Delap: a 'City reject'
Delap: a 'City reject'
A Serie A title winner, an Eredivisie title winner, the top scorer in Ligue 1, a European winner, a European finalist, another promoted to the Premier League and a West Ham player of the year. They have all left Manchester United within the past 12 months.
Has anyone checked on Willy Kambwala? It turns out Villarreal finished fifth in La Liga to qualify for the Europa League. Another solid effort.
And United still got it right to sell or loan Scott McTominay, Tyrell Malacia, Mason Greenwood, Jadon Sancho, Antony, Hannibal Mejbri, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Kambwala.
McTominay is the most contentious. He was named the MVP (a commercialised term in a footballing country as pure as Italy) in Serie A after inspiring Napoli to a fourth Scudetto in their history. In Naples, McTominay is worthy of mention in the same breath as Maradona.
The Scot tallied 10 goals in his final season for United when goals were hard to come by. Rasmus Hojlund, a purported No.9, scraped that many in 2024-25. McTominay got 12 for Napoli.
But McTominay was expendable. United needed a defensive midfielder and to accommodate one, someone had to make way. McTominay was the only sellable asset.
And, at times, he was neither here nor there. Erik ten Hag could not make his mind up as to whether McTominay was defensive or attack-minded. McTominay's two lifesaving goals past the 90-minute mark against Brentford made Ten Hag's mind up for him. Occasionally, he would turn on the charm, such as when he hugged a sympathetic female broadcaster in the MCG mixed zone in Melbourne.
Not everyone was sorry to see the back of McTominay, either. "Where do you want me?" he brusquely asked a press officer at Carrington last season.
Shifting McTominay was not exactly as incendiary as Mark Hughes, Paul Ince or Andrei Kanchelskis leaving in 1995. The only Premier League club that bid for him were Fulham, as close as you can get to an early retirement home in the top flight.
Fulham are not synonymous with ambition. They are a stable club in a salubrious area of London, so the appeal is obvious. A year earlier, West Ham United tried to lure McTominay down the M6.
McTominay is a title winner in Italy
Napoli finished tenth in 2023-24. Italy remains a league in decline since the Calciopoli scandal in 2006. Its top flight has been a dumping ground for English clubs for years.
And Antonio Conte is a stickler for a United reject. He had four of them at Inter Milan - Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Matteo Darmian and Ashley Young.
This is not to diminish McTominay's fabulous feat and he is destined to be deified in Naples. Conte is a demanding coach and he recognised McTominay's robustness and goal-getting nous. A midfielder who is comfortably a top-half Premier League-level player is bound to have a profound effect on a mid-table Italian side.
So United cashed in. The risk was the replacement. Replacing McTominay, remoulded as an attacking midfielder by Ten Hag, with a defensive midfielder ought to have made comparisons with Manuel Ugarte moot.
Only Ugarte has been the poorest of United's five summer signings. So much so he was benched for the Europa League final. He is 24 and appears ill-prepared to anchor a midfield that Casemiro has retaken brief ownership of.
Nobody foresaw the spiral at United. Now, of course, McTominay would improve their defence, midfield or attack. The somewhat contrary case to keep McTominay would have been as a striker. He is no shrinking violet and his instinct in front of goal trumps Hojlund's.
United negotiated a fee rising to £50.75m for Ugarte. Napoli will pay a maximum of £30m for McTominay. It is not the first time United have miscalculated players' value.
Or misjudged it. Alvaro Fernandez, never afforded a debut at United, was mismanaged by Ten Hag before he was sold to Benfica for an up-front fee of £5.1m. The word is he will now go back to where it started at Real Madrid.
United would bank a sell-on fee if Fernandez is sold. His sale last year was totally logical as Ten Hag had no time for him. Left back was Ten Hag's blind spot, whether it be signing Malacia, sanctioning a new contract for Luke Shaw, loaning in Sergio Reguilon, shifting Diogo Dalot there or selling Fernandez.
Fernandez, 22, was a Champions League knockout participant with Benfica this season. So was Marcus Rashford with Aston Villa.
Fernandez never got a competitive kick under Ten Hag
Of all the United departures, the loudest noise surrounded Rashford, who rarely hit the right notes at Aston Villa. His impact was grossly overstated before a hamstring injury curtailed his time at Villa Park. Unai Emery will not be having him back.
DELAP A DODGED BULLET
After Michael Owen scored his first United goal at Wigan Athletic, there was a rendition of "You Scouse b*****d" in the away end. Some United fans at the DW Stadium that day would assure you the derision was genuine.
Some lapped up Owen having the chutzpah to move to United, despite his Liverpool links. Others saw through him. He had tried to engineer a return to Liverpool earlier that summer when the only serious suitors were Stoke City and Hull City. Then Sir Alex Ferguson, a fellow horse racing addict, invited him to breakfast.
You wonder whether Liam Delap would have ever overcome the 'City reject' tag had he opted for United over Chelsea. He would have been under more scrutiny than Hojlund and is only four days younger.
Delap: good enough and yet not good enough for United
The United technical director Jason Wilcox watched Delap develop at City's academy when he was its director. If he was not good enough for City, then he should not be deemed good enough for United.
Factually, Delap is. He is better than any of United's strikers. But United need a proven goalscorer, not another No.9 with potential. They have ended the last two league seasons with a minus goal difference. Moving for Delap just because of a release clause and Wilcox's say-so was a cop-out.
Wilcox should be relieved. He would have been held responsible if Delap was a dud. Delap will get cut a thicker slice of slack at Chelsea, a club that do not generate anywhere near as much scrutiny or criticism as United.
When United relinquished the Premier League title to City in 2012, it was on goal difference. That smarted so sorely for Ferguson that he hijacked City's planned signing of Robin van Persie. Van Persie's goals put the red and white ribbons back on the Premier League trophy.
United have to think similarly, even with their financial limitations.