Manchester United[1] have put up a ring of steel around the busiest part of Old Trafford to guard against terror attacks on the stadium.
The move to protect fans from the threat of a ram raid follows an incident near Anfield in May when a car was driven into fans celebrating Liverpool[2]’s title win, leaving 79 of them injured.
United sources say plans were already underway to upgrade their security infrastructure, but the awful scenes witnessed in Liverpool have only strengthened the case for more robust anti-terror measures.
State-of-the-art mobile barriers, designed to stop hostile vehicles in their tracks and destroy their engines, have been put in place at both ends of Sir Matt Busby Way where the majority of the 74,000 fans who visit Old Trafford on match days access the stadium.
The barriers, produced in Belgium and used for the home games against Arsenal[3] and Burnley[4], are in addition to the bollard system already in operation around the ground.
Deployed at famous landmarks and key terrorist targets around the world, the barriers are particularly effective because they can be set up quickly and help secure the main throughfare outside Old Trafford within minutes.
The mobile barriers introduced at Old Trafford are designed to stop vehicles and even destroy engines
Sheeran impersonator slips through net
United’s security was tight enough to spot an Ed Sheeran impersonator, but not before he had blagged his way into Old Trafford with camera equipment and tried to film behind the scenes at Saturday’s win over Burnley.
The lookalike and his entourage had tickets for the game which got them into a hospitality area of the stadium after a search determined that their cameras didn’t pose a security risk.
However, when it came to light that the club hadn’t been notified Sheeran was due at the game and the group started to film, they were challenged by senior staff who established that they didn’t have approval and it wasn’t in fact the pop star after all.
Confidential understands a check of Sheeran’s schedule revealed he was due on stage in Copenhagen that night for the latest gig on his world tour, and final proof was provided when the impersonator tried to sing.
It is thought to have been a social media stunt, and sources say the group were politely told not to film but allowed to remain in the stadium to watch the game.
Quite why Sheeran – a renowned Ipswich fan and minority owner of the Suffolk club – would turn up to watch Burnley play at Old Trafford is anyone’s guess, but this isn’t the first time he has appeared in a United news story.
After Ruben Amorim’s first game in charge at Ipswich in November, he gatecrashed the new United head coach’s post-match interview live on Sky Sports to say hello to Jamie Redknapp.
‘I’d had about 10 pints,’ recalled an apologetic Sheeran. ‘I was like, “oh, I’ll go up and say hi to Jamie”. It was the wrong time – very clearly the wrong time – but I have learned my lesson and it won’t happen again.’
Villa bitter over Lammens
Even in these challenging times, United’s pulling power was still enough to give them a crucial advantage in the transfer window right up to the signing of Senne Lammens.
Bryan Mbeumo made it clear that he was only interested in a move to Old Trafford this summer, even though Tottenham had offered Brentford more than United for the Cameroon international.
Then Benjamin Sesko chose United over Newcastle even though the £73.7m offer to RB Leipzig was less than the improved bid of £78m on the table from their Premier League rivals.
Goalkeeper Senne Lammens joined Man United on deadline day
Daily Mail Sport understands Aston Villa had agreed a fee with Royal Antwerp for Lammens – but the goalkeeper wanted a move to Old Trafford
Now, Confidential understands that Aston Villa had agreed a fee with Antwerp for Lammens that was higher than United’s offer of £18.2m plus £3.5m in add-ons, but the 23-year-old goalkeeper wanted a dream move to Old Trafford.
In his first interview as a United player, he said: ‘In my team in Antwerp, there were some players who were also in England and, when I talked to them about Manchester United, you could directly see their face change. The club alone, the aura of the club, it’s massive, and being here today, seeing it, it’s a different level.’
Lammens could have ended up at Villa Park as a replacement for Emi Martinez if United had instead pursued a move for the Argentine World Cup winner who was ready to join them.
But, as with Sesko and Villa striker Ollie Watkins, United opted for potential over Premier League experience to sign the Belgian stopper.
The six clubs who queued up for Mainoo
Kobbie Mainoo didn’t get the loan he wanted before Monday’s transfer deadline, but there was no shortage of interest in the United midfielder.
Napoli were leading the chase for Mainoo in the hope of reuniting him with Scott McTominay in Serie A, and Roma, Marseille, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton were among the other clubs who enquired.
United wanted the 20-year-old to stay and fight for his place, and there was little chance of the club sanctioning a move after Matheus Cunha and Mason Mount were injured in the win over Burnley.
Kobbie Mainoo had hoped to leave United on loan this summer, but manager Ruben Amorim wanted the midfielder to stay and fight for his place
Mainoo played the second half after Bruno Fernandes advanced into a No.10 role, and that could be Ruben Amorim’s chosen formation while Cunha and Mount are out of action.
