Manchester United budget for no European football next season | Former Spurs midfielder Perisic makes Arsenal dig ahead of PSV tie!
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Welcome to Back Pages, bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories, making the headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Teddy Draper and joining me are Jason Burt from The Telegraph and Andy Dillon from The Sun. Welcome to you both. OK, let's start with you, Jason, with your paper. Your colleague James Ducker reporting in The Telegraph, United budget for no Europe. Bit of a contrast, some of the other reports out there. Club factoring qualification failure as part of cost cutting. Is this...

Somewhat reassuring news, Jason, for United fans? What can you tell us? I wouldn't say it's reassuring news. There doesn't seem to be any reassuring news for Manchester United these days. But I think it's a reality that the club might well not qualify for Europe next year. This is a club, remember, that not so long ago used to factor in reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League as part of its budget year by year. And now it's looking at not even being in Europe at all.

Obviously, the lifeline they have is to win the Europa League, which would obviously open up a way into the Champions League, a place back in the Champions League, and financially that would be hugely beneficial for them. But the reality is that's in itself still fairly outside prospects, so they have to budget for a worst-case scenario, which is not to finish in European positions at all, which is something that was unthinkable not so long ago. I think what's happened here is they initially had factored in qualifying for Europe and had to revise those categories

calculations based on the poor season they've had and obviously nearer the bottom of the table than the top so the prospect of finishing the places to qualify for Europe for the Premier League is non-existent now for them

have this one shot left. We know they've obviously gone into a very sort of austere period in which they're cutting their budgets, they're looking at their finances, they've already said they're going to have to sell before they buy in the summer, the budget available to Roman Amarum is going to be very small. It's a real sobering time for Manchester United all round. Plus the fact that they've been making mistakes in terms of the transfer market, in terms of the spending of money.

paying off Eric Ten Hag, Dan Ashworth and so on. So it's a very unhappy time. And in terms of the finances, yes, they have to look at them. They have to be much more realistic about what they can achieve. And in the way that James has written it, that has now meant that they have to factor in not even being in Europe whatsoever, which is an extraordinary state of affairs for Manchester United to be in.

It is an extraordinary state of affairs. Andy, let's come to you and your paper actually have a story with Martin Lipton, Europa or no hope as United's £100m hit unless they lift trophy, unless Ruben Ramirin's flops win the Europa League. Martin writes, Andy, they have to bank on not winning it, don't they? I know Real Sociedad are mid-table in La Liga, but they must fancy their chances in this last 16 tie.

Well, I think everybody fancies their chances against Manchester United these days. I sat and watched that game against Fulham yesterday. And when you put it, you know, when you compare it back to a couple of years ago, when I know Fulham had a bit of a meltdown on the pitch there, but United came through that one. And however they lose a game, you know, with the repercussions of losing to Fulham at home in the FA Cup, you know,

you know, it just shows you there's such a soft touch these days. And I think, you know, Martin's gone into that story quite forensically, looking at the budgets and, you know, you can cut as many sandwiches as you like at the training ground for the staff and that sort of thing, but that's not going to make up 100 million quid. And, you know, it kind of follows on from the Telegraph story, you know, that United might be budgeting for it, but

But, you know, there's some pretty massive sums that they've got to do there. You know, if they don't win the Europa League and they really are in the doldrums, then they really are looking at, you know, a massive cash crisis, really. Yeah, they are looking at a cash crisis, Jason. I just wonder, when you look at Amarim's record lately, whether there's any temptation to roll the dice again to try and win this Europa League? Because it certainly doesn't look like he's got any chance of winning too much in the short term, does it?

No, and I think that's a fair point. I mean, the fact is that, let's be honest, they're not 100% safe from relegation.

