Cunha, Mbuemo or Sesko could be Man Utd’s Eric Cantona this season…
There’s some Manchester United optimism and a theory that Liverpool might be pulling off the greatest transfer window ever.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com
Mustafa is back…
We talk about football like it’s a science. Systems, xG, squad depth, rotations. And yet, season after season, one truth keeps punching through the data: sometimes, one player really does make all the difference.
Eric Cantona proved it. United in the early ’90s were talented but incomplete. Ferguson’s team had promise, but not inevitability. Cantona arrived from Leeds in ’92 and instantly tilted the Premier League on its axis. It wasn’t just his goals or assists – rather it was the attitude and swagger. United stopped hoping to win and started expecting to. Four titles in five seasons. That’s not coincidence.
Leicester had their own catalyst in N’Golo Kanté. Vardy’s goals and Mahrez’s magic made headlines, but without Kanté’s supernatural ground coverage, they’re not lifting that trophy in 2016. The next season, he did exactly the same thing for Chelsea. Back-to-back titles with two different clubs? Try replicating that in Football Manager.
Not every talisman brings a title, but the uplift can still be obvious. Bruno Fernandes didn’t win the league for United when he arrived in January 2020, but he did jolt the whole side awake. Before Bruno: hesitant, flat, predictable. After Bruno: quick, risk-taking, and suddenly worth watching again.
It works the other way, too. Lose the wrong player, and the drop can be instant. United selling Jaap Stam in 2001 remains one of Ferguson’s few open regrets. The defence was never quite the same until Vidić arrived years later.
City felt it when Vincent Kompany left in 2019. The squad was still stacked, but the leadership gap was obvious. You can’t measure what Kompany brought with stats alone – the calm in the chaos, the barked instructions, the refusal to shrink. His thunderbolt against Leicester in the 2019 title run-in wasn’t just a goal; it was a captain grabbing the season by the throat.
Injuries and suspensions can have the same seismic impact. Cantona’s kung-fu ban in ’95 arguably cost United the title. More recently, City losing Rodri for a spell last season was the closest thing to vulnerability they’ve had in years. Without him, they dropped points and looked – briefly – mortal. When your defensive midfielder is also your tempo-setter, organiser and outlet, losing him is like removing the keystone from an arch.
Which brings us to the here and now. Who’s to say one of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbuemo, or Benjamin Šeško couldn’t be that magic switch for United this season? Maybe even one-third of that trio. Football history is full of players who arrived without fanfare but altered the whole weather system of a club.
And yes – for United to finish outside the top seven after the last two seasons wouldn’t shock anyone. But them winning the league? That’s still possible. All the hand-wringing and mockery after I dared to suggest it last time was fascinating. People talk like the gap between first and fifteenth is a canyon. It isn’t. This is the top tier. Everyone starts with zero points, everyone’s an elite athlete with two legs and a brain wired for competition. Margins, not mountains, decide things.
Fans of clubs like United don’t watch for the comfort of ‘respectable’ finishes. We’re not and never want to be Arsenal – popping champagne for fourth place. Eww! We watch for the thrill of potential glory. For the hope that the next signing, the next breakthrough, the next moment of magic might turn a season. That’s the drug.
Because sometimes it only takes one player. Sometimes it’s the swagger of a Cantona, the legs of a Kanté, the leadership of a Kompany, or the control of a Rodri. Sometimes it’s a kid no one’s talking about in August who’s a household name by May.
And that’s why, even when the data, the form table and the pundits all say ‘be realistic’, I can’t bring myself to close the door. In elite sport, the difference between unforgettable and forgettable can walk into the room wearing one set of boots.
Mustafa (no-one can drink what I’m having because its not for sale)
MAILBOX: Matheus Cunha tipped to be ‘utterly fabulous’ or a ‘massive flop’ in pre-season predictions
Are Liverpool pulling off best transfer window ever?
With Liverpool looking like they’re on the verge of signing another few high quality players can we start talking about this as the greatest transfer window performance of all time yet?
I mean c’mon, who cares if they even win anything for they will have won the coveted greatest transfer window of all time award.
Essentially Liverpool will have replaced one team with another this window if their final transfers play out as planned:
Players out:
Kelleher
Trent (boo boo – happy now Newcastle fans?)
