Manchester United may have three new signings that will really improve important parts of the squad when the whole squad is back in training after a delayed summer break.
The completion of Jadon Sancho’s arrival will be announced soon, as the 21-year-old has undergone medical treatment in recent days and is posing for official photographs. Serious progress is being made to sign Raphael Varane from Real Madrid, while a deal for Kieran Trippier also looks increasingly likely.
As a special wing, Sancho fills a void on the right flank that has remained since at least 2015 when Antonio Valencia was reinstated as a full-back. However, Varane is the long-term partner for Harry Maguire that United have longed for, and Trippier would offer something different on the right back, as well as much-needed depth and competition for Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
United fans are not used to a competent and efficient recruitment department after the transfer fascos of recent years, so in many ways this has come as a refreshing surprise.
Man Utd have often not been so good at getting business, as the long story of Harry Maguire showed / Pool / Getty Images
After Sir Alex Ferguson, United have seen stumbling and working in the transfer market. It’s been eight years since Ed Woodward left the tour in Australia during the season to take part in “urgent transfer deals” and supporters are still waiting for an update on that deal eight years later.
Jokes aside, United officials have struggled to get cross-border deals, apparently every year.
There were unsuccessful attempts to land Cesc Fabregas and Gareth Bale in 2013, while a lot of time was wasted barking the wrong tree by chasing Sergio Ramos in 2015. On business that happened, the club paid too much for Marouane Fellaini after approaching the situation completely wrong. , and not enough due diligence was done for how Angel Di Maria or Alexis Sanchez would fit.
Successive managers, each with their own ideas and transfer preferences, and the lack of an overall policy also proved counterproductive and unnecessarily expensive for several years.
Ed Woodward has taken a lot of blame for Man Utd’s poor recruitment decisions and execution / Craig Mercer / MB Media / Getty Images
Things have changed significantly since 2019, at the same time as Ole Gunnar Solskjär has been appointed permanently. The scouting process was modernized and the recruitment department restructured, with ongoing improvements leading to the latest campaigns by Darren Fletcher and John Murtough to the roles of technical manager and football director respectively.
Actual negotiations still proved to be tricky. United wasted months of meeting Leicester’s coveted Harry Maguire award, taking time to pursue other necessary goals and putting the squad back in development. There were similar problems with trying to buy Jadon Sancho last summer, although the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the club’s finances at least offered some relief in that regard.
United were able to complete early offers for Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James in 2019, but the former was never expected to be complicated and the latter was only meant to be a fringe player.
This year, however, it feels different. United will have Sancho at the earliest opportunity as he will be a United player when he ends his holiday which was delayed by his participation in Euro 2020. The same may soon be true for Trippier and Varane, who are rumored to want the future sorted soon so that he does not have to go through the motions to report for duty in Madrid.
Raphael Varane will increasingly join Man Utd this summer / Denis Doyle / Getty Images
With a good group already in place, making the summer different from 2016 and 2017, and up to three new hires who could potentially train at the end of the first week of August, before the Premier League season, United will be better prepared to meet a title challenge than they have been in nearly a decade. There is even time for extra business before the deadline.
Fans can not help but get excited about everything.
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