The worst transfer window in Manchester United's history came to an end with only joining the champions from Everton in a deal of around 27.5 million pounds. In the most importamt summer for the Red Devils in past 26 years, without Sir Alex Ferguson - United should have made the statement to the footballing world by signing a marquee player to prove that there will be business as usual even without the great man in charge.
But what we saw in the last couple of months was an embarassing window and humiliation as day by day United kept losing their top transfer targets. From Cesc Fabregas to Ander Hererra, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Garaeth Bale, United were left red-faced. David Moyes had the funds and ambition to bolster his squad, but the word within the football industry was that United's new so-called CEO was learning the hard way that buying players was a different ball game to selling shirt space and sponsorship deals to companies.
Let's start with the Fellaini deal. A month ago Fellaini had a 23-million-pound release clause which could have been easily met. But at that time United were interested in Fabregas, who was never interested in moving from his childhoold club Barcelona, but it did not stop Woodward from making three ridiculous below-par deals for a classy midfielder. Fast forward to August 31, if we did not think Fellaini was worth 23 million pounds in early August, why is he suddenly worth 4.5 million pounds more a month later? Absolutely shocking!
Despite the club's reputation at stake and having funds available to get big players, Woodward was clueless throughout the summer. The first target was Barcelona's Thiago Alcantara who ended up signing for Bayern Munich for 22 million pounds. Thiago was almost certain to join the club but Woodword could not close the deal and the player opted for Bayern Munich instead of United. Then it was the embarassing chase of Fabregas. Without even talking to his agent and player himself, United continued to bid for him and the saga only stopped when Fabregas himself told that he is not interested in leaving Barcelona. This chase was unlike United of the past. Under Ferguson and then CEO David Gill, United always had talks with the player and his agent and only then they took forward the case. Another disaster!
Then comes the biggest shock of all. According to reports, Mesut Ozil was offered to United but Red Devils rejected it, and Arsenal were able to complete the signing. Read that again. United rejected the chance to sign Ozil - the player that would have made United favourite for the title without a shadow of doubt. But what beats all is the Anders Herrera story.
Ander Herrera had a buyout clause of 30.5 million pounds, and with the transfer window to end within a few hours, everyone would have expected that the club wil pay the clause and deal will be sealed before 2300 BST. But no, United did not feel that the player was this expensive. Well, if you don't think you can pay the buyout clause, then why bid and waste time. Everyone knows Athletic Bilbao will never take a penny less than what is quoted but somehow United thought they can pull this off, but at the end of the day, they even reportedly sent their representatives to La Liga headquarters to get the deal done but were not prepared to pay the full asking price. United were the one who were left embarassed, once again.
United's approach to this transfer window showed Woodward's arrogance and also p[roved that he is not the right man for the job. At the time when Real Madrid have brought Bale for 100 million euros and the likes of Edison Cavani, Gonzalo Higuain and Ozil have made big-money moves, United should think about changing their transfer policy if they want to compete for trophies or they can see their downfall like Arsenal or Liverpool in the past decade or two. They have to sack Woodward from the position of CEO and it should be Sir Alex who should be made in charge of handling the transfers at United.
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