For both on and off the pitch, there are not many clubs in the world that demand more from a player than Manchester United.
A stint at Old Trafford can make or break you. The fans are unforgiving if their standards aren’t met.
Sometimes, all a player needs is some time in order to find their feet in a fast-paced, physical league, playing for a footballing mammoth. But, all too often, there is no time to get used to your surroundings at United. You have to hit the ground running.
When Morgan Schneiderlin made his United switch for a reported fee of around £25 million, the common belief was that the Reds had just hit the jackpot. In the times prior to the arrivals of the likes of Nemanja Matic, Fred or even the debut of Scott McTominay, United were actively in the market for that high quality holding midfielder.
Schneiderlin’s outstanding performances for Southampton following their promotion to the English top flight in 2012 made him a target for all of the Premier League’s big guns. And the Frenchman eventually chose the rebuilding Reds led by Louis Van Gaal at the time.
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Joining the club in the same summer as Bastian Schweinsteiger, “The Schmidfield” was looked at as the solution to stabilising United’s midfield. But unfortunately for the Reds, they were quite far from it. And as for Schneiderlin, his career got knocked off the rails ever so slightly.
All of the promise and swagger with which he played at Southampton didn’t quite translate at United and Schneiderlin eventually left the club two years after his arrival, moving down the motorway to join Everton in 2017.
Failing to settle and find his consistency of old there, the 30-year-old Frenchman is now back in his home country and hoping to rejuvenate his career at Nice.
As interpreted by Sport Witness, Schneiderlin sat down with French outlet Nice Matin recently in order to talk about the past and future of his career. His stint at United inevitably got a mention.
“Its commercial dimension, all of the pitch and on the pitch aspects make it the biggest club in the world for me,” Schneiderlin said. “It was a pride, an honour. I would have liked my time there to be longer, to have a different end, but it’s probably my fault. I should have been more patient, once again. But I don’t regret it at all. It’s a fantastic experience.”
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