Under-pressure Marc Skinner calls for summer changes at Manchester United after listless Spurs draw

The Athletic was denied the opportunity to ask Skinner questions in his post-match media duties by United’s press officer, who later said this was in response to an “overly negative story” that followed the club’s Champions League exit.

The story in question arrived after United’s exit from the Champions League following their 5-3 aggregate defeat in the quarter-finals to Bayern Munich, in which The Athletic assessed United’s future, including the financial and coaching limitations of the team.

The exit from the Champions League came weeks after United’s 2-0 League Cup final defeat to Chelsea, making it 16 defeats in 19 matches against Chelsea.

Asked about his future by other members of the media, Skinner said: “Look, I’ve said this two or three seasons ago when we finished fifth and we won the FA Cup. We came back stronger than next year, and we qualified for Champions League.

“This year, we’ve come into the Champions League and gone to the quarterfinals, got to our first League Cup final. I’m absolutely so passionate about what we do. But we have to do some changes in the summer. We have to make some changes to make sure that we can compete with what’s clearly a financial market at times, right? And we want to do it our own way. We’ve said that and we’re clear on that. But we have to make sure we write those smart assignments to keep pushing this team forward.”

United have reached three successive FA Cup finals under Skinner, winning the 2023-24 edition 4-0 against Spurs but losing the other two to Chelsea 1-0 and 3-0. United reached a first League Cup final this season, again losing to defending champions Chelsea, this time 2-0 to take the number of defeats against the west London side to a total of 16 from 19 matches in all competitions.

However, Skinner has cut a divisive figure amongst the fanbase in recent seasons for what is deemed to be tactical limitations and an inability to push the squad further as other WSL teams increase investment.

United return to action against Brighton on Saturday.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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