Erik ten Hag knew exactly what to expect from Manchester United in summer transfer window

Manchester United's current role in football's greater transfer landscape is a little like the roles actors Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill were given in the recent Star Wars sequels; a famous old name, great for publicity and PR, but shorn of the glory when it came to the climax.

The makers of the Star Wars reboot had their own reasons for putting the old names to the back and allowing Daisy Ridley et al to take the foreground, but at United it's not their choice to be overlooked, used by the media and agents to drum up attention around transfer targets. So in the case of Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez — snared by Man City and Liverpool respectively already this summer — you could understand if there was some annoyance at Old Trafford.

United did have a genuine interest in both strikers at one stage or another. In Haaland's case, it was the winter of 2019 when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's pulling power as a former mentor of his fellow countryman didn't quite pay off and the striker went to Borussia Dortmund. After that failure and Solskjaer's exit, United were always going to struggle.

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Nunez was on their radar briefly, but the fee involved and the player's desire to play for Liverpool proved decisive.

It's symptomatic of United's current position in football's brutal hierarchy that they find themselves missing out on elite strikers like Haaland and Nunez. Their recent record in the transfer market is counting against them.

Who was the last player signed by United who proved an unmitigated success? Bruno Fernandes, perhaps, but his drop-off in form in the past 12 months has been significant.

Even bringing Cristiano Ronaldo back to the club last year