Image via Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Manchester United‘s summer transfer business and deadline day was an absolute mess, yet has somehow it resulted in a relatively positive position.
The departure of Sir Alex Ferguson and former chief executive David Gill was extremely obvious, especially going into the final day; that axis when working with transfers appears to already have been sorely missed.
It’s fair to say David Moyes was keen to bring in some new faces, especially a new midfielder. But the club’s ability to pull that off was seriously poor, and it seems like a true failure on almost every front. From the strangely unambitious, in terms of money, Cesc Fabregas bids initial to final day itself, nothing was very impressive. You can add Thiago Alcântara to that list too – a move that was genuinely on but failed.
The Ander Herrera business was the highlight. United seemingly resorted to the 24 year old in the final days in an attempt to bring in a creative spark. But it was attempted terribly. Why did United faff about with the buyout clause if they were then to change their minds anyway? They too should have known the inevitable difficulties that would arise from such a clause on the final day. But perhaps more shockingly, what on earth happened with the impostors? Three men turned up in Spain, managed to get involved with the dealings, pretending to be United representatives, only to leave with nothing but the label of fraudsters. It is quite incredible. How on earth did they get anywhere near such negotiations?
So after that failed United did manage, in the last minutes, to secure Marouane Fellaini. But after all the statements Moyes made about being on the hunt for the world’s best players, he turned to one of his former Everton players. Whether or not he is the right type of player is a whole different matter, but United previously passed up on the chance to sign Fellaini whilst his buyout clause was still active. However, when the deadline day came they paid a premium for the Belgium midfield. It really was a mess.
Fellaini is a decent player, but to end up with him after all of that is quite bizarre, especially given just how they got there. Reports from Turkey even suggested that United put in a bid for Wesley Sneijder but had it rejected. It does seem to be a panic buy, but luckily for Moyes his Everton links have resulted in a decent player – seemingly (the deals are still yet to be all confirmed at time of writing).
However, United have managed to come out of all this with Wayne Rooney still at the club, with a new midfielder and possibly a new international left back in Fábio Coentrão. It has simply been string of weak faculties. The direct and hidden approach that United used in the past under to lure players to Old Trafford was not evident this summer. Edward Woodward, the new chief executive, and Moyes inevitably were going to take time to get things running smoothly. But it has been very bumpy and personally, a catalogue of failures, time wasting and ultimately mistakes.
It has resulted in a fairly positive situation, but just how it all panned out was poor. It could have been far better. Why was it all left till the last few hours?
Stowe Gregory is an English featured Soccer and Sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him or tweet on Twitter @stowegregory. Or add to circles on Google +
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