It’s only the first weekend of the season. All judgements at this stage have always to be tempered with an awareness that nothing can ever truly be concluded from one game, and particularly not when squads are still being assembled. This summer particularly a lot of clubs feel undercooked, the World Cup having delayed preparation and squad composition. But, still, what happened at Hull on Saturday is exactly what Manchester United feared. It feels like the cycle is beginning again.
Michael Carrick’s record last season was very good. He won 12 of 17 games. He lost only two. But there were always a couple of caveats. After his first two games, which brought rousing wins against Manchester City and Arsenal, United didn’t play especially stylish or notable football. They had the massive advantage that, having gone out in the first round of both cup competitions and failed to qualify for Europe, they were always fresher than their opponents. There was no real pressure, certainly not once Champions League qualification had effectively been secured.
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The 20th anniversary edition of Behind the Curtain came out on August 6, with a new introduction. If you want the new material, make sure you get the version with the pink cover.
The Power and the Glory, my history of the World Cup, is now out in paperback. Buy it here or here.
Issue Sixty-One of The Blizzard is available here, featuring Brazil, Argentina, Belgium’s first international coach, a photo-essay from Uzbekistan, memories of Scotland in 1998, a look at Curaçao and Cape Verde and an investigation into what went wrong for Serbia-Montenegro in 2006.
On It Was What It Was, the football history podcast, we continue our series on the birth of Total Football. Members can binge all five episodes now. Join up here. Listen here.
On Libero, we look ahead to the new Premier League season. Listen here.
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They existed in a cheery bubble; it was ersatz Premier League. Carrick’s points per game record was good enough that was almost impossible for the United board not to give him the job, yet United’s form wasn’t so impressive that anybody could be entirely convinced he’d be able to maintain that into this season. The fear that the Ole Gunnar Solskjær paradigm was being reenacted lurked always in the background. It might yet at all be fine, but defeat to Hull City on the opening weekend has only intensified those fears.
