Why Manchester United’s ghosts of their past are continuing to haunt them

Ruben Amorin’s players returned to their Carrington training base last Monday for the start of pre-season training, with summer signings Matheus Cunha and Diego Leon (inset below) arriving with a very different mentality to some of their battle-scarred teammates.

Cunha has inherited the No 10 jersey that has belonged to Marcus Rashford since 2018.

But Amorim’s attempts to move on from one of his more challenging staff members is proving to be far from straightforward.

The striker, who has no role in the club’s future, is still on the payroll and collecting a salary that is believed to be more than £300,000 a week.

Rashford has made no secret of his eagerness to leave United, with his fantasy of sealing a move to Barcelona dependent on whether the Spanish club can find space in their line-up.

Vision

Amorim shares Rashford’s vision for a future elsewhere. Any suggestion that he could be welcomed back into the United fold was banished as he granted the striker an extended summer break to try and find himself a new club, and he was not the only big name absent last Monday.

Jadon Sancho and Antony were also given license to avoid an uncomfortable return to Carrington after their loan moves in the second half of last season failed to result in transfers.

Sancho’s stock is at an all-time low after Chelsea paid a £5m fee to get out of a permanent deal for a player who was one of the most wanted in Europe when he joined United.

Amorim has also given winger Alejandro Garnacho permission to delay his return to pre-season training, as he looks to end his United story with a transfer.

These four flops are glistening symbols of United’s demise, yet when Amorim faces the media for the first time ahead of his side’s opening pre-season game against Leeds in Stockholm next Saturday, the players he doesn’t want will likely be the chief topic of discussion.

As if a 15th-place finish in the Premier League wasn’t bad enough last season, United’s lamentable performance as they lost the Europa League final to Tottenham completed the most disastrous campaign for United since they were relegated from England’s top flight back in 1974.

Now the danger for a club that appears to be desperate to court despair is that what comes next will be a continuation or, if it’s even possible, a more damaging backward step.

United were spared the ordeal of a battle against the drop from the Premier League last season due to the inadequacies of the newly-promoted teams, but there are no guarantees that a similar backstop will be in place in the upcoming campaign.

As for the manager trying to revive this broken giant, the warning signs are flashing, as they were for his predecessor, Erik ten Hag, this time last year.

Break

United need a break from their recent past and that means removing damaged goods like Rashford, Sancho, Antony and Garnacho, yet Amorim cannot move on until they are gone.

The quartet are draining around £1m-per-week in wages from the club and that needs to be removed before money can be freed up to sign players who could contribute in a positive manner to United’s future.

This needs to be a summer when United take bold steps towards a bright future, yet their well-publicised financial challenges will restrict Amorim’s transfer market ambitions so long as those highly-paid misfits are still collecting their weekly United wage.

The trouble is, finding clubs to take players whose reputations have been shattered by their status as remnants of United’s demise will not be easy.

In fact, all four are likely to require hefty pay-offs from their employer before they agree to join clubs that are unlikely to match the salaries they are getting at United.

Amorim will aim to present a new agenda when his team get back into match mode, but a grim reality is likely to strike him unless he can bring in new faces to revive a squad that proved it wasn’t up to the job long ago.

For now, United appear to be stuck in neutral at a time when the clubs that used to be their rivals at the top end of the Premier League all look to be stepping on the accelerator pedal.

splashed

Manchester City have spent the last two transfer windows rebuilding a squad that needed a new look and Liverpool have splashed the cash like never before in a summer that saw them spend £100m on a player for the first time – Germany international Florian Wirtz.

While United followed their plan of last summer with Ten Hag and stuck with Amorim, Tottenham’s owners refused to accept mediocrity in the Premier League and recruited Thomas Frank to breathe fresh hope into their club heading into a season that will see them compete in the Champions League.

Newcastle have also shown real ambition by paying a bumper £52m to sign Nottingham Forest winger Anthony Elanga.

And Chelsea have continued their big spending, with new arrivals Liam Delap and Joao Pedro making their mark as they made it through to tonight’s Club World Cup final.

So, while the Premier League big hitters have already confirmed they are preparing for the battle that will get underway in a little over a month, United fans must be dreading the prospect of a new season and a fixture list that appears to be laced with peril.

As if an opening-day fixture against Arsenal is not challenging enough, United’s first two away games will be a tough trip to Fulham and then Pep Guardiola’s rebuilt Manchester City side at the Etihad Stadium.

A home game against Chelsea and a visit to take on Keith Andrews’ Brentford are also on the early agenda, along with an away match against Premier League champions Liverpool at Anfield.

Amorim needs to win at least half of those matches to cement his position, but more of the same appears to be the most likely outcome at a club that has an unhealthy addiction to failure.