Chelseas scattershot approach yields so many players that any manager they employ would find it impossible not to craft a workable team out of the talent available. Theres nothing wrong with that in principle — why wouldn you sign players your manager can use effectively? — but the extent to which the Red Devils lean into this can be very damaging if things go awry, in part because they flit between managers whose styles differ so wildly.
A strong example of this disconnect is Cristiano Ronaldo, who was signed for Ole Gunnar Solskjaers counterattacking style in summer 2022, yet by November was being coached by gegenpressing magnate Ralf Rangnick. Its a ridiculous situation to find yourself in.
Erik ten Hag was appointed in 2022 and by the time he was sacked, in 2024, the club had furnished him with six former Ajax players Lisandro Martínez, Antony, Christian Eriksen, André Onana, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, perhaps erroneously thinking he would recreate Dutch total football at Old Trafford.
Current manager Rúben Amorim has jettisoned Antony and Onana, while Eriksen has departed. In the past five years, theyve signed four elite-level players on pre-contracts, coming close to adding a fifth. Antonio Rüdiger Chelsea, David Alaba Bayern Munich, Kylian Mbappé Paris Saint-Germain and Trent Alexander-Arnold Liverpool were all poached for free from close rivals at the top table of Europe.
