They may have spent more than any other Premier League club this summer but Manchester United are among the biggest “losers” of the transfer window.
That’s the common consensus among the newspapers this morning with the Daily Mail claiming that Ed Woodward is “public enemy No.1 at Old Trafford”.
Under the executive vice-chairman’s stewardship, United spent £143.1m - £3.5m more than Manchester City, the second biggest spenders this summer - in signing winger Daniel James and defenders Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire.
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Fans’ fury
So why was #WoodwardOut trending on Twitter on deadline day? According to the Mail, the decision to let Romelu Lukaku and Ander Herrera leave “without finding replacements has incensed the United faithful”.
There are also concerns that the club has been fooled into paying a huge fee for Maguire. The England centre-back is a good player but is he £85m good?
The Mail’s assessment is that United have spent and sold unwisely, and as a consequence the “return to the glory days seems further away than ever”.
Arsenal’s example
The Sun also offers a gloomy analysis of United’s transfer activity this summer, saying the club’s fans have been “left fuming” after their failure to sign anyone on deadline day.
Rumours in recent days of a big name signing - Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic were among those mentioned - came to naught and the fans went to Twitter to vent their fury.
It didn’t help that Arsenal have enjoyed a canny few weeks of shopping culminating in the arrival yesterday of Kieran Tierney and David Luiz for a combined total of £33m.
As one fan raged on social media: “Arsenal making 5 or so signings with a budget of £45m. United signing 3 with a budget of £200m.”
The Times, as one would expect, was more measured in its analysis of United’s transfer business than the fans. “Woodward is not a transfer genius nor is he incompetent,” writes the paper. “The reality is somewhere in between.”
Not all gloom and doom
United have learned lessons from past mistakes, such as the huge sums forked out for Falcao and Angel Di Maria, described by the Times as “high-maintenance mercenaries”.
Instead Woodward has targeted “young, hungry players”, such as the 21-year-old pair of Wan-Bissaka and James.
Nonetheless, the Times believes that United lack strength in depth to launch a serious title challenge and the failure to bring in a defensive midfielder and a No.10 will be costly.
On the other hand, there are seven centre-backs in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s 28-man squad and, according to the Times, much dead wood in the shape of Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo and Alexis Sanchez.
The Daily Mail says that Rojo was left “fuming” after his move to Everton collapsed on deadline day with United changing “parameters” at the 11th hour.
All of which begs the question: is there anyone feeling positive at Old Trafford this morning?
#WoodwardOut
With United kicking off their Premier League campaign at home against Chelsea on Sunday fan groups have called for their fellow supporters to make their voices heard against Woodward and the club’s owners, the Glazer family.
