If you bet on Manchester City or Chelsea FC as champions of the new Premier League season, you don't have to justify yourself very much: City has dominated the English elite league for years, Chelsea is preparing for the attack with coach Thomas Tuchel - and has in the Surprisingly won the Champions League last season. Liverpool FC, on the other hand, seems like a comparatively brave tip, also because coach Jürgen Klopp's club has so far held back on the transfer market. In the shadow of the big favorites, however, another club is playing more and more of its focus: Manchester United - after all, England's record champions and runner-up last season.

United has long ceased to be the football superpower it once was. Under the coaching legend Sir Alex Ferguson, the club won the English championship 13 times and the Champions League twice in his almost 27-year tenure until he stepped down eight years ago. Successes that the club has not been able to build on since then: Ferguson's successors David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho each failed because of the gap between claim and reality; Mourinho in particular dragged himself from one bad-tempered press conference to the next towards the end of his time in Manchester as a permanently exasperated moan.

After Mourinho's dismissal in December 2018, fan-favorite former United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over command - initially only as a temporary solution, later as the new head coach.

Some consider the job to be at least one size too big for the Norwegian, who is still relatively inexperienced as a coach at the highest level, but Solskjær has started a promising rebuilding.

In July, he prematurely extended his contract, which was valid until summer 2022, for another two years.

"It was a fantastic day!"

His successes spoke for themselves: In their first full season United finished third, last season even second behind champions Manchester City - albeit twelve points behind. Solskjær has not won any titles so far, in the final of the Europa League they were defeated by Villarreal on penalties in May.

But last weekend United started the new season with a statement victory: In the sold-out Old Trafford they defeated their old rival Leeds United 5: 1 - thanks to two world-class performances by Bruno Fernandes, who scored three goals, and allegedly willing to change Paul Pogba, who prepared four hits. Solskjær admitted that he was nervous before the game, but also said that he could not have asked for more from his team: "It was a fantastic day!"

This was also due to the fact that before the game against Leeds, after a long back and forth, the acquisition of Real Madrid's highly decorated central defender Raphaël Varane was concluded for an initial amount of 40 million euros. The Frenchman is United's second top transfer this summer; The club had previously secured the services of Borussia Dortmund's attacker Jadon Sancho for 85 million euros. Unlike Varane against Leeds, he was already in the squad, initially only sat on the bench and was substituted on a quarter of an hour before the final whistle.