7 Man Utd transfers Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants answers for with trio set for exits
Sir Jim Ratcliffe will need to find a range of solutions when he finally walks through the door at Old Trafford - but not before he gets some serious answers.
The INEOS chief is set to have his 25 per cent purchase in Manchester United confirmed next week, with the Glazer family prepared to hand him control over transfers. However, the lifelong fan is also going to ask how the club have contrived to spend a mammoth £1.4billion in the decade since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, with little to show in return.
Erik ten Hag has spent just short of £400million since taking over in the summer of 2022, and his first campaign sparked success with a League Cup win and top-four finish. But with the Red Devils currently floundering in the Premier League and staring down the barrel of an early European exit, his position looks increasingly under threat.
According to a report in , Ratcliffe will demand explanations to seven big money flops in particular. And three of those, currently still at the club, are set to be sold in January amid United's erratic start to the 2023/24 campaign.
The club's record signing, Paul Pogba, cost the club £89million when he signed from Juventus for Jose Mourinho and co in 2016. But despite failing to replicate his form in Serie A, the French midfielder was handed a bumper new deal in Manchester before eventually returning to Juve on a free in 2022, following three years plagued by injury problems.
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Another Mourinho signing, Romelu Lukaku, was also tipped for big things when he made a £75million switch from Everton a year after Pogba arrived. But just 28 Premier League goals in two seasons followed, and his time at Old Trafford also petered out before he was sold to Inter Milan.
Angel di Maria is one of a number of a big money mistakes at Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson left (Manchester United via Getty Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! Where will Manchester United finish this season? Comment below.
It's not just the 'Special One' in the firing line though, with Louis van Gaal's reign tainted by spending £59.7million on Angel Di Maria, and £44.5m on Anthony Martial. Di Maria scored just three goals in what proved his only season with the club, before heading to PSG for £16million less than United had forked out.
Martial though, is in his ninth season at the club, a stint which has only yielded 89 goals in all competitions. The club failed to offload him during the summer, but are almost certain to in January with Martial eligible to leave for free next summer.
And it looks like Antony and Jadon Sancho will be joining him. The Brazilian was an £85.5million capture from Ajax by Ten Hag, but as well as off-field problems has never looked close to justifying his transfer fee. And the same can be said of former Borussia Dortmund man Sancho, a £73million Ole Gunner Solskjaer signing who remains suspended from the first team squad, and is set to be sold when the transfer window opens.
Another Solskjaer signing, £40million man Donny van de Beek, remains on the club books. That's despite featuring in just 35 Premier League games for United in the three-and-a-half years, the majority of which have been as a substitute.
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