Revealed: Man Utd’s Mbeumo bid during execs’ Iceland summit, Ratcliffe’s fishing trip, ‘bomb squad’ fears

As Manchester United’s pre-season gets properly started in Stockholm against Leeds United, the idiosyncrasies of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s regime will again be apparent.

Chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox are scheduled to fly into the Swedish capital on the morning of the game tomorrow, having accepted Ratcliffe’s invitation for a series of face-to-face meetings in Iceland in the days beforehand. As well as getting granular on United matters, there were plans for some in the party to go fishing.

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Over the years, Ratcliffe, who travels frequently, has hosted several gatherings with his senior INEOS executives in various places across the globe, and views them as a way to cut to the heart of business in a relaxed environment outside the grind of the office. Indeed, one of Berrada’s first days at United was with the petrochemicals billionaire amid ski slopes.

The setting is different 12 months on. Ratcliffe is, according to the INEOS website, a “passionate fly fisherman”, and has invested in farms around several key river systems in Iceland to help protect North Atlantic salmon, launching the Six Rivers Project in 2019.

So, amid the streams and hills of Iceland, Ratcliffe, Berrada and Wilcox are spending the 48 hours before kick-off against Leeds thrashing out the path forward for United, while also getting to know each other — and nature.

Phone signal can be intermittent in the area, but it was no impediment to United pressing ahead with a third bid for Bryan Mbeumo, reaching £65million plus £5m in add-ons. Indeed, it can reasonably be deduced that being together in person, as Ratcliffe prefers when taking big decisions, was in fact the trigger for stepping up their transfer plans. Having space for deep conversations about the club, both sporting and commercial, was the main agenda.

Bryan Mbeumo’s transfer is dragging on (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Ratcliffe did propose Ruben Amorim join the trip, too, but after discussions, United’s co-owner accepted that the team’s head coach needed to be with his squad exclusively in the build-up to a fixture that marks the beginning of the 2025-26 campaign.

Amorim will instead lead a session at Carrington this morning before boarding a plane with his staff and players to Stockholm in the afternoon, staying overnight in order to be ready for tomorrow’s game.

This warm-up against Daniel Farke’s side will be a first glimpse of Amorim’s efforts to ensure the “good days are coming”, as he vowed to fans following the final Premier League game of last season.

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It had been a dismal campaign, United’s worst finish in the top flight (15th) since they were relegated in the 1973-74 season and without the consolation of a cup win after Amorim’s side were beaten 1-0 by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.

Amorim’s words in May gave the impression that sweeping change was looming as the club plotted a fresh start for his first full campaign. But so far, there is a strong familiarity to the personnel at his disposal.

Matheus Cunha is the only major new name, and though United giving him the No 10 shirt represents an additional symbolic shift away from Marcus Rashford — a pretty brutal removal for the player who has worn it for the past seven years and who is still at the club — the pace of evolution for Amorim’s selections is slower than expected, certainly when set against the mass exodus of hundreds of non-playing staff.

Matheus Cunha settles in at Manchester United (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)

Selling footballers, particularly those on high wages, brings different complications to implementing redundancy schemes, but United are attempting to force the issue with the five members of the club’s ‘bomb squad’ by making life more difficult for them.

Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Tyrell Malacia being told they must train separately from Amorim’s group and only arrive at Carrington at 5pm, after the first-team have left, is part of a club strategy to make clear to each player they have no future at United and encourage them to actively search for and accept a transfer.

Not everybody at United agrees with the decision to limit their access to evening hours, however, given the relationships they have with people at the club. There is also the fear that ostracising them lowers their value in the transfer market, an awkward look at a time when ordinary workers are being laid off to cut costs.

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Rather than making them rush towards the exit, some feel one or two of the players might be inclined to wait so that their fees fall further closer to deadline, safe in the knowledge United have to eventually agree to departures. Garnacho, whose current price of £60million to £70m, is likely to fall into that category, with Chelsea monitoring his situation.

The benefit, from United’s perspective, is that this hard-line approach shows Amorim’s standards are being enforced to the fullest extent. To make a clean break from the past, Amorim only wants those players who are fully on board.

Signing Mbeumo would create momentum, even though negotiations have dragged on for more than a month due to a difference of opinion on the fee between United and Brentford. United started at £55m and are now up to £70m. The timing of an offer that executives hope will end in agreement, on the eve of United’s return to action and Amorim possibly speaking to media for the first time since May on Saturday, feels pertinent. United want to have Mbeumo on the U.S. tour, which the squad fly out for on Tuesday.

For fans, there is an echo of the Frenkie de Jong pursuits, except that at least this time the player wants to come. All signs still point to Mbeumo being at Old Trafford for the coming campaign.

Diego Leon is the only other new signing available to Amorim right now, though. After promising to “kill it” at Carrington, the 18-year-old left-back has impressed in training this week, not looking out of place despite his youth and arriving from Paraguay.

He was not immediately assigned a squad number because staff wanted to see how he fared and where his status should be pitched. He will want to make an impression in Stockholm to secure his place on the tour to the United States later this month, where United play matches against West Ham United, Bournemouth and Everton.

The same can be said for youth players Bendito Mantato, Shea Lacey, and Sekou Kone. Mantato, 17, has featured most prominently in sessions, mainly at wing-back, with Lacey, 18, also given decent time. Kone, 19, has flitted between youth and first team. Goalkeeper Elyh Harrison, 19, has trained with the seniors every day, amid the injury to Andre Onana.

Among the more experienced playing contingent, Lisandro Martinez continues to work on his rehabilitation from the cruciate knee ligament injury he sustained in February. He will not be in Stockholm but hopes to join the squad in the U.S. to keep pace with tactical sessions, should doctors allow. Amorim would like him there, not least as he values his motivational qualities among team-mates. Martinez, 27, is close to joining group training, but his Premier League return is unclear as United do not want to take any risks.

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Overall, Amorim is planning for a small squad in pre-season to replicate the campaign ahead, which features no European football for the first time in 11 years.

United have added a new staff member to the senior set-up to assist the group. Acacio Valentim has started working as team manager in a position last permanently held by Jackie Kay, who left the club in January after nearly 30 years’ service. Valentim’s role will be to handle various aspects around the dressing room. He did the same job at Braga for the last two seasons, having worked at Porto for 16 years, including originally as public relations officer at a time when Jose Mourinho was manager. He adds to the Portuguese contingent at United, but had not worked with Amorim before.

In the meantime, multiple conversations are ongoing in the transfer market, a different kind of fishing expedition from the one Ratcliffe enjoys in Iceland.

(Top photos: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)

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