No sooner had the transfer window closed than Manchester United were in the news for different reasons.
Gone were the transfer rumours. In their place were stories of player unrest and frustration behind the scenes.
These were branded in some quarters as ‘leaks’. But they could just as easily be regarded as make-believe.
After all, United generate more clicks than most, and publications desperate to maintain the summer surge needed new ways to entice readers.
The problem is, the same newspapers that pushed the Jadon Sancho story months after a move looked impossible are now branding United’s transfer window a disaster.
Some headlines would have you believe that United were the only team in the race and still couldn’t sign the player. Except, no club was truly in the race for a man who would have cost a fortune at a time when finances at even the richest clubs are scarily tight.
Some papers are also claiming United’s dressing room is rife with anger, with star man Bruno Fernandes among those regularly featured.
This is click-bait at its worst. Football fans are used to reading lies and stretched truths. Without them, the transfer window would be considerably less profitable for newspapers and websites alike.
Unified not fractured
But now talk has turned to a dressing room rocked by disquiet. When, in truth, this side is the most united in years.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has built a team unified by one common purpose – to take United back to the big time. He has ditched much of the deadwood and those deemed divisive.
In fact, that was among his main focuses when he took charge.
United were woeful against Tottenham. But that has to be seen as an anomaly.
Had Anthony Martial not been sent off, things could have been very different. The players will know that. Just as they will know that a month’s worth of mistakes somehow happened in one insipid performance.
United’s dressing room is fine. United’s players are not fuming at each other any more than is healthy.
A healthy amount of fight is necessary for a football team to succeed. But just remember that sites need clicks to make money. And nothing sells quite like a fractured football club that is anything but broken.
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