Manchester United fans seem underwhelmed by the signing of Christian Eriksen. They need to be reminded that he is proper good.
It’s very easy, and also a lot of fun, to take the p*ss out of Manchester United at the moment.
They are a great big shambolic mess of a thing in at least 83 entirely separate and damaging ways and there remains the very real possibility – probability even – that it gets worse before it gets any better for a club that once squatted like a giant toad across English football.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t notice or acknowledge an uncomplicatedly good bit of work, and the impending arrival of Christian Eriksen on a three-year deal is that. The only complicated element is the fact it’s probably an even better bit of work than most United fans currently seem to realise. Perhaps because they don’t yet quite appreciate how good Eriksen is or perhaps because they haven’t quite grasped the severity of their own situation. Most likely, it’s a little of column A and a little of column B.
In some ways, Eriksen appears to encapsulate the problems United face. They have had to fight with Brentford for his signature, which is not a thing anyone associated with United considers acceptable or dignified. Secondly, he still technically fits the Ajax Obsession that appears to have gripped the club since Erik Ten Hag’s arrival.
But there’s just so much more context to both of these things. That context is pretty obvious, but both have been overlooked by large sections of the media. First, what Brentford did for Eriksen – while hugely and gloriously mutually beneficial – was also kind of a big deal. Being the first club to hand him a contract after the harrowing events of last summer was not something to be instantly dismissed the first time a bigger, shinier club came along with an offer. It would be perfectly understandable if Eriksen felt a debt of gratitude to Brentford and Thomas Frank that left him considering whether that merited repayment by signing on again with the Bees. In fact, he’d be a pretty monstrous human being if those kinds of thoughts hadn’t entered his head.
Even with United in their current strife, the choice between them or Brentford for any other player of Eriksen’s standing would still be straightforward. That this specific and unique example was less straightforward has really nothing to do with the wider problems at United and should not be conflated.
And the same is true of the Ajax…
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