With the exception of Belarus, global football is currently suspended. There is talk of the Premier League eying a potential mid-June return, and with that in mind, a possible return to team training in the next couple of weeks. Right now, there are just more questions than answers with Project Restart.
The English top flight just doesn’t seem to have the same coherence and direction as the leading leagues in Germany, Spain and Italy right now. Today it was just announced that the German Bundesliga will return in the later half of this month. The good news is that United have reportedly called their foreign players back home, in the belief that training will restart soon.
In fact, M.E.N. has an article about the team’s training plans, with an apparent start date of May 18 now set.
Until we get there, we still have plenty of news items to cover, so with that in mind, let’s take a spin through the Manchester United community cyberspace. For today’s MUFC transfer rumor round-up go here. Today we cover a potential summer clearout, as manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will look to jettison three defenders who are very much out of favor.
We start with Chris Smalling, who has impressed while on loan with AS Roma. Reportedly, the club brass in Rome wanted to make his loan a permanent deal, and that might be best for all involved. Smalling could have his share of other potential suitors outside the Serie A side, including, somewhat surprisingly, Arsenal.
In sticking with another central defender, Phil Jones may be the player that United fans love to hate the most. Or perhaps the fringe player that they enjoy making fun of the most.
It’s probably because he was so hyped up, to ridiculously unrealistic expectations, by club patriarch Sir Alex Ferguson.
Also, he makes very funny faces, which are meme and GIF worthy, when he screws up, causing his name to trend easily on social media. He’s been far outside the first team for quite some time, and it’s best he moves on. Newcastle, who are actually pretty deep at the position, are said to be interested. It’s really time for Solskjaer to truly put his stamp on the club, and help the MUFC community finally move on from the Sir Alex era.
Those were glorious times, obviously, but now it’s time to begin a new legacy.
Finally, we get to Marcos Rojo, a 2014 summer transfer window buy who’s now on loan with his childhood club Estudiantes in his native Argentina.
Having been strongly linked with a move away for quite some time, he has since been caught breaking lockdown rules, and that may be the final straw. Hard to imagine he comes back after that.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.