This club is pathetic. Man United are once again floundering late in the transfer window as the club’s poor start and dreadful transfer policies are threatening the prospects of a Top-4 finish already.
Will this club ever learn?
Despite having three months, one of the world’s largest scouting networks, and a historic legacy and brand name, Manchester United is currently stumbling over itself with trying to bring in new signings to prevent a disastrous 2023-24 season after a woeful start. And, to be honest, this is just getting comical at this point.
Man, you really can’t have a normal transfer window as a Man United fan, can you? Last season, Man United foolishly noised about the transfer market by wasting three months trying to buy Frenkie de Jong (who never wanted to leave Barca in the first place) before they were utterly spanked 2-1 by Brighton and humiliated 4-0 by Brentford to start out the season.
And that lead to United dishing out $80M to Real Madrid for Casemiro and $100M+ to Ajax for Antony when both players could have been bought for half their fees if United bought them a few months earlier.
Back to this offseason, Man United are in the exact same position as they’ve spent the last three months frolicking around trying to sign Fiorentina’s Sofyan Amrabat, a winger, a central defender, and another left back, but are now panicking after the team lost 2-0 to Tottenham, barely beat Wolves 1-0, had to comeback from being down 2-0 to Nottingham Forest to win 3-2, and now have Arsenal to face this Sunday.
It truly is an utter disaster in transfer policy and team building as the club is facing a disastrous lack-of-depth made even worse by the fact Raphael Varane (starting center back), Mason Mount (new signing), and Luke Shaw (starting left back) have all gone down with months-long injuries. And it all could have been avoided if United just…BOUGHT EARLIER!
I don’t know why John Murtough, the sporting director, and Richard Arnold, the CEO, didn’t see this disaster coming as the United squad not only had an extremely slow, controversial start to the season just 12 months ago, but it is also one of the youngest and inexperienced of the traditional Top-6.
Teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, and Newcastle all have veteran, Premier League-successful players forming the spine of their teams, yet Man United right now have a brand-new goalkeeper in Andre Onana (who is fantastic, but untested at the English Premier League level), a midfield dominated by youth and/or yet-t0-be Premier League successful players (ex: Hannibal, Kobbie Mainoo, Donny Van De Beek, Facundo Pellistri, Amad), and the starting striker is 20-year-old Rasmus Højlund…who only has had one season of top-flight football under his belt.
And, as I said, veteran and successful veteran players, such as Raphael Varane, Mason Mount, and Luke Shaw, are all out for months with injuries that further forces manager Erik Ten Hag to rely on these young, unproven guys.
So, that’s why we’re seeing Man United jump back and forth between Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella and Tottenham’s Sergio Reguilón to fill the fullback role voided from Luke Shaw’s injury, press hard for Sofyan Amrabat to cement the midfield, and scour all of Europe for another winger that can actually cross and create scoring chances from outside.
There’s no plan, there’s no strategy, there’s not even an idea of what to accomplish with transfers at Man United. There’s only a headless chicken running around in the executive office that dictates who gets bought, who gets sold, and how much money and time gets wasted on useless transfers, overhyped players, and plain old needless signings.
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