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Director of football Jason Wilcox says Manchester United are building Reuben Amorim A selfless, hard-working team instead of trying to “get the Harlem Globetrotters together.”
The Red Devils finished 15th in the Premier League last season – the club’s lowest top finish since 1974 – and lost Europa League Due to pressure on everyone associated with the club, the final went to Tottenham.
United’s squad has since undergone changes, including high-profile names such as Alejandro Garnacho and marcus rashford let sene lamens arrived.
Amorim’s new team is eighth in the standings, but only two points behind second place Manchester CityFollowing the summer business Wilcox believes will help his quest to return to the top.
“It’s very important (signing the right characters),” he told the Inside Carrington podcast. “I think you have to bring players who bring something different into the changing room.
“But the most important thing is, whenever we bring in a player they have to improve, and they have to be a team player and understand what it means to be part of a successful team.
“It’s not about putting together the Harlem Globetrotters. If I look at successful Man United teams, there were very functional players who would die for a badge and some maverick players too.
“You talk about (Eric) Cantona, but when you hear anybody talk about him he was an absolute professional.”
Wilcox praised four big-name signings, ranging from “plug in and play” forwards Cunha and Mbeumo to talented goalkeeper Lammens, whom goalkeeping scout Tony Cotton had been praising for a year.
The careful work required to shape the squad in both the short and long term continues as United look to celebrate their 150th anniversary with a Premier League title in 2028.
“Last year’s summer window was much more chaotic than this one,” Wilcox said.
“It was really calm, we knew the plan, we knew which players we were going to target, we had our lists, we knew which areas of the pitch we needed to improve.
“These are constant meetings with myself and Ruben, with (director of recruitment) Chris Wivel, with his team, where we are very clear on the profiles we need. So the brief will come from me and Ruben, it goes to Chris.
“There would be a lot of debate and discussion around the profile of what we needed, and then the scouts would go out into the market, we would pair that with the data team and there would just be constant conversations.
“At the moment, I’m having weekly meetings with the recruitment team on different profiles, age groups, costs. Are they attainable? Same with Ruben, so it’s a really involved approach.
“When we sign a player, there are a lot of people involved in the process. The data team is involved in the process and then we will focus all our attention on a few players.
“Then it’s really important that we do background checks to see if they are clean living professionals.”