Quansah
Phillips
Tsimikas
Morton
Elliott
Dias
Nunez
Chiesa
Doak
Estimated income from sales 300mil
Players in:
Mamardashvilli (woodman, Pesci)
Frimpong
Guehi
Leoni
Kerkez
Wirtz
Ekitike
Isak
An other wide forward: Rodrygo, Barcola
And two academy stars in Rio and Nyoni can make up the 11
Estimated cost: 550mil
Net cost: 250mil
Now 250mil net spend is nothing to sneeze at (it’s 2 Coutinhos for example to use the standard transfer market overspend currency) but my God has any team in history bought that amount of genuine world class talent for that amount of money…it’s obscenely good.
It might not all come to pass, one or two deals might fall through but even then can anyone tell me a transfer window that comes close?
We may or may not win the league with the above, not because I’m lowering expectations just because integrating that amount of players in a few weeks is an impossible task. But with the above summer done and one of the finest coaches in the world at developing even average players in situ the mind boggles at what this Liverpool have become.
And even if it is the greatest flop in history, no one will ever take this window away from me: it’s been like thinking you’re going to your local Tesco to get the milk, meeting Scarlet Johansson in the baking aisle and spending a weekend together in the Maldives.
They say it’s the hope that kills you…nah mate that’s the despair, hope is what makes us fly.
Dave LFC
READ: Wirtz, Gyokeres, Mbeumo: Top 10 Premier League signings of the 2025 summer transfer window
Liverpool the medium-sized horse
You might’ve heard this paradox before: say you own a car and over the life of that ownership you’ve come to gradually replace every single part of that car…is it still the same car?
Liverpool haven’t so much as replaced an entire XI but it’s certainly looking a substantially different side. And I’d have said as much before the Palace loss at Wembley and before some of the mid-summer friendlies even took place because you simply cannot swap so many new faces with expectations of immediate cohesion. As new players cascaded in while others departed (via transfer or tragedy) I remember thinking to myself, Arne will have some job on his hands come August.
Well it’s August now. The new vehicle has become mid-engined with Wirtz meant to improve balance and create from central areas, and a certain former right fullback no longer cos-playing as a wannabe Pirlo fulcrum from the back.
Most probably understand the performance merits that come with teammate familiarity and a settled dressing room, which is why I’m surprised so many have installed Liverpool as easy title favorites. Pundits and mailboxers alike are so lazy in their thinking I often wonder if people are just generally getting stupider, or if social media takes away the need to procure any modicum of original thought or make one’s own analysis. Oh I’ll just say what he or she’s said in a different but louder way and be done with it.
I swear this is not disingenuous sandbagging to alleviate pressure from a big spend (or potential ridicule from rival clubs’ supporters), it’s only an honest assessment from what I see taking place, and what I think will happen. And that is, simply, that I don’t believe Liverpool are title favorites.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re absolutely in with a shout and I reckon we’re built now (with pieces presumably still to come, in this or future windows) to contend for many, many seasons to come. I just don’t know if I truly believe 2025-26 is our year to instantly gel and win it again at first time of asking. I say “first time of asking” because I don’t ever recall being title favorites in the prem era, full stop.
One last thing with regards a former Magpies striker who may or may not be Merseyside-bound. There was some absolute numpty in these pages that spoke of burning Anfield down for what he or she thought was such dirty play from Liverpool’s pursuit of a player. Honestly as more and more slowly comes to light on what’s actually occurred within their club and with the player, and stretching back well before this transfer saga with us even began… Christ, talk about dirty play towards their own.
If I were a Newcastle supporter (or even some of their players perhaps) I’d want to take kerosene to St. James’ myself. Mate, those black and white stripes are a prison but they shouldn’t be a life sentence.
Eric, Los Angeles CA
READ: Isak goes Full Kane in Liverpool transfer saga, and you never go Full Kane
A reality cheque
I asked ChatGPT what GBP 1 billion would buy, here’s the answer:
1) A cutting-edge theme park, like a smaller Disneyland.
2) A luxury skyscraper 60-80 floors in London
3) An advanced research hospital with robotic-assisted surgery
4) A high-speed railway line connecting 2 major cities with modern trains and stations
5) A network of luxury hotels – 10-12 five star hotels in major destinations
6) A space launch facility capable of small satellite launches
7) A top-tier Premier League sports stadium 60-80,000 seats with retractable roof and world-class facilities.