It remains to be seen if Mainoo and United can get contract talks back on track after Confidential first revealed in January that negotiations had reached stalemate and he could be sold to help United comply with PSR rules. Although a verbal agreement was reached the following month, the contract has not been formally presented to the player or his representatives.
Dalot takes one for the team
No one at United emerged from the Carabao Cup debacle at Grimsby last week with much credit, but Diogo Dalot deserves a special mention for once again raising his head above the parapet when others were hanging theirs in shame.
Not for the first time, Dalot was the go-to guy for after-match interviews following United’s defeat to the League Two club on penalties in Cleethorpes. Just as he did after the deflating Europa League final loss to Tottenham in May, Dalot fronted up for the cameras straight after the final whistle even though it meant being the face of failure and copping for the inevitable backlash on social media.
United players have a contractual obligation to speak to the media – not to mention a duty to the fans – and the Portugal defender is never afraid to take on the toughest interviews to protect his teammates from doing them.
Diogo Dalot fronted up following the dismal Carabao Cup defeat at Grimsby
So we think it’s only right to give credit where it’s due, and point out for the record that Dalot is the only United player to register an assist in the Premier League this season and ranks first for the club in interceptions (2), attempted dribbles (6) and touches in the final third (36).
The 26-year-old is also joint-top with Bryan Mbeumo in crosses attempted (6) and passes completed inside the penalty area (2), and with Amad Diallo in progressive carries (7) and goal-creating actions (2).
Spot the difference, Bruno
He has spoken in the past about constantly changing his penalty-taking technique, and did we detect a slight tweak in Bruno Fernandes’ routine following his miss at Fulham?
Fernandes skied his effort high over the bar in United’s 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage, later suggesting that he had been distracted by an accidental nudge from referee Chris Kavanagh and the official’s failure to apologise.
It was the seventh miss of Fernandes’ career from 69 attempts, and when he stepped up to the spot twice just three days later in the marathon Carabao Cup shootout at Grimsby, and again to score the winner in Sunday’s 3-2 victory over Burnley at Old Trafford, it looked as though the United captain had modified his technique.
Gone was the trademark stutter step, replaced by a more fluid approach. Fernandes did hesitate before scoring his second past before Grimsby’s Christy Pym, but it was only for a fraction of a second and he barely broke stride before beating Burnley’s Martin Dubravka either.
Bruno Fernandes was back to his best from the penalty spot against Burnley last weekend
The United captain had blazed his spot-kick over against Fulham only a week previously
‘When you take so many penalties, then you need to change, because the goalkeepers start looking at you, studying you,’ Fernandes said in March. ‘So as they do that, I do the same as them. I study them.
‘I see all the different penalty-takers that they have against them. I see what is the accuracy of them. I feel more comfortable doing the jump and waiting for the goalkeeper to make a decision. I think this is the more accurate one. But if I have to change it, I do it differently, to not give anything away to them.’
Not including shootouts, Fernandes’ record for United now reads 42 penalties converted and five missed – all in the Premier League.
Leon waits in the wings
It’s safe to say there is plenty of confusion in academy circles as to whether summer signing Diego Leon will ever get a run-out for the Under-21s.
The Paraguayan wing-back has exclusively trained with the first-team since joining, but he has only made one matchday squad, in the Carabao Cup at Grimsby Town where he was an unused substitute.
Diego Leon has only featured in one matchday squad for United since his arrival this summer
The natural assumption then would be for the 18-year-old to drop down to the Under-21s to get some minutes, yet that is not proving the case.
As one United source put it to Confidential in recent days, with Patrick Dorgu and Diogo Dalot ahead of him in the first-team pecking order at left wing-back, no Carabao Cup games remaining, and no assurance he will play in the FA Cup come January, he’s got to play football eventually.
Malacia last man standing
And then there was one. A transfer window that saw Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho and Antony leave United ended with Tyrell Malacia as the only remaining member of Ruben Amorim’s ‘bomb squad’.
Although Malacia’s loan move to Spanish club Elche fell through, there is still an expectation that he could be gone by the end of the international break because the transfer window remains open in Saudi Arabia until September 10 and for another two days after that in Turkey.
Tyrell Malacia’s potential loan move to Elche collapsed on deadline day
If nothing materialises, then Malacia is expected to be reintegrated into the first-team group after training separately since returning for pre-season.
Amorim has said that he would bring back any players who cannot find a new club, and there would be no point isolating the Holland defender who still has another year left on his contract at United.
Chido’s in the right spot
One question that continually gets asked: where is Chido Obi and why isn’t he with the first team?
It is quite easy to forget that he is 17-years-old, and while he did successfully break into the first-team group at the back end of last season, making eight appearances, there is still a lot in his game that needs development.
The decision was made early on this summer in the hierarchy that he would not be leaving on loan like many of his teammates at Under-18 and Under-21 level, and that the focus would be on personal development. For now, that is coming out of the intense spotlight.
