Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United evolution: who stays and who goes?

Louis van Gaal has had 10 months to make up his mind about the Manchester United squad he inherited and has already warned the players that it will be a ‘rough summer’ for some of them

Definitely staying

Víctor Valdés Age 33 Games last season 2

Valdés describes Louis van Gaal as the “most important person” in his career after the Dutchman handed him his debut at Barcelona in 2002 so he has a chance of being the next first-choice goalkeeper. Was shaky under the high ball in Sunday’s full debut at Hull City but still impressed.

Luke Shaw Age 19 Games 20

Has had an injury plagued season but Van Gaal rates the left-back. Needs a good start as he also failed to make a single England appearance after being the second youngest to feature at a World Cup.

Marcos Rojo Age 25 Games 27

A teak tough defender who has been a success during his first year. Is equally accomplished at left-back or centre-back.

Phil Jones Age 23 Games 24

If he can stay fit is a contender to start in the best XI. Has formed an impressive looking partnership with Chris Smalling this year.

Chris Smalling Age 25 Games 29

Led the team against Arsenal in the final home match, which is a telling indicator of how the manager views him. He has begun to spray passes around more than previously.

Paddy McNair Age 20 Games 18

Fine breakthrough season for the Northern Irishman, whose debut was the 2-1 win over West Ham United on 27 September and whose languid, classy style is reminiscent of Alan Hansen’s.

Tyler Blackett Age 21 Games 12

The other emerging-talent success of Van Gaal’s first year. Is left-footed so offers the balance the manager often mentions.

Michael Carrick Age 33 Games 20

Signed a one-year deal though he is 34 in July and Van Gaal hints next season may be his last – the 20 appearances last season is a disappointing tally for so influential a footballer.

Daley Blind Age 25 Games 29

A solid squad player who will be in and out of the manager’s finest team, Blind’s versatility in playing centre-back, left-back and midfield is a boon for Van Gaal.

Andreas Pereira Age 19 Games 2

“I am pleased with his progression and look forward to working with him to develop his talent even further,” said Van Gaal when the Brazilian signed a new deal at the start of the month. Pereira made his debut in the March win over Spurs.

Ander Herrera Age 25 Games 31

Became better as season went on and quickens the side up – Herrera benefited once he finally got his head around what manager required of him with regard to positioning and in-game discipline

Ashley Young Age 29 Games 29

Wayne Rooney picked Young as his United player of the year: on most game days he dazzled despite playing left-back, left midfield, left wing, wing-back, central midfield and on occasion, right wing.

Marouane Fellaini Age 27 Games 31

The Belgian can enjoy his summer holiday after finally convincing his muscular play and ability to nick a goal can help United win matches.

Antonio Valencia Age 29 Games 35

Has become first-choice right-back in a classic illustration of a Van Gaal player-remake. Manager would like a new player in the position so the Ecuadorian may face a fight to stay in the team.

Juan Mata Age 27 Games 35

Has finally established himself as a bona fide starter – offers United a silky quality no other player at the club can.

Wayne Rooney Age 29 Games 37

That he scored only 12 league goals tells the story of how the Van Gaal style does not create piles of chances for strikers, though the captain was not helped by having to operate in midfield and as a kind of auxiliary right-winger, at times.

Futures at risk

Ángel Di María Age 27 Games 32

Has had a £59.7m-priced misery of a season and could be offloaded given Memphis Depay’s impending arrival. But how much of that fee could United claw back? Young’s re-emergence limited the Argentinian’s starting opportunities.

Robin van Persie Age 31 Games 29

So staggering has the striker’s fall been that the misfit Radamel Falcao was chosen ahead of him towards the end of the campaign. But given the Colombian’s departure could Van Gaal really be able to recruit a second elite striker if Van Persie was let go?

Anders Lindegaard Age 31 Games 0

Now the No3 goalkeeper, the Dane, who came close to leaving in the past two windows, is considering his options again.

Jonny Evans Age 27 Games 17

Began the season as the Dutchman’s No1 central defender but ends it as potentially surplus to requirements. Injury then a six-game ban for spitting made this a season to forget.

Javier Hernández Age 26 Games 2

An interesting case: given he has scored important goals for Real Madrid while on loan, might Van Gaal consider giving him a chance in pre-season to prove himself?

Jesse Lingard Age 22 Games 1

Returned from the despair of a serious knee injury 24 minutes into his senior debut in the 2-1 loss to Swansea City on the opening day to be given a new contract in February and glowing praise from Van Gaal. Could still leave, though.

Saidy Janko Age 19 Games 1

The Swiss defender was hauled off after 45 minutes of a miserable debut – the 4-0 humiliation at MK Dons in the Capital One Cup. Yet he has since made 10 loan appearances for Bolton Wanderers and is determined to win a new contract.

Could be loaned out

Reece James Age 21 Games 1

The defender signed fresh terms in February and Van Gaal believes he has potential but may go out on temporary basis again after spells at Rotherham United and Huddersfield Town this season.

