Manchester United have finally fixed a problem that Ralf Rangnick spotted five years ago

Ahead of Manchester United's 3-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in April 2022, Ralf Rangnick unpinned a grenade and launched it.

United were still reeling from a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool at Anfield three days earlier and Rangnick pulled no punches ahead of his team's next assignment. He delivered some much-needed home truths that United's supporters were only too grateful to hear, even if they added to the negativity.

"It is crystal clear, it is not that difficult," said Rangnick in his pre-match press conference at Carrington. "You don't even need glasses to analyse and to see where the problems are.

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"Now it's about how do we solve them? It's not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart."

Rangnick's comment about United requiring 'open-heart surgery' will go down as being one of the most infamous quotes delivered by a United manager. But it was a comment that carried so much truth.

United were in disarray towards the end of the 2021/22 season and they needed to hit the reset button ahead of the following campaign. The club soon made progress under Erik ten Hag, winning a trophy and climbing back into the top four in his first season as manager.

He quickly put the brakes on the player power era, transforming the dressing room culture, but problems still persisted at boardroom level. Ten Hag was backed in his first two summer transfer windows in charge, being allowed to bring in a crop of big-name talent, such as Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro, Andre Onana, Mason Mount and Rasmus Hojlund.