Erik ten Hag can consider Manchester United wildcard to solve £50m transfer problem in pre-season

The Erik ten Hag era is officially up and running.

A selection of Manchester United first-team players reported back to the club's Carrington training base on Monday for the beginning of pre-season training and the start of the Ten Hag revolution. United's players will return for pre-season in phases, with those who didn't feature on the international stage earlier this month the first to report back and meet up with the new boss and his coaching team.

David de Gea, Tom Heaton, Victor Lindelof, Donny van de Beek, Antony Martial and youngster Alejandro Garnacho were among the faces to attend the opening day of what promises to be a rigorous pre-season campaign. United, following last season's disappointments, can ill-afford to waste any time this summer, as Ten Hag embarks on the challenge of trying to bring the good times back to Old Trafford.

READ MORE: Manchester United and Barcelona hopeful of Frenkie de Jong transfer agreement soon

Although Ten Hag was not joined on day one in the job by any new recruits, with United still pushing for their first signing of the summer, a selection of youngsters were invited to report back with the first-team squad, such as Ethan Laird, Alvaro Fernandez and Shola Shoretire, with the trio all pictured by club media. They, like several other youngsters, will be planning to impress Ten Hag over the next week or so, ahead of the Dutchman selecting which players he wants to take to Thailand on July 8 for the pre-season tour.

Despite no new signings as of yet, competition for places over pre-season promises to be high, certainly in some positions, anyway. And among the positions where competition may prove to be fierce over the next few weeks is right-back, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who