United's Left-Back Dilemma: A Familiar Mistake
Manchester United have been here before. Same position, same profile, same price range. And the same sense that the club might be sleepwalking into another expensive mistake.
Two years on from letting Alvaro Carreras leave for Benfica for just £5.2million – only to watch him flip into a £42m transfer to Real Madrid last summer – United are now prepared to cash in on another 19-year-old left-back, Harry Amass, for around £6m.
It feels eerily familiar. Too familiar.
Amass, who broke into the first team under Ruben Amorim and made seven senior appearances before heading out on loan to the Championship, is attracting serious interest from the second tier and has admirers in the Premier League. Instead of building around him, United are ready to auction him off for what many supporters see as pocket change.
All this while Old Trafford is crying out for left-backs, with 31-year-old Luke Shaw entering the final year of his contract and no long-term heir nailed down.
The reaction from fans has been sharp. Social media and forums have been full of frustration, not just at the fee being mooted, but at the logic. How can a club that is actively looking to strengthen at left-back be so relaxed about losing one of its brightest prospects there?
Carreras is the cautionary tale. United banked a modest sum, watched his value explode in another league, and now face the prospect of repeating the trick with Amass. The numbers are different. The feeling is the same: short-term cash, long-term regret.
Carrick’s Youth Dilemma
Michael Carrick’s first full season in charge is already being shaped by decisions around youth. United are open to loaning out almost their entire Under-21s squad for the 2026/27 campaign, with only a select few ring-fenced as untouchable.
Shea Lacey, Jack Fletcher, Tyler Fletcher and JJ Gabriel are being kept close, seen as part of the club’s immediate future. Others, including those who have impressed in pre-season, are being lined up for experience elsewhere.
The friendlies against Rosenborg and Wrexham have thrown several youngsters into the spotlight. One of the most eye-catching has been full-back Jaydan Kamason, who delivered two excellent assists against Rosenborg after replacing Harry Maguire at half-time.
Kamason, the first player to sign a scholarship at United after emerging from the club’s Emerging Talent Programme, endured two lengthy injuries last season. Now 19, he is on a mission to force his way into Carrick’s plans, even as the club weighs up whether to loan him out.
“Hopefully I can,” he said of a first-team breakthrough. “I’m always trying to aspire to get to that level. If I need a few loans or whatever, we’ll have to see. But I’m trying to get to that top level and that’s Man United. You just have to be ambitious.”
The ambition is there. The pathway is less clear. Between Amass potentially being sold and Kamason hovering between Carrington and a loan, United’s handling of young full-backs will be one of the defining subplots of their summer.
Injuries, Openings and a Makeshift XI
United’s Premier League fixtures are already locked in, and Carrick’s first full campaign begins with a trip to newly-promoted Hull on August 22. On paper, it’s a gentle opening. In reality, injuries are threatening to turn it into a tactical puzzle.
At centre-back, the Heaven–Maguire partnership looks set to continue. Matthijs de Ligt is not due back until the autumn, while Lisandro Martinez suffered heartbreak in the World Cup final, forced off injured as Argentina fell 1-0 to Spain after extra-time.
United feared the worst. They braced for a long lay-off. Tests have since offered relief: Martinez has only suffered a muscle strain and is expected to be fit in time for the visit to the MKM Stadium. For a defence that has lived on the edge in recent seasons, that is a significant boost.
In midfield and attack, the picture is more complicated. Kobbie Mainoo is nursing a back issue. Up front, Benjamin Sesko is only just edging back towards full fitness after a shin injury.
Sesko, 23, missed the opening pre-season friendlies against Wrexham and Rosenborg as he followed a rehabilitation programme, but Carrington sources insist his recovery is on track. He started outdoor training last week and has a chance of featuring against Atletico Madrid in Stockholm on August 1. The expectation is that he will start against Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg on August 8.
Until then, Carrick may have to improvise. One likely solution is to push Mason Mount into a deeper role alongside new signing Youri Tielemans, with Bryan Mbeumo leading the line, Amad Diallo operating from the right and Matheus Cunha cutting in from the left.
It is not the XI many would have predicted when the fixtures came out. It might be the one necessity demands.
Pre-Season: A Real Test, Not a Lap of Honour
United’s pre-season schedule is no soft landing. After early run-outs against Wrexham and Rosenborg, the real scrutiny begins.
