The transfer window is closed. Manchester United will be starting the new Premier League season on Friday night, against Leicester City at Old Trafford. Before we actually dive in into the new season, team’s performances and the analysis of all of that, we will look back once more on everything the club have done during the transfer window.
Who Came In?
Manchester United signed three players during the summer transfer window of 2018. Fred arrived from Shakhtar Donetsk, Diogo Dalot came from Porto, while Lee Grant joined from Stoke City. A total of 74.43 million pounds was spent on these three players, most of it going out on the Brazilian. Fred is the player that the most is expected from this season. He is supposed to improve United’s midfield, playing most probably alongside Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba – when the former of the two is fit.
During pre-season he did show signs that there is something interesting about him and his neat passing should help. Diogo Dalot is still just 19 and it is hard seeing him upsetting Antonio Valencia too much this season. Lee Grant is a bit of a shocking move, as United got themselves a 35-year old 2nd choice Stoke keeper. But he will be there to fill the numbers, as Joel Pereira left.
The feeling about these three signings is underwhelming. Fred is expected to improve the team, but it is hard to actually see how much. He might need some time to adjust after joining from Ukrainian league, while Dalot is simply too young and unexperienced. There is not even that much proof of how talent the right-back actually is. With these names coming in, there is a feeling of unknown about all of them.
However, Andreas Pereira should help in midfield too, returning from a loan at Valencia.
Who Left The Club?
On the other hand, two players left the club by being signed by other teams, while another four were loaned out. Daley Blind left and became a new Ajax player in a deal worth around 14 or 15 million pounds and that number could grow through add-ons. Sam Johnstone has left the club for West Bromwich Albion, who payed just over six million for his services.
Cameron Borthwick-Jackson was loaned to Scunthorpe, Timothy Fosu-Mensah will spend the season at Fulham after joining them on deadline day, while Axel Tuanzebe will play for Aston Villa and Joel Pereira for Vitoria Setubal.
All of this makes sense. None of these players would actually get playing time and they wanted to try themselves somewhere else. Matteo Darmian is still at the club and might not even leave for any of the Italian clubs. Manchester United did not sell anyone too valuable for the first team and nothing like that was expected anyway.
Conclusion
So how would we rate this summer transfer window? ‘Not good enough’ would fit well. Manchester United should be a bit better than last season in terms of the way the team plays. Sanchez should be fitter, while the club did not sell Anthony Martial. However, this is not good enough as United still have many obvious weaknesses in this team. The team should be fine for another year, but the rebuilding process towards the biggest results in Premier League and Champions League still feels slow and distant.
I have the idea that there is no unity at United behind the scenes. The game is unrecognisable, players do not want to come to United, some want to go out, some players are more busy with the (social) media instead of their game and the Youth institute is devaluated by the manager…how quickly can you destruct an organisation which took decades to build up….Too big egos in charge and some really overpaid…
That Ed Woodward is holding Man Utd back with his inept performance at transfer time. The Glazers are ordering
him to watch the pennies. They are just a bunch of money grabbers.They keep paying themselves a fortune while
Putting the debt onto Man Utd. The fans should boycott the home games. Leave them with an empty stadia.