They should be fine, but they've got to get a couple more wins just to be sure. But you're absolutely right. I think the priority has to be the Europa League. They have to go for it and go for it full tilt and give it all they've got. That prize the Champions League place is a great one. Tottenham Hotspur are in a very similar situation. People were talking before about whether or not their season depended on the Carabao Cup. I think it always depended on the Europa League because...

that now carries that prize of a qualification for a Champions League place. And the money that then unlocks to a club makes a huge difference. So it's almost like an escape route to sort of actually get to where they need to be. So Manchester United, absolutely, you're right. I think they need to go full tilt for this Europa League. They've got a tough tie, I think. It's not an easy place to...

to play against Real Sociedad have done quite well in the past in European competition. Obviously, Manchester United had the FA Cup disappointment yesterday. They've got to pick themselves back up from that and go again. And the spiral at the moment, you know, is just going downwards and downwards for them. They need to address that, need to readdress that. And obviously, the Champions League, the Europa League, sorry, gives them that one last chance

But I don't think any of us would sit here right now and think they've got a realistic opportunity of winning that unless they play a lot better than they are at the moment, unless things change drastically for them. But I agree with you, they should go for it full tilt.

It's interesting, if I may just interject, it's interesting what Jason says about the downward spiral and having to sell before they buy, because back in January, the only Manchester United player that really sort of stoked up any interest was Garnaccio. And I watched that match yesterday, and when Garnaccio came off the bench, the lift it gave the crowd, you know, there's a big gambling act to be, you know, if you take it on there. If you try to cash in on him, then you're taking away the one player that's kind of...

keeping a bit of morale among the fan base. Because, you know, if you're a Manchester United fan at Old Trafford these days, you're not looking around there and seeing many players in red that actually, you know, you feel you want to go and pay your money to go and see. So, yeah, they might get a few quid for him. But what's the cost of that? Yes, very good point. Manchester United forwards really struggling in general. Maybe Garnaccio, the brightest spark at the moment. Arsenal struggling for goals today.

but maybe an inviting tie to come. Jason, the back page of the mirror, season starts here. Timber, the Champions League, is our chance to save the whole year. Arsenal struggling to score, but PSV are falling apart. This is a great time to play the Dutch side. It is, absolutely, but it's extraordinary also that Timber's saying that. Two weeks ago, we were talking about Arsenal still being in the title race. Suddenly, that's gone in a flash, almost. The way that's fallen away and

the fact that we all now believe that Liverpool have definitely won it. And they've had to suddenly shift their focus to the Champions League. And that's almost not in the same situation as Manchester United, but it's suddenly saying, well, that's their season now. You know, they'll finish top four for sure, but they're not going to win the Premier League. And the chance of winning something rests solely on the Champions League. And they're going into that tie, I agree with you, against the PSV who fought on the part a bit, lost the last couple of home games today.

Beat Liverpool, obviously, in the group stages, but that was a very weakened Liverpool. But they also beat, I think, Juventus and Girona. So they can't be dismissed out of hand. And at the moment, Arsenal are really struggling for goals. You know, they're struggling to score goals. And also looking a little bit, to my mind, like a team that started to feel a little bit sorry for itself. You know, blaming injuries, the season conspiring against them, things not working out for them. They've got to be a bit careful they don't start falling away too much.

But this is a great opportunity for them to get a place in the quarterfinals. They should come through this tie. Although I think if they do get through, I think it's Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid in the next round. So that's going to be quite a tough one for them. But he's right. They almost need to reset and go again with this tie to get the season back on track.

Challenging time. I would just say, if I'm an Arsenal season ticket holder and Timber's telling me the season starts today on March the 3rd, I think I'd want some of my money back, wouldn't you? Maybe so. Andy, stay with you for the back page of the Star. Familiar theme or similar theme, Dutch and Go. Timber targets PSV win to ignite season. Is it a season to forget? Is it a season too far for Mikel Arteta if nothing comes out of it at this point? How do you assess his position five and a half years in?

