Why Mata and Jones sum up Man Utd's decade of mismanagement
Karan Tejwani
- 28 Jul 2022 13:28 BST
- 3 min read
Manchester United are heading into another season of rebuild, with the aim of returning to the Champions League under Erik ten Hag.
There are, however, previous mistakes being called out which were believed to have held the club back, such as offering contracts to players that didn’t merit it.
Two examples of that are Phil Jones and Juan Mata, who have been pinpointed by Graeme Souness, and the former Liverpool player believes that cost the club dearly.
There is now little margin for error for the club, and making more decisions like they did in the past would result in a vicious cycle for the record English champions.
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United have seen changes at management level, with Ed Woodward leaving the club after his disastrous spell and was replaced by the team of Richard Arnold and John Murtough.
Souness now sees it as an essential part to get big calls right, not only in terms of the players they buy, but also in terms of who they keep.
"The problem they have is they're so poor in so many areas. That's a problem for those making the decisions at the football club," Souness said.
"It's not just the players they've bought - which is the easy thing to focus on - but when you look at making decisions like giving Phil Jones a new contract, giving Juan Mata a new contract, and you think things might be different next year.”
He continued: "For Manchester United, it's not about the top four, it's about challenging for the title. They're a country mile away from that. Yes, they'll be better, but whoever is making the decisions going forward needs to get them right. They've got to improve their footballing decisions, who they keep and who they recruit."
Shot power 💯 @JuanMata8 scored the only goal as we beat the Eagles 1-0 in 2014! 👊 pic.twitter.com/Mqh3XihWoM
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 22, 2019
Jones has been at the club since 2011, but has rarely played since 2018 and was offered a new contract in 2019 that lasted until 2023, which was seen as a bizarre decision to protect the player’s re-sale value.
Mata, meanwhile, has rarely played over the last two seasons but saw the one-year option in his contract triggered in 2021, and only left the club this past summer.
The Red Devils will have to avoid such decisions in the future, not only to build a strong side, but also to save valuable funds in order to build a competitive side.
