Paul Ince Questions Manchester United's £50m Santos Signing
Paul Ince has never been shy about saying what he thinks. On Manchester United’s latest midfield rebuild, he’s somewhere between sceptical and downright puzzled.
Ince questions £50m Santos gamble
United’s summer plan has been clear enough: fix the middle of the pitch. Casemiro has gone, the spine needed fresh legs, and after last year’s £200million splurge on Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko, the focus has shifted from misfiring forwards to a misfiring engine room.
Targets were lined up early. Elliot Anderson, Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes. All slipped away. Anderson crossed the divide to join Manchester City, Tonali and Fernandes headed for Tottenham. Each miss added a little more urgency, a little more tension, to United’s search.
That tension finally broke with a bold swing at Chelsea’s Andrey Santos. Around £50m for a 22-year-old Brazil international who has yet to prove himself at the very top. For Ince, it is a huge roll of the dice.
“They’ve signed the lad Santos from Chelsea for £50m, which is a lot of money for someone like him. I think the jury’s still out on that one,” the former United and England midfielder told Oddschecker.
The fee is not his only concern. It’s the timing, and what it might mean for the club’s most exciting homegrown midfielder.
“So to spend £50m on a young central midfield player when you’ve got [Kobbie] Mainoo coming through the ranks, kind of baffled me a bit.”
Tielemans arrives, Ederson still in play
United’s midfield business has not stopped with Santos. After cooling on a move for Ederson, they moved quickly for Youri Tielemans, triggering a £35m release clause to prise him from Aston Villa.
Ince is far more comfortable with that one.
“Obviously Tielemans I think is a fantastic player. More of a Fernandes type of player, but a very good player,” he said, before suggesting United have not fully abandoned Ederson. “I still think they’re trying to do the Ederson deal from Atalanta.”
If that happens, Michael Carrick will walk into the new season with a crowded centre of the pitch: Santos, Tielemans, potentially Ederson, plus the emerging Mainoo. Quantity was needed. Quality will be judged soon enough.
“So, they’ve got a whole load of midfield players in that position which needed to be strengthened,” Ince said. The question is how Carrick fits them together.
Mainoo at the heart of the debate
Strip away the transfer noise and one name keeps pulling Ince back: Kobbie Mainoo. The teenager’s rise has been one of the few unqualified positives for United in recent months, even if his World Cup with England fell flat.
Ince sees a player on the verge of something bigger – provided he keeps evolving.
“I think he’s the man who can play that role. I believe that, he’s got a really good head on his shoulders. He’s young, he’s got legs, he can keep hold of the ball.”
But for a man who patrolled midfields for two decades, the standards for that role are unforgiving.
“I always thought when Mainoo, when I watched him, he kind of did things easy, got it, passed it. When you play that role, and I’ve played that role for 20 years you’ve got to do more than that.
“You’ve got to get forward, get into the box, and take shots, he never, never really did that.”
The turning point, in Ince’s eyes, came late last season.
“He just did the simple things. Towards the back end of the season, he started to tackle, win balls, set things up, get himself in the box, make things happen. And he looks a completely different player.”
“So if he can repeat that form this season, then, you know, I think it’d be great for United. But they’ve got plenty of options in there. So it’ll be interesting to see which way Carrick goes.”
For all the money spent, United’s midfield identity may still rest on how far and how fast Mainoo grows.
Rashford at a crossroads
Midfield isn’t the only live debate around Old Trafford. Marcus Rashford’s future remains a running subplot to the summer, and one that clearly hits a nerve with Ince.
Rashford returned from a productive loan at Barcelona having rediscovered his edge. Goals, freedom, confidence – he looked, in Ince’s words, “a completely, completely different player” in Spain after falling out of favour under Ruben Amorim at United.
Then came the twist. Barcelona chose not to take him permanently and instead spent big on Anthony Gordon, a decision Ince believes “absolutely kills him”.
Yet flashes of the old Rashford keep surfacing. At the World Cup, he cut in from the left and buried a superb goal into the bottom corner, a reminder of the talent that once made him untouchable at United.
“I kind of feel for Rashford. I really do because I think he’s a fantastic player,” Ince said. “He can play off the left, he can play off the right.”
For Ince, the solution is as much emotional as tactical.
“I think Carrick can get the best out of him. I really, really do. I think if you just put your arm around Rashford, and I think at the moment he’s a bit unsure of his future. He doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going.
“If Carrick just puts his arm around him and says, ‘Yeah, listen, you know, I want you at the club, I need you at the club. This is where you’re going to play. This is what you’re going to do.’ Then I believe you’re going to see a very, very good Rashford for Manchester United.
“So, fingers crossed that’s the case. But it, there’s one thing for sure, he is a very, very talented player and if he’s happy, he’ll perform for you.”
It is as stark as that. Keep Rashford happy, or risk wasting one of the squad’s few genuine match-winners.
Carrick’s first real test
On the pitch, Carrick’s pre-season has already offered a glimpse of the volatility he must tame. A flat 1-0 defeat to Wrexham in Helsinki was followed by a ruthless 5-0 dismantling of Rosenburg. Same squad, different face.
Next comes Atletico Madrid in Stockholm, a sterner examination of United’s new-look midfield and a manager still shaping his ideas. Then Paris Saint-Germain, Leeds United and AC Milan – a run of fixtures that will quickly expose any illusions about where this team really stands.
By the time United walk out away to newly promoted Hull City on August 22, the experiments will be over. The Santos gamble will be under the microscope. Mainoo’s role will be defined, or delayed. Rashford will either feel wanted or be drifting again.
Money has been spent. Options have been stockpiled. Now Carrick has to turn a crowded squad and a restless fanbase into something coherent – and fast.
