I don’t watch European football this season. The Champions League holds bittersweet memories of times slipped away and the Europa has never been more unpalatable, so I generally devote midweeks dedicated to continental competitions to doing other things.

This meant that I worked out all was not grand for Manchester United via a series of gleeful social media posts.

Turned out Man U were the only English team to get beat in Europe last week, hammered by UCL newcomers Como.

Como are a recent development, a small town club with an exciting young manager infiltrating the top flight and making their way as far as European competition.

Man Utd were walloped by three clear goals by the Italian version of Bournemouth, which served as a fitting warm-up for their weekend defeat by three clear goals to the actual Bournemouth.

All is not well at Old Trafford. The roof leaks and the owners are creaming the profits off via dividends, as the club sinks into debt that is very nearly, if not very actually, in the ‘unmanageable’ category. The supporters are showing serious discontent, as many of them did not sign up for this.

Outside of a considerable heritage following, most Man U fans follow the club in expectation of success. A sense of success they need to ram down the throats of random workmates in whichever distant corner of the world they occupy or, more likely, gloat about on social media with fellow plastics from behind profile pictures of Bruno Fernandes or Cristiano Ronaldo. Without it, what’s the point, to support the team? Why would they care about stuff in Manchester?

The upshot of this is that Michael Carrick seems bound for the exit, the latest victim of over-promotion to a daunting managerial role due to the stardust of their playing career (we await the Rooney experiment with bated breath). There are a few contenders to replace him, but all bookmakers have the same odds-on favourite. Is this the next step in Eddie Howe’s journey?

It is a massive talking point we got stuck into on the latest episode of The Mag Pod, weighing up what could have been on Tyneside versus what might lie ahead at Old Trafford.

If Eddie Howe does end up in Salford, it will go some way to answering a question that continues to linger and divide here. Was he basically unable to take the club further, or were his obvious abilities so restricted by PSR it became an impossible job? If Howe can take the rolling bin fire that is the current Man Utd situation and return them to former glories, it will be a difficult one to swallow.

It’s even been said that that Eddie Howe would have liked to sign ‘half the Man Utd’ team while at Newcastle United. I’m not sure about this. While we were definitely in for Sesko, it came during the phase of desperation that blighted the 2025 summer window. Cunha was mentioned but never much further than the gossip columns and Mbeumo was definitely targeted but arguably no more so than Elanga.

This got me thinking as to what team exactly would Howe Eddie be able to field if it weren’t for the restrictions, ironically implemented to protect Man Utd and their ilk from the challenges of Como-style upstarts. The following team list is, I think, reasonable in the assumption that Newcastle could have offered the wages to secure these signings before a hijack came in:

Trafford*
Livramento Guehi Thiaw Hall
Bruno Tonali Anderson
Pedro Isak Manzambi

This assumes that Trafford was signed from Burnley, with Hornicek potentially still following as an alternate number one, and that retaining Isak and signing Joao Pedro would have been preferable to pursuing Ekitike. I also reckon Gordon would still have been tempted to Barcelona but Manzambi would have swiftly been secured. This would have meant a squad supported by the following:

Hornicek, Botman, Elanga, Joelinton, Barnes, Munoz, Minteh, Osula, Ramsey, Steur, Miley, Schar, Burn.

This assumes Wissa would never have been signed as the Wilson replacement with Pedro secured, whilst a Livramento alternative would be sourced post-Trippier, but possibly not Dedic without the Jaissle influence.

Regardless of the variables, I think this would be a squad that challenged for every major honour, and probably built on the success of 24/25. If the assembly of it was initiated by Howe and his people and the failure to click was because of PSR, Paul Mitchell and the sabotage of the septic clubs, then this bodes very well for his prospects at Man Utd, where all of these limiting factors are removed.

Of course, it could just be that the naysayers are right and Eddie Howe cannot succeed past an initial 3-4 season burst, is tactically stubborn, held back by too much loyalty to certain players and cannot buy well due to the nepotism effect of his less capable nephew.

One day we’ll have more evidence to judge this on. Given the wealth of good feeling that should persist towards our trophy-winning boss, I really hope it’s not at Old Trafford any time soon.