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❗️💼EXCL : Sources behind the scenes at Manchester United have indicated that deep talks have already been held with Mauricio Pochettino.
During these discussions, the Argentine reportedly made Bruno Fernandes’ future a red-line issue in talks over the Manchester United job.
Pochettino would prefer that the club commits to keeping their captain and opening talks on a new contract.
Fernandes’ deal runs to 2027 with an option for another year, but there has been quiet uncertainty over whether United see him as a long-term piece. Pochettino wants that sorted first.
Those close to the process say the former Chelsea and Tottenham boss sees Fernandes as the heartbeat of the team he would build — not a player whose influence needs scaling back.
Pochettino views him in the same light as Cole Palmer at Chelsea and Marco Verratti at Paris Saint-Germain: the technical, progressive midfielder who dictates tempo, unlocks defences, and gives the side its identity.
The same sources say Pochettino is also a big admirer of Diogo Dalot. He rates the full-back’s ability to invert into midfield or stretch the pitch with width, depending on the structure, as a perfect fit for the flexible roles he demands from his full-backs.
Dalot is being spoken about as a ready-made piece rather than a project.
There are caveats.
Pochettino has raised questions about the current midfield balance if Fernandes isn’t fully locked in, the defensive organisation needed to sustain a high press, and whether the squad has the physical depth to handle the intensity he wants. Recruitment and overall direction of the project still need agreeing.
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Carrick gone 😭
Our Title charge starts now😭🔥🔥
🚨 Manchester United intend to relieve Michael Carrick of duties. #MUFC say no final decision & nothing set in stone but work undertaken on replacements + multiple sources anticipate change before Liverpool. W/ @lauriewhitwell @AdamCrafton_ @TheAthleticFC nytimes.com/athletic/7768165…
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🚨🎙️| Wayne Rooney reacts to FIFPRO Top 11 of the Year
-Youtube
“I’ve just looked at World XI, FIFPRO? Yeah.. and I don’t know whether to laugh or get mad.”
“Harry Kane is the Ballon d’Or winner. The actual best player in the world according to the biggest individual award in football. And somehow he’s not good enough for this team? What are we doing? Kane scores goals for fun, leads the line properly, drops deep, creates, links play, carries the weight of expectation every single week.”
“He’s been doing it at the highest level for years. How do you leave the Ballon d’Or winner out of the team of the year? It makes the whole thing look ridiculous.”
“And then you look further down the team and Bruno Fernandes isn’t there either.”
“Yeah, People will point to his form this season and say he’s not been at his best, and fair enough, he hasn’t. But these awards aren’t supposed to be based on the last few months alone. They’re meant to recognise what a player produced over the period they’re judging.”
“Last season Bruno was outstanding — creating chances out of nothing, scoring, assisting, dragging United forward when everything around him was a mess. That body of work should have been more than enough to earn him a place.”
“Leaving him out because of a dip in form this season just shows how short-sighted the whole process is.”
“These awards are supposed to recognise excellence, consistency, and impact. Right now it feels like they’re recognising something else entirely — popularity, politics, marketing, whatever it is.”
“When you can leave out the Ballon d’Or winner and a midfielder whose previous season was as influential as Bruno’s was, the whole thing loses credibility. It’s not good enough.”
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🚨🗣️| Nicky Butt reacts to JJ Gabriel potentially signing for Real Madrid
“Look, I’ve been around the game long enough to know when a young lad’s getting carried away with himself, and this JJ Gabriel business is a classic case of it.”
“Sixteen years of age, still wet behind the ears, and he’s already decided Manchester United ain’t good enough for him. They had him training with the first team, they were ready to throw him on in the Carabao Cup, they treated him like the golden boy because everyone could see the talent, and what does he do? He downs tools, stops training, and tells them he wants out because the pathway isn’t clear enough. Pathway? At sixteen? Come on, be serious.”
“Now he’s off to Real Madrid, and I don’t care what anyone says about Castilla and development plans — that place is already stacked with wingers. Vinicius, Mbappé, Rodrygo, that young Diomande lad who’s already getting minutes, Endrick, Brahim… the list goes on.”
