There will be widespread consternation among Manchester United fans that they leave the transfer window with their already slim attacking options even thinner than they were when it opened.
Head coach Ruben Amorim effectively wiped Marcus Rashford from his mind, leaving the exiled 27-year-old to join Aston Villa on loan, with United sources stating a minimum of 75% of his wages will be covered at Villa Park.
Amorim’s decision to play teenage England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo as a false nine in the 2-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace, ahead of expensive recognised striker Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee, delivered a damning verdict of how little he feels he has at his disposal with that pair.
This lack of a striker will be the biggest talking point of a United transfer window that brutally outlined their reduced circumstances, mocking their status as the world’s third richest football club.
The bottom line was that, given United’s current financial status and the requirement to stay on the right side of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), they could not make a statement signing without a statement sale.
This is why there was even talk that Mainoo, one of Old Trafford’s crown jewels as well as a home-grown product, and Alejandro Garnacho could be sold to create wriggle room elsewhere in the markets.
Amorim has kept the young duo, with the big plus coming in the shape of a new five-and-a-half-year contract for emerging 22-year-old Amad Diallo.
Lecce’s 20-year-old Denmark defender, Patrick Dorgu, was the only major incoming in a deal that could be worth £29m, while England under-19s defender Ayden Heaven was taken away from Arsenal.
Few, if any, will mourn the departure of Antony to Real Betis on loan, the Brazilian widely touted as arguably the worst purchase in the club’s history at £81m from Ajax by then manager Erik ten Hag in August 2022.
There can be no arguing, however, that this has been a transfer window as underwhelming as United’s season so far, but Old Trafford’s new hierarchy can also say, with justification, that they were in something of a ‘no win’ situation.
United would have been criticised for running financial risks while wasting money if they had spent on short-term solutions in this window – and they will now be criticised for not spending, when greater financial prudence in the transfer market would have helped them avoid the pitfalls in the past.
There has been nothing to excite United’s suffering support, with the club 13th in the Premier League after a fifth defeat in six home games.
The window has only increased the sense that the rest of this season will be a mixture of holding operation and damage limitation until Amorim can put more of his stamp on the squad in the summer.
