2024 was quite the year for Manchester United: enormous highs, desperate lows and everything else in between.
In February, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s buy-in was formally ratified. March then saw a sensational extra-time FA Cup win over Liverpool, before going on to lift the trophy in May – the same month as finalising a truly disappointing eighth-place finish in the Premier League.
Erik ten Hag successfully kept his job, even awarded a new contract as a show of faith. There were also multiple new hires at senior executive level and a promising summer transfer window.
But the start to 2024/25 was poor. Ten Hag was dismissed, Ruben Amorim was hired, and sporting director Dan Ashworth lasted just five months into his tenure. This is not a quick fix and it will more than likely take time to build a sustainable new-look sporting operation.
Away from the pitch, there are ongoing plans to create a brand new Old Trafford to be the centrepiece of major urban regeneration, and yet the club is also sorely feeling the financial pinch that has resulted in spending cuts and sweeping staff redundancies.
In teams struggling to fulfil their potential, the goalkeeper will often stand out. Andre Onana may have started with a wobble in the autumn of 2023, but by the time 2024 rolled around he was quite literally saving the day on a regular basis.
Footballers will always make mistakes and there is no hiding from it as a goalkeeper. Unfortunately for Onana, a few crept back in towards the end of the calendar year, yet that doesn’t take away from his overall contributions across the whole 12 months.
United almost started the Amorim era with a shock defeat to Ipswich Town but for a stunning Onana save and the Portuguese coach remembered that a fortnight later when he came out to bat for his goalkeeper after a gaffe against Nottingham Forest.
“He saved us a lot of times so we have to find a way to turn it around and score two goals to help our keeper for the way he, for example, saved us at Ipswich,” Amorim said.
For Amad Diallo, 2024 was the turning point of his Manchester United career. The Ivorian winger has been at the club for three-and-a-half years, but it has only been in the last few months that he has been afforded a consistent chance – even after his dramatic extra-time winner in the that aforementioned triumphant FA Cup tie against Liverpool.
Despite flashes of what Amad was capable of, Ten Hag didn’t ever quite seem to take to him. A start and impressive display in the Community Shield in August was followed by a gradual fall to the periphery – supposedly due to an apparent loyalty and shared history with Antony.
Redemption came under the interim leadership of Ruud van Nistelrooy and continued through to the end of 2024. At one stage, in November and December, Amad put up ten goals and assists in a run of nine appearances across all competitions. As a winger, his game isn’t littered with tricks and flicks, but what’s more simple and direct is quite often more effective.
United are a worse team when Kobbie Mainoo isn’t on the pitch, which goes to show the level of impact the 19-year-old from Stockport has had since graduating from the academy. That hasn’t just been felt at club level either, because there’s a valid argument to say that he became England’s most important player en-route to the final at Euro 2024 as well.
Similar to Amad, simple done well is better than complicated done badly. Through that, Mainoo has become a midfield linchpin that United, in an ideal world, will soon build a project around.
Maturity on and off the pitch for a player so young and with only limited professional experience is usually the quality that is most associated with him, as is humility and a grounded nature.
Rasmus Hojlund has carried a lot of pressure and expectation on his shoulders since joining United in the summer of 2023. The young Dane was hardly known at the time, which made an overall £72m deal to sign him from Atalanta all the more surprising.
He also arrived with a back injury and took time to find his feet, initially finding life easier in the Champions League. But Hojlund started 2024 in blistering goalscoring form in the Premier League, netting in six consecutive games.
An injury setback interrupted his flow then and it has always been a little stop-start since, although there is clear potential in a bulldozing centre forward who carries himself in the right way.
It was 17 goals in 42 appearances across all competitions in 2024, certainly a respectable return in the circumstances even if it fell short of being outstanding.
Leny Yoro was seemingly Real Madrid-bound. It made sense. Here was a teenage talent already likened to Raphael Varane, playing in northeastern France – just like Varane did.
Madrid famously beat United to an 18-year-old Varane’s signature in 2011, eventually signing just a shadow of the French centre-back a decade later. But it was roles reversed this time.
Yoro has been billed as a generational defensive talent, a first-teamer with Lille aged 16. While Madrid hesitated, clinging onto hope they could sign the youngster as a free agent in 2025, United went big to secure a £59m package to land him immediately.
A pre-season injury means that fans are still yet to see Yoro on a consistent basis, but what he represents is long-term potential to be world class, all the while a player for right now as well.
Nobody expected United to go to Wembley and beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
Under Ten Hag, the team had just recorded a worst-ever Premier League finish of eighth and were set to miss out on European football, while City were fresh from winning an unprecedented fourth successive league title and looking for a second domestic double on the bounce.
It wasn’t in the script for Alejandro Garnacho to put United into the lead in the first half, and even less for Kobbie Mainoo to add daylight to the scoreline nine minutes later. City eventually pulled one back, but it was a United performance that just didn’t correspond with the nine previous months.
The victory meant Europa League qualification and it was all the more sweet coming against the ‘noisy neighbours’ who have won it all over the last decade.
Even though it’s all that is talked about in the professional game, the vast majority of football teams don’t actually win trophies. United fans were spoilt rotten for years in that sense, but even the club’s supposed ‘banter era’ has still been considerably more successful than most.
