Moving ahead after Chris Smalling

 Many of the names that people have been mentioning for months regarding Man United - Skriniar, De Ligt, Varane, Upacamento, Godin, Gabriel, Minolas, etc, played in Serie A last season; good and reliable defenders they may be, but Chris Smalling out-performed all of them on route to being named in Serie A's Team of the Season by several European journals. Not just that, he was also named in the European Best XI for the 2019/2020 season by the influential journal, WhoScored: a team chosen from players in the Top 5 leagues of Europe (Budesliga, La liga, Serie A, French league 1 and the EPL). So Smallings influence now goes beyond Italy  and Serie A. 

But a certain Man United manager is not swayed by those ratings. Smalling may be the best in Europe, says Ole, but he's only No 6 at Man United - behind Maguire, Lindelof, Bailly, Jones and Tuanzebe! 

Do you still wonder - when you have a manager with such poor judgement - why the club can no longer rise above the mediocre level?