Manchester United linked with Nicolas Gaitan

Manchester United have had a fan jailed for racially abusing Manchester City player Raheem Sterling. He kicked him and launched a string of invective at him, and has rightly been jailed. As much as Chelsea and Liverpool have disgraced themselves with racism in the past, none of their fans have gone so far as to physically attack an opposition player in this manner. A disgrace, then, and something to remember the next time another club starts dishing out the bigotry.

Manchester United have also gone Full Nonsense by claiming conspiracy about the fixtures they face over the winter fixture list. Either you don’t believe there are dark forces at work, or you are a complete clown. More importantly, it means that we have now entered the phase of aggro that Mourinho usually calls on around this time at a club. It all depends whether United’s squad will buy into it and rally around their manger, or just give up completely as they did under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal. It’s a risk, and it’s a boring one!

United had to turn up to training after getting in at 5am after their performance against Bristol City. Quite right too, given they plainly couldn’t be bothered to pull their finger out. Nevertheless, there’s no real reason to panic, as the guff at the back were already plainly guff, and the underperformers in attack were young and will learn to do better in future. We hope.

And, as it’s Christmas, let’s treat ourselves. Manchester United are once again in with a chance of signing Nicolas Gaitan. The Benfica legend spent most of his career on the verge of a move to Old Trafford, but is stepping over in Atletico Madrid where he has failed to break through into Diego Simeone’s plans. You know what to do.