Manchester United have won their FA Cup third round match against Reading on Saturday and headed to Dubai straight afterwards. The players and staff went to United Arab Emirates for several days of work in warm weather, recuperating after a tough run of matches in short period of time.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been the manager for the past five matches and the start could not have been better. The Devils won all five of them, scoring 16 goals and conceding three, earning two clean sheets in the process. Opponents might not have been the toughest possible, but after such poor form, this is a huge step forward. Before Solskjaer’s arrival, no one could have guaranteed United would have won all of these matches.
So, what lays ahead now? There are five matches for Manchester United between now and their Champions League clash against PSG. All five of those will come in the league and just over a month from now we will have a good picture of where this team could end up in May.
Five Gone, Five To Come
First up, next Sunday, it will be a match at Wembley against Tottenham Hotspur. After that, there will be consecutive matches at Old Trafford, hosting Brighton and Burnley, before two travels – to King Power in Leicester and Craven Cottage in London.
One thing is for certain here – it is a really good run of matches for United. Only Tottenham are a team from the top six and not even that, two of the teams are fighting in relegation battle. The Spurs test will be a big one for both sides, as both Solskjaer and Pochettino could gain a lot with a win in that clash. However, it seems like Spurs could lose more as they still try to remain in any kind of title push.
The ‘Anti-United’ Clause
This week we had interesting news regarding Brahim Diaz. The Spanish 22-year old midfielder that plays for Manchester City is an intriguing player that could a lot of playing time at a lot of teams. However, he is reportedly being chased by Real Madrid. The European champions are in a huge mess, after another loss this weekend, this time against Real Sociedad, and they seem to be losing their compass.
Still, getting Diaz from 15 million pounds could be an interesting deal for all sides. Although, there was an interesting clause inserted in these negotiations, at least Sky Sports claim so. If Real Madrid were to sell Brahim Diaz, Man City would be owed 15 percent of that fee, but that percentage would grow to 40 if the player was to be sold to Manchester United.
It is interesting to see champions of England being afraid of Man United potentially getting one of their former players in the future. Still, it remains unknown if this transfer is a realistic one, but where there is smoke, there is fire. And the same could be said about the ‘anti-United’ clause media were reporting about.
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