Celin Bizet was back on the goal sheet once again last weekend, opening up the scoring in Manchester United’s 2-0 victory over Manchester City to book their spot in the Final of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.
The Red Devils picked up the 23-year-old from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2024 for a bargain fee of $60k. Spurs fans were shaking their head at the departure of former-loanee Grace Clinton, and not nearly enough heads rolled over the fact that they had just lost their most creative forward along with her.
Speaking to head coach Marc Skinner following the signing, The Halfway Line asked the man in the dugout about the attributes that drew the club to Bizet’s profile.
“The first thing you have to do in my team is defend, it doesn’t matter how talented a forward you are, you have to defend. A great team beats a great individual, so we have to be prepared for that,” Skinner analysed.
“It was a non-negotiable for me, and the beauty in the conversation we had with Celin was that she said, ‘Marc, it’s a passion of mine, I love to defend.’ You wouldn’t see that because she is quite a flairy player, but actually she loves to defend. Her shape is good, her timing is good, her aggression is good.”
Bizet ‘can be a world class player’ says Skinner
Bizet was at her very best against the Cityzens on Sunday, sending a belting strike into the top corner to provide her side the lead early on in the fixture.
Reflecting on Bizet’s magic moment, United head coach Marc Skinner said his initial words involved critique about her first touch in the lead up to the stellar strike.
“So the goal was beautiful, right? But the first touch can be better, and that’s probably why she has to do what she did with the goal. So I’ve challenged here there.”
“The thing about Celin is she’s been she’s surrounded by football people. Her Dad used to play, her fiance plays currently. So you can hit her with truth. So I said to her, I said, I think right now, I think you’re an international class player. I said, but I think you can be a world class player. I said this in front of the group,” Skinner admitted.
“I also told her that there’s a moment where we break on City. They have a corner, we break, we go end to end, Leah [Galton] plays in and and she hits the goalkeeper. And I said, that’s a moment you have to calm your brain in the final third and find the only solution, which is to chip the goalkeeper. And if you do that, because I believe she has the ability, then you can be world class.
“I think off the ball, she’s world class, we call it living on the island on the opposite side of the field to the play. There’s often two or three players you might have to make a decision to press, and she does it without question. She’s proactive. She will recover if she gets beaten, and she’ll do all the work behind the full back as well. So she’s a fantastic player, and I always saw that with her. I always saw that at Tottenham. I just knew that we could unlock a little bit of something different with the way that we play. So I’m going to challenge her. I want to even in this statement, I’m challenging her to be even better, but she needs that. She’s still young, and she’s got lots to learn.”
United steal a diamond for the price of a stone
Since moving North to join the Red Devils, it’s safe to say that the Bizet has surpassed the expectations set out by her tenure at Spurs. Bizet has chalked up eight direct goal involvements in the Women’s Super League, nearly doubling her full-season tally of five in the 2022/23 campaign with three league games yet to play.
The Norwegian has always flexed her muscles defensively, but her statistics truly do continue to make a mark. The 23-year-old sits in the top 1% of defensive actions for forwards across the globe.
When you count up the mere $60,000 transfer fee that United acquired Bizet from Tottenham Hotspur for, the bargain is laughable. Whilst Spurs shake their heads with seven points separating them from the relegation zone, United are just six points off the league title.
This isn’t to say the club have a perfect recruitment record, because if anything, it’s far from it. The Red Devils saw the door closed behind Ona Batlle and Alessia Russo two summers ago, both departing Carrington on free transfers. Two more instances of woeful planning saw both Mary Earps and Katie Zelem leave for a sum of zero the year later. $300k spent on Geyse who is currently plying her trade on loan at NJ/NY Gotham FC, the side have truly made mistakes.
However, acquiring Melvine Malard on a permanent deal following her loan stint was fast business. Signing Elisabeth Terland from Brighton before she truly hit her stride was swift movement, and picking up the versatile Hinata Miyazawa off the back of her stellar World Cup run has finally begun to reap the rewards.
Among their wrongdoings, the recruitment team get it right a lot as well. Picking up Bizet for 60 grand may well be the best bit of business done in Manchester so far.
‘The Manchester United Way’
Since the early stages of the 2024/25 season, Marc Skinner has continued to emphasise the importance of forming an elite squad from the growing talent pool of young and up and coming stars. The head coach has said that the side are placing a strong emphasis on creating a squad to bring up through the years, rather than buying billion-dollar solutions for immediate impact.
Take Grace Clinton for example, a 22-year-old starlet who was sent on loan to gain valuable first team experience before returning and making her mark on the senior England squad.
Anna Sandberg is another young player with a bright future, already showing glimpses of her high ceiling in the moments she is brought on for Gabby George. On the opposite flank, 24-year-old Jayde Riviere has made a case of being the best right-back in the WSL during the 2024/25 season.
Questions were asked of Maya Le Tissier when she took over the captaincy from seasoned veteran Katie Zelem, but she has passed the test with flying colours. The 22-year-old has been the heartbeat of the United defence, leading the side that currently has the most WSL clean sheets and has conceded the least goals.
Despite the squad’s overflowing amount of youth brilliance, it is Bizet who embodies the high ceiling of this Manchester United squad the most.
The young forward is full to the brim of flair, as her silky footwork continues to brush past defenders and leave jaws on the ground. Not only does she posses the technical prowess of a young Thierry Henry, but Bizet’s defensive discipline makes her the full package.
If United can strike the right chord with this evolving philosophy of young up-and-comers, the club may be edging themselves in to be a real horse in future league races. Despite Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s petulant instance that the women’s team is merely a background thought, these players are proving just why they deserve to be on the world’s biggest stage.
