Revealed: Man Utd turned down three stars who would have transformed their season

Robin Bairner

• 7 May 2022 05:20 CDT
• 4 min read

Manchester United look destined to finish the Premier League season in sixth place, but had they made any of three January transfers that manager Ralf Rangnick recommended, they could have been facing a very different outcome to this campaign.

United have only finished outside the top five in the top flight on three occasions since the 1991/92 campaign, and it will be particularly disappointing this time around given their ambitions were a title challenge.

By January, of course, it was evident that they were off that pace, but they still held real ambition to qualify for the Champions League.

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Had Rangnick had his way in the transfer market, the Red Devils may well have been given an extra spur to reach the top four, but instead the board allowed other clubs to make decisive moves.

“The answer at the time was no, there was no player on the market that could really help us. But there were a few: Luis Diaz who is now at Liverpool, Julian Alvarez who will be at Manchester City in the summer, Dusan Vlahovic who at the time still was with Fiorentina,” Rangnick said.

“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.”

Luis Diaz the player Man Utd needed

These revelations are embarrassing for the decision makers at Old Trafford, particularly given that Luis Diaz has been spectacular at Anfield and Vlahovic has been scoring regularly for Juventus.

The case of Diaz, particularly, has frustrated those around Old Trafford. Before Rangnick made his quotes, former Man Utd defender Quinton Fortune told the Atheltic that he believes that the club should have made a move.

“I had been watching him for the last few months and years, thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, this is the player United need to sign,’” he said.

“Then Liverpool sign him and you are just thinking: ‘Nooo! How are we missing these players? Come on! Help me out here.’”

Why did Man Utd not make these moves?

Rangnick did not explain the board’s reasoning for rejecting his transfer requests, but there are three main reasons for suggesting why they might not have moved.

Firstly, the board probably felt that in the summer transfer window, they had spent enough money to guarantee a top-four finish. Jadon Sancho, Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane all arrived on big money, and the expectation was that a better season was coming. Indeed, no club in world football spent more than them. Their returns have been poor.

Secondly, they perhaps felt that January was not time to get value for money for their transfers, and even Liverpool had to pay above what they might have wished for Luis Diaz amidst mounting interest from Tottenham.

Finally, Rangnick would have been expected to have had more of an impact with the squad than he has. Instead, the dressing room has splintered and Manchester United have become a dysfunctional mess. There may also have been an element of fear in shaping the team to the interim boss’ whims if no deal had been struck with Ajax manager Erik ten Hag at that point, which evidence suggests was the case.