It’s one month since Manchester United lost to Tottenham Hotspur in the final of the Europa League in Bilbao. United had 65% possession, a passing accuracy of 86% to Spurs 66%. United completed 461 passes to Spurs 126 and had 15 attempts to Spurs' three. But Ange Postecoglou’s side did what mattered: scored a goal.
Tottenham excelled in penalty box defending to win their first trophy since 2008, yet Postecoglou is out of a job and his opposite Ruben Amorim currently fully backed by his bosses at Old Trafford.
Bilbao was the perfect trip before the game, a fine, friendly, affordable – except for hotels around the final – city. The 50,000 rival fans mixed like oil and water, but trouble was rare. The main problems happened after the game, with stranded fans unable to get out of Bilbao to their accommodation further away. One desperate supporter broke into a building site and slept in the portable toilet he’d spotted.
Bilbao’s airport was closed and fans slept outside, the city’s bus station at 4am was not a pretty sight. Fans attempted to sleep on the floor, which is where the mood was around the club in the days after the game. Players looked disconsolate in post-match interviews, shell-shocked and dazed. They should be put into context of the real world news where civilians are shell-shocked and dazed across several countries for more genuine reasons than losing a football match.
But for Manchester United fans, it was the worst possible end to a terrible season. A 15th-place finish in the Premier League, the lowest since the club were relegated in 1974, wouldn’t have felt so bad had the team won and qualified for next season's Uefa Champions League football.
Two weeks later, I went to see the club’s Paris-born Moroccan CEO Omar Berrada at Old Trafford. He’s only been in the job for 11 “whirlwind” months and talked matter of factly about the reality of United’s current situation, and what defeat in Bilbao meant.
“A setback because we lost the financial upside of being in the Champions League,” he said. “So that’s clear, anywhere between £80-90 million. It’s not necessarily direct profit, but just pure revenues, that’s roughly the number. But at the same time, we had planned for all the scenarios.
"And what we want to be is a club that can be financially sustainable outside of Europe, so that when we are in Europe, whether it’s the Europa League or the Champions League, which is where we should be really, the Champions League, every year, then the financial upside can be invested in the squad. That’s where we want to be. It’s as simple as that.
“We had been prepared for not being in Europe next season and we’re going to operate in the transfer window, we’re going to be competitive and we’re going to build a squad that is going to aspire to get back into Europe next season.”
Positive words, following a season of negative headlines around United on and off the pitch. Fans want to believe that he’ll be right when he also said: "We’ve taken all the short-term pain in this season, but as of this summer, the worst bit is going to be behind us.
“We will have settled the management team; we will have settled the coaching team with the technical team around them. And on the football side, there’s a clear idea of what we want to do, what players we want to get, how we want to see the team playing, how we’re going to integrate academy players, how we’re going to go and invest in future talent.
“I sit here today and I’m actually very optimistic and quite positive about what's ahead. Of course we need to get a lot of decisions right. And we will make mistakes, there's no doubt. We'll try to minimize those. But what we want is to build something that's sustainable for the long, long term, right?”
The extra money would have helped: United, one of the three biggest football clubs In the world, lost over £300 million between 2019 and 2024.
There are several negatives to no European football for United, from revenues to a lack of games next season, but the coach, Ruben Amorim, can at least focus on the Premier League and train properly for games. The fixture list came out on Wednesday, and United have a tough start with matches against Arsenal, Fulham, Burnley, Manchester City and Chelsea in the opening five fixtures. Amorim simply cannot preside over a side whose form was at relegation level since he took the job last November.
There will be more changes. The signing of Brazilian forward Matheus Cunha, 25, from Wolves has been welcomed. That was concluded quickly during the first transfer window (June 1-10) with United meeting his £62.5 million valuation. Berrada feels there are similarities with the outlandishly talented French forward Eric Cantonat, who was so crucial to United 30 years ago.
