In the end, it was pleasant.
Manchester United’s rollercoaster of a 2025-26 season drew to a close with surprising amounts of calm. A difficult winter under Ruben Amorim, brought to a premature end in January, made way for a positive spring under Michael Carrick. Now the club looks to be in a much stronger place headed into a busy summer.
United finished third, higher than many predictions made before a ball was kicked and far higher than appeared likely at the turn of the year. Bruno Fernandes ended the campaign having broken the long-standing Premier League assist record. Kobbie Mainoo was brought in from the cold to become the future of the club’s midfield.
Things are good. The atmosphere around Old Trafford is positive. Here is our review of a 2025-26 campaign that’s ended with more smiles than frowns.
The club’s grade for 2025-26 is…
United started the season with the (deliberately) vague ambition of European football, but shaky home performances against West Ham (1-1), Everton (0-1) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (1-1) made it seem like Amorim’s men would be headed for the Europa League at best. Then came Carrick’s interim period, and a team reinvigorated.
The Athletic gives the club a B+. United have qualified for the Champions League, a feel-good atmosphere has returned to the club, and Fernandes has delivered his best individual season to date.
Defeats to Grimsby Town and Brighton & Hove Albion in the domestic cups take some gloss off things. Still, the 2025-26 campaign could have descended into historical ignominy. Instead, it became rather good.
Player of the season: Senne Lammens
When Senne Lammens arrived late on summer transfer deadline day, the intention was for him to serve as a deputy goalkeeper with the possibility of taking over when Andre Onana departed for AFCON. Instead, Onana left early, heading to Trabzonspor on loan, and Lammens was shoved in at the deep end.
Being Manchester United’s goalkeeper is one of the more heavily-scrutinised roles in world football, but Lammens went about his duties with clockwork consistency. He might become one of the best signings of their post-Ferguson years.
Senne Lammens got off to a flying start (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
*The real player of the season is Fernandes. Obviously.
Goal of the season: Matheus Cunha v Arsenal
Broadly speaking, goal of the season contenders fall into one of three pots:
The slick passing move, involving at least four players
A mazy dribble and finish
An audacious strike
United’s 3-2 win over Arsenal at the Emirates included two jaw-dropping finishes from outside the box. Patrick Dorgu earns a special commendation for his thunderbolt of a half-volley that rattled in off the underside of the crossbar.
But the award has to go to Matheus Cunha’s long-range dagger — a dramatic late winner curled past Gabriel’s desperate lunge and David Raya’s despairing dive into the bottom corner — to set the away crowd into rapturous applause.
Cunha’s debut season has seen him collect quite an impressive goal catalogue. His shooting from distance, particularly from the left half-space, is a valuable asset that United teams can build around. (For more on Cunha’s shot quality, head here.)
Game of the season: 4-4 v Bournemouth
Manchester United 4-4 Bournemouth was such a dizzying 90 minutes that we decided one match report wouldn’t suffice, so we wrote seven mini-pieces instead.
Those who made it to Old Trafford on a Monday night in mid-December were treated to the good, the bad and the ugly of United under Amorim. The team was tactically fluid in parts, and tactically confused in others. They scored brilliant goals and conceded rudimentary ones. Fernandes was there to bail his team-mates out; Cunha again emerged as a decent attacking deputy for his captain.
Late in the second half, there was an electrifying three-minute spell in which United swung a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead. It created the sort of energy within Old Trafford that fans feel perhaps a handful of times in a season.
Surprise of the season: Ruben Amorim
Amorim’s departure prompted The Athletic to borrow some lines from Ernest Hemingway. The Portuguese coach’s relationship with senior executives at the club dissolved in two ways: “Gradually, then suddenly.”
Defeats to Brentford and Everton in the league, along with Grimsby in the League Cup, led many outsiders to believe Amorim’s job was in danger early in the season, but United held firm.
It was only after a downbeat press conference after the Leeds game at Elland Road – in which he said he had come to the club to be the manager, not the coach, and hinted at frustrations over the club’s transfer plans – that fans and journalists realised something was awry.
Amorim did not enjoy his trip to Grimsby (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Amorim, a man who described his managerial work in all manner of self-deprecating words, was dismissed not for footballing performance, but because of a disagreement with his employers.
Mistake of the season: Kobbie Mainoo’s lack of games
Amorim gave Mainoo a meagre 212 Premier League minutes across 15 matches earlier this season. The coach insisted there were tactical reasons for the midfielder’s relative lack of game time. But as the season neared the winter transfer window, the expectation was for Mainoo to leave on loan rather than continue to pick up splinters on the bench.
The Mainoo who has finished 2025-26 so strongly under Carrick is a different midfielder to the one who drifted through a series of uninspiring substitute roles under his predecessor. The 21-year-old was not an ideal fit for Amorim’s 3-4-3, but the coach might look back on this season and wonder why he was unable to maximise Mainoo’s unique skill set.
Quote of the season
Amorim tried his hardest to win this award, such was his candid approach to press conferences. But this is another accolade we’ll give to Cunha after his late heroics at Arsenal. The Brazil international hit his surfer dance after scoring, before beating his chest and screaming into the nearest broadcast camera: “United is the f***ing biggest!”
For fans of a certain vintage, it was a perfect moment. United playing in black, delivering a thrilling blow to an Arsenal team that didn’t see it coming. They had endured a dismal half-season under Amorim, but had a restored vigour under Carrick.
Funniest moment of the season
The sight of a flustered Amorim in the Grimsby rain resorting to a mini-tactics board to figure out how to best deal with the League Two side generated a lot of laughter, but not from United fans. Instead, we’ll focus on United’s 1-0 win over Chelsea in April, when multiple players seemed to relish their defensive duels against Alejandro Garnacho.
A word, too, on Mason Mount for his booking in that game at Stamford Bridge. Mount was closest to the ball following a hefty challenge from Fernandes on a Chelsea player, and bizarrely decided to boot the ball away in dissent right in front of Michael Oliver. Or, at least, it looked like dissent. In fact, Mount’s petulance was a way to distract the referee from Fernandes’s antics and take a late yellow card on his captain’s behalf.
It was the sort of football cunning that makes Mount a coach’s favourite and a valued team-mate. Let’s hope the 27-year-old can bring more attacking output to his game next season as well.
Opposition player of the season
A fun question, given that no team defeated United both home and away in 2025-26.
Yet if there’s one opposition player who had the most impact this season, it might be Antoine Semenyo. A player who scored at Old Trafford and was previously described as “special” by Amorim.
The winger is of such a talent that Amorim apparently wanted to sign him and grew so annoyed at the prospect of losing him to Manchester City that it began the breakdown of his relationship with senior club officials.
The issue that will dominate this summer is…
“Who replaces Casemiro?”
The defensive midfielder finished 2025-26 with nine Premier League goals. Only Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Šeško (both on 11) and Matheus Cunha (10) scored more.
He was essential to how the side attacked and defended throughout the season, and his successor will go on to define club fortunes in 2026-27.
This time next year we’ll all be saying…
“Seriously, what’s happening with the proposed new stadium?”