Adnan Januzaj Age 20 Games 21

This was supposed to be the year the Belgian became one of the main United men. But despite his being given Ryan Giggs’ No11 shirt, Van Gaal seemed not to trust him. Still has the quality but the manager may allow him out on loan.

James Wilson Age 19 Games 17

After Danny Welbeck was sold, Wilson’s season has to go down as disappointing. There was a sole league goal and only two in total.

Likely to leave

David de Gea Age 24 Games 43

There would be major surprise if this season’s stellar performer does not depart for Real Madrid this summer. Will be particularly difficult to replace.

Tom Cleverley Age 25 Games 1

Has done little while on loan at Aston Villa to convince Van Gaal and he is now a free agent. Everton were the midfielder’s first choice and he may well plump for Goodison rather than Villa Park.

Rafael da Silva Age 24 Games 11

Has suffered injury but this does not mask how the right-back has not been favoured this year by Van Gaal, who may have reservations about his defensive qualities.

Nick Powell Age 21 Games 1

Was recalled from his loan at Leicester City in January but injured a hamstring. After signing in 2012 from Crewe Alexandra and making only two senior appearances his United career is at a crossroads, with only a year left on his contract.

Tom Thorpe Age 22 Games 1

The central defender who captained the under-21s to their Premier League title was granted just over 100 seconds of a senior debut in September’s defeat of West Ham and has not been seen since. May depart on a free.

Nani Age 28 Games 1

The club’s great erratic talent has been on loan all year at Sporting Lisbon and will surely be offloaded as the Portuguese seems unlikely to adhere to the rigid Van Gaal match-plan.

FC United of Manchester: the success story that proves what fans can achieve

Ten years ago rebel Manchester United fans sat in a pub in Stretford talking about forming a new club. On Friday, after four promotions and a lot of hard work, they welcome Benfica to open their new £6.3m stadium. It has been quite a journey

All tickets have been sold to see FC United of Manchester officially open their new Broadhurst Park stadium on Friday with a friendly match against a Benfica team.

That is a simple statement about an upcoming match but it takes a little pause to assimilate what it means. This is the club formed by rebel Manchester Unitedsupporters who in 2005 decided that the Glazer family’s debt-loaded takeover at Old Trafford marked a final outrage too far.

From discussions in a Stretford pub, Rusholme curry house and a public meeting at Manchester’s Apollo venue, they have built a football club of their own, won four promotions, now to the tougher semi-professional level of the Conference North, built a fine £6.3m stadium – and, brazenly, booked the eagles of Lisbon to fly in and christen it.

At a trial-run practice match between players present and past held at the stadium in beaming sunshine on 16 May, FC United fans who have lived this 10‑year journey which started at Bury’s Gigg Lane variously hugged, cried, sang or stood speechless in disbelief. A large part of the impact is not only the crazy reality that they have built their own ground but the thought and care that has gone into the design and detail.

Fans who have fled the expense, compulsory seating and increasingly passive nature of the Premier League experience, as much as investor-owners’ exploitation, made it clear that if they ever had a home, they wanted to stand and sing. So partly in wistful homage to their raucous formative years, the new ground has a terrace behind one goal and a standing area in front of the main stand seats, like the former Old Trafford paddocks. Wood cladding on the designed front of the stadium references railway sleepers and United’s Newton Heath train company origins.

There is a long bar area in the main stand, which will be used for club and local community functions, plus splendid 3G facilities and two grass pitches to be shared with the flourishing local club Moston Juniors, and other public use.

 The wood cladding on the outside of Broadhurst Park references railway sleepers and United’s Newton Heath train company origins. Photograph: Steve Allen/Manchester Evening News

The same attention to detail runs through the whole FC United enterprise, which is no doubt surprising to those who scoffed, including Sir Alex Ferguson himself, who sneered that these fans seemed to be getting above themselves.

It is a reminder that the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association, which Andy Walsh, the FC United general manager, formerly chaired, was in fact a very organised and well-run campaign group, protesting against football’s red-toothed commercialisation.

The fans still sing “Glazer, wherever you may be, you bought Old Trafford but you can’t buy me” – but anger at the game’s financial takeover is largely taken as read now. The talk and atmosphere at Broadhurst Park is passionately positive about doing things the right way, and there are plans to progress further.

“Of course we are still totally motivated by challenging things we believe are wrong in football,” said Walsh. “But this is about demonstrating a better way. Now, 10 years after we started, we’re welcoming Benfica to our new ground having just won promotion to the Conference North. You have to pinch yourself sometimes. It’s the power of people.”

Adam Brown, another founding father and key force behind the stadium’s funding and construction, was in 1997-99 appointed as a respected academic and fans’ representative to the Labour government’s Football Task Force – whose administrator was Andy Burnham, now favourite to become his party’s leader. Brown often felt sore that his two years’ work, producing rigorously researched arguments for real change to football’s structures, largely foundered on the force of Premier League wealth and lobbying.However FC United, and British football’s many fan-owned clubs and democratic trusts, have grown out of thinking developed then, with Supporters Direct formed to promote mutual ownership.

