Man Utd are run by amateurs – Vlahovic and Luis Diaz prove it

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:55 CDT
• 4 min read

Ralf Rangnick revealed ahead of Man Utd’s humiliating 4-0 defeat by Brighton on Saturday evening that the club refused to put in bids for Dusan Vlahovic, Luis Diaz and Julian Alvarez in January.

This was despite the fact that Rangnick had been keen to bring in at least another attacker during the mid-season window.

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United saw their attack decimated at the start of the year after Anthony Martial and Amad Diallo were loaned out, while Mason Greenwood was suspended indefinitely.

With Marcus Rashford in dismal form all season, Jadon Sancho flopping since his big move from Borussia Dortmund and Edinson Cavani increasingly injury-prone, Rangnick was crying out for support for veteran Cristiano Ronaldo.

But, inexplicably, the Man Utd hierarchy above Rangnick refused to buy any attackers despite the availability of three top forwards in Dusan Vlahovic, Luis Diaz and Julian Alvarez.

In the end, Vlahovic moved to Juventus, Luis Diaz to Liverpool and Alvarez to Man City.

The former duo have made excellent starts at their new clubs.

“The answer at the time was no, there was no player on the market that could really help us. But there were a few,” Rangnick explained.

“Diaz who is now at Liverpool, Alvarez who will be at Manchester City in the summer, Vlahovic who at the time still was with Fiorentina. Those are just three of them that come across my mind now.

“We had four days off at the time and on the Sunday I was informed about the issues with Mason Greenwood and obviously Anthony Martial had already left and then I was aware that within four days we had some strikers missing and it might make sense.

“We were still in three competitions – Champions League, FA Cup and fourth in the league, but that’s in the past and it doesn’t help us anymore.

“I spoke to the board and said ‘shouldn’t we at least speak and try and analyse if we could get a player either on loan or as a permanent deal’, but in the end the answer was no.

“I still believe that we should have at least tried. If we would’ve found and been able in 48 hours, 48 hours is short notice but it’s still 48 hours. It might have been worth to try and internally discuss but we didn’t and it was not done.”

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Rangnick that he was left with such a poor group of forwards for the second half of the season.

Only Cristiano Ronaldo has performed up to task, scoring nine of Man Utd’s last 12 goals.

Since the start of March, only one goal has been scored by a Man Utd attacker that isn’t Ronaldo.

Of course, much will be said about how bad Man Utd's defence has been. They have broken defensive record after defensive record this season - all for the wrong reasons.

But their dreadful attack has been just as big a problem.

The result of this is that there will be no Champions League football for Man Utd next season.

It is the latest humiliating failure by a club who are now approaching 10 years without winning the Premier League.

And it is the latest evidence that the people calling the shots at Old Trafford are hopelessly out of their depth. To call them amateurish would be an insult to amateurs.

Erik ten Hag will take over as Man Utd manager next season but nothing will change while nonsensical decisions like these are being made above his head.