‘It’s not easy for him because people look at him as this big kid,’ Under-21 boss Travis Binnion said following Obi’s goal in a 2-1 win over Manchester City’s Under-21s on Sunday.
United plan to give young striker Chido Obi time to develop in the club’s academy sides this season
Obi made his senior debut for United against Tottenham in February
‘He is still very young and still learning his game. Because he has had that exposure of the first team, people expect performance levels that are consistently high and none of these deliver that.
‘You’ve got first-team players across the country who don’t deliver consistently high performances. The expectation on him is high but he has to deliver the basics.
‘He’s dying to be a footballer. He’s hungry and he’s still learning the game, how to project himself, how to play in a team, how to play in the shape and system and the requirements. The key thing is he wants to play, wants to do well, and he’d train every day if he could!
‘Chido will get opportunities with the first team to train because he’s a really important player, but he gets that opportunity to really work on his game and we can work with him.
‘When you are in the first-team squad all that matters is Saturday 3pm or Tuesday 7.45pm … that’s the whole focus and he’s not a priority within that, that’s normal. But for us he is a priority and he really needs to see and understand that this is a golden period for him to develop his game.’
Against City, where he opened the scoring, the teenager showed a lot of maturity when marked by two opposition defenders for most of the game.
While there was a lot made externally but little internally of his decision to delete Manchester United from his Instagram bio, the belief at United is that Obi is patient to play the long game when it comes to hitting the high notes in Manchester.
Mitchell’s staying power
It’s a perilous time to be an ex-Manchester United manager after Erik ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho all lost their jobs in the space of five days.
Ten Hag was gone after just three games as the manager of Bayer Leverkusen following a difficult summer that saw the Bundesliga club sell a number of their best players including Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Granit Xhaka.
Erik ten Hag’s former assistant Mitchell van der Gaag (right) is now in charge of FC Zurich
Mourinho lasted 14 months at Fenerbahce, which is twice as long as Solskjaer managed at their Istanbul rivals Besiktas.
At least David Moyes has made a flying start to the season at Everton, and it was good to see Ten Hag’s old No 2 Mitchell van der Gaag secure a much-needed win when FC Zurich won 3-0 away at neighbours FC Winterthur over the weekend.
After starting off with one win in three games – including a 4-0 thrashing at home to leaders Thun – Van der Gaag could ill afford to lose to the Swiss Super League’s basement club. Next up after the international break are second-from-bottom Servette.
JJ thrives as middle man
To see 14-year-old JJ Gabriel score a hat-trick in the Under-18s’ 4-0 win over Derby County at the weekend was interesting on a number of levels.
The first-half hat-trick itself was no surprise given Gabriel is the shining light of United’s academy, and he is now up to eight goals in six games at the age level.
But Gabriel was deployed through the middle by boss Darren Fletcher as a false nine, rather than off the left where he has typically featured through the age groups.
Academy star JJ Gabriel is catching the eye once again this season
Speaking to one well-placed academy source, Confidential was told that the switch is seen as a way to further elevate the teenager’s game by getting him closer to goal.
While playing wide left allows him one-versus-one match-ups, he has been earmarked to play as a false nine while Louie Bradbury remains sidelined. Right now, it’s paying off handsomely.
As the season develops, he is one to keep an eye on with the feeling that he will be drafted in to train with Ruben Amorim and the first team before the season is out to test himself against senior defenders.
Amir’s leading role
One of the best stories from the academy so far this season is that of midfielder Amir Ibragimov.
The 17-year-old has dropped deeper in midfield as part of a positional change, but has also been challenged by Under-18 boss Fletcher to be the leader of a group that also includes JJ Gabriel, 14, and Kai Rooney, 15, as the team captain.
Add in that after playing 90 minutes for the Under-18s on Saturday in the 4-0 win over Derby County, he came off the bench 24 hours later for the Under-21s to seal a 2-1 win over Man City.
Young midfielder Amir Ibragimov is being used in a different role by Under-18 boss Darren Fletcher this season
‘He’s got all the tools,’ Binnion told Confidential. ‘He’s intelligent. He’s got stuff to tidy up on, but he’s a warrior. If you’re intelligent and a warrior and you want to do everything right with and without the ball, you’re going to cause people problems.’
Ibragimov, who trained with the first team when he was 15, is being challenged by Fletcher and other coaches in the academy, but dropping into a deeper role and taking on the responsibility of being a leader is expected to bring the best out of him.
Replay dilemma for Reds
The National League Cup game that was abandoned following a serious head injury to young midfielder Sekou Kone is becoming a bit of a nightmare to rearrange.
Tamworth, who play in the National League, and United’s Under-21s appear to have conflicting schedules and are finding it increasingly difficult to find a date to rearrange that suits both sides.
The game was abandoned close to the end of the first half when Kone was taken to hospital after he fractured his eye socket, as revealed by Confidential.
The match will need to be replayed, but with so many spinning plates at Old Trafford these days, this is one that could spin for a while longer yet.