“He’s not walking into that dressing room and demanding a place. He’s walking into a queue that stretches all the way back to the academy. They’ll park him in the B team, tell him he’s the future, and then when the next big signing arrives he’ll be further down the pecking order than he ever was at Old Trafford.”
“And the worst part is, United have got kids of their own coming through who actually want to be there. This sends the wrong message to every single one of them. You don’t get special treatment and then spit it back in the club’s face because someone in Spain’s whispering in your ear.”
“I’ve seen too many of these ‘next Messis’ chase the bright lights and end up nowhere. The lad’s got talent, no one’s denying that, but talent without a bit of patience and a bit of humility doesn’t get you very far in this game. in a couple of years he might be wondering why he didn’t just keep his head down at Manchester United.”
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❗️🗣️| Roy Keane goes off on Manchester United’s owners on The Overlap
“They bought a football club and turned it into a spreadsheet. The Glazers didn’t fall in love with the club. They looked at the numbers, saw the revenue, saw the global brand, and thought here’s a machine we can strip for parts. That’s not ownership. That’s asset management with a scarf on.”
“I played for that club when it meant something. You walked through those doors and you felt the weight of it — the history, the people who’d bled for that name before you. Sir Matt Busby built something out of rubble after Munich. The fans carried it through the wilderness years. Alex Ferguson turned it into the biggest club in England, maybe the world”
“None of that was about money. It was about identity. Then the Glazers came in with their leveraged buyout and loaded the club with debt to pay for their own purchase.”
“Think about that. They used the club’s own money to buy the club. Every year since, the profits that should’ve gone into the pitch, into the academy, into keeping the best players, went to servicing that debt and paying dividends.”
“Seventeen years of it. And when the fans finally had enough — when they broke into their own ground to say enough is enough — the Glazers didn’t listen. They just put the club up for sale like it was a house they were tired of. No apology. No accountability. Just a press release.”
“Then along comes Sir Jim Ratcliffe. And I thought, finally, someone with football in his blood. Ineos. A serious operation. A man who’s won trophies in other sports. Surely he’ll understand what this club is.”
“But what did we get? We got the same thing wearing a different badge. Ratcliffe came in talking about efficiency, about cutting costs, about restructuring. He started selling off pieces of the club’s soul — minority stakes, commercial rights, the very things that made United feel like United.”
“He brought in his own people, his own culture, his Ineos way of doing things, as if a football club is a chemical plant that just needs better management. It’s not. It’s a living thing. It’s the fans, the history, the noise on a Saturday afternoon. You can’t spreadsheet that.”
“And here’s the part that really gets me. The Glazers and Ratcliffe are two sides of the same coin. One group bought the club to extract money. The other bought in to run it like a business. Neither group asked the fans what they wanted.”
“Neither group sat in the stands and felt what it’s like when United win. They talk about passion from boardrooms. They talk about the club’s future while making decisions that hollow it out from the inside. The Glazers took the money. Ratcliffe is taking the identity. And the fans are left holding the ticket stub for a club that doesn’t exist anymore.”
“I don’t recognise this team. I don’t recognise this club. They’re chopping and changing and getting rid of everyone in the background which is fine, there’s a business side to it, we know that. But when we’re discussing Man United these days, it’s more like a business than a football club.”
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🚨🗣️| Thierry Henry on Cristiano Ronaldo winning the B.O.A.T award! (Best Ballon D'or of all time)
“Look, I’m not going to sit here and rate which Ballon d’Or season is the greatest of all time — that’s not how I see it, and it’s not something I get involved in. Ranking awards years later like that doesn’t interest me”
“What happened in 2008 with Cristiano was special in its own right, but calling it the best ever is not a conversation I’m having.”
“That season at Manchester United, he was complete. Goals from everywhere, assists, carrying the team in the biggest moments, winning the league and the Champions League. You watched him and you felt the difference — the pace, the power, the confidence, the way he could decide a game on his own. It gave people joy, no doubt. He was operating at a very high level and he deserved the recognition he got for what he produced that year.”
“But for me, one season, even a brilliant one, is still one season. What I’ve always respected about him is the longer picture: staying at that level for years, the obsession with being the best, the way he lived the game. That’s harder than having one outstanding campaign.”
“Awards are snapshots. They matter, but they don’t define the full story of a player or settle arguments about who’s had the greatest season.”
“I played in that era. I saw him up close enough. He was extraordinary, same as Leo was extraordinary. They pushed each other and they pushed the level of the game. That’s what stays with me, not which trophy gets voted the greatest years later.”
“Respect to Cristiano for what he did in 2008 and for how long he kept going after it. The rest is just rankings.”
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🚨🗣️| Jamie Carragher on Manchester United’s decision to keep Michael Carrick
“I said it on Sunday night after Bournemouth and I’ll say it again now: it was.. or it would have been the right decision to part ways, for Michael Carrick as much as for Manchester United.”
“ Nothing has changed because they’ve decided to keep him. That performance was abject — 3-0 at home, another in a long line of them — and the situation in that dressing room is toxic.”
“You’ve got a manager who dropped his captain, didn’t bring him on, and now has to walk back into Carrington and face him. It’s untenable.”
“Carrick’s a brilliant lad, a proper Manchester United man, and nobody wants to see him go through this. But keeping him because he’s a club legend or because the fans sang his name doesn’t change the reality.”
“This club is one of the biggest in the world and they’re hovering above the relegation zone with one win in the league. The players aren’t running, the standards have gone, and he hasn’t got the tools or the authority to fix it.”
“I’ve watched this cycle for years: manager comes in, it looks okay for a bit, then it collapses, the dressing room turns, and they sack him. Doing nothing now just delays the inevitable and makes it worse for everyone — especially Carrick.”
“He doesn’t want to be sat in that dugout with that group. They should have put him out of his misery. Instead they’re sending him to Chelsea hoping for a miracle. It doesn’t work like that. Loyalty is fine, but results matter more at a club like Manchester United”
~The Overlap
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🚨🗣️| Jose Mourinho reacts to Harry Kane winning the Ballon d’Or ahead of Kylian Mbappé.
“I must be getting old. Truly. Because I still live under the illusion that the Ballon d’Or is meant to reward the best footballer on the planet… not the most efficient goalscorer who escaped a club that dwells in mediocrity , and then joined a club that wins the league by existing”
“Let me be clear, so there is no misunderstanding later. Harry Kane is a very good striker. Excellent movement. Clinical finisher. Professional. Intelligent. All the things journalists love to write when they have already decided the narrative”
“But the Ballon d’Or was never supposed to be a lifetime achievement award for being ‘really consistent’ while the real monsters of the game were busy destroying nights in the Champions League”
“Mbappé decides matches that matter. He decides them in February, in April, in May, under the lights, against the best, when the whole world is watching. Kane decides them on Saturday afternoons in the Bundesliga against teams that are already thinking about next season.”
“There is a difference. A rather large, rather obvious difference.
But of course the voters know better. They always do. They have their metrics, their expected goals, their ‘leadership’, their ‘importance to the team’. They have decided that carrying Bayern Munich to another routine title is somehow more impressive than what Mbappé does every time he pulls on that shirt.”
“I have seen this before. The game changes. The criteria change. Suddenly the player who scores the most goals in a league where half the teams are already defeated before kick-off becomes more valuable than the one who changes the temperature of the biggest stadiums in Europe.”
“Congratulations to Harry. Seriously. He has waited a long time for the football world to confuse reliability with greatness. He has earned this moment. The photos will look nice. Everyone will clap.
And in five years, when people look back at this Ballon d’Or, they will quietly change the subject.”
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🚨🗣️|Michael Owen SLAMS the Ballon d’or on Jude Bellingham’s ranking.
“Look, I’ve got to be honest — leaving Jude Bellingham outside the Ballon d’Or top ten after what he did across 2025 and 2026 is just wrong”
“First you’ve got the whole 2025-26 season with Real Madrid. Controlling games, pressing like a mad man and still arriving in the box at the right time”
“There were nights when Madrid just didn’t look the same without him. He scored big goals, made big assists, came through in tough moments”
“Then the World Cup comes straight after and he raises his standards again”
“England’s whole tournament basically ran through him. He was everywhere — winning the ball high up, driving forward, scoring when it mattered, creating when the game got tight. In the knockouts especially, when everything got physical and tense, he was the one player the other teams couldn’t shut down. He didn’t look 23. He looked like a leader”
“Every time England needed someone to step up, it was Bellingham”
“He peaked twice in the same year and still delivered both times.
People will understandably talk more about Kylian Mbappe and Harry kane, standouts in their own right, But if you actually watched the matches that decided things in 2025 and 2026, it’s obvious. He was one of the most important players on the planet. Leaving him outside the top ten isn’t just harsh —its preposterous”
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🚨💼EXCL: During Executive talks at carrington, the meeting- attended by Jason Wilcox, Christopher Vivell, Omar Berrada in person, the glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe virtually , a-lot of underlying issues were brought to limelight.
Behind the scenes there is thought to be a power tussle between Jason wilcox and Christopher vivell, with the former particularly concerned about his job status.
Sources have indicated that Majority of the managerial candidates have expressed concerns about Manchester United’s Hierarchy.
While there is significant interest in the job, Confidence in the setup is comparatively low.
Recruitment control, authority over player departures, and a clear decision-making structure are part of the recurring demands.
“They know the size of the opportunity,” one figure involved said. “They also know who usually gets the blame.”
Senior voices have also expressed growing concerns over what is beginning to look like a poor streak in regards to managerial decisions, leading to paranoia relating to the next appointment.
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🚨🗣️| Owen Hargreaves speaks on the ongoing tension with Bruno Fernandes and Manchester United
“He’s a talented lad, one of the best of his generation no doubt, but i’ve seen and played with better footballers at man united who remained humble servants till the end”
“A captain has to serve as a role model for the locker room, what’s to say Dan armer.. and Shea lacy and the rest of the young lads don’t see him liking Instagram posts, pouting everywhere… generally giving off a foul body language, and they begin exhibiting those traits in a year or two?”
“He’s making the situation seem deeper than it actually is. I mean sure, the state of the team isn’t the best right now- a team he’s part of by the way- and the higher ups haven’t invested correctly. But it’s your job AS THE CAPTAIN, to do a bit of damage control. To play down the situation to those outside the club, not amplify it.”
“At this point in time, it only looks like the way out…the logical way out would be for both parties(Bruno fernandes and Manchester United) to part ways, amicably”
[On the Today Show]
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🚨🚨🎙️| Wayne Rooney reacts to Michael Carrick’s statement ahead of the Manchester United press conference
“That kind of emotion he(Carrick) has shown isn’t something you fake. That’s genuine love for this massive club”
“It’s a whole lot easier to sit on your couch and throw tomatoes (figuratively) at whoever’s on stage you know, but he’s handled the outrage in the most mature way possible- not a single player thrown under the bus. He’s shielding them all from scrutiny..”
“The lads, the players, Bruno… Lisandro.. Cunha, and others, they have to put their heads down and work.”
“For the manager’s tactics to work, his players HAVE to believe in it without a doubt, trust in the game-plan… those are the basics of manager-player relationships”
“Sunday’s game is last chance saloon for sure.. but they probably think only Michael’s in danger. Believe me, if this manager leaves, a good portion of those lads won’t remain past this season”
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🚨🗣️Peter Schmeichel on Manchester United’s Trashing at the hands of Como.
“Honestly?, i feel bad for the away fans that travelled and paid good money to watch that horror, they have to get refunded, absolutely.”
“Why even bother qualifying for the champions league if you’re going to turn in rubbish performances like this?”
“Mike (carrick) seems lost out there on the touchline, Fabregas was by far the superior tactician out there.”
“The players looked gassed from minute 1, which is definitely a coaching issue.”
“You can see the manager trying different things each game in terms of personnel but it’s just not working. Kind of like throwing mud on the wall and hoping it sticks.”
“Fernandes has no business leading the line, neither does Mason Mount belong that deep in the midfield.. the less i speak about the defense.. the better.”
