Inside Manchester United’s transfer window – left-back chaos, Rashford impact and midfield model

Now, they are off the back of a third-place finish in the Premier League and club bosses are talking fancifully of a tilt at the Premier League and Champions League. But have they given Michael Carrick the tools to achieve those ambitions?

Last season ended with chief executive Omar Berrada stressing the need to be “really disciplined” in the transfer market. In fact, he predicted what was coming over the following few months.

“I think the template for what we did last summer will be replicated in many ways,” Berrada said in an in-house interview. He probably didn’t mean it quite so literally, but that is how this summer has panned out.

After Casemiro’s departure, it was always the plan to revamp the midfield this summer, and it was always likely that three new faces would arrive. Part of that was contingent on Manuel Ugarte leaving, but his World Cup injury, which will rule him out for the majority of the season, saw his wages covered by FIFA, allowing United to press on with their midfield search.

The surprise is that more hasn’t been done. United intended to strengthen their left-hand side, and this has happened with the return of Marcus Rashford, but the failure to sign a left-back could yet prove costly.

Rashford dominated the early part of the summer. Barcelona’s decision to spend £69million on Anthony Gordon blindsided the 28-year-old and his camp. The Catalan club considered another loan move and even weighed up lowballing United with an offer half the size of the £26million option.

By June, United had become exasperated with Barcelona’s approach and resolved not to sanction another loan and not to consider an offer of less than £26million. Fairly swiftly, options for Rashford withered, and both parties became open to reintegration.

There was a meeting between United officials and Rashford’s camp during the World Cup and Michael Carrick made contact with his former teammate and someone who he had coached while on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s backroom staff. Even before he returned to pre-season training, sources close to the discussions this summer felt United had decided that keeping Rashford was now their best course of action.

Rashford’s return means Patrick Dorgu could be freed up to play at left-back, although internally he is viewed as a winger, and people close to Dorgu believe he will eventually end up as a right-winger rather than a left-back. That leaves right-backs Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui as the only senior cover for Luke Shaw, as well as 19-year-old Harry Amass, who hasn’t made a matchday squad this season.

United had their eyes on a succession plan for left-back this summer. Shaw has a year to run on his contract and the hope was to sign a young player such as Lewis Hall or Myles Lewis-Skelly to come in and eventually assume that first-team position this summer.

But United’s methodical and diligent approach to spending meant they focused on the midfield first, and when attention turned to Hall, it was clear Newcastle wouldn’t sell. They had been stung by an exodus of big-name players and had to prove a point over Hall, even if the 21-year-old wanted the move to Old Trafford. United’s failure to get players out also meant their budget was smaller than had been expected.

There was brief hope Arsenal could consider selling Lewis-Skelly after they wrapped up a deal for Bruno Guimaraes, but the youngster wanted to stay at his boyhood club and has been integral again in the early weeks of the season.

That left United looking at short-term options, but they were determined that any player they brought in would add to the squad. Ineos were keen to end the era of loan signings such as Odion Ighalo, Wout Weghorst and Sergio Reguilon, who came in as last-ditch measures and offered little.

There was an enquiry for Alejandro Balde at Barcelona, but the Catalan club wanted to sell, perhaps aware that the tables had turned since their own attempts to play tough over Rashford. There was even a call to Manchester City on Tuesday to check on the availability of Rayan Ait-Nouri, who has been an unused substitute in all three of the Blues’ games so far this season.

United had been offered Ait-Nouri by his agent a couple of days ago and with left-back options thin on the ground, they placed a call to the Etihad on Tuesday afternoon, only for City to say they wanted a loan with an obligation to buy. United had no interest in a permanent move for the 25-year-old.

Left-back will be revisited, along with centre-back, next summer, but this window was all about the midfield. The first deal United agreed was a £38.3million package with Atalanta for Ederson, only for that transfer to collapse.

Initial medical tests during the World Cup raised some concern over a knee injury and after further examinations following Brazil’s exit from that tournament, they decided to pull the plug, after first considering whether to try and renegotiate the terms of the deal with Atalanta, something the Serie A side resisted.

That sent United back to the drawing board, but they were happy to work in the shadows. Their ‘pursuit’ of Elliot Anderson continued into June, but it was clear well before then that the England international would cost more than £100million, and United were never going to seriously rival Manchester City at that price.

While rivals have become happy to throw the cash around, United have gone in a different direction, so when Tottenham agreed to pay West Ham’s £85million asking price for Mateus Fernandes, they again baulked at the deal, feeling it didn’t offer value for a player twice relegated from the Premier League already.

United have pursued a data-led process to recruitment over the last couple of years, and two of their three midfield signings scored highly. The first was Andrey Santos, with the move developing quickly. United’s offer of £48million plus £2million in add-ons met Chelsea’s demands, with some sources suggesting the Stamford Bridge club were surprised to conclude a deal so swiftly for someone who couldn’t crack their first-team.

United were pleased with the deal, however, and Santos impressed in pre-season. At 22, he is seen as having plenty of potential and will get more of a chance to show it in Manchester than he did in West London.

The process of signing Carlos Baleba went on a lot longer, but the 22-year-old had his heart set on a move to Old Trafford last summer and the club’s faith in his ability didn’t waver, despite a difficult season at Brighton last term.

United are sold on what the metrics say about Baleba, to the point that they took the unusual step of reeling off his data during the announcement of his £70million arrival from Brighton. Although that deal took until late August to secure, United always knew the player preferred to move to Old Trafford and when they did make contact with the Seagulls, negotiations ran much more smoothly than a year ago, when Brighton demanded £100million and refused to budge.

A burning desire to play for United is something they have placed a lot of stock in over the last 18 months, so when Youri Tielemans jumped at the chance to move from Aston Villa after his £35million release clause was activated, it only strengthened the belief in that signing. It was another deal that happened swiftly and came under the radar.

For Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko last summer, read Santos, Tielemans and Baleba this summer, but one key problem has been moving players on.

United brought in £38million when Rasmus Hojlund saw his loan to Napoli made permanent, but aside from that they have raised just £10million through the sales of Radek Vitek and Toby Collyer to Championship clubs Middlesbrough and West Brom.

There had been initial expectations that United could raise close to £100million, with Rashford’s potential move to Barcelona, interest in Ugarte, an expected move for Joshua Zirkzee, and Andre Onana also on the market.

Onana returned to Trabzonspor on loan, Ugarte picked up that knee injury, and Zirkzee saw three potential loan moves collapse in the final 48 hours of the window, including a switch to Everton, which United decided not to sanction at around 10pm yesterday.

That failure to raise as much money as expected made life more difficult for United this summer. Time will tell whether they have managed to do enough.