Man Utd: Two major transfer regrets revealed as club bosses rue botched summer window – report
Manchester United transfer chiefs have reportedly accepted that they fell well short with their summer business, with two major regrets being revealed after the club’s worst start to a season in 40 years.
Saturday’s 1-1 draw with 10-man Tottenham Hotspur means United have won just one of their opening six Premier League games, while they also crashed out of the Carabao Cup after throwing away a two-goal lead at home against Brighton.
Supporters booed at three separate stages during the clash with Spurs, who were bottom of the table when the game at Old Trafford got underway.
The poor start has led to increased pressure on Michael Carrick’s tenure, with one expert claiming that his time could already be up.
And now it’s emerged that the club’s hierarchy was not satisfied with the second phase of their squad rebuild over the summer, led by director of football Jason Wilcox and recruitment chief Christopher Vivell.
United invested £225.2million to bring in Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko and Senne Lammens in the summer of 2025, but that figure dropped to £155m during the last window.
The £70m capture of Carlos Baleba, who made his debut off the bench against Tottenham, was welcomed by United fans but The Sun reports that insiders have told them that fellow summer recruits Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos were “a long way down the list”.
It’s no massive secret that the likes of Ederson Silva, Elliot Anderson, Mateus Fernandes and Aurelien Tchouameni were United’s preferred picks to bolster Carrick’s engine room.
While, Tottenham blew United out of the water to buy Fernandes, Anderson had already settled on moving to City months before the move was completed in July.
Both Anderson and Tonali then played major roles as two 10-men teams, City and Tottenham, gained positive results at Old Trafford.
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Man Utd regrets over failed Ederson, Hall transfers
United ultimately opted to bring in Tielemans after a protracted £35m deal for Atalanta defensive midfielder Ederson fell through
Tielemans, 29, had a release clause of £35m and United proceeded with the transfer even though he was a different type of midfielder to Ederson and was also outside of their preferred age bracket of 22-26 for targets.
Tielemans is, so far, the only Red Devils star to start all eight of their games in all competitions, while £50m signing Santos has featured for just 16 minutes since starting in the opening weekend loss at Hull City.
While Santos was regarded as a more affordable target, given the fees for Anderson, Fernandes and Tchouameni, The Sun adds that there is ‘particular regret at United that they had to withdraw from the Ederson move after a medical flagged a major issue with his knee’.
Meanwhile, they add that senior figures at United are also’ rueing the failure to add a left-back’, having held exploratory talks with Newcastle defender Lewis Hall.
The 22-year-old England international was keen to sign for United, but the Magpies blocked his exit and ultimately convinced the highly-rated defender to sign a new contract on Tyneside last month.
The failure to add another left-back could prove costly, given that Luke Shaw missed three games last month and Patrick Dorgu is out for a number of weeks after sustaining an injury on international duty.
Carrick played Dorgu as a winger before the window closed, although he has since reverted to more a defensive role.
As for Shaw, the 31-year-old is in the final year of his contract and could be allowed to walk away on a free transfer in the summer of 2027.
