Manchester United’s transfer strategy must improve, warns Ralf Rangnick

Ralf Rangnick has warned Manchester United that they need to transform their record in the transfer market after admitting that too few of their signings have flourished in the past nine years and that the Premier League’s top two have been better at buying.

United have spent more than £1bn on players since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 but have not sustained a title challenge and go into Sunday’s