Manchester United's Summer Rebuild Begins with Ederson Deal
Manchester United have taken the first clear step into the Michael Carrick era. The message around Old Trafford is just as clear: this is only the beginning.
Ederson, the driving force of Atalanta’s midfield last season, is on his way to Manchester after United struck a deal with the Serie A club. As revealed by David Ornstein, the Premier League side have agreed a fee of €40.5m plus a further €4.5m in potential bonuses for the 26-year-old, with personal terms settled on a four-year contract and an option for a fifth. A medical and the final formalities are pencilled in for early July.
It is a decisive move, and a timely one. Carrick’s outstanding second half of the campaign, which dragged United up to third in the Premier League and back into the Champions League, has given the club both leverage and urgency in the market. European qualification brings money, but more importantly, it brings relevance. United are acting like a club determined to use both.
Ederson only the start
If the Ederson deal looked like a statement, Fabrizio Romano quickly underlined that it is merely the opening line of United’s summer script.
“Ederson will only be the first midfield signing at Man United, at least another one has been planned,” he reported, adding that exits will shape the scale of the rebuild. Casemiro is heading out. Manuel Ugarte is also due to leave. That leaves a sizeable hole at the heart of Carrick’s side, and the club know it.
Romano has been consistent: United intend to bring in at least one more midfielder, and the door is open for a second addition “under certain conditions”. The plan is aggressive. The squad that finished the season so strongly is not being gently tweaked; it is being retooled.
The pressure finally told on United’s hierarchy once Carrick converted his interim bounce into a sustained charge. The former midfielder has now been rewarded with the job on a permanent basis, and the club are building around his ideas rather than asking him to patch up old ones.
Carrick’s backing from the outside
The appointment has impressed even those who spent much of their careers trying to stop United. Liverpool great John Barnes believes the club have made the right call, not just the convenient one.
“I don’t think you’re going to get a huge name manager to go to Manchester United in terms of the way they are now. I think it’s a great appointment,” Barnes told Betfred, arguing that the current landscape makes Carrick a smart, realistic choice rather than a compromise.
He did offer a gentle warning. The players’ fondness for Carrick could become a double-edged sword if it tips into comfort, but Barnes still sees the decision as about as good as United could make in their current position. Crucially, he expects Carrick to be given more time than some of his predecessors, even if the early months of his permanent reign do not match the surge that secured third place.
For a club that has lurched from reset to reset, that patience could be the most radical change of all.
Onana in limbo
The midfield is not the only area under review. United are open to moving on from Andre Onana this summer, yet for now the goalkeeper is heading back to Carrick’s squad.
Romano reports that Onana will return to Manchester United and is currently expected to join pre-season under the new permanent manager. Trabzonspor, where the Cameroon international has been on loan, remain keen to keep him and want to explore another loan agreement running until June 2027. Talks with United and Onana’s camp are still to come.
So the goalkeeper position sits in a kind of limbo. Onana is due back through the door, but his long-term future at Old Trafford is far from settled.
Standards and stars
Barnes also weighed in on the debate around Bruno Fernandes and the PFA Player of the Year award. For him, the accolade should usually belong to a player from a side that has either won the Premier League or pushed the champions all the way.
He cited Georgi Kinkladze’s brilliance in a relegated Manchester City team as an example of individual excellence not quite matching collective achievement. Declan Rice, in Barnes’ eyes, fits the usual profile better this season. Yet he still acknowledged how well Fernandes has performed for United.
There was a telling line from Barnes, a reminder of how the game used to be viewed from the dressing room. Individual honours mattered less than seeing teammates recognised alongside you. When he won the award himself, his greatest satisfaction came from the six Liverpool colleagues who joined him in the Team of the Year.
That is the kind of culture Carrick is trying to build at United: the team first, the star names serving the system rather than defining it.
What comes next
For now, the headline is simple. Ederson is coming. Casemiro and Ugarte are going. At least one more midfielder will follow, maybe two. Onana is returning to pre-season while another club lines up a long-term loan. And Michael Carrick, once the quiet conduit in United’s midfield, now stands at the centre of a major reconstruction.
The club have made their first move. The real question is how bold they are prepared to be with the next ones.
