Manchester United: Gary Neville's 2014 transfer rant is still true today

Manchester United have made a mess of their summer transfer window – again.

Erik ten Hag arrived harbouring hopes of being able to dismantle and begin the rebuilding process of a broken squad, but that simply hasn’t happened.

After a dismal sixth place finish last season with their lowest Premier League points tally ever recorded, it was widely anticipated that Ten Hag would be able to lay out a blueprint early on with major reinforcements.

As the summer transfer window draws to a close, United have signed four players, but it still doesn’t feel like anywhere near enough and the way they’ve gone about their business has been incredibly concerning.

The club were embroiled in a transfer saga surrounding Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong essentially from the minute Ten Hag first arrived at Carrington, but a move for the Dutchman now looks dead in the water after chasing him all summer long.

United have since signed Casemiro from Real Madrid, and while that sounds like a serious signing, it doesn’t sound as promising when you hear he was the third choice midfielder after top target De Jong, and Juventus outcast Adrien Rabiot.

Ten Hag has maintained that the club should only move to sign the right players in the market during his press conferences so far, but it is clear that they have failed to deliver him the summer transfer window he needed – especially considering that this is a squad which required ‘open heart surgery’ to fix according to Ralf Rangnick.

At this point, with the amount of money generated by the club that has been thrown around aimlessly since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, it’s shambolic to see how little United have to show for it. It’s also not a surprise to see how they’ve acted in the transfer market as a