What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, the final hours of the transfer window were an embarrassment for Manchester United as frantic late moves to sign Fábio Coentrão and Ander Herrera left Marouane Fellaini as their only summer signing. This time it has been all about the thrill of the chase: Luke Shaw, Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Ángel di María, Daley Blind and finally Radamel Falcao.
It is among the most extravagant outlays in the game’s history and it represents two very distinct and different phenomena. The first is the Glazer family’s overdue realisation that underinvestment was no longer possible in the post-Ferguson era. The second, less welcome, is the extent of United’s descent into the type of spending patterns that Sir Alex Ferguson, not so long ago, described as “kamikaze”.
In the space of 12 months, starting with that ill-fated deal for Fellaini, United’s transfer expenditure has exceeded £200 million and, for all Louis van Gaal’s talk of “philosophy”, it has seemed as wild and extravagant as the worst excesses of Chelsea under Roman Abramovich or Manchester City under Sheikh Mansour. Certainly, it will be a long time before anyone at Old Trafford dares to accuse Chelsea, City, Paris Saint-Germain or any other nouveau riche club of inflating the transfer market again.
So much of United’s business over the past year or so seems to have been more about the desire of Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, to make a statement than about creating or sustaining the kind of philosophy to which Van Gaal alludes. The £37.5 million signing of Juan Mata only seemed to make sense if Wayne Rooney was on his way out, yet a fortnight later Rooney was signing a new contract worth a projected £300,000 a week. The signings of Rojo, Shaw and Blind made sense in the context of Van Gaal’s seemingly unswerving dedication to a 3-4-1-2 formation, but now, after a poor start, the talk is of a switch to a flat back four.
Some of the talk within Old Trafford of late is that, if United are back in the Champions League next season, the outlay will have proved more than worthwhile. Yes, it is essential that United force their way back into Europe’s elite competition and yes, their chances of doing so have improved with just about each one of those deals, but to add £200 million worth of talent to a title-winning squad should have been a guarantee that just about every weakness, short-term and long-term, was addressed. That has not been the case.
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Much has been made of United’s defensive deficiencies, particularly since Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra departed this summer, and the lack of steel and energy in midfield. There have also been growing concerns about the lack of chemistry between Mata, Rooney and Robin van Persie in attack. Whether the way forward under Van Gaal is 3-4-1-2, 4-3-1-2, 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, it is not easy to discern a consistency of vision in United’s transfer policy, even in the four months since they sacked David Moyes.
Then there is the knock-on effect of this outlay. United have always prided themselves on developing their own young players. Ferguson, while bemoaning others’ tendency to “pay stupid money and silly salaries”, spoke two years ago of United’s dedication to preserving a home-grown core within the team and squad. Even if Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck are hardly of the class of David Beckham or Paul Scholes, it feels as if something might have been lost in the rush to clear the decks to make way for a vanity signing or two.
When Ferguson spoke of other clubs spending “stupid money”, he was talking about City’s deals to signs, among others, Yaya Touré, David Silva and Sergio Agüero. Now, suddenly, City, Chelsea and others hear of the figures that United are offering for Shaw, Di María and Falcao and they leave them alone to get on with their business. No doubt they preferred the days when the Glazers were sucking United dry, but not too many of this summer’s deals will cause sleepless nights at the Etihad Stadium or at Stamford Bridge, where they know very well that spending wildly does not guarantee success.