David De Gea is still unable to find a new club, only West Ham United have shown interest in Harry Maguire, and Scott McTominay, Donny van de Beek, Eric Bailey and Brandon Williams are all heading towards the September 1 transfer deadline with limited life options away from Manchester United.
Fred left Old Trafford since the end of last season, joining Fenerbahçe, while Anthony Elanga (Nottingham Forest) and Alex Telles (Al-Nasr) were also transferred. Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe remain clubless since their release by United.
All of the above amounting to 11 first-team players United manager Erik ten Hag decided he no longer needed. Eight players with first-team experience, including Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata, left Old Trafford last summer after the appointment of Ten Hag, while Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract was canceled by mutual consent last November after failing to convince the new coach of his value. for the team.
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With the Storm beginning to be dragged over Old Trafford after their mediocre start to the season – Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur following a lucky 1-0 win at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers in their opening game – it’s worth considering the situation. I inherited a Ten Hag a little over a year ago before I hit the panic button. Yes, the former Ajax coach is not without fault. Some of his signings have been questionable – Anthony remains frustrated, while Wout Weghorst was clear during his loan spell from Burnley last season – and he has been unable to make United competitive away against the club’s top six. rivals.
But for those anticipating, and even demanding, a speedy return to United’s glory days under ten Hag, the fact that he has written off 20 first-team players since taking charge just 15 months ago highlights just how bad the club’s squad is and it will take. It’s time to address that. The harsh truth for those fans who have already started playing Ten Hag is that he’s still in the middle of a rescue and has to do the soccer equivalent of turning an oil tanker in rough seas.
Nine players have arrived on permanent transfers under Ten Hag, including the club’s former defender Jonny Evans, who signed a short-term contract after leaving Leicester City this summer. Evans is clearly a prickly signing, brought in as a cover due to Maguire’s expected exit, but his arrival highlights issues across the squad that Tin Hag still has to tackle. A lack of reliable reserve options forced him to sign a 35-year-old who played in a relegated team last season and originally left Old Trafford for West Bromwich Albion eight years ago.
But to get a true measure of the size of the job Ten Hag has worked at, just assess how many of those players left United under his regime actually performed at any consistent level for their new clubs. Pogba’s fitness woes continued at Juventus, with the French midfielder scoring just 108 minutes in Serie A last season, while Lingard is now without a club after a poor season at Nottingham Forest. Mata is a free agent after being released by Galatasaray, Edinson Cavani is now with Boca Juniors after scoring just seven goals for Valencia last season and Nemanja Matic lasted a year at Roma before moving to Rennes.
Time will tell how this summer’s departure from Old Trafford fares, but despite many United fans urging the club to offer De Gea a new contract, no other club has knocked on the door to sign the error-prone goalkeeper. Both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have had a goalkeeper crisis this summer, yet neither took the opportunity to sign De Gea on a free transfer. It is unlikely that Fred, Telles or Ilanga would keep Ten Hag up at night, lest they embarrass him with his stellar performances in their new clubs. The elite’s lack of interest in Maguire, Van de Beek, McTominay, Bailly and Williams says it all about United’s true form.
For a club moving up to 20 players in the space of three transitional periods, that suggests they are paying the price for a flawed recruitment policy dating back to earlier years; Ten Hag is simply the manager who has been assigned to oversee the rebuilding project. But no team can make such sweeping changes and expect the process to be turbulence-free. United desperately need to raise their squad to the point where rival clubs will covet their players rather than turn their backs when signing them.
It’s always a good measure of the quality of a club’s players by knowing where they go. Brighton & Hove Albion players sign for clubs such as Liverpool or Chelsea, while Romeo Lafia’s move to Stamford Bridge mirrors well both Southampton and Manchester City, who both nurtured the midfielder in their youth group before offloading him from Saints a year ago. It is hard to remember when was the last time United played a player so good that he was wanted by clubs of similar stature. Marcus Rashford is probably the only one who has done that in the last 10 years.
So the challenge for Ten Hag is to get rid of the inferior players he inherited and replace them with those who will matter to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the coming years. It’s easier said than done, and it won’t happen quickly, but perspective is definitely needed when it comes to assessing United’s position now.