Well, it's interesting because our chief sports writer, Dave Kidd, wrote a great piece on Saturday morning. And it was a very simple comparison when he said who was the last manager to last, I think it was six seasons, in one of the big six clubs or more than five seasons.

in one of the big six clubs without winning anything. It was actually Pochettino who then got sacked very early in the sixth season. So, yeah, he's had, you know, he's getting a lot of good grace there, isn't it? The pressure's been slowly, slowly, slowly cranking up with the injuries.

Whether the arrival of Josh Cronky at the training ground yesterday is a positive sign or negative sign, it depends who you talk to, I suppose. When the boss's son comes calling when your team is not playing at its best, you might not welcome that so much. Arteta insists it's a team-bonding thing and it's a team-building effort, so we'll take him at his word. But, yeah, I mean, again, you know, the way...

The West Ham fans were taunting them with second again a couple of weeks ago when they won at the Emirates. And you can see it slowly, slowly unravelling. And it's going to take an almighty turnaround if Timber's right for the season to start here and reignite it. It's going to take an almighty effort, especially with the injuries that they've got.

Yeah, a long time since the FA Cup win in the COVID year of 2020, Jason. On the theme of Arsenal, in the Times' back page, Tom Olnott reporting here. A bit of a dig from former Tottenham player Ivan Perisic. Arsenal lack winning edge. And a quote here, they always are missing something to step up to win something. People might say it's a bit rich coming from a Spurs player, Jason. But nonetheless, unless they win something, this is going to be levelled at Arteta's Arsenal, isn't it?

Yeah, I think Perisic is probably playing to the gallery a little bit there, as you suggested, being a former Tottenham player. But I think there will become a reckoning there. Not this season. Next season, for sure, I think people will start to really focus on Arteta. And listen, he's done a great job in terms of actually progressing the club. They're in a better situation now than the one he inherited, which is always in itself a good measure of success.

However, we are in competitive sport. They are a big club. They have to eventually start to win things. He has to eventually start to win things. If anything, winning that FA Cup so early in his tenure has sort of almost counted against him because an expectation that he would then go on and win more trophies.

That team that won that FA Cup is not his team. That was not his team. It was a team he inherited. This is now his team. He has an awful lot of control at Arsenal, as we saw with the departure of Edu. He is the manager, not the head coach. He has an awful lot of say in the running of

the club a lot of people have been saying things like well he's not been getting what he wanted that's not my understanding of the situation i think they backed him fully the decisions that we made the transfer market have been with his backing completely he's decided to shape the squad in this manner he decided not to go for a striker last summer although obviously there were certain targets that proved to be quite expensive however there's always players that can be brought in so i think a lot of it has to be leveled at his door he's been completely backed by the cronkies and by the club

So, yes, I agree that I would have thought if we're at this stage next season talking about Arsenal in this way, I would suggest we may be coming to the end or I've seen the end of Mikel Arteta as the Arsenal manager. Let's go to the Telegraph, Jason, and your take on the debate ignited by Gary Lineker Sunday night on whether Sir Alex Ferguson is to blame for the post-Ferguson decline at Manchester United. You've said it's ridiculous. We'll get Andy to summarise Jim White's statement.

pro-Lineker piece in a second, but what's your stance? Yeah, I had a phone call from the newspaper desk this morning just saying, look, these comments from Gary Lineker have provoked a huge reaction. And then I actually read the comments and yeah, it provoked a huge reaction for me as well, actually, to be honest with you. I thought it was

We have hot takes and we obviously have to have strong opinions, but that is the hottest of hot takes that you're trying to blame Alex Ferguson for the decline of Manchester United and saying that he didn't leave them in a good state. I know the argument's been well rehearsed that they weren't the greatest title winning team when they won it in 2012, 2013. But actually, if you look back over that squad, it wasn't that bad. There were some pretty good players in there. One of the arguments is the academy wasn't bringing players through. Well, Danny Welbeck and Johnny Evans were great.

both in that squad at the time and various other players coming through. They just brought Wilfred Zaha, Kaga was there, who was regarded one of the best young players in Europe. So there were young players coming through. Now, I think there is a legitimate argument around whether or not Manchester United as an institution, as a club, was in a modern enough state to thrive.

