What a summer it has been for Man United. From the early signing of Cunha, to the long drawn out Mbeumo saga, the inability to permanently move on any of the bomb squad, and then the signing of Benjamin Sesko that came out of nowhere. There’s even talk of adding Baleba and Donnarumma at the time of writing.
The club is full of optimism again, which is great, but knowing the fan base as I do, I can already see what happens next. A shaky start to the 2025/26 season will see the “Amorim Out” crowd bleating again, so let’s manage some expectations, shall we?
This season gets us back on steady ground. That’s the aim. Finish between 5th and 8th and let the squad settle. This season is not the “We’re back” that many people are already claiming it to be. We aren’t going to do a Leicester.
Yes, we have made some brilliant signings, and yes, our squad looks exciting, but even if you put the world’s 11 best players in the same side they wouldn’t automatically win the Premier League. This isn’t a computer game. We need to allow for tactical understanding, familiarity with the system, and let the players build experience playing with each other as teammates. Some of these guys won’t have shared a single minute of competitive football when we play Arsenal on the 17th of August. Expecting the team to gel in the way that established sides like Liverpool or Man City do is unrealistic.
So like I say, we need to manage expectations. Not lower them, but manage them.
A Very Tough Start
I have written already about how we have the toughest season start in the entire Premier League. We face 3 of the league’s top sides in the first 5 games. Sesko will have been here for a week by that point, Mbeumo is still not match fit as he didn’t really have a pre-season, and the squad is starting again after some huge changes. Not to mention a few injuries to key players.
Opening the season with Arsenal at home, one of our biggest rivals who just so happened to beat us to Gyokeres, is about as tough a first game as you can get. At least we play at home, but still, what an opener.
Our chances of winning the Arsenal game are questionable, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that we lose this one. You would hope we could get six points from the Fulham and Burnley games, but it’s not inconceivable that those are the only 6 points we get from our first 5 games.
Does that mean the manager is out of his depth and the new signings have flopped? The media will certainly report it that way, but no, it doesn’t. Here’s why.
The Early League Table Lies
Imagine we are mid table after 10 games. The media noise will be ridiculous, plenty of so called United fans will be getting sucked in, and a manufactured ‘crisis’ will be all over social media.
But use your noggin. With so few games played it’s perfectly possible to be just 4 or 5 points off 5th yet sit at 12th or 13th place. If United are in that sort of situation after such a brutal early schedule, that’s not necessarily failure. Because the games ahead of us will be much more winnable are we can climb the table again quickly while others drop points in tough games.
I see Manchester United’s 2025/26 season in three blocks:
- Games 1-10: Stay competitive and keep within 5 or 6 points of the top five. Performances are just as important as points at this stage. We want to see the team gel, to play like they understand the system. Absorb a few blows early.
- Games 11-20: This is United’s window of opportunity. This is where we can make up ground if we have dropped points early on. Rivals in European competitions will be forced into rotations due to fixture congestion, opposition players will start to feel fatigued. We will not. Our opposition will also be less challenging.
- Games 21-38: With 20 games under our belts and plenty of midweek training sessions due to not needing to travel, the team should be more cohesive. Consistency at this point will prove Amorim’s project is working. If we are having problems at this point, there will be something seriously wrong. This is where we need to maintain our position and fight for 5th place, building on the foundations set earlier in the season.
Essentially, what I am saying here is that the first 5 or 10 games are not the whole story. It’s the opening chapter of a whole new era at Manchester United. Who knows, we might come out of the gates smashing everyone we face, but it’s unlikely, and if it doesn’t happen, we, the fans, need to keep or heads and dig deep, and think about the season as a whole.
Cohesion is the Key
I get it. Fans love new signings. Transfer talk is almost an industry in itself. People hype up new transfers the the point of insanity, it happens all the time. But throwing exciting players into a team with no cohesion doesn’t fix anything.
In the last 18 months, we have had a new owner, a new board, a new manager, loads of new staff, something like 11 new first team signings, Carrington has been renovated – oh, and we are getting a new stadium too. We even lost Kath Phipps. That’s a lot of change at every level.
Things. Need. To. Settle.
I feel like we have players with the right mentality now, the toxic lot are either gone or as good as gone, and the manager has been backed. He also has the opportunity to train properly with his players and complete his first real season without working them to the bone.
So my request to Manchester United fans is simple: Let them work. Support them. Be patient with them, and they will deliver trophies. But probably not until 2026/27.
We might do better than I expect, who knows, but for me, a 5th place finish and a team that looks happy and confident would be a winning season.