THERE IS something rather unbecoming about a deadline-day scramble for players. Particularly when your name is Manchester United. It signals desperation. A bit like Harry Maguire trying to track Harry Kane. It does not look any better when the supposed ‘stellar’ arrival Edinson Cavani had his deal held up due to ‘image rights’. Just the […]
THERE IS something rather unbecoming about a deadline-day scramble for players.
Particularly when your name is Manchester United.
It signals desperation. A bit like Harry Maguire trying to track Harry Kane.
It does not look any better when the supposed ‘stellar’ arrival Edinson Cavani had his deal held up due to ‘image rights’.
Just the image United needed when the abiding one in most of the fans’ heads is still of a pathetic 90 minutes at Old Trafford as they were hammered 6-1 by Tottenham on Sunday.
After only three league games, the rush for reinforcements that boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer called for back in August already seems too late.
When they arrive on deadline day the time to integrate them into the side is already lost.
As it is, they will join a squad already in panic mode.
Full-back Alex Telles, 27, who arrived tonight from Porto in a £15.5million deal will know what I mean when he lines up alongside Maguire and Victor Lindelof in a fortnight.
Hopes that a pursuit of Cavani, 33, would signal ambition were quickly dismissed.
Past his best, injury prone and hardly in demand having last played in March.
Yes, he was a very good player — 341 goals in 556 club games tells you that.
But just 35 games played in the last two years and only seven league starts last season for Paris Saint-Germain scoring four, suggests something else.
It suggests they are getting more Radamel Falcao than Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
This after a fruitless quest to land one of the brightest young stars in Europe in Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund.
A bid that floundered much like their summer pursuit of Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona back in the summer of 2013 that ultimately derailed David Moyes before a ball had been kicked.
Either United simply have an inability to get deals over the line or clubs are genuinely being unreasonable in their demands.
You can look at this in two ways. Either United simply have an inability to get deals over the line or clubs are genuinely being unreasonable in their demands.
Initially Porto wanted £10m more for Telles despite the fact he has only a year left on his contract.
The days when United clicked their fingers and clubs simply laid down and had their tummies tickled are long gone.
Ambition spreads beyond the traditional powerhouses. Just have a look at the current Premier League table. Despite being serial sellers in the past, Dortmund have put together a side to make a serious challenge for the Bundesliga and do not need the money right now.
Let us not forget it was only a few months ago that United were seemingly back on track with a plan for the future.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Maguire looked solid in a back-four that chalked up more clean sheets than any other club in Europe’s five main leagues last season.
They conceded 36 league goals, Manchester City conceded 35 and Liverpool 33.
Bruno Fernandes was being compared to Eric Cantona as the catalyst that could inspire this new young team that was being built.
Meanwhile the famed academy had brought through another great talent in 19-year-old Mason Greenwood.
Alongside Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, United had a dynamic front three that scored 62 goals between them last season.
The team was the best of the rest after Liverpool and City and reached three semi-finals.
They ended the season on a 14-game unbeaten league run. There is no doubt they ran out of steam by the time they lost to Sevilla in the Europa League semi-final but that was their 61st game.
They had a break of just 34 days between that game and the opening day defeat to Crystal Palace.
In that time Maguire found himself arrested by the Greek police, while in the first international break Greenwood was kicked out of the England squad for breaching strict team protocol.
Now these are just a few facts that I am placing in United’s defence.
What they are guilty of is standing still when they need to push on with three signings earmarked early on to be done quickly when last season closed.
Donny van de Beek was a good acquisition at £40m, why he has not started one of the first three league games is another matter.
The plans for the long-term ‘reboot’ are still in place as their pursuit of two 18-year-old wingers proved.
They negotiated all day for Uruguayan Facundo Pellistri from Penarol who has been tracked by all Europe’s top clubs.
Meanwhile they have been watching Atalanta’s Amad Traore for three years and are convinced of his potential.
Yet after three years they only just got him signed as the clock ticked towards the deadline.
There lies the problem.
