The two Man Utd signings that would have prevented Champions League exit

Tom Weber

• Updated: 13 Dec 2023 08:05 GMT
• 3 min read

Signing Declan Rice and Harry Kane could have prevented Man Utd's dire season, according to club legend Paul Scholes.

The Red Devils are out of Europe. Having finished bottom of their Champions League group with the most goals ever conceded by an English side at this stage of the competition, Erik ten Hag's men won't even get to play in the Europa League in the spring.

Man Utd actually still had hope of proceeding to the Champions League knockouts heading into their final group game with Bayern Munich at Old Trafford. They needed to beat the Bavarians and hope for a draw between Copenhagen and Galatasaray, but neither materialised with the Germans and the Danes both running out 1-0 victors.

It was ironic that Harry Kane got the assist for Kingsley Coman's winner given that United had spent the summer pursuing the then-Tottenham striker, only to eventually move on to the cheaper Rasmus Hojlund, who is yet to score in the Premier League. Kane, meanwhile, is currently leading the European Golden Shoe and Bundesliga Golden Boot races, having scored 22 goals in all competitions so far.

Man Utd's summer mistakes

The Red Devils pulled out of the race to sign Kane because of Financial Fair play concerns and a lack of resources, but Man Utd legend Paul Scholes believes that it was a mistake to not go all out for the striker.

"Harry Kane, £100 million and he’s yours," he said on TNT Sports in the build-up to the Bayern game. "He’d have wanted to come here, 100 per cent. The other one is Declan Rice, another £100m. Then you’re buying properly known quality, the right characters, they know the country, the club, and I thought it was so easy."

Rice joined Arsenal in the summer and, like Kane, has impressed since his move. Rio Ferdinand concurred with Scholes' assessment, saying: "I agree, maybe the character and resilience was what they needed more than anything. More than talent - not that they don’t have that, they have it in abundance - but the overall problem with this club at the moment is off the pitch."

"They would both come in and sort that out, they’d lead that in a better way. We’ve seen the way they’ve walked into their new clubs, they’re probably the two best performance-wise there."