Should Man Utd sell Casemiro? | Football Digest
At £350,000 a week and with a transfer fee of £61.7million back in August 2022, Casemiro has cost Manchester United around £84m to date. It is a sobering figure even in the world of football and even in the world of United where the same was shelled out for a player in Antony who has produced just four goals and two assists in 34 Premier League outings.
But with Sir Jim Ratcliffe apparently questioning the shrewdness of recent transfer policy and using Casemiro as a case in point – why not Antony you might ask – what are the facts? Does Casemiro deserve the fanfare or the title of flop? And what should be done with the remainder of a contract that could see him stay until the summer of 2026 if he so wished.
Most United fans would agree that Casemiro was one of the bright spots in last season’s resurgence under Erik ten Hag – providing the sort of maturity, solidity and passing skill from the base of midfield that was been lacking in the games of Scott McTominay and Fred.
He scored vital goals on more than one occasion including opening the scoring against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup Final which United won. As importantly, he helped to channel the authority of new manager Ten Hag in a dressing room divided after the latter stages of Cristiano Ronaldo’s increasingly sour second spell at the club.
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Echoing his manager’s demands for better standards throughout a club that had let players become too lax and lazy under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Casemiro was crucial in helping the transition under Ten Hag. In that role alone Casemiro was priceless, helping to shore up United’s manager in a season in which they lifted a trophy, made another final and finished in the top four.
Just imagine the financial cost had Ten Hag not made it through his first season. Yet if the money for the Brazlian has been justified until now, Casemiro’s loss of form this season – he is currently sidelined with injury – has started to pose a problem. And it is not only Ratcliffe who can see it. Casemiro is owed another £45m in wages over the course of the next two and a half years and judging on his current trajectory, he has no chance of proving anywhere near worth it.
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Physically he has looked a shadow of the player from last season in eight starts this season. Not as sharp, not as influential and now he is sitting on the sidelines doing nothing until the new year. It is no surprise that his name has been linked with a move to a less demanding and more rewarding environment in the Saudi Pro League and a move in January cannot be ruled out.
But if he stays until the summer and costs United around £10m in wages that looks pretty good value given the impossibility of landing an upgrade in the role for anything around that figure in January. The better option is that Ten Hag gets inside his head and challenges him to show he still has it and while he is doing that guide highly-rated midfielder Kobbie Mainoo through a transitional period with an effective handover in the summer when United might still get £30m from Saudi Arabia.
If he can do that and get back to somewhere near his form of last season, at an overall cost then of £66m in net transfer and wages, you could say with confidence he has been pretty good value.
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