But that's not wholly Sir Alex Ferguson's fault. They should have been in a situation where they were ready for when he was going to step down. He was never going to go on forever. And I think it's really a very revisionist view to say that it's his fault. Now, clearly, he had a great control over the club, but there were people there ready to take over when he went.

Edward became the executive vice-chairman of succeeding David Gill. He should have been ready. They should have been ready to succeed. The bigger problem with Manchester United is the ownership, is the executive, is the people who have been running the club, and then the managers who have come in after Sir Alex Ferguson. I think they're trying to blame him

is really looking back at history and talking about it as if, well, we all should have known this, that this was going to be happening. It's 12 years since he retired. You can't keep blaming a guy 12 years on that it's his fault somehow because that team that won the

title by 11 points was a bit substandard. And it was hardly as Manchester United were in a massive state of decline. They won the league five times in the last seven seasons under Sir Alex Ferguson. So it didn't feel to me like it was particularly broken. Obviously, it needed to change and improve and infrastructure. But this is a vastly rich club who are now, as we talked about already in the programme, have wasted huge

huge amounts of money that he helped generate into the club and they're paying a price for that now. Is that his fault? Of course it's not. It's the people who've been running the club after him. And yet, Andy, Jim White's had a good go at saying that Ferguson is partly responsible for the inexorable decline. My favourite bit saying Ferguson ran it like a medieval court. He was in charge of everything. What's your summary of Jim White's perspective in this perspective overall?

Well, I have to say, I'm not sure if I'd rather argue with Al Ferguson over Manchester United or Jim White. Jim lives and brings that club, so I'm not going to take on big Jim White on that one. But I read the piece, and the line that really stuck out for me was about how Sir Alex didn't even want Manchester United to have a Twitter account and how when you say evil, it really was in every sense, I guess, because he was stuck in the dark ages. And Jim makes the point that Ferguson...

ran it with an iron grip and even the Glazers in their early days of their ownership, they were terrified of him and they left him to it. And so what he left behind was a club that wasn't keeping up not only with the times but with their competitors. He talks about the fact that the Manchester City's and Chelsea's

All went for, you know, more continental style club models with sporting directors and things like that. And Ferguson was such a big figure that there is a huge vacuum left behind. And, you know, maybe maybe it wasn't completely unintentional because who wants the next man in the job to be even better than you? You want to be you know, you want to be remembered as the greatest. Right.

You certainly do. But, Jason, I suppose looking back at it as well, there's a supposition that maybe the squad was ageing, Ferdinand, Vidic, etc. But then, presumably, Ferguson would have refreshed that squad had he been given the funds. Yeah, exactly. And he would have got more out of those players. The sporting directors point to really interesting ones. I vividly remember speaking to Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson left and they said, we do not need a sporting director. Now, that had nothing to do with Alex Ferguson. Obviously, one, he was in charge.

Clearly, he didn't particularly want to bring one in, fair enough. Arsene Wenger was against that at Arsenal for quite a long time. Those managers are for a generation who felt they were much more in control. But when he went, that was their opportunity to change things. And they didn't do that for quite a long time. They prevaricated and they wanted to run it in a similar fashion today.

to what happened under strikes Ferguson, but without him. And that's the key thing. You can't carry on running a club like that without a manager like that. They should have been in a situation ready to modernise, ready to move on as quickly as they could. And with that squad, yes, the players needed change in some of them, but I would have backed him if he'd have carried on in charge to get more out of those players than the subsequent managers did.

