In many ways, Casemiro’s time at Manchester United works as a near-perfect analogy for the club’s fortunes over the last three years.
Desperate to make a statement in the transfer window in the infancy of Erik ten Hag’s reign, the club needed a midfielder, and who better to bring to Old Trafford than one of legendary proportions?
Five Champions Leagues and a stupid amount of experience at the top level and still only 30 – sounds like the perfect short- to mid-term solution, right? After all, he’s the perfect man for the youngsters to look up to, and a calm head on well-travelled shoulders to bring some much-needed mental fortitude to the club.
And then they went and spent £60million, handed him a four-year deal with an optional fifth, on a wage of around £375,000-a-week, and the alarm bells began to ring.
Casemiro has not been inherently been ‘bad’ as such. But has he been the transformative signing he was brought in – and seemingly paid – to become? Not even his wife, who has been in his corner while the court of public opinion has had its say, could argue that much.
Now, though, after countless other ideas have fallen short of expectation at a club with more serious issues than just one player, the Brazilian has carved himself out a chance to change his Man United legacy.
Casemiro’s move to Man United is an analogy for the club’s fortunes in the last three years
The Brazilian has largely been unspectacular since arriving for £60m on around £375k a week
But now, in the Europa League at least, has seemed like a man reborn at the heart of midfield
Often used as a symbol for United’s recruitment – described this month by Gary Neville as ‘abhorrent’ – his stint has been largely unspectacular, but in the Europa League this term he has been rejuvenated.
Bruno Fernandes aside, he’s arguably been their most important player in the competition. Particularly against Athletic Club, both before and after the red card that ultimately turned the tie from cagey to embarrassing for the Spanish side.
Yes he scored twice across both semi-final legs, but it was his cool head under pressure that finally reared its head in one of the most hostile environments many of his team-mates will have ever had the chance to play in.
At half-time in that game, United were 3-0 and a man up, and it wasn’t the second leg that won them the tie, but the second half in Bilbao, where they stifled the hosts and saw out a mostly calm, collected, and incident-free 45 minutes.
Even if Athletic Club had pulled one back, the pressure inside that already febrile San Mames ground would have turned the game. But as virtually the only man on the field with experience of the biggest stages of all, Casemiro grabbed his side by the scruff of neck.
According to reports, the Brazilian will likely undergo a wage increase should his side make the Champions League next season, after it was slashed by the club’s return to the continent’s second-tier competition this term.
But for a player of Casemiro’s pedigree the greater motivation will hands down be in proving that he is still even a fraction of the player he once was, and in Bilbao he proved that emphatically.
He could be seen ordering and point to Manuel Ugarte every time the Uruguayan gave up possession or was slightly out of position, and the rest of his team-mates followed suit.
After a particularly poor showing against Liverpool his United future came into full focus
He was blasted for his performance but his wife reminded critics of his glittering trophy cabinet
The Brazilian midfielder scored twice across both legs of the semi-final against Athletic Club
In a febrile San Mames stadium he produced a vintage display and commanded the midfield
Fernandes may have been captain, but Casemiro was the conductor. You could see on his face how much this game meant to him, something we have only rarely seen in the last three years.
He took up a deeper role in midfield; now the game was being played in front of him, rather than behind him, where his lack of pace couldn’t come back to bite him. The result? Well, we already know that.
It’s been a difficult season for the Brazilian veteran, not that it’s been a walk in the park for anyone at Old Trafford. But early on in the campaign there were genuine suggestions he could have played his last game in United red.
Hauled off at half-time of the 3-0 drubbing by Liverpool back in September, branded his performance a ‘sad sight’ by Jamie Carragher, before being replaced by rookie 20-year-old Toby Collyer.
The criticism didn’t fall on deaf ears, though. The following morning Casemiro’s wife, Anna Mariana, posted a picture of the Brazilian’s ridiculous trophy cabinet to remind all his detractors just what he was capable of.
It followed a less than convincing end to 2023-24, including another poor showing in a 4-0 loss against Crystal Palace, and Collyer’s introduction felt like a loaded substitution.
But fast forward eight months, and Casemiro has bounced back, and under a new boss played no small part in grabbing an inconsistent United team through an unbeaten European campaign to the final against the odds.
Since departing the Bernabeu Casemiro has not been the player that conquered the world with Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, and there’s even an argument that his legend in Spain has diminished as a result of his time in northern England.
Casemiro was part of a legendary midfield along with Toni Kroos (left) and Luke Modric (right)
It has largely been a season of setbacks for Ruben Amorim and Co but Wednesday’s final has handed them a chance for some semblance of success
If Casemiro can replicate his performance from his last trip to San Mames then he can change the narrative for both him and Manchester United
In the three years since Casemiro joined United, there have been a few highs, but far more lows; he may have won two domestic cups, but there aren’t many fans claiming the club is in a better place than when he joined. The big ’16’ next to their name in the table is particularly difficult to ignore.
But on Wednesday he has the chance to change the narrative, both for himself and the club.
Will he go down in Man United history as the big name who fell flat, who failed to live up to both the billing and, well, the billings, the player who couldn’t do it when it mattered most?
All you need to do is change a few articles and nouns in that sentence and you could very easily be talking about the club and not the man, which brings us to Wednesday’s game.
Yes, there’s Champions League football and a potential spring board to launch the new era for United. But there’s also the opportunity for Casemiro to prove that, maybe, he was the man to lead the club into that new dawn after all.
The semi-final in Bilbao proved to be the stage that brought out a vintage performance from the former Real Madrid maestro amid a season of middling displays. United and Casemiro will both now be hoping that lightning does indeed strike twice at San Mames.
