James Garner decision typifies Manchester United's mystifying transfer approach

The decision to sell James Garner seems baffling for many reasons, not least due to the lack of midfield depth at the club.

Manchester United’s midfield may as well have been in the ice bath during Saturday’s scorching annihilation to Brentford, who coolly bypassed Fred, Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen with little sweat. Erik ten Hag’s decision to play Eriksen in a deeper role was ill-judged, to say the least.

The position is one that Garner thrived in at Nottingham Forest last season, and perhaps his failure to get on the pitch against the Bees was ominous on reflection. However, few expected him to be transfer listed.

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It typifies a chaotic summer off the pitch for United. The board’s inability to bring in top target Frenkie de Jong after more than three months of negotiations is woeful - as is the perceived transfer strategy of mainly targeting players who formerly played under Ten Hag.

It seems the United hierarchy have only recently realised it's a ploy that won’t work in the Premier League and are now panicking. This has been evidenced by their haphazard former pursuit of Marko Arnautovic and questionable current chase of Adrien Rabiot.

Neither are good enough to boost United to a top-four finish, but those heading recruitment clearly feel the gigantic transfer pull the club once had for top players has now vanished. They also have a problem with departures.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s future remains unclear amid the club’s need for attacking reinforcement while the Reds have been unable to offload for-sale players Brandon Williams and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. And that’s not even mentioning that United still have seven senior