Casemiro is causing a wave of second-guessing and bittersweet emotions among the Man Utd fans, and the club’s decision shows they’ve learned from their Erik ten Hag mistake.
Another goal via a Bruno Fernandes assist saw Casemiro go to seven goals for the season as he set Man Utd on their way to a 3-1 win against Aston Villa.
With every game, a decision that made complete sense from a financial and squad-planning perspective is looking jittery and worrying.
However, if anything, Man Utd’s Casemiro decision proves that Ineos have learned from their Erik ten Hag mistake that arguably set the club back a whole season.
Casemiro scores header
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I would pay a MAXIMUM of £___ per-week to Casemiro to extend his contract
Fill in the blank with your offer. Casemiro earns around £350k/week right now. Will you go high or walk away?
Casemiro showing the Manchester United badge
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Ineos’ Erik ten Hag mistake set the club back a year
As soon as Ineos took official ownership of the footballing matters at Old Trafford, they were faced with a monumental decision.
Erik ten Hag was struggling, and he wasn’t the manager they appointed, so logic dictated that he was on thin ice right away.
The results never really picked up, and the decision to sack him looked like a matter of when, and not if.
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Until, of course, that fateful FA Cup final where Man Utd pulled off one of the most remarkable final performances out of nowhere to beat their city rivals when nobody expected them to.
All of a sudden, the wave of support for Ten Hag grew stronger, Man Utd fans got swept up in it, but more worryingly, the “adults” in the room – Ineos – got carried away as well.
They shelved their plans to let him go at the end of his contract and triggered his extension.
Nobody needs telling how that emotion-driven move went, as Ten Hag was sacked after less than five months, wasting a pre-season, and leaving Ruben Amorim to “suffer” for the full season.
One decision driven by emotions cost United a whole year, and Ineos are rectifying that error with Casemiro.
Man Utd’s Casemiro decision is fixing Ineos’ Ten Hag error
Having seen the effects of taking an emotionally-driven decision, United sought clarity on Casemiro’s future from day one.
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Casemiro seasons
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They were clear in their stance that paying £350k/week to a 34-year-old midfielder was out of the question, and that prompted Casemiro to announce his departure.
He didn’t agree to a wage reduction like Harry Maguire looks likely to do, and he is fully within his rights to do so.
Now that he’s playing so well that there’s a genuine argument to be made about triggering his extension, United are taking the logical route.
They have learned from their Ten Hag error and are refusing to get carried away by the here and now.
Instead, they are taking the long-term view and recognising that Casemiro’s race at Old Trafford is run, especially at his current wage.
It might look like an unpopular decision right now, but it is exactly the kind of decision responsible executives should make for the club.
Replacing him will be a difficult task, but that doesn’t mean they play into the fan sentiment and just hand him an extension to avoid that difficult conversation.
They already did it once with Ten Hag and paid the price of sacking him, hiring Ruben Amorim, and then sacking him a year later.
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