When the covid-19 pandemic broke out, it became obvious this 2019-20 season was going to be an odd one. We knew right away that, if the season was to be finished on the pitch, that season would be longer than the usual one. And that is exactly what happened. Instead of ending it in May, we had Manchester United plays as recently as 10 days ago. But since we all knew all that, we knew that the pre-season ahead of 2020-21 campaign was going to be as close to non-existent as it gets and therefore time for thinking and planning for too long might not work.
So why have Manchester United still not done any business in the transfer market?
That is a seriously legitimate question to have. The most used argument against Man United being so slow in the market are Chelsea. The Blues have done incredibly well during 2020 to secure signings they wanted. Sure, we still do not know how they will work out for them, but you never know that anyway. And they wanted Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Malang Sarr, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Kai Havertz and they have already signed all of them, apart from the latter one who is days away from coming for 90 or so million pounds.
The counter argument is that Man United have been hit by the coronavirus crisis and loss of revenue, which is true, but then again, the club is still chasing Jadon Sancho for a fee of 105 million pounds. The money is there and is probably planned to be spent on this one player. But the problem is Man United need to get far more than just one player this summer.
This team is need of few upgrades at the very least, in central midfield, at left-back and to get more depth in some other positions as well. it seems like Ed Woodward and his associates have not been planning properly for this transfer window. To be frank, it is a long one and Man United have it until 5 October to do their business, but the season will be in full swing by then.
The lack of direction from those above Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could come back to bite Solskjaer himself if his side does not get properly strengthened. That lack of direction makes it hard to plan new signings and to plan how much money will be spent where. Also, another problem of Man United is that there not many players the club could sell and raise some significant funds. All of the players mentioned in that conversation – Marcos Rojo, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata and others – are far from their best game and far from being the players that are very desired these days. There is no much room for raising cash.
All of this makes it hard for the club to operate. It seems like all cards have been thrown at Jadon Sancho, which is all well and good, but Manchester United have been in need of a greater rebuild for years now and it seems like this summer will be yet another one in which the club will only do some of the necessary deals done and left plenty of things ready to change for sometime in the future.
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