Chelsea have paid a fee not to buy him.
Chelsea would rather sign Jamie Gittens, a younger winger who left Manchester City's academy for Borussia Dortmund three years after Sancho. That's how little Chelsea think of Sancho and how far his stock has sunk since he joined United four years ago. And he still will not accept a pay cut.
Ruben Amorim has not met Sancho and he does not need to. Sancho eschewed pre-season training in his first summer at United in 2021 when he was expected up at St Andrew's, so he can stay away from his current teammates.
Amorim could do without the sight of the content-creating "brothers" who undermined United on Sunday, too. Rashford and Garnacho are burning their bridges with United, burnt from remunerating Rashford with a five-year contract two years ago.
Rashford is now fluttering his eyelashes at Barcelona. This is a forward on £325,000 a week who has scraped 13 Premier League goals in two seasons and hardly set the world alight in the claret and blue of Aston Villa.
It is a bit like that interaction between Danny Rose and Daniel Levy in the Tottenham Hotspur All or Nothing documentary. Rose was available for a loan move and there was interest from Newcastle United and Bournemouth. Rose wanted something more glamorous.
Wishful thinking? Rashford walks out at Camp Nou
"Did you follow up on Milan?" he asks. Levy just about suppresses a cackle. "Milan's a no at the moment." Barcelona could be a no for Rashford.
It is fanciful for United to be rid of Rashford, Sancho and Garnacho by the time of take-off at Manchester Airport on July 22. None should be on the plane, though.
There is no resale value to protect with Sancho and Rashford was exiled six months ago. Garnacho, 21 next week, is different but his relationship with Amorim is strained and the manager visibly chuckled at the remote possibility of Garnacho somehow staying at United next season.
Amorim and Garnacho's working relationship is all but over
Amorim is not the kind of personality to countenance such an arrangement. It was different with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, saddled with the wantaway Romelu Lukaku in 2019 as United toured Australia, Singapore and China.
Solskjaer repeatedly claimed Lukaku was injured. We had to take him at face value but did not really believe him. Lukaku treated his final trip with United so frivolously he recorded Luke Shaw lagging behind one of the fitness coaches during a jog around the WACA in Perth.
After United returned to Manchester, there were two more friendlies in Norway and Cardiff that Lukaku was absent for. Then he went AWOL.
Lukaku: on tour but not on the pitch in 2019
He finally joined Inter Milan - United's opponents in Singapore - at the end of the Premier League transfer window, back when it closed before the start of the new season.
Lukaku had become such an upstart he leaked data from United's running drills onto Twitter. United, adamant they would not sell for less than the £75m they paid for Lukaku two years earlier, compromised and cut their losses.
Matheus Cunha will be on the plane to the Windy City and United hope Bryan Mbeumo will be. They may have to wait a little longer for that elusive striker, which raises the question as to who would lead the line in a pre-season summer devoid of an international tournament.
Cunha has arrived but Mbeumo is yet to
Joshua Zirkzee has won over many but Amorim does not consider him a specialist striker. High-ranking figures at United speak dismissively of Rasmus Hojlund, generating interest from Inter Milan. Chido Obi is primed to remain in the first team squad but is far too raw.
In my interview with Matthijs de Ligt last month, he expressed approval of Amorim's methods. "I think what I'm experiencing now is what I like to see and that is what the manager is doing right now. I'm not speaking into details, but I have a feeling he's really looking at the spots.
"I'm not only speaking about players only, but also about the whole culture and the way we are working at the club. I think he's really into details."
We had the ill-fated 'cultural reset' in that summer of 2019. David de Gea told me that "the culture had to change". A check of the calendar confirms that De Gea said that in 2022.
It needs to change again.