Football Season Guide

Manchester United prepare for the upcoming season with renewed optimism that they are ready to challenge for the title again after a couple of years far away from the battle for the top. That said, last season was a successful one for the Red Devils as they managed to return to the Champions League courtesy of a top-four finish. It was not always an easy ride and Louis van Gaal needed quite a lot of time to find his best 11. But the stretch of games in March and April in which United looked genuinely superb gives the fans enough reason to be bullish about their chances for a title challenge. There has been good strengthening in key areas over the summer, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin classy additions in midfield, and Memphis Depay a real livewire in the attacking department. These three have the quality and potential to transcend United to a higher level from the one that they have been on in the past couple of seasons. However, there are still a number of areas that needed to be addressed before starting to talk about United as genuine contenders. The lack of proper alternative to Wayne Rooney up front, with Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao no longer around, is an issue and one that does not look like being addressed before the end of August as the main focus now is securing the signature of Pedro from Barcelona. The failure to sign a top-end centre-back is another disappointment of the summer, especially given that Sergio Ramos looked tantalisingly likely to join at one point over the summer. And that leads to the elephant in the room, the continued stand-off regarding the team’s best player of last season, David de Gea. He clearly wants to join Real Madrid immediately but United have so far refused to play ball with the Spanish side. This is a saga that is set to go to the end of the transfer window and could have potentially disastrous impact on the side for the remainder of the season. But Van Gaal is clearly making progress with this United side and they are capable of playing excellent football with the new personnel added. However, they still look short of the required level for a title push and one would still rate them below the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea.