£60m signing, cut-price deal, three exits - Man United's dream midfield after five transfers

There is a chance that the midfielders Erik ten Hag picks in his starting XI at Wembley for the Community Shield will not have played a single minute's worth of pre-season football.

The United manager announced his 29-man travelling squad for the pre-season tour of the United States on Wednesday and, as expected, it did not feature Kobbie Mainoo or Bruno Fernandes.

The duo represented England and Portugal, respectively, at the European Championship and are entitled to three weeks off. England reached the final on July 14 and Portugal bowed out of the competition at the quarter-final stage on July 5.

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It means the earliest that United's fans can expect to catch a glimpse of the midfield duo will be against Manchester City six days before the start of the Premier League season.

Mainoo and Fernandes are expected to form two-thirds of United's midfield this season after the former joined Fernandes in becoming an indispensable figure last term. The academy graduate excelled, establishing himself as one of the Reds' most important players.

With Fernandes expected to operate as United's No.10 and Mainoo primed to be deployed as the No.8, all that is missing in what should become Ten Hag's first-choice midfield is a new holding midfielder. Casemiro regressed last season and needs to be replaced with a younger operator.

As has been well documented, United want to bring in a defensive midfielder before the end of this summer's transfer window and they are exploring various avenues. They are interested in Paris Saint-Germain's Manuel Ugarte and Martin Zubimendi of Real Sociedad and