Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, Manchester United’s transfer deals have mostly been a mixture of hits and misses with the Old Trafford club always having to pay a premium to land their targets.
And stats back this argument up. CIES Football Observatory have analysed data from the past decade and have found that no team in world football has overspent by more on transfers when compared to market rates.
Especially during the Ed Woodward era, the Red Devils were more interested in signing big-name players than stars that suit their manager’s demands.
Poor transfer record
Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer has proven to be a disaster and the Glazers refused to sell him in the summer due to his ability to sell shirts.
And the club have always ended up paying over the odds and names such as Fred, Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka immediately come to mind.
But things seem to be on the mend. The past summer, United did spend over £200million but those players were handpicked by manager Erik ten Hag and they have all proved to be perfectly suited to his system.
And in a bid to change the transfer structure, the club had recently brought all their scouts together under one roof to discuss a way forward.
An exclusive Football Insider report has mentioned that “around 35 Man United scouts from across the globe recently convened for a series of recruitment meetings.”
The 20-time English league champions “invited their entire scouting network” to the Newcastle United game which ended 0-0 at Old Trafford.
United’s latest scouting mission
“The members of United’s recruitment team also had multiple meetings about the club’s short and long-term transfer plans during their time in Manchester.”
This was the club’s attempts at initiating a more joined-up approach. A lot of behind-the-scenes changes are afoot at Old Trafford with John Murtough currently overseeing United’s sporting department as director of football.
Andy Boyle was appointed as the deputy football director in May this year. Along with Ten Hag and CEO Richard Arnold, they are attempting to fix all the issues ailing the club.
The hope is that slowly but surely the club will finally come out of their rut and reclaim their lost glory.
