Manchester United Transfer Window: Frustration Again? | OneFootball

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Manchester United The Red Devils

Opinion

The transfer window is on and going, and here come the yearly Manchester United fans’ complaints: Why is the club too slow? We are not signing anyone. We are finishing eighth; we are going to get destroyed. Surely, if you are a United fan, you have been seeing the doom and gloom all over Twitter.

I don’t know why we are doing this again and again, but here goes nothing. I know what this article will be called: INEOS PR. How much are they paying you? Why are you defending them? Bla, bla, bla, but I am just stating this as a fan who loves the club as much as anyone.

PATIENCE IS REQUIRED, BUT IT IS ANNOYING

And everyone is still asking, Why is Manchester United so slow? It is August, and we signed only 2 players. It is called shameful and disgusting. Carrick has been set up to fail. Let’s take a look at last year: on the 5th of August, Manchester United had signed only 2 players. This was in a non-World Cup season too, where business should be faster and preseason starts earlier. Sesko and Lammens came in by mid-August and deadline day, respectively.

In the transfer window before, the Red Devils signed Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui on the 13th of August, and Manuel Ugarte was signed by deadline day. It has always been Manchester United’s mantra to do their business by August.

Some may wonder, but why is that? It is simple, really. Manchester United targets players of a specific quality; these players are not always available at the start of the window, and if they are, their prices are very high. The longer you wait, the lower the price. Another reason is that sometimes, the club is waiting to check what is happening with our own squad.

Take this window for example; the club did not know whether they will target a LW because they did not know whether Marcus Rashford will come back or no. Manchester United did not know whether they would target an LB or not because they wanted to give Carrick a chance to assess Amass.

Last year, Lammens came in later because Manchester United could not find a taker for Onana. The fact of the matter is that the club have a lot of players, and they don’t know whether they will stay or leave and they need to find suitable arrangements for them

Another question is, we are Manchester United; why would it matter if we pay a 10/15 M premium to get our targets early and settled? Yeah, sure, you can pay a 10/15 M premium, but if you multiply that by 5 players by the end of the window, you have paid 50/60 M extra, which can actually get you a player.

And in the scenario that even if we got these players early, what benefit would that have had for Manchester United? Manchester City signed Anderson on 23 July 2026; it is 6 August, and he still hasn’t had one training session with them. Chelsea signed Morgan Rogers, and he did not train with them yet. Liverpool signed Victor Muñoz in June, and he still hasn’t trained with them.

If there is any season where patience is required, especially if it helps to have a good deal, it is the World Cup season, where players don’t join preseason until the start of August and leagues start late.

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Missing Out on Top Targets

Manchester United entered this window with some top targets. Elliott Anderson, Matheus Fernandes, and Aurelien Tchoumanei were the club targets. We are now in August, and Anderson has joined Manchester City, and Matheus Fernandes has joined Tottenham. Aurelien Tchoumanei does not look like he is leaving Real Madrid.

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Let’s stop here for a second and think: would any fan have been happy with Manchester United paying 116M for Anderson? Would any fan have been happy with Manchester United paying 85M for Fernandes? Especially when both players never ever gave their commitment to the club or stated clearly that they wanted to join Manchester United?

For years, we as fans have been shouting, “We do not want to overpay; we do not want players that come for us to get money they are not getting elsewhere; we want players who understand the value of the shirt and fight for it.” Now when the club is doing that, the fans are mad because they have been doing what we have been asking for for years??

Results are Achieved on the pitch, not in the transfer window

A lot of fans lose their heads about what is happening in the transfer window. We did not get player X; we did not get player Y. The fact of the matter is results happen on the pitch, not in boardrooms. Yeah, sure, you need good players to achieve these results, but winning the transfer window does not mean that you will win on the pitch.

Last summer, people were calling Liverpool’s window the greatest ever; there were shouts for them winning a treble, invincible even. Look how that turned out.

How many times have we as Manchester United fans left a transfer window feeling that we “won” the window, only for us to have a disastrous season? We signed Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, thought we would win the league, only to finish sixth.

Another matter is that not really one of Manchester United’s competitors really improved until now. Can someone honestly say that Manchester City is a better team after losing Pep, Bernardo Silva, and John Stones and being on the verge of losing Rodri? Did Liverpool improve after losing Mohamed Salah and only sign Victor Muñoz? Did Aston Villa improve after losing Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans? Did Newcastle improve after losing Gordon and Tonali and on the verge of losing Bruno G?

The only teams that you can sit there and say improved from last season are Chelsea and Tottenham, and these are teams that finished 10th and 17th.

So yes, you can sit there and say Manchester United are having a bad window, they are incompetent, they don’t know what they are doing, they are useless, and all of that, but CAN YOU HONESTLY SAY THAT THEY HAVE NOT IMPROVED MORE THAN THEIR COMPETITORS?

Manchester City signed one player and lost 2 (maybe 3 soon) of their greatest-ever players, not to mention losing Pep. Till now, Liverpool replaced Mo Salah with Victor Muñoz. Aston Villa lost 2 of their 5 best players; Newcastle are having a fire sale. Sure, these teams will improve more from here till the end of the window, but so would Manchester United.

The lack of leaks is infuriating

As Manchester United fans, we are used to having daily articles in the window about us. Who are we targeting? How much are we willing to pay? During this window, everyone has been in the dark. Even the most credible journalists had 0 information that Manchester United were negotiating with Tielemans. Andrey Santos news leaked 48 hours before the deal was done. No one knew anything about Fredericson’s move to Lausanne until it was done, the same with Vitek’s move to Middlesbrough.

Keep in mind that this is a club that was leaking the lineups, let alone the transfer news. For a fanbase that is used to seeing a daily intense dose of their club, not having any news is frustrating and makes everyone feel like the club is doing nothing.

The club clearly instructed agents and other clubs not to leak news. They stopped being used by agents to get their clients a new contract. How many of us knew that Vini Jr. would renew with Real Madrid the sooner we saw the news about Arsenal being interested in him?

The lack of news is infuriating, but this is what we have been asking for as fans for years. Let the club work, and let us judge the transfer window by its end and by the team performance on the pitch, not by who they are or whether they are flashy names. I, for one, was not convinced by Benjamin Sesko’s signing or that a young GK from Belgium can be Manchester United’s starting GK, and I have gladly been proven wrong.

Patience is required; it is only 28 days remaining anyway.