Transfer market inertia has Manchester United at a loss once again

Despite no Champions League football, a club this size should have no problem attracting the players they need, writes Richard Jolly.

Adnan Januzaj and Wayne Rooney look dejected during Manchester United's loss to Swansea. Alex Livesey / Getty Images

When the first English Premier League standings were posted they showed Swansea City on top, then the 18 clubs who had not kicked off, and then Manchester United, losers in the season's first fixture, propping up the rest.

Before a ball had been kicked in earnest, United were bottom of another table, too – the transfer table.

It is a modern invention, an artificial way of judging clubs but, every now and again, such alternative ways of ranking clubs have a significance.

So it was when a list of the Premier League clubs’ signings showed United had made the fewest. Two, if you exclude the 17-year-old Serbian goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic.

Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera arrived in June. Two months later and, even before Swansea highlighted his squad's shortcomings, Louis van Gaal had been hinting that reinforcements were needed.

United’s stellar pre-season results suggested that the Dutchman has been the signing of the season.

He may yet prove to be but, at age 63 and no matter how tactically astute, he is not a direct replacement for three departed senior defenders – especially when Shaw, the new left-back, is injured and the team’s formation requires an extra centre-back.

For some, the damning detail about United’s under-strength squad is that Van Gaal opted to hand out two debuts – Tyler Blackett in the middle of the defence and Jesse Lingard at right wing-back – while Reece James waited on the bench for his bow.

Neither newcomer was particularly culpable for the defeat. Instead, this was a reminder of the failings of more established players; Javier Hernandez and Nani, who have both regressed, and Chris Smalling, handed the pivotal role as the middle of the three centre-backs.

It is a position ideally suited to a defender who reads the game well and passes the ball intelligently. Smalling does neither. Perhaps the intention was for Mats Hummels or Thomas Vermaelen to play there.

But United are paralysed by their own ineffectiveness in the transfer market and if they represented Plans A and B, it appeared there was no Plan C.

Hence the sudden interest in Marcos Rojo, a World Cup finalist whose club career has been much less successful. It rather reeks of panic.

The reality is that there are few excuses for United’s inactivity. True, they are not in the Uefa Champions League, but neither were Manchester City when they signed Yaya Toure, David Silva, Edin Dzeko, Vincent Kompany and Carlos Tevez, to name but five.

They have discovered that some targets, such as Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale, have preferred to join more glamorous clubs – Real Madrid in their case – but, as many can testify, that can happen.

United still have enough allure that most footballers want to play for them, which makes the inertia all the more inexplicable.

They have money to spend; indeed it is the biggest budget in their history, but much of it remains unspent.

They have had time, too. They can claim the delay in their latest two managers taking office has been a hindrance, but that will not wash: David Moyes and Van Gaal were both confirmed by May and, if not physically at Old Trafford, were capable of communicating their wishes to the club’s power brokers.

The argument that each manager wanted to give every player he inherited a chance is not strictly true; both were keen to buy straight away.

While Moyes dithered for too long and Van Gaal is more decisive, frustration is a common denominator. Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and his negotiating team have to take some of the responsibility.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, United have only bought four senior players. The first, Marouane Fellaini, has been a disaster. The second, Juan Mata, appeared one Moyes may not have wanted and struggled to accommodate.

Shaw and Herrera were footballers Moyes identified in his exhaustive scouting trail around Europe. Van Gaal gave the green light to both moves but, because others are struggling to seal deals, he has not stamped his mark on the squad. He has not been able to.

Instead, United are the subject of ever more rumours. They are in the position that City and Chelsea were once in, where many believe they are trying to buy everyone, only with the significant difference that they struggle to sign anyone.

For the second successive season, the end of the transfer window could be a desperate scramble to bring someone – anyone – in.

Once again, transfer-market failings threaten to get a manager’s reign off to a false start.

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