IT was just over a year ago that Erik ten Hag felt Manchester United’s handling of Alvaro Carreras was “perfect”.
Imperfect would be more accurate. Carreras is the starting left back for Real Madrid, the club he left for United’s academy in 2020.
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Alvaro Carreras never really got his chance at Manchester United but he’s now impressing at Real MadridCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Ten Hag made Carreras slip though his fingers while he was Man United managerCredit: Alamy
Carreras, 22, scored a humdinger of a first Madrid goal against Valencia at the weekend and is back in England’s north-west tonight.
He will almost certainly start against Liverpool. The closest Carreras got to playing against them for United was for the reserves.
Ralf Rangnick named Carreras on the bench in his final four games in charge as interim manager of United in 2022 and endorsed his permanent promotion to the senior squad.
Rangnick said: “There might be one or two, or maybe even three [youngsters], where it makes sense to have them in pre-season so that they can also show to Erik if they are already ready to play.”
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The one or two were Hannibal Mejbri and Alejandro Garnacho.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe claimed United’s academy had “slipped” last month and they certainly let Carreras slip through their fingers.
The emergence that United had sold Carreras to Benfica did not cause a ripple on May 26 last year. Many United supporters were still possibly drunk from their FA Cup triumph the day before.
Benfica paid United a €6million, with €3m in add-ons. Within a year, Carreras was back in his hometown of Madrid in a €50m deal. United pocketed a £5m windfall through a sell-on clause.
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Ralf Rangnick named Carreras on the bench for his final four games before handing over to Ten HagCredit: Getty
Ten Hag would be cut some slack if he had bothered to actually play Carreras. He omitted him from his first pre-season tour squad in 2022.
When Carreras was included the following year, he did not appear in any of United’s three first-team friendlies in the United States. He actually dropped down to start for the academy in their 3-1 loss to Wrexham in San Diego.
He couldn’t get a game at Man United but he’s now making the Real Madrid left back position his ownCredit: Alamy Live News.
Fernandez only played for Ten Hag in the first halves against Leeds United in Norway and Lyon in Edinburgh at the start of the 2023 pre-season schedule, and 64 minutes against Athletic Bilbao in Dublin at the end.
In the States, Brandon Williams was suddenly playing ahead of Carreras at left back. Williams had played five competitive minutes in 14 months and he was unavailable through injury for five of those months.
During that time, Fernandez had played 42 times on loan at Preston in 2022-23 and received the club’s young player of the year award.
The thought process at United is youngsters loaned to Championship clubs are potential first-team squad members.
Senior United sources said during the 2023 tour they had made Williams aware he was for sale and it was time he left permanently.
So Williams played 45 minutes against Arsenal in New Jersey, 28 minutes against Real Madrid in Houston and 61 minutes against Borussia Dortmund in Las Vegas. Carreras was an unused substitute in all three games.
Williams has since struggled after leaving Man UnitedCredit: Kenny Ramsay
The shop-window tactic did not work. All United could arrange was for Williams to join Ipswich Town on a season-long loan.
After making 17 appearances, he did not play for Ipswich again after December 29 2023. The troubled Williams was released by United last year and was without a club for a year until he found a new home at Hull City in the summer.
Williams, now 25, played five minutes for Hull in August and has not played since. While he is in the Championship, Carreras is in the Champions League.
United loaned Carreras to Granada on transfer deadline day in September 2023, the same day they took Sergio Reguilon off Tottenham’s hands on loan.
Reguilon’s season-long loan was terminated midway through as Tyrell Malacia was expected to return in January. Malacia did not play again until November.
Signing Malacia, ignoring Fernandez, renewing Luke Shaw’s contract and preferring Reguilon was damning evidence that Ten Hag had a blind spot at left back.
The signing of Dorgu hasn’t quite worked out so farCredit: Alamy
Malacia, the only surviving member of Ruben Amorim’s summer ‘bomb squad’ is back in the fold as he was unsellable.
With Ten Hag long gone, United recruited left back Patrick Dorgu in January and their current undefeated run of four games has coincided with his demotion to the bench.
After the draw with Nottingham Forest, Ruben Amorim acknowledged Diogo Dalot, a player he has been far too loyal to, is an inadequate stop-gap option on the left wing. The role is still a problem position.
For a Portuguese who played for Benfica for nine years, it feels remiss of Amorim not to have pushed for Carreras when United agreed a £30m fee for Dorgu.
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The terms of Carreras’s transfer to Benfica included a buy-back option that was to expire in 2026. Madrid were never going to wait that long.
Hardly a perfect plan.
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