After Pogba and Stones, City and United must clear the deadwood

John Stones’ transfer was announced in an unusual way. When UEFA released the Champions League squad list, there was Everton’s Stones, in City’s squad, with the number 24 assigned to him. Shortly after, City and Everton had to rush out confirmation, and then the usual puff-piece video was stuck up on telly and the internet, for everyone to dutifully quote and/or ignore depending on their respective jobs and interest. Stones seems nice, but it is not worth listening to what he has to say about most things. Yet, anyway. But there’s another story to be found in the squad list for Manchester City. Absent were Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfriend Bony, two players who had arrived at a cost of £70 million.

Mangala was earmarked for Stones’ position just a couple of years ago. Manchester United also wanted him, but a huge amount of cash was lobbed at Porto to secure his signature at the Etihad, and he was regarded as a hugely promising central defender. It is of course foolish and too early to write off the rest of his career, as he is still young, and the raw talent has not deserted him. But it is not unfair that Pep Guardiola has decided not to take the risk when he thinks there are better options available elsewhere. Wilfried Bony seemed like a sensible back-up striker purchase, with Premier League success behind him, but he has not been able to make use of better players than Swansea had behind him. Perhaps it was a flash of form, perhaps it was a lack of confidence, but Nolito and Kelechi Iheanacho promise more, and it is time to cut the losses of player and club.

Manchester City have brought in more than just Nolito and Stones. They have Ilkay Gundogan, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko for Guardiola to transform the current squad into one of the best in the world, as it surely was not last season. Because of the amount of disruption that many more signings would cause - save ditching the wretched Joe Hart - it is fair to guess that only one or two more signings will be made. But as the squad list suggested, there is plenty of deadwood to be excised. This is the same for both Manchester clubs, who were allowed to drift under substandard managers for the last two or three seasons.

As well as Hart, who cannot save to his left, there are more players who need to leave. Fernando has been as disappointing a Porto experiment as Mangala. Yaya Toure’s disgruntlement tour surely needs to be moved on to another venue. Gael Clichy and Aleksandar Kolarov both underwhelm and disappoint too often to be relied upon, and David Silva seems too jaded to keep around for much longer, especially if a reasonable bid came in. Jesus Navas is entirely redundant now, you would have thought, though perhaps Guardiola will turn him, unexpectedly, in a player capable of playing that reverse seven-and-a-half role tucked around the corner. Because he is, after all, a ruddy maverick. The time has come to end City’s ascent to near the top of the league, and to make sure they can properly challenge for European trophies.

Across the road, at the equally dignity-filled United, attention will now shift away from Paul Pogba, and to the absolute rot that has stunk up Old Trafford since the last couple of seasons of Alex Ferguson. It is surely too much to hope that someone will finally recognise that Michael Carrick is now even slower than a block of concrete, and about as much use. However, Juan Mata’s exercise in one-paced mediocrity, with the occasional flourish, looks likely to end. He’s not a bad player, simply the wrong one. Henrikh Mkhitaryan has the remarkable qualities of being able to pass and run, thus rendering Mata redundant. He should also do the same for Wayne Rooney, as Anthony Martial, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcus Rashford do, but there’s probably more chance that Mourinho will use this season to highlight that Rooney is no longer capable of fulfilling any single requirement of a footballer. It’s far more politic to punt him out after a season of wretched performance while everyone else finally pulls their weight on the pitch. Before, he was able to hide as one brown lump in a sea of effluence under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal. That should no longer be the case.

There are almost too many other poor players to list and dismiss adequately. Phil Jones isn’t physically capable of more than a handful of appearances. Marcos Rojo can’t be trusted to think. Daley Blind is slower than Carrick was at the same age and, almost incredibly, just as predisposed to never learning anything. Bastian Schweinsteiger could have been an astute buy, but there’s little point waiting to see if the last three injury-filled years were a fluke, because they obviously weren’t. Marouane Fellaini, in scientific terms, is just absolutely terrible at football and an awful example to set anyone who is paid to do any job.

So before City and United set their sights on adding yet more players and spending yet more of money that isn’t theirs (the Glazers are corporate interlopers, City’s owners essentially rip off their citizens) as they pursue brand awareness and profit-generation, they need to get rid of many, many disappointments. And, because of the nature of football, the players bought this year will probably appear on future lists castigating young men for being not quite as good footballers as we’d hoped. And this will never, ever end.