So what did Arsenal fans get from Arteta after spending 1 Billion Great Britain Pounds?
1 FA Cup and 2 dinner plates that he calls trophees. This is financial fraud on the scale of Enron and Lehmann Bros. How long did it take for Arsenal to pay off the Emirates by scrimping and saving, only for Arteta to blow an entire new stadium’s cost in just a few years. And yet, his fans worship him, he’s the second coming, the best manager bar none.
If it floats your boat, have at it. Just don’t come calling it the PGMOL title, the luck title, the we-have-injuries title when some other team wins it again.
Les Goh Guise.
Vinnie Pee
A shower of sh*te?
With so many clubs thundering and/or exploding into transfers, I am wondering if journalists and headline writers are collectively suffering from explosive diarrhea and have decided to incorporate it into their headlines and stories that are probably written in the toilet anyway.
Kristjan, LFC, Iceland
The Replacements?
Something has often befuddled me somewhat: “He is impossible to replace as it will cost them.a hell of a lot.” And there’s been a fair few of those this summer window already.
If Player A moves to Team 4 for £60m and on increased pay of £180,000/week, fair enough. But why is he irreplaceable? ‘Oh, to get someone in to replace him, will cost easily £80-100m, and the wages will be astronomical.’
If that’s the case, then why did Player A only go for £60m? Why was he not already on £180,000/week? Why is there no comparable.player at around the same price? Or is the answer to that simply if there was then Team 4 would have probably have gone in for him? But they didn’t so we turn back to why was he sold for only £60m?
‘They couldn’t afford that for new wages’ Well, if that’s the case, then they were underpaying him for ages, and the repercussions of not paying him that will always end up biting them on the arse, no? Ergo, they have no room to complain; they knew what they were getting themselves into.
Or is it that simple?
I appreciate that a few clubs have gotten this down to an art – buy at £8m, wages are crap, sell for £90m – but it isn’t always this, is it?
Mike D (The Replacements is a great – based on a true story – movie and highly recommended)
Sometimes just a thank you…
Thank you for making me actually do a lol. I literally (in the real meaning of literally) laughed out loud at the following
“just get back to the proper real football business of squabbling about VAR and seeing which referees are definitely corrupt this season and in whose favour and the very balanced and definitely-not-mental reaction from both sides when Man United burgle a 1-0 win over Arsenal in an unwatchable abomination of a game on Sunday afternoon.”
Wonderful wonderful and worryingly accurate, You can sooo see it happening!
Al – LFC (Hoping for comfortable start Friday evening as Bournemouth are surely struggling this year.. theres a curse! EkkyTekky to miss 3 or 4)
World-class chat
Interesting to read the continued debate about ‘world class’ players, especially the inclusion or not of Beckenbauer. I’d like to know how many people include players that they’ve never or rarely seen play, just because of their reputation. I’m 57 and many of the greats of the game (Best, Pele, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Eusebio) passed me by, because I was too young and there wasn’t a lot of football on the telly back in the day. We got one first division (think Premier League but on a smaller, grainier picture) match a week, and not from the start of the season*, plus some cup matches and the big day in May when we had a full day’s coverage of the FA Cup Final (believe it or not, this was the pinnacle of the football season for most people once upon a time).
I fell in love with the AC Milan team of the mid-80s to mid 90s (still the greatest club side to play the game imho), but the only players I feel I can truly judge are the Arsenal players that I’ve seen play week in, week out over the years. Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry were all in that category for me.
I think Saka may get there but not yet for me. However, with other players, both in the Premier League and other European leagues, I can only rely on the matches that I see them play and trust that they put in similar performances in all the games that I don’t see. Maybe everyone else in the mailbox does nothing else but watch matches from all around the world and know more than I do. I judge players by what I see and the joy they bring (regardless of who they play for) not by their reputation and the hot takes of others.
Also, anyone who thinks the City 3-2 title winner vs QPR (at home vs 10 man relegation fodder…for shame) was a better end to the season than the 0-2 Arsenal win at Anfield in 1989 is either under 45 (a lot of the mailbox contributors I suspect) and/or doesn’t really understand what a powerhouse that Liverpool team were. Still the greatest night of my football supporting life.
Dave AFC
*I seem to remember that at one point we only got highlights of the first half and then the second half live, at least for some of The Big Match, but I might be wrong.