“He was an important one to get done,” Berrada said of Cunha. “We’re going to do our best to do more signings quickly. Sometimes when you’re not quick it's because you're negotiating and you're trying to make sure you get the right value for money. So being efficient or quick isn’t necessarily the best thing for the club. We also must do some player exits, that’s important, so we’re going to have to balance the books. But we’ve put ourselves in the best position possible by doing everything that we’ve had this year around cost cutting. Everything else that we talked about and raising ticket prices. I’m confident that we will come out of the window with a much stronger team than what we’ve gone into.”
United need more goals and Cunha’s 15 Premier League goals for Wolves last season was almost twice what United’s top two scorers, Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo, managed. Fernandes, 30, could have joined Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal, with the club reportedly prepared to pay him £700,000 per week and United a £100 million transfer fee. Easily the club’s best player and captain, Fernandes decided to stay at Old Trafford. There was the small matter of United being unwilling to sell him unless he wanted to leave, which he didn’t, though he gave the offer serious consideration.
Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo wants to come to Old Trafford. The Cameroon international scored 20 Premier League goals last season and has excelled against United. But, like most transfers of coveted players, it’s not straightforward. Brentford are trying to attract as much interest in the player as possible in order to raise the price.
Should Mbuemo arrive, further incomings are likely to be dependent on player sales. United have proven Premier League forwards including Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Jadon Sancho who they’re willing to let go for the right price. Another forward, Antony, thrived on loan at Real Betis after signing on loan in January. United’s problem isn’t that there’s no interest in these players, it’s that they’re all on vast contracts which many other clubs will struggle to match. Compromises will be needed.
The departures won’t be limited to first-team players. Nick Cox, the hugely respected head of United’s academy, will leave for Everton and a senior role with David Moyes’ side. Other staff members are receiving offers to go, too. Hundreds of United staffers lost their jobs in two waves of redundancies, others decided to leave of their own accord and rival clubs know it.
“The sharks are circling,” one staff member, who has had multiple job offers told us. “People getting offers to leave non-stop. I just want to stay. I love this club.” The staff who do stay will work in a fully redeveloped and state-of-the-art Carrington training ground, which will contain more staff from Old Trafford as the club try to foster a feeling of togetherness.
United fans have backed coach Amorim, singing his name at every game, even during the worst run of results. “Ruben Amorim,” sing the hardcore week after week. “He’ll bring the glory days again. We’ll back him from the Stretford End; he’ll turn the Reds around.” It’s to the tune of Bonnie Tyler’s It’s a Heartache (it certainly was last season). Amorim is young, articulate, and confident, but he needs wins.
He wants and needs more players, but it’s not just about new signings, who have a patchy rate of succeeding at Old Trafford. Existing players should be more comfortable in his system, young players like defender Leny Yoro or Amad should continue to improve. Another young player, forward Rasmus Hojlund, 22, might have made far more runs in behind defenders than any other player in the 36-team Europa League last season, but he’ll primarily be judged on goals scored. There haven’t been enough.
Books also need to be balanced to fit in with financial rules, though United’s last set of financial figures showed that a corner had been turned. The club remain huge nationally and internationally. Over 72,000 watched a post season friendly in Malaysia and more huge crowds will watch the team pre-season next month in the United States, crowds far greater than many watching games at Fifa’s Club World Cup.
United had the highest average home crowds in the Premier League for the 32nd consecutive year, and were the most watched team in the Premier League on television, despite losing 18 times.
United must improve and Berrada, 47, maintains that his aim is to see United’s men and women’s teams winning their respective league titles by 2028 – the club’s 150th anniversary. He’s a smart operator who speaks five languages and excelled at Barcelona and Manchester City before United offered him the top job in January 2024.
“It's a way of setting a time-bound period where we're going to focus our efforts to achieve certain goals: winning the Premier League, having the women's team win the first WSL, becoming one of the most commercially innovative clubs in the world, as we have been in the past, being cash positive,” he said. Observers may be circumspect, but after the way the United have floundered, it’s better to have aims and objectives so that fans are not feeling as they did after the defeat in Bilbao a month ago.
