Manchester United’s transfer policy saw a turn of ruthlessness since Ineos arrived with their cost-cutting measures, but Tottenham manager Thomas Frank believes it had a ‘fantastic’ casualty as well.
For the second consecutive summer, Manchester United raised nearly £100m in player sales, and some obligations mean that figure should be breached again next year.
In addition, they released a lot of players to free up precious wages, and adding that all up saw United’s wage bill for the season go down despite signing players worth more than £200m.
However, as per Thomas Frank, a ‘fantastic’ player was also released by the club during this ruthless upheaval.
Christian Eriksen says goodbye to Manchester United
Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Thomas Frank on ‘fantastic’ Christian Eriksen
Christian Eriksen is one of the most loved players in football due to his model professionalism and easy style of play, plus what he overcame to have a second, successful career run.
It’s no surprise that he has many admirers at Tottenham, the club that gave him a platform to showcase his elite talent in the Premier League.
It speaks volumes about his quality that once he left Spurs, he dominated Italian football, had a health scare, and still managed to return to England with two clubs and win more silverware.
However, with age finally catching up to him last season, Eriksen was released by United in the summer.
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In a recent interview with SPORTBible, current Spurs manager Frank said Eriksen is a ‘fantastic’ player, who he coached as Denmark U17s manager.
He said: ” It’s tricky [to name the best player I ever coached]. I will mention former Spurs player Christian Eriksen, who was a fantastic player. I coached him in the U17 national team, and also Ivan Toney, David Raya, and Ollie Watkins are among them. And another one, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, in the national team, and Andreas Christensen.”
Eriksen could have prolonged Man Utd career
Considering the circumstances in which Eriksen arrived, as a free transfer, even releasing him after an underwhelming season is good business for the club.
Eriksen formed a charmed partnership with Casemiro during Erik ten Hag’s first season, and up until that infamous Andy Carroll tackle that injured him, he looked like a world-class player again.
Then, once Ten Hag resorted to a basketball system with an empty midfield, and Ruben Amorim came in demanding manic running, the writing was on the wall for Eriksen.
He can probably still do a job in a sitting role where he can ping long passes, but that just wasn’t needed at Old Trafford anymore.
There is no doubt over Eriksen’s quality. As Frank says, he is a fantastic player, but United released him at the right time.
It could have been better were it not for that Carroll tackle in the game against Reading.