Atletico Madrid await in Solna on August 1, a 2pm kick-off at the Strawberry Arena. It is United’s third friendly and their first against a side with top European pedigree this summer. The game will be broadcast live on MUTV, with coverage starting an hour before kick-off.
Then comes a glamour tie with back-to-back European champions PSG in Gothenburg on August 8. Leeds follow on August 12, then Milan on August 15. Every game will be available on MUTV, both on TV and online.
For Carrick, these are not ceremonial fixtures. They are auditions. Minutes for youngsters, tactical rehearsals for the seniors, and a live examination of where this squad stands before Hull and the grind of the league begin.
Strikers In, Strikers Out
Up front, United’s planning is laced with uncertainty. Joshua Zirkzee, currently at Old Trafford, is wanted by Juventus on loan with a £30m option to buy. The Italian club are leading the race and pushing hard.
That pursuit has had a ripple effect. Sky Sports report that Juventus are now unlikely to move for Zirkzee because they have reached an agreement with PSG to sign Randal Kolo Muani on loan, with a conditional obligation to buy. If the deal becomes permanent, Kolo Muani will sign a five-year contract.
United, meanwhile, are keeping their options open. According to the i Paper, they have considered a move for former Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic, now a free agent after his contract in Turin expired. The thinking is straightforward: if Zirkzee does head to Italy, United want an experienced forward ready to step in.
That decision will shape the attack around Sesko. It will also say plenty about how aggressively the club intend to push this season.
Falcao’s Second Act
Away from Old Trafford, a familiar name is preparing for a very different role. Radamel Falcao, whose costly and underwhelming loan spells at Manchester United and Chelsea between 2014 and 2016 left a sour taste in English football, is on the verge of a fresh start with his country.
Now 40 and a free agent after leaving Bogota club Millonarios, Colombia’s all-time leading scorer with 36 goals in 104 appearances has been targeted by the Colombian FA to become assistant manager to national coach Nestor Lorenzo.
A source close to Lorenzo told El Tiempo that the coach is pleased about the possibility of Falcao joining his staff, should the striker decide to retire from playing. Crucially, it was the federation’s directors who proposed Falcao’s name, not Lorenzo himself.
For a player who once terrorised defences for Porto, Atletico Madrid and Monaco, it is a chance to rebuild his reputation on the touchline rather than the pitch.
Chelsea’s New Spine Wins Respect
Back in the Premier League, Chelsea’s business has caught the eye of a former United stalwart. Gary Neville has praised the Blues for bringing in Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson, arguing that they finally give the club the experienced spine it has lacked.
“If you watched Chelsea for the last three, four or five years you’d say there’s inexperience right throughout the football club,” Neville told Sky Sports. He highlighted Welbeck and Henderson as “guardians of good behaviour, responsibility and discipline” in a dressing room that has often looked rudderless.
Both players, he pointed out, know how to win Premier League titles and can still contribute 25 to 35 games a season. More importantly, in his view, they will set standards for a young squad that has been short on leadership.
It is a model United themselves are trying to refine: blending high-ceiling youngsters with hardened winners. The question is whether they will keep enough of their own talent to make that balance work.
Martinez, Security and the Cost of the World Stage
Martinez’s World Cup journey has left a mark beyond the treatment room. After Argentina’s semi-final victory over England – a 2-1 win that inflamed old tensions – the defender and Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister had private security stationed at their homes in the north-west.
Martinez had been seen celebrating with a banner reading “The Falklands are Argentina’s”, with Mac Allister nearby as the bedsheet was displayed. Emotions ran high after England’s exit, and security personnel remained at their properties for two days.
There were no attempts to vandalise either house, and Manchester United were not involved in arranging the security detail. Still, it was a stark reminder of how international football, politics and club loyalties can collide in the modern game.
The Window That Will Define the Season
United’s summer is busy, noisy, and full of moving parts. Manu Kone is reported to have agreed personal terms ahead of a proposed £42.7m move from Roma, with the French World Cup winner eager to join Carrick’s side. Sesko is racing the clock to be ready. Zirkzee’s future hangs in the balance. Vlahovic is on the radar.
And then there is Harry Amass.
Selling him for £6m would bring in quick money and clear a pathway for others. Keeping him would be a bet on potential, a refusal to repeat the Carreras saga.
United’s hierarchy have insisted they are rebuilding smartly, with an eye on both today and tomorrow. This window will prove whether those words carry weight – or whether another young left-back will end up as a very expensive lesson, viewed from afar.