The rebel United supporters could in 2005 draw on mutual models already developed for clubs such as AFC Wimbledon, Exeter City and the Swansea City Supporters’ Trust, which owns 21% of the Premier League club and elects a director to its board.

FC United have taken the concept further and formed specifically as a community benefit society, owned equally by each of its 4,200 paying members. This central duty to benefit the community is felt more keenly, given that there was some local resistance in the area to the stadium being built on common space, and the disruption a football club could bring.

The partnership with Moston Juniors is part of the community duty and their chairman, Paul Mitchell, says they have facilities – including changing and function rooms within the stadium – beyond those they ever hoped for. FC are also committed to encouraging wider participation in football and other sports – working with schools, colleges and social organisations, last year reaching 2,000 people – particularly aiming to help young people struggling for work or training.

“One member, one vote is a fundamental part of what we’re about and I think that is what has held us to these principles,” said Brown. “The members set the rules, directly elect the board and keep us to the core aims of the club.”

He is proud of the community shares scheme, which raised £2m from fans towards the new stadium, without compromising the democratic ownership. It is a money-raising model seen as a blueprint for other clubs and since extended to the majority fan-owned Wrexham and Portsmouth. The shares do provide for a potential dividend and for a proportion of the money to be available to withdraw once the stadium is built, and the club are running at a sufficient profit, but most fans saw it as a way of contributing what they could.

Scott Fletcher, chairman of ANS, a £50m turnover IT management company, is an FC United fan who acknowledges he contributed “a six-figure sum” to community shares, while happy to remain a member with only one ownership vote.

“It is similar to a charitable donation,” explained Fletcher, who has served on the club’s board. “But the capital is protected and the organisation is held to a sustainable model. I believe one member, one vote is essential; nobody can do what happened to United, where the soul of the club was sold for the benefit of financiers.”

The £2m raised in community shares enabled FC United to access financial grants, which all require a public benefit in return. The Football Foundation, which redistributes a fraction of Premier League and Football Association TV income down the football pyramid – another outcome of the Task Force – contributed £150,000 towards the stadium and £500,000 towards the 3G and grass pitches, based on a development plan to more than triple participation. Sport England’s iconic facilities fund provided £918,000, based on guaranteed community use of the stadium and the commitment particularly to encourage more women and girls, young people, disability groups and ethnic minorities to play sport.

Manchester city council, which had earmarked capital investment for Moston, a disadvantaged area to the north of the city, provided a £750,000 grant for the stadium and a £500,000 loan at commercial rates, to achieve what it has described as “huge social and economic benefits”.

Other smaller grants still left a shortfall and the club raised £460,000 from fans’ donations and crowd-funding, and £325,000 from supporters via a loan stock scheme. There is still £200,000 to raise over the next year.

FC United have incorporated an irreversible “asset lock” over the stadium and other value in the club, which means its member-owners cannot profit individually from a sale in the future; any surplus money would be distributed to the community.

The building of the football club itself, to raise a team from the North West Counties League second division, to promotion this season as champions of the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League, has been a process of relentless improvement. Unusually in the hard-bitten non-leagues, they have remained loyal throughout to the same manager, Karl Marginson, despite serial play-off disappointments that would elsewhere have led to a firing.

Marginson, a former professional with Rotherham United who was a qualified but inexperienced coach in 2005, has demonstrated commitment to the club’s values, and a capacity to develop, his management now extending to first team, reserves and post-16 scholars. Having worked with Damian Hughes, a sports psychologist, Marginson explains they now recruit players based on “attitudes and behaviours”, to mould a collective spirit throughout.

“It is a fine balance,” Marginson said. “We want footballers to be super confident on the pitch but be humble, have their feet on the ground, as people. I’m a totally changed person since 2005; I have learned so much. It has taken time to reach stability and that itself is attractive to players.”

Jerome Wright, who came to the club in 2006 after suffering rejection at 16 by Oldham Athletic, has played more than 300 games for FC United. He said he and other players have been offered much more money by other non-league clubs than the £150 per week they are paid on average, but they stay because they feel valued.

“I’ve been offered money which would change my life financially,” Wright said, gazing at the new stadium. “But I believe with all my heart I have had an experience here better than most footballers in the world.”

Benfica have special prestige in United lore, having been the opponents when Matt Busby’s team secured their first European Cup victory on the same day, 29 May 1968. The Benfica link with FC United was made by one of the coaches, Paul Bright, and last year the club looked after Benfica’s under-19 team when they played Manchester City. Benfica volunteered a return favour and so find themselves bringing a B team over for an occasion when 4,500 people will be pinching themselves.

At the trial game one supporter, Michelle Noonan, called over to Brown. “I can’t stop crying,” she said. Asked why, she was quiet for a while. Then she replied: “Because I can’t believe that out of so much anger and hatred we have made something so good.”