Manchester United’s midfield rebuild leaves Carrick with no excuses

Signings of Tielemans and Santos have addressed an area that has been problematic since the manager himself stopped playing

Ed Woodward to MUTV in July 2015: “When people see Bastian Schweinsteiger on the teamsheet, that’s going to send some shivers down the spine.” This prediction by Manchester United’s then executive vice-president, about Louis van Gaal’s new midfield signing, proved to be badly off-target as the World Cup-winner’s career at the club proved to be a disappointment.

Two years after Woodward’s bullish statement, Schweinsteiger departed for Chicago Fire with a paltry 35 appearances and two goals for United on his CV, having been forced to train for a while with the youngsters by José Mourinho, Van Gaal’s successor. Here, in microcosm, is the story of virtually all midfield recruits by United for a generation. The hope at the club is that this trend changed this summer, with the arrivals of Youri Tielemans for £35m from Aston Villa and Andrey Santos for £48m plus £2m in add-ons, from Chelsea, with the manager, Michael Carrick, also closing in on Brighton’s Carlos Baleba for a fee in the region of £70m.