More than £600m spent, 15 permanent signings, four loans and eight players signed for over £47m. Those were the final figures of three years of spending under Erik ten Hag, a shopping spree that has delivered a few hits but many more misses.
Ten Hag could make plenty of arguments about why and how he was let down during his tenure in charge at Old Trafford, but a lack of financial support will never be one of them. He was backed in a way no United manager has ever been backed before.
But the sum of that spending is a team that is unlikely to finish in the top half of the Premier League this season. Some of that is down to Ruben Amorim's mid-season switch to a back three, but Ten Hag delivered a team capable of winning two trophies but one going nowhere in the long term.
By the end of this transfer window, there is a chance only one of the five permanent signings made in Ten Hag's first summer of 2022 will still be at the club. That was a £203m window, but £85m man Antony and £70m signing Casemiro will both be available in 2025. Tyrell Malacia is also likely to be sold, and Christian Eriksen is set to leave on a free.
That leaves Lisandro Martinez, one of the better Ten Hag signings, as the only survivor. It is also a reminder of why United must do all they can to give Amorim similar sums to work with this summer. He has a squad ill-suited to his demands and not good enough to finish anywhere near the top five, never mind challenge for the title.
To achieve that, there will have to be sales, and some of those will be Ten Hag signings. Antony and Casemiro could raise funds, and the latter would be a substantial wage off the books.
Elsewhere, shifting Marcus Rashford will be a financial boost in real terms and under PSR (Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules) because of his status as an academy graduate. United will hope Chelsea take their £25m option to sign Jadon Sancho.
The MEN reported on Monday that United could look to move on at least 10 players through a combination of sales and expiring contracts. This would create room in the squad and a little more freedom in the budget to back Amorim.
Ten Hag was given around £170m in his second summer, with Rasmus Hojlund, Mason Mount, and Andre Onana the three big signings. For varying reasons, there are question marks around all three of them two years in.
The real extravagance was saved for last, however. The £205m spent last summer came when Ten Hag had only just survived the sack. Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte look promising signings, and Leny Yoro should come good. Joshua Zirkzee has endured one of the most mixed debut seasons in Old Trafford history.
But it all adds up to a squad assembled at great cost but failing to perform. Now, it is being asked to play a system that doesn't suit the profile of the players assembled. Fixing that will cost even more money, and for Amorim to really make his spell in charge a success, United need to find a way of giving him the same kind of budget that Ten Hag got.
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