There is evidence of a ‘big divide’ and ‘strange dynamics’ within the Manchester United dressing room, talkSPORT has been told.
Pressure is mounting on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer again after a poor start to the new Premier League campaign, with one win and two defeats from their opening three league games.
Of those defeats, one was the disastrous and humiliating 6-1 thrashing by Tottenham at Old Trafford last weekend – a result which saw the odds crash on the Norwegian being the first top flight managerial casualty of the season.
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There have also been plenty of questions asked about the club’s transfer business over the last few years, with this summer’s failed Jadon Sancho saga putting past big-money transfers into perspective.
While the club and its fans were desperate for Sancho to sign, United’s pursuit of the England winger was criticised by some pundits who insisted the 20-year-old star was not the answer to their problems.
There’s no guarantee he would have been a success at Old Trafford, either, especially when you consider how some of their recent signings have fared.
Tony Cascarino believes it’s no coincidence players have found it hard to perform at their best after signing for United, and have also performed better after leaving the club.
And the talkSPORT host believes it’s all down to ‘weird dynamics’ behind the scenes at Old Trafford.
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“There’s something strange in the dynamics at that football club,” the former Chelsea striker said on Sunday’s Weekend Sports Breakfast.
“I never thought there might be an issue within the dressing room at Old Trafford, but as the light is coming out of the tunnel I’m starting to feel that maybe there is a bigger issue.
“A lot of players are playing poorly again – is that dividing that dressing room? It feels weird. The last week or two made me feel differently about the dynamics at Old Trafford in that dressing room.
“They’re struggling for a centre-half and Chris Smalling was doing really well at Roma last season, but he came back and was not even anywhere close to being wanted at the football club.
“Some people might say it would be going backwards [to put Smalling back in the United team] but hold it, maybe Chris Smalling was not the problem.
“Maybe Romelu Lukaku was not the problem, either… maybe the problems are elsewhere.
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“I’ve been in dressing rooms when there’s been problems, so is it really surprising that Smalling has looked better at Roma and Lukaku, Ashley Young and Alexis Sanchez have looked far better at Inter Milan?
“That’s four players who are playing far better away from Old Trafford than they were under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“Don’t get me wrong, Sanchez was nowhere near right at Manchester United; it looked wrong, he didn’t look fit and he’s openly admitted that it was a bad decision to move there.
“But Lukaku is a really strange one, because everywhere he has gone he has got goals, people really rate him highly and rightly so.
“So it’s really strange from Manchester United to let a player with such a good goalscoring record go.
“He’d easily be the best centre-forward at Manchester United if he was there today.
“There’s been a few leaks in the papers about his relationship at United and when asked about going to Inter he’s said, ‘there’s no clans here’, which makes you think there was at Manchester United.”
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