Marked for Mark Marshall
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Mark Marshall out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Manchester United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match18 Sep 2027
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.83, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Désiré Doué was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sékou Koné is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 1‑0 win over Nottingham Forest, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Coventry City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Manchester United and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Sep 2027
24 days out for Mark Marshall after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Manchester United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Manchester United heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Amad signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Amad commits to Manchester United for another 5 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Bruno Fernandes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Amir Ibragimov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Amad
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Everton have kept their man, and Manchester United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Enzo Kana-Biyik
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Manchester United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Manchester United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market6 Sep 2027
The offer from Arsenal for Bruno Fernandes was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Mark Marshall breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Thiago arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thiago has, at Manchester United, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market6 Sep 2027
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Manchester United have gone and got theirs early.
Market6 Sep 2027
Bruno Fernandes wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Manchester United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 2027
The shirt still fits. Scott McTominay is back at Manchester United, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The deal with Brentford is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Manchester United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Enzo Kana-Biyik
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Manchester United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
No deal for Amadou Onana at that price
Manchester United offered $17.1M; Aston Villa said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Scott McTominay gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Scott McTominay has just signed for Manchester United, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad30 Aug 2027
42 days out for Mark Marshall after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Manchester United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market30 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AFC Wimbledon had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match28 Aug 2027
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
$97.8M on the table at Napoli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
$64.5M was the most the club would pay and PSV were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Manchester United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Manchester United asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Aug 2027
50 days out for Mark Marshall after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Manchester United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market23 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jack Hinshelwood had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match21 Aug 2027
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match21 Aug 2027
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Manchester United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.