Cristiano Ronaldo is playing an unexpected role in Manchester United's transfer plans

In the build-up to Manchester United's trip to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday evening, interim manager Ralf Rangnick used his penultimate pre-match press conference to drop an almighty bombshell.

The German, who has littered his press conferences with refreshing levels of honesty since his December arrival at Old Trafford, made his biggest and most telling admission to date. He revealed that he wanted to add a striker to United's ranks in the January transfer window and his efforts were blocked.

"Obviously, there were some problems the team had at the end of November and as we all know, in the first couple of months, at least until end of January, we were improving," Rangnick said. "We were conceding fewer goals, we had a points average of 2.1 after the West Ham game.

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"But then in that international break we lost, including Edinson Cavani, three players - long-term players - we lost three strikers and we had problems to score goals and find our balance, this is what happened. Maybe - I still believe - we should have tried, in those 48 hours, and I think the board meanwhile sees it the same way - they agreed with me - but they also spoke to the scouting department at the time, maybe we should have signed, tried to sign, a player in those 48 hours once we knew Mason [Greenwood] wouldn't be available, once we knew that Anthony Martial had already left on loan.

"We were at least already aware Edinson Cavani might not be available for eight out of ten games but, as I said, we didn't. Maybe I should have pushed even more in order to get this additional striker. But, as I said, we didn't."

Had United added a fresh dimension to