As the clock ticks down to 5pm on transfer deadline day, I’ve been left confused by Manchester United’s transfer dealings during this window.

Last season’s squad wasn’t good enough, they proved that under both Jose Mourinho and his replacement Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Given that I was expecting them to make big strides in the transfer market.

But the Old Trafford club have only signed three new recruits with Daniel James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire coming in.

Personally I think those are three good signings.

James is a great young talent, at a £15m fee (Source BBC) I think he could prove to be a bargain buy in the long term.

United clearly needed a new right-back with former club captain Antonio Valencia departing the club in the summer. In Wan-Bissaka they’ve got another talented youngster and one who proved he can be a consistent performer in the Premier League at Crystal Palace.

I also think Maguire will improve The Red Devils defence. He’ll add more height to the back four and he will also be able to take the ball out of the backline.

That being said I’ve got some issues with this particular signing.

At £85m that’s too much for the player, in my opinion, especially when they could have signed Toby Alderweireld for a fee of just £25m this summer. They also watched on as Italian champions Juventus snapped up the highly talented Matthijs de Ligt for €75m (Via The Guardian).

Ole certainly seems happy to have got his man in Maguire (Mirror):

“Harry is one of the best centre-backs in the game today and I am delighted we have secured his signature,”

“He is a great reader of the game and has a strong presence on the pitch, with the ability to remain calm under pressure – coupled with his composure on the ball and a huge presence in both boxes – I can see he will fit well into this group both on and off the pitch.”

The other issue I’ve got regarding Maguire is the fact Man Utd took so long in tying the centre-half down. All along this summer Leicester City said they wanted £80m for the player. United tried and tried to get him for less but then agreed to pay The Foxes original valuation.

If he was the side’s main and only target, then pay that fee earlier and have him with the team for more of their preseason campaign.

Then there’s the fact that United haven’t plugged the gaps that they needed to.

The midfield wasn’t good enough last term and they’ve now lost the tenacious Ander Herrera too. Yet Solskjaer hasn’t got a new central midfielder to pick from within his pool.

Maybe the Norwegian believes Scott McTominay or Andreas Pereira can make the step up to become a regular starter this season. That or he thinks Brazilian middle-man Fred can come good during his second year at the club.

It will be very interesting to see if that midfield is better this term!

The club have still got too much deadwood in their ranks at the moment. Marcos Rojo is supposedly talking to Everton (Source Daily Mail) and we still have a few more weeks of the European transfer window. So there could be time for United to get rid of players like Matteo Darmian, Eric Bailly, Alexis Sanchez and Axel Tuanzebe from their final squad.

I also find it interesting that Man Utd have waited until the last day of the window to sell striker Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan, without having a replacement lined-up.

Yes they have two quality young frontmen in Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, who will both want to prove themselves in the middle. Plus I don’t doubt that Mason Greenwood will get promoted to the first team. But I think United lack an experienced hitman and that’s why I’m very surprised that they haven’t done a deal to bring in Mario Mandzukic in from Juve.

When I look at Manchester United’s transfer dealings this summer, I am left a bit deflated. They seem to have done half a job in strengthening their squad and they’ve taken too long to get business done.

They could have done more to close the gap on the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

Have they done enough to get themselves back in the top four? I really don’t think so.

Posted on August 8th, 2019 by scott
Filed under: Article