INEOS needs to sell Manchester United star who has played more minutes than Bruno Fernandes

Manchester United may not be perfect, but they have improved their focus under manager Michael Carrick and deserve a shot at qualifying for the Champions League.

Last season’s woes under manager Ruben Amorim hampered United’s path to European football and left them trapped on the domestic front.

Carrick returned to Old Trafford in January to find a team disorganized and demoralized after two consecutive disastrous seasons. Still, he reignited the team with back-to-back wins over Manchester City and Arsenal in the Premier League. The team may not be firing on all cylinders, but at least a few are firing.

Captain Bruno Fernandes has been outstanding throughout the season, but with most of his team-mates performing at a higher level, he has taken his game to a new level.

Bruno Fernandes figure

Perhaps Fernandes may have actually taken his game to another level by showing so much brilliance through a miserable first half of the season, but at least he’s riding an even bigger wave now on a surface level.

Arsenal will likely lift the Premier League title this season, but there is a strong case to be made that this is the player of the season, a man who has proven to be an influential, galvanizing and ultimate difference-maker. It is no exaggeration to say that without the Portuguese Magnifico, the Red Devils would have languished at the bottom of the table.

The 31-year-old has scored eight goals and provided 16 assists in the Premier League this season. He trails Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne’s seemingly cursed 20-assist record.

If he wins that personal honor, he will be fully deserving of it. After all, Fernandes has far surpassed his rivals in the division in terms of creativity this season.

He is the star of the show, and there is no doubt about it, but while United have improved recently, the Portuguese playmaker might expect better team-mates in some cases, having failed to win the Premier League or Champions League during his time in England.

INEOS must act with ambition.

Manchester United must sell star player who played better than Bruno

Manchester United have made a rapid turnaround in recent months, but they still need to clean up the fray this summer, and Luke Shaw, although a strong candidate, is surely one of the players to be sold.

The veteran left-back only has one year left on his contract, so keeping him could hinder Carrick (or anyone else taking on a permanent role this summer) in rebuilding the Theater of Dreams.

Shaw, 30, has become conservative in his ballplay and lacks ball movement and conviction when playing in front of the ball. He only created one big chance all year, yet lost the ball on average 9.5 times per game and completed just one in five dribbles.

Here’s the thing: Shaw is still a capable defender and a useful option for the team, but he’s started all 31 of Manchester United’s Premier League games this season, and has actually featured more regularly than Amorim, and indeed the rest of Carrick’s squad.

That’s not enough, because the show isn’t enough. He has been at the club for more than a decade and is a popular figure in Manchester, having joined as a wonder talent from Southampton for £30m in 2015, but injuries have thwarted what should have been a great career.

But now the time has come for him to end his long career at the club, and Patrick Dorg is currently sidelined and will return to action at the appropriate time, but he will come into his own before a tough winter hits.

Conversely, as Gary Neville commented, the show was not “close to it” for much of the season.

He hasn’t been out of form all year – far from it – but INEOS and Man United will have to be ruthless to restore this club to its former position, an insolent position at the top of English and European football.

Shaw has given his all in recent years, but it may be time to part ways and save up a hefty transfer fee while he still can, especially if recent transfer rumors are to be believed that the North are targeting Miles Lewis Skelly’s raid on Arsenal this summer.

While Shaw has avoided major setbacks in fitness this season, it’s clear he can no longer boast the athleticism and physicality he once did, and hesitation in his playmaking has further hampered that.

There is still a lot of work to be done and Manchester United will end the season without a silver medal, but they have a great chance to not only return to Europe, but to do so successfully by defeating the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool.

Shaw has played his part in this respect, but clinging to the past has been one of the core struggles of the Red Devils’ persuasion in recent years, and it’s time to make further changes and reverse this attitude.