Erik ten Hag has five burning issues to sort at Manchester United over the next week

Tyrell Malacia or Christian Eriksen are set to have the distinction of becoming the most belated new-season signing by Manchester United since Dimitar Berbatov burned the midnight oil with Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill in 2008.

United have still not paraded Malacia or Eriksen and Manchester City announced Kalvin Phillips on Monday morning. Liverpool? Their major incoming and outgoing came and went before July. City and Liverpool are United's rivals only in the historic sense these days and they operate in such unrecognisable ballparks to United they might as well be in a different sport.

United's regression is so acute there is another parallel with the reset summer of 2019 now a star player wants out, via his agent's mouthpiece. Paul Pogba at least went on the record.

Also read: Why Pereira has not returned to United yet

What started as a tactic to exert pressure on United to accelerate their recruitment plans has now become far graver. The Sunday Times usually sets the news agenda for the forthcoming week with insight into a chaotic No.10. Those at Downing Street would sympathise with United as they cannot seem to go a month without their own fire to douse.

United thought they had quietened the Ronaldo rumblings but they are powerless to quell Jorge Mendes. Mendes was responsible for the BBC story about Jose Mourinho's imminent appointment that marred United's FA Cup final win in 2016 and Inspector Clouseau could have deduced the source of the Saturday tea-time line on Ronaldo.

Erik ten Hag is understood to have held individual video calls with United players throughout May and it would have been advisable to have made a beeline for Ronaldo. Last month, club media released an interview of Ronaldo saying he was "very