Manchester United: No signings, no hope

Article by e-Manchester United's Terry Carroll

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I'm tired of going to Old Trafford, buoyed up with hope and seeing Manchester United lose to an average team. For much of last season they were poor by their standards, and so it continued on Saturday against Swansea City.

Once again United failed to turn up and from the moment the team sheet was announced until the end of the match it was glaringly obvious that they must sign top players or fail yet again.

Maybe we were all guilty of over-hyping the team's prospects following potentially one of the greatest signings in years – Louis van Gaal.

Whatever people may now say, he did an extraordinary job with Holland in the World Cup and continued that stellar coaching with a highly successful pre-season tour in United's biggest commercial market and six wins in total.

And the players hung on his every word, believed in his tactics and style of play and were worthy winners of every one of those matches, except possibly once they returned to English soil and took on Valencia. The warning signs were already there.

Van Gaal is nobody's fool and he knew the Premier League would be a different proposition. Yes he had nine injuries, but every starting player selected on Saturday had featured in the US and some had been a pleasant surprise. At last, Tyler Blackett looks as if he might fulfil his potential.

Having thoroughly researched Swansea, Van Gaal wrote the script for the match and issued his rallying call; but either the players hadn't understood what was expected or they were overwhelmed by the fear of playing at Old Trafford in front of an expectant crowd, because they immediately lapsed into the torpor of the David Moyes era.

And with a horrid sense of deja vu they not only handed their first ever win to Swansea at the Theatre of Dreams in the Premier League era, but also lost their first ever opening day home match in the same period.

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So what went wrong?

Having nine injuries would be a reasonable excuse in most circumstances, but this is Manchester United. Van Gaal talked about the players' confidence being 'smashed', but they did that themselves.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the pre-season tour was seeing Ashley Young reinvent himself as a wing back of quality. So ok, maybe Van Gaal should have taken a risk and played Matty James on the left with Young on the right, but frankly Young was utterly appalling and even now should be got rid of based on this performance.

He and Chris Smalling were the prime culprits for dumping United right back into the mediocre mess that last season became under Moyes. While the US tour was lit up by one-touch football played by a rampant team at pace, on Saturday the same players reverted to plodding, unimaginative football that was easy to defend against and even easier to defeat.

God knows how many touches Young had, nor how many passes, but it must have been well into the 20s and all but one went backwards! This was the stultifying football of Moyes, not the exhilarating expression of Van Gaal.

And most of those passes went to Smalling, who simply hadn't a clue what to do with it except pass to another defender. Meanwhile, Fletcher and Herrera in particular were running round like dervishes in midfield making space and desperate to start the forward momentum.

On the other hand, as soon as Swansea got the ball they seemed able to launch a fluid attacking momentum at will that had United's next generation of central defenders at sixes and sevens. Van Gaal will have learned much, especially that he needs a big injection of quality.

And what is most worrying is that while all their major contenders for the Top Four (which is surely their most realistic target) have done plenty of business (and all of them won), Ed Woodward is for the second summer running risking stumbling into oblivion.

For let there be no doubt. If United don't sign at least two and ideally four top class players in defence, midfield and on the wing, they will certainly miss out on the Champions League yet again and it will be the commercial sponsors just as much as the supporters that will be down on him with a vengeance.

There will be some who question Van Gaal's apparent hesitation in suggesting that he wanted to review the existing players before signing replacements; and it may well be that the Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera projects were already very well advanced. Nobody could object to either of those.

But the Dutchman isn't 'dithering Dave' or even 'lethargic Louis'. He is clear-minded and decisive and maybe his only mistake was to believe the ridiculous hype that Woodward put out in a very public interview.

Once again the United supremo, who was supposed to be an expert in PR before he stepped up to succeed David Gill, has made himself and the club look very foolish.

In that MUTV interview he was very clear that United had bucket-loads of cash; that no player was too expensive; and that all the players he has spoken to want to come to Old Trafford, thereby implying that the lack of Champions League football was not an obstacle.

So why have United not seemed close to signing a player since Van Gaal officially became manager?

Cesc Fabregas, Ezekiel Garay and Toni Kroos were apparently rejected by Van Gaal. (If there are no further signings that may come back to haunt him). But his supposed top targets have so far seemed impossible or at the very least elusive, especially Mats Hummels. Even the modest Thomas Vermaelen preferred Barcelona (who wouldn't after Saturday?)

And let's be fair, the media speculation about United signings has been the most absurd ever. Whether it is agents trying to get their players a better contract or invented nonsense, Woodward and co have allowed the club to look inept once again by having no clear PR policy.

Much of the media has, frankly, become pretty irresponsible in some of the rubbish that has been written. In the past the unwritten rule was not to make a statement without some validation and not to start a rumour without some substance. That all seems to have gone by the board. But this is a problem of Woodward's making by starting the hype himself with no apparent substance.

And now we hear that United are having trouble 'making the numbers add up' on some of the deals, according to the Sunday Supplement on Sky. That just makes Woodward's 'money no object' claims seem even more ridiculous.

So, whatever the reason, the 'greatest club in the world' finds itself at the back end of the transfer window yet again, a hostage to fortune to clubs that don't want to sell and that have bought the £200 million war chest' story in hyping fees.

Meanwhile, Chelsea, City and Liverpool have bought well and early and Arsenal have snaffled a player that United supporters would have loved to see on the wing at Old Trafford in Alexis Sanchez.

It may still be that there are three or four surprises in the works, but United simply dare not end up with yet another Marouane Fellaini in last minute desperation.

So if Marcos Rojo, Danny Blind, Arturo Vidal and Angel di Maria turn up at Carrington in the next few days I will be delighted, but right now I'm dreading Sunderland and even Burnley away after Saturday's debacle. On that showing United look more like relegation candidates than Champions League qualifiers right now.

Can you remotely imagine that being allowed to happen at the other 'big clubs' in the world, like Real Madrid and Barcelona, let alone City and Chelsea. The only consolation is that Liverpool were in the same mess two seasons ago and they turned it round.

But United will need to do far better than they have so far to convince a now highly sceptical media, with or without Louis van Gaal's 'magic touch'.

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