From Bruno Fernandes’s future to a Champions League return, all to know about Manchester United before the new football season.
Manchester United’s third-place finish in the Premier League last season has not only restored them to the UEFA Champions League, but it has offered a glimmer of hope that a title challenge may not be as far away as their fans feared.
This is Manchester United, though – a club built on comebacks against the odds, but also infamous for slipping dramatically off the pace.
The Munich air tragedy in 1958 wiped out the majority of United’s famed “Busby Babes” side, but the rebuild by Matt Busby to win the then-European Cup 10 years later resulted in admiration and fandom across the world.
The last league title for Busby came in 1967, and United had to wait 23 years until manager Alex Ferguson restored the club’s place at the top of the table; he went on to send United to pole position for the number of league titles won.
The comeback for United was truly completed when Ferguson’s side lifted the Champions League in 1999. A 31-year wait ended, yet still, it needed that famous injury-time turnaround.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at where United are now in their hunt to end their latest wait for a Premier League title, with the last coming under Ferguson in 2013.
United’s third-place finish in the Premier League last season was their best since Erik ten Hag led them to third in 2023.
They have only finished in that position, or better, in five out of the 13 seasons since Ferguson retired in 2013. They have only twice finished second in that time, under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunner Solskjaer.
This latest run, of two third-place finishes in the last five seasons, is their worst run since Ferguson, with the eighth and 15th-place finishes in the previous two seasons also being their worst returns in the last 36 years.
The revival under Michael Carrick, who replaced Ruben Amorim midway through last season, has been remarkable.
No Premier League team picked up more points (39) than United since Carrick took charge of a team that seemed destined for another bottom-half finish in the last campaign.
Champions League qualification was more of a fantasy than a dream when Carrick took over, and at one stage United found themselves relegation candidates after an abysmal opening few weeks.
To go from that position to contenders in less than a year would be a fairy tale for Carrick and the United fans, but if they start the new campaign in the same form that they finished the last, then anything could happen in what is seen as one of the most open title races in English top-flight history.
The biggest question that Carrick faces is how to replace Brazilian international Casemiro now that the central midfielder has moved to Inter Miami.