Manchester United finally get what they've been missing

For the first time in pre-season, this started to feel like a typical Manchester United summer. Trips to Helsinki, Trondheim and Stockholm had been low-key. A squad lacking stars, barely any welcome party and attendances that suggested United's hold on Scandinavia perhaps wasn't as strong as thought.

But when the squad arrived at their hotel a couple of miles outside Gothenburg city centre at around 6.30pm on Friday, there was finally a crowd waiting for them. It might only have been 100 or so supporters, but this was a hotel around the industrial pier of Sweden's second city.

There was a buzz at United's arrival. The novelty factor of a visit to Gothenburg for the first time in a decade helped, as did the return of some of the club's World Cup stars and the presence of Youri Tielemans for the first time this summer.

Andrey Santos might have cost more money, but Tielemans feels the biggest signing of the window so far at Old Trafford, as a bona fide Premier League star and someone who has just captained Belgium at the World Cup.

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To get it, it's a simple one-two punch.

But wherever United go, there is only one true star in the squad. This is a group lacking the big names of previous United squads. It's a team without an obvious ego and lacking the kind of player to make headlines when he sneezes.

Bruno Fernandes is the closest they have to that kind of figure, and his return to the squad was greeted with glee in Gothenburg. It was 'Bruno' the supporters outside the hotel were shouting for and it was the club captain who spent the longest outside, signing autographs and posing for selfies long after his teammates