Manchester United have started the 2025/26 campaign off with a wobble, and Ruben Amorim has it all to do if he is to turn things around and lead the club back into the ascendancy after so many years languishing well south of expectations.
A stuttering start to the Premier League term devolved into something of a graver concern on Wednesday evening, with League Two side Grimsby Town knocking United out of the Carabao Cup in a penalty shootout, having scored two goals apiece across the 90.
The biggest concern, undoubtedly, is that the Red Devils have been here before. Travel back to the end of the 2012/13 campaign and observe Sir Alex Ferguson's last hurrah. There you will find Man United's 20th league title, and there has not been another since.
Man United manager records
United pride themselves on their deep-rooted connection with the youth scene, but it's been a testing time in that regard too. Marcus Rashford now plies his trade for Barcelona, and Kobbie Mainoo's struggles have come to something of a head, for the 20-year-old wants to detach himself from Amorim's plans.
Kobbie Mainoo's Man Utd future
Man United have rejected a loan request from academy product Mainoo, with Amorim wishing to keep the prospect in his first-team squad despite limiting him to a peripheral role since replacing Erik ten Hag.
The all-action midfielder has played 73 times for United's senior side over the past couple of years, reaching apotheosis when scoring in the FA Cup final against Manchester City, sealing silverware for Ten Hag in his second season.
Amorim appears to want Mainoo to remain in Manchester, but the young star has sat as an unused substitute for both of the club's opening Premier League fixtures, and negotiations around an extension on his current contract, into its penultimate year, have stalled.
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While retaining the services of such a young player is crucial and a core tenet of what it means to be Manchester United, Mainoos' stance is understandable.
And if the Reds manage to pull off a deal they currently have in the pipeline, letting Mainoo leave, even just for a time, would be far more acceptable.
Man Utd lining up last-minute deal
According to Football Insider, Manchester United are plotting a last-minute move for Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton, though they face stiff competition from Liverpool and Real Madrid.
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Valued at around £100m by Eagles chairman Steve Parish, Wharton's signature will not be an easy one to wrestle over to Old Trafford this summer, but that hardly means that INEOS and Jason Wilcox won't give it their best shot, especially when considering the uncertainty around Mainoo's future.
Though there are certain concerns that United don't have the finances to complete such a deal, they had a vested interest in Brighton & Hove Albion's Carlos Baleba before the door was closed on the Cameroonian's exit, and he has been priced in the same financial ballpark.
Why Man Utd want Adam Wharton
Amorim's system at Man United has seen the skipper, Bruno Fernandes, forced into a deeper berth than we have become accustomed to over the years.
Doncaster Rovers' Luke Molyneux in action with Crystal Palace's Adam Wharton
The Portuguese's technical quality and playmaking ability align with the way in which Amorim envisages United playing, but this has come at a great cost for Mainoo, who is very much on the fringes of the action.
Wharton's arrival would only be to his countryman's personal detriment, but there's no question that the Palace man is one of the most exciting young midfielders in Europe, and that Amorim would hit the jackpot by securing his services.
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A more creative distributor and perhaps a more wily defensive asset in the middle of the park, Wharton ranks among the top 8% of central midfielders across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for shot-creating actions, the top 13% for progressive passes, and the top 5% for ball recoveries per 90, as per FBref.
A ball recovery is defined by the number of loose balls recovered by a player.
In this way, he could be the perfect piece to replace Fernandes in this deeper berth, whose playmaking ability knows no bounds. Hailed as an "absolute magician" by journalist Liam Canning, it's clear that someone with a similar maestro-like hold on the ball-playing game needs to step in.
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Moreover, Wharton is more of a natural middle-placed player, echoing the defensive work of Mainoo while proving himself able to progress the ball forward, by passing and carrying it forward himself, when the need arises.
He's been described as a "generational talent" by journalist Matthew Stanger, and proved that he can get stuck in with the best of them after leaving Blackburn Rovers in the Championship and moving to Selhurst Park in January 2024, averaging three tackles per match across that Premier League season and winning 57% of his ground duels.
Therefore, Man United would land themselves a midfield fulcrum embodying exciting attributes from these two competing players, one best fit for the central berth in Amorim's system, one catered toward the style of football that could lift United back into the ascendancy.
Mainoo might be a terrific, homegrown talent, but if United were to succeed in their bid to sign Wharton before the imminent closure of the transfer market, any frustration or sadness around his departure or regression down the ranks would be tempered by the acknowledgement that the project would be headed in the right direction.
In any case, INEOS' willingness to rival Europe's biggest hitters for this rising talent makes a firm comment on their desire to return to the forefront after many years away.