Today is Wednesday the 21st August, we are rapidly approaching the closure of the summer transfer window and so far, Manchester United haven't made any significant signing whatsoever. This summer was always going to be an important one for the club due to our increasing need to reinforce and add to our midfield, and the stakes were only raised further when Sir Alex Ferguson announced his impending retirement in May.
I say "significant signing" because we have made one purchase; 20 year old right-back Guillermo Varela was brought in from Uruguayan Primera Division side Atletico Penarol. However, the deal can safely be filed as "one for the future" since the player is very unlikely to make any kind of immediate impact on the first team. There are even rumours that the lad will actually be loaned out in order to gain some playing experience this season, at a higher level than he would be exposed to whilst playing for the under-21 or reserve squads at United. Furthermore, given how early in the window the deal was announced, it is not unlikely that the signing was actually one completed whilst the club was still under the management of Fergie - strictly speaking, he probably isn't a signing we can attribute to David Moyes.
Many associated with United expect a period of transition now that Fergie has moved on, which is totally justified and understandable. It was always going to be tough to follow in his footsteps and nobody could be blamed for shying away from taking over from the Greatest Football Manager Ever - and that's a fact, Rafa! Virtually every United fan I have spoken with was happy with the appointment of David Moyes as the successor to Sir Alex - even the ones, like myself, who initially preferred Jose Mourinho. The level of expectation for the season ahead was also realistic - "Let's give a good account of ourselves defending the title," and "Play some good football and get to the latter stages in the cups," are both fair and achievable goals to set for the new boss. In light of all of this then, why has the word "embarrassing" been thrown around so often this summer, particularly as a descriptor of Moyes and our new Chief Executive, Edward Woodward, when the season has barely started?
This summer should have been treated with a certain inevitability that things might not go quite as smoothly as we had been used to under Sir Alex for the past 26 years, where transfers were conducted early in the window and new players given time to settle in. In contrast, there would now be a change of ideas, maybe some totally new staff along with the new manager, as well as entirely new transfer targets. What we were sure of though was that Moyes would bring in someone - he'd definitely want to stamp his mark on the team in some way, and bring in at least player or two. Most United supporters wanted that player to be a midfielder and many were hopeful that Moyes might return to his old club in order to bring in Marouane Fellaini, giving us greater strength in the middle of the pitch - a combative, nasty midfielder in the mould of Roy Keane or Mark Hughes. Whilst Fellaini wasn't a universally popular choice, or one who was considered as good a technical footballer as the two aforementioned club legends, he would nonetheless be a good addition to the squad, most agreed.
We may still end up with Fellaini, especially given that there has been an official announcement from Everton in the past day or so, stating that they had received - and rejected - an offer for the player from United. However, many of the Old Trafford faithful have now become disillusioned with our movements in the transfer window and many have aimed abuse at Moyes and Woodward for a failure to sign a player such as Cesc Fabregas or Cristiano Ronaldo - Football Manager or FIFA-type signings. Those players aren't regular signings for United; we prefer to focus on developing our own young talent and certainly wouldn't have been clambering over ourselves to bad-mouth Fergie had he not pulled off a coup for one of Europe's finest passers. I'd suggest that the main reason the fans have been so bitterly disappointed by our summer activity so far is because of the raising of expectations. It may seem like a strange idea, given the general tone of uncertainty surrounding a new era at the club, but how else can the stratospheric jump in the expected quality of signings be explained?
To find the answer as to just why our transfer sights have been so radically shifted, we must consider three important quotes which have all appeared in the media in the past few months. First of all, recall back to the end of last season, not long after United had wrapped up the title in emphatic style, and Sir Alex calmly told the surrounding journalists at a press conference that we had money to spend. Not just some money either, but he emphasised that in the past, maybe he had been more restricted than he would be this summer and that if he wanted to go out and get a player - even if we already had someone in that position - the Glazers would back him financially. We rejoiced. Fresh off the back of winning our 20th league title and the boss is already thinking about adding "one or two" players to the squad in order to go about retaining that crown. Of course, at this stage we didn't know he was merely weeks from announcing his retirement, but he did.
Fast forward to David Moyes first press conference now - in the mean time, United fans have started to consider the possibility of a big name signing, after Ferguson's comments, coupled with the benefit of beginning Moyes reign with a statement of intent. It seemed like the perfect plan to improve an already strong squad by adding the world class midfielder that the team was missing, to play alongside Michael Carrick. We had heard rumours of the imminent signing of Thiago Alcantara, Barcelona's star prodigy midfielder, the answer to all our problems; some suggested he may even be unveiled alongside Moyes at this media press conference. Moyes went on to tell us that Manchester United would, "always be interested in the very best players" and the rumour mills went into overdrive. Could he mean Ronaldo is coming back? Are we getting Thiago then? Was the article in The Sunday Life right about us going after Messi?!
Only a few weeks later, after Thiago Alcantara joined European Champions Bayern Munich and Moyes confirmed at least one unsuccessful bid for Cesc Fabregas, the manager came out and whetted our appetites once more. He told the press, "There's no budget here, you go get who you want to get, just go and do it. We are looking at the best players." Well, now things really started to hot up - Ronaldo denied he had signed a new deal at Madrid, the Daily Mail reported that Gareth Bale preferred a move to Old Trafford rather than the Bernabeu and Cesc Fabregas refused to publicly rule out leaving Barcelona. Of course, all of this talk was merely based on rumours, often from random Twitter accounts who couldn't spell reputable source, never mind find one - but still we hoped and trusted that Moyes was working on a mega deal.
Now, the present situation is that Fabregas has confirmed that he'll be staying put in Barcelona, Bale is most likely off to Real Madrid - for a stupid fee - where he's almost guaranteed to play alongside Ronaldo, since his return was always a mere pipe-dream. United on the other hand, have added nobody - not even Fellaini - and there is a growing concern that rather than potentially adding a world beater, we may not bring in any players at all. Moyes has backed himself into a corner, and Fergie contributed to the situation with his comments at the end of the season - we didn't want or expect a marquee signing, but if you go around blatantly suggesting that there will be one and publicly discussing bids for top level players, then the fans will expect you to deliver.
Feedback, comments and criticism are all welcome. You can find me on Twitter too; my username is @JmRssll555.
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