Manchester United must listen to transfer warning Ralf Rangnick gave them in 2019

Ralf Rangnick was nothing more than a stranger to Manchester United and, yet, he had already identified one of the key reasons why the club has been on a downward trajectory during the post-Sir Alex Ferguson years.

"Since Sir Alex left they were underperforming," said Rangnick, speaking to The Times back in 2019. "They haven't won the title since he left. At any club, if you cannot get the right players, then you should at least not sign the wrong ones. You are in trouble if you do that in one or two or three consecutive transfer windows.

"Club building is about building the right squad by transferring the right players away and having more than 50 per cent success rate of bringing in the right players. Then you must have the best possible coaches to develop these players."

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Almost three years later, the exact same admission — if Rangnick was to make it tomorrow — would still ring true. United have made mistake after mistake in their recruitment in recent years and their failures have finally caught up with them once and for all, meaning this forthcoming summer promises to be the biggest they have faced in recent years.

While the appointment of Rangnick's successor to oversee the next chapter in the club's history is the biggest box that United must tick on their to-do list this summer, they also face the challenge of stripping back the squad, offloading the deadwood, saying goodbye to those who no longer want to be at the club and listening to offers for players that no longer have futures at Old Trafford, even if it means taking a financial hit.

The likes of Phil Jones, Eric Bailly, Nemanja Matic, Andreas Pereira and Anthony Martial have all surpassed