Manchester United are still trying to fix their expensive transfer mistakes

When Manchester United sold Daniel James to Leeds for £25million last summer it was just the fifth time in a decade they had managed to make a profit on a player they were ready to discard.

United got lucky with James. Marcelo Bielsa was obsessed with the winger and he'd done just about enough at Old Trafford to suggest there was still potential there. If Leeds were selling him now they wouldn't get £25million for him.

James was the first of the 2019 intake out of the door but he will be followed by Aaron Wan-Bissaka this summer. United will do well to avoid making more than a 50% loss on the £45million that Crystal Palace managed to hoodwink out of them for the right-back.

READ MORE: United offering Wan-Bissaka to clubs

Wan-Bissaka and James were two players who fit the bill in what Ed Woodward described as a "cultural reset" in 2019, but in what reality has been a dreadful waste of £140million. Harry Maguire was the headline act but the £80million is clinging on at Old Trafford, with a point to prove if he's to keep his place in Erik ten Hag's team.

Those three signings three years ago fit the bill for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, they were young, hungry and British. The one criteria Solskjaer failed to demand was that they were good enough to play for Manchester United.

The warning signs should have been ringing when the manager of a football club with aspirations of dominating in Europe as well as domestically advocated signing players from Palace, Swansea and Leicester City, but Woodward had nailed his colours to the mast with the early appointment of Solskjaer and they had little choice but to back him.

Had United stuck to their original plan of waiting until the end of the 2018/19 season to make a decision over