Are Manchester United finally catching Up in the Transfer Market?

For the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill left the club in 2013 Manchester United’s summer transfer window appears to have a professional and balanced structure to it.

When Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos group took control of United’s football operations after their partial takeover last year there was a hope that the days of Manchester United lagging behind their main EPL rivals regarding transfers were over, and for now at least it appears to be working.

Experts in their respective fields, such as Dan Ashworth as Sporting Director, Omar Berrada as CEO and Jason Wilcox as Technical Director, have been brought in to oversee the football operations of the club, and so far regarding transfer business it appears to be functioning well.

The signing of Lenny Yoro from Ligue 1 club Lille could be the game-changing acquisition that sets this new era for Manchester United on the right path. Sure, he has unfortunately got injured on the club’s summer tour, but the 18-year-old Frenchman is exactly the type of signing that the club’s new part-owners appear to want to bring to Old Trafford. He is a young, up and coming and exciting new signing who United are confident can fill the void left by the departure of Raphael Varane and anchor their defence alongside Lisandro Martinez for many years.

In the recent past, Yoro was not the sort of signing Manchester United would have pursued or, in fact, bought. He was wanted by some of the biggest clubs in the Champions League with Real Madrid reportedly the preferred option of the player, but it appears United’s persistence, willingness to pay a fee to Lille this summer and their sales pitch to the player himself convinced the France underage international to join this summer.

What’s also impressive about the Yoro deal, and in fact, the deal to bring Joshua Zirkzee to the club, was that the deals appeared to be wrapped up quickly. This is in stark contrast to what United fans have been used to recently, whereby every big signing the club tried to make turned into a long, drawn-out saga.

The club also appear to have woken up to selling players adequately in this first transfer window under the new structure. Funds have been raised by the sales of Mason Greenwood, Willy Kambwala, Alvaro Fernandez and Donny van de Beek as well as the departures of big earners Varane and Martial on free transfers. More players are likely to be sold before the window closes and for competitive fees as the club displays cohesion and ruthlessness, not seen at the club since Ferguson was in his pomp.

Another advantage to the new football structure taking shape at Old Trafford is the reduced role in recruitment that Erik Ten Hag will have going forward. The former Ajax boss will still have a say in what happens, but the heavy lifting will now be done by Ashworth and Wilcox. This can only be a good thing for the club, as since his arrival, the Dutchman hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory when it comes to talent spotting. He was an active part of the club’s disastrous pursuit of Frankie de Jong in his first transfer window at the club, as they dallied and allowed the saga to run all summer until panic set in after losing their first two matches, and they overpaid for Casemiro.

That kind of hesitation and, quite frankly, incompetence will not happen again with Ten Hag or whoever is in the United dugout, as the right people seem to have been put in place now to avoid it. The wish for most United fans is that deals like the swift and proactive ones done for Yoro and Zirkzee are now the norm, and gone are the days of panic buying Casemiro or continuing with a deal for Anthony even when it was clear that it was no longer the best deal for the club.

With the transfer window open until August 30th, Manchester United and their new regime still have areas of the team that they will have to improve and reinforce, but United fans can be quietly confident that the reset the club needed to become a relevant and important force on the transfer market once again is happening and seemingly moving in the right direction.

Ultimately, the only place this new direction will be judged however, will be out on the pitch. It will now be up to Ten Hag and his staff to translate the upturn in off-field matters into an improved and consistent on field operation who can produce performances such as the one in the F.A. Cup Final on a more regular basis. For the first time in a while however, the signs are encouraging for Manchester United.

We will just have to wait and see.

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