4) Promising youngsters
If Mourinho gives them a chance, there’s a big future for a number of talented young players at Old Trafford, and many could make their mark this season.
As well as the likes of Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford, and Scott McTominay, United have signed Diogo Dalot and have Andreas Pereira back after spending time out on loan.
The latter of those has looked really impressive in pre-season too, perhaps showing more big-name signings in that area of the pitch really weren’t at all necessary.
5) Others struggled too
United weren’t the only ones who had a poor summer – it really wasn’t much better at top four rivals Arsenal and Chelsea.
Both London clubs finished outside the top four last season and are now under new management, but you could argue neither have truly gone about improving a great deal on the squads they had last year.
Lucas Torreira looks promising for Arsenal but is young and new to this level, while Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Stephan Lichtsteiner possibly both look past their peak and will now play in the fast and furious Premier League for the first time in their careers.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have had to act late on this summer to replace their proven world class goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with a relative rookie in Kepa Arrizabalaga, while they’ve failed to replace the disastrous flop signing Alvaro Morata up front.
And then there’s Tottenham, who haven’t signed anyone at all. Liverpool and Manchester City were always likely to be the main competition, but a top three spot doesn’t look out of the question at all for United – and who knows, that could put them right in the thick of the title race.