Fair point. I just think that sometimes, more often than not, it's really difficult to follow huge figures at football clubs. They go out, they leave the door, they drive away in their cars and there's a huge vacuum. None more so than Alex Ferguson. Arnie Slott, if you think about it, is almost an anomaly. So in that respect, it's always going to be hard. I take the point it's been a dozen years, it's maybe being harsh sometimes.

on Ferguson to blame him still. I mean, you know, it's been 12 years. So,

But sometimes some of the players at Manchester United take 12 years to turn 180 degrees. So the football club itself is a big beast, isn't it? And that's why we're having all these harsh measures now because Jim Ratcliffe is trying to turn this ship around. And one thing I would do, I'm not sure who I'd back on this one, whether it's Jim or Jason there, if it really comes to it.

Well, it's a debate that will keep raging between Jim and Jason and everyone else, I'm sure. Let's move on quickly. We may talk more Man United in due course, still dominating the headlines, but here's a good transfer line in the mail. Real I Palace star Wharton, Spanish giants lining up £70m summer swoop for midfield ace. What do you think, Andy? Is Adam Wharton, is he that good? Is he Real Madrid quality?

I think he can be. I mean, he's been out injured, I believe, recently, so we've not seen him at his best. But, yeah, I mean, the way he arrived in the Premier League and then took to it so quickly, I can...

I can see that. I can see that. I can see them certainly looking at it, which is what the Daily Mail suggestion is. And let's face it, £70 million these days is kind of, you know, it's not huge, huge, huge amounts. The thing that Palace will have to contend with, of course, is that whether Mark Way goes in the summer as well and they end up selling all their best players just as they start getting a team together that's, you know, in the past few weeks has started to pull up a few trees.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see Palace, isn't it, how they would respond to that potentially. But what about your take on it, Jason, with Wharton there, a long-term successor to Kroos and Modric, do you feel? And how would England benefit potentially from that too? It's what they've needed for a while.

Yeah, absolutely. I think I was one of those who was very excited when Adam Morton made it into the England squad for the Euros. Unfortunately, he didn't really feature. But I think technically, he definitely has something that could go quite far. And I think it seems like one of those kind of far-fetched looking stories. But actually, when you analyse it and look at it and think, well, no, that does make some sense to me. As I say, he's a player of great potential. I know Oliver Glasner, the

Crystal Palace manager couldn't quite believe when he first saw the tapes of him in the Championship thinking, what's this player doing outside the Premier League anyway? And obviously kept putting him straight into that Crystal Palace team that had been so well towards the end of last season. And I don't think it's any coincidence that they are now improving and improving now that he is back.

And I think he has that ability. Whether or not Palace would be willing to do business, I think it would take an awful lot of money. Steve Parrish, the chairman, does drive a hard bargain, as Newcastle United found out last summer with Mark Gahey. And I take Andy's point as well. Crystal Palace will be careful not to lose too many of their big names this summer because they don't want to destabilise the club.

If Real Madrid do come calling, though, it's very hard to turn that down if you're a player. It's the same with... They're looking at a couple of players in the Premier League. I mean, the defence... At Bournemouth as well is another one that's been mentioned several times that they're looking at. And, you know, he only came at the start of this season, I believe. So, you know, they're not afraid to take a punt.

Yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens with Adam Wharton, isn't it? We'll come across that one. We've only got about 30 seconds, gents. Quick FA Cup resume. Matt Sells saves the day, saves Jack Taylor's penalty to put Forrest through past it, switched to an FA Cup quarterfinal away at Brighton. Quick thoughts. Who's going to win it, do you think? Who's your money on, Andy? Give us 10 seconds. I don't have any money on anyone. I just don't...

I hate to sound partisan, but I just don't want Manchester City to win it. I want it to be a B-list club that wins it this year. I don't want this to save Manchester City's season. I want a club that really, really wants it and will really make the most of it to win it. Any one of them. Romantic story, Jason, do you think unfolding? Yeah, I think very, very possible. I think something like Brighton or Bournemouth look very, very strong to me. I think either of those two could definitely go on and win the FA Cup.