No serious football club spends £70m to buy a 30-year-old and then commits to paying them £350,000 per week for the next four years. Leave that to the Saudi Pro League. Then again, this is Manchester United we’re talking about.
Overpayment has defined United’s post-Fergie transfer operations with far too much money wasted on players who either don’t have the body of work to justify such largesse or whose best days are in the rearview mirror of the battered old Ferrari. The two most glaring examples of that flawed recruitment started at Selhurst Park on Monday night: Antony ticks the first box, Casemiro ticks the second.
Casemiro has enjoyed a career that few players in the history of sport can match, but therein lies part of the problem. United bought a household name who had already lived out his wildest dream multiple times over, winning five Champions League trophies during his time in Madrid. Lifting the Carabao Cup doesn’t quite compare.
The financial gulf that exists between the Premier League and the rest is such that clubs abroad will naturally seek to take advantage from their English counterparts when they come knocking at their door with briefcases stuffed full of Euros.
Real Madrid couldn’t believe their luck when United’s desperate offer came in days after they had been battered by Brentford. They did what any sensible institution would: take the money and run.
Madrid had already bought Casemiro’s replacement, signing a 22-year-old with room to develop and fire in his belly to add energy to their engine in the form of Aurelien Tchouameni. That is precisely what United should have done: invest in the future, not in the past.
It may seem reactionary to suggest that Casemiro’s acquisition was the point at which the Erik ten Hag era was doomed to failure given the Brazilian enjoyed a stellar debut campaign at Old Trafford but it’s an argument not without merit.
Ten Hag had identified Frenkie de Jong as the man to build his midfield around, a young, dynamic No 6 who plays forward and runs into space when there is nobody to pass to.
Rather than buy a player with similar characteristics to the Dutchman, they signed a defensive midfielder with a completely different skillset, a ball winner rather than a ball player. Casemiro doesn’t even do much of that anymore. He now loses the ball more frequently than he retrieves it.
It was almost painful watching his attempt to tackle Michael Olise as the Frenchman brazenly danced around him en route to scoring Crystal Palace’s opening goal of an eventual 4-0 rout. United’s captain lunged in with all the finesse of Boris Johnson playing in a charity match and had barely peeled himself off the floor by the time Olise had stroked a finish past Andre Onana.
It got worse for United’s stand-in skipper. Casemiro’s attempts to usher the ball out of play were about as convincing as a substitute teacher imploring their temporary students to settle down at the start of a lesson and Daniel Munoz pounced to take the ball off him and tee up Olise to score his second. Again Casemiro found himself face down in the turf, begging the ground beneath him to swallow him up to put an end to the misery.
MICHAEL OLISE!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 6, 2024
"Great start for Palace but an absolute disaster for Manchester United"pic.twitter.com/VMX8N4LGl8
In Casemiro’s defence, he was playing out of position (alongside an injured Jonny Evans) and was far from the only player in white to surrender too easily. It’s just that his deficiencies are more glaring given we know what he was once capable of.
The game completely passed him by as though he were playing it on a different speed setting. He was dribbled past eight times over the course of 90 painful minutes; no other player in the league has suffered such torment in a single game this season.
“It’s sad to see a great player performing like this,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football. “We’ve all been there, but he’s only 32 and [for] what he’s achieved in the game he’s miles off it.”
Then came the ex-Liverpool defender’s withering closing statement.
“Casemiro should know tonight as an experienced player that he should only have another three games left at the top level – the next two league games and the cup final – then go to the MLS or Saudi,” Carragher said.
“I am nowhere near on what that man has achieved, winning the Champions League, playing for Brazil and Real Madrid. But I always remember something when I retired myself, there’s a saying I always remember: leave the football, before the football leaves you. The football has left him at this top level. He has to call it a day and move.”
It was a strikingly harsh summation of Casemiro’s current abilities, but a fair one. This was his Gary Neville vs West Brom experience. A season of unconvincing performances distilled into one 90-minute horror show.
For most of this season, Casemiro has been tasked with shielding United’s back four. The result? No Premier League goalkeeper has faced more shots than Andre Onana in 2024.
If they haven’t already done so, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox will soon start their assessment of United’s squad as they decide who to keep and who to discard.
Reports have suggested that only three players – Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund – are completely safe. Bruno Fernandes, Lisandro Martinez and Andre Onana are the experienced pros worth keeping on. Possibly Diogo Dalot too.
As for the rest, it would be no surprise to see any of them go. Shifting Casemiro on two years before the end of his contract will be a priority for the new regime. He is not the player that United need going forward. He never really was.
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