The new Premier League season kicks off this weekend with a full schedule of fixtures running from Friday to Monday. Manchester United begin with a home clash with title-chasing Arsenal at Old Trafford as manager Ruben Amorim looks to improve on last season's 15th-place finish.
Prospects
Amid the preseason optimism that courses through most football fans right now, Manchester United fans are no different.
Three big name, big money, first team forward signings have lifted the mood which was on the floor after May’s abject Uefa Europa League final defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
United couldn’t score that night as they’d struggled to score in the Premier League all season. That’s why the forward line needed improving and hopefully Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko will do just that. United are still trying to sign more reinforcements – specifically Brighton’s box-to-box midfielder Carlos Baleba.
Given Brighton’s likely demands, that will be a difficult deal to conclude, but any midfield deficiencies could be exposed in Sunday’s Old Trafford opener against Arsenal.
The opening fixtures have not been kind, with games against Manchester City and Chelsea looming in the first five league fixtures. An away game to Fulham and a home match against promoted Burnley should at least give an indicator of where United are at following a positive preseason.
Whatever happens, United simply must improve significantly on last season’s 15th place. Qualifying for European football via a high enough league position is a realistic target and the mood among players is more positive than it has been for years.
And players are no longer in control at the (refurbished and much improved) Carrington training ground, with Amorim acting decisively to exclude the players he doesn’t want in his plans.
After a year of major changes, with hundreds of staff leaving, United are looking forward to less turbulent times. But they need to win games – pure and simple. There will no side attractions (or distractions) of European football, so it’s all about the Premier League in the months ahead. Crucial months, especially for coach Amorim.
First five fixtures
- Arsenal (H)
- Fulham (A)
- Burnley (H)
- Man City (A)
- Chelsea (H)
Last five finishes
- 24/25: 15th
- 23/24: 8th
- 22/23: 3rd
- 21/22: 6th
- 20/21: 2nd
The manager
Ruben Amorim: A superb communicator who the fans really want – and indeed do – believe in, despite him presiding over most of United’s worst season for 50 years.
“Ruben Amorim,” sing United’s hardcore fans week after week. “He’ll bring the glory days again. We’ll back him from the Stretford End; he’ll turn the Reds around.”
It’s to the tune of Bonnie Tyler’s It’s a heartache (it certainly was last season) and it’ll be sung again this season, but the dynamics have changed.
He knows he was cut a lot of credit and support last season because he was taking over a team (and club) undergoing huge change. He has clear ideas and a clear vision. It’s time for it to start looking like it could work.
Star signing
Benjamin Sesko: The most recent of United’s three big summer signings, Sesko has long been a United target. United need goals after only 44 were scored in 38 games last season and while there was mitigation, the hardworking Rasmus Hojlund was anything but prolific.
The Slovenian giant, 22, will cost €76.5 million plus €8.5 million in bonuses. He scored 21 goals and made six assists for RB Leipzig last season and has already been capped 41 times while scoring 16 goals for his country.
“Benjamin possesses a rare combination of electrifying pace and the ability to physically dominate defenders making him one of the most exceptional young talents in world football,” said United’s director of football Jason Wilcox.
“All our data analysis and research concluded he has the required qualities and personality to thrive at Manchester United.”
Key player
Bruno Fernandes: They tried to make him go to Riyadh and he said, no, no, no. United’s best player by a mile. Captain, creator and one of the few providers of pleasure last season, his coach and teammates were pleased that he stayed.
Player of the season and top scorer last term, he’s now 30 and over five years into a United career that hasn’t seen his team come close to mounting a title challenge.
Last term he carried United, a lone beacon of hope amid the dross in ’24-25. His leadership has moved up a few notches. He’s so ridiculously important to this United, indispensable even. His departure would have left a huge hole.
Subject to overly critical analysis, especially from people who don’t watch United regularly failing to understand his role in the team.
Hot prospect
Leny Yoro: The 19-year-old swerved an offer from Real Madrid to join United in 2024 amid uncertainty around the manager Erik ten Hag and the playing squad. It wasn’t ideal, nor was picking up a serious ankle injury preseason in Los Angeles which kept him out until December 2024.
Faster than the Eurostar train which used to pass his home in Lille, Yoro has settled but still has much to come. United had plenty of bad moments last season, but when the team went behind, he was not one of the players who let his head drop.
His reactions, his resilience, hunger, ambition and courage impressed amid the acrimony of defeat after defeat. And all the time he was dealing with a new league, new country, new teammates and two new ways of playing under three different managers at United.
He’s bulked up, he has potential to be one of the best defenders in the world.
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
Funding stage: series A; $20 million
Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
MATCH INFO
Liverpool 4 (Salah (pen 4, 33', & pen 88', Van Dijk (20')
Leeds United 3 (Harrison 12', Bamford 30', Klich 66')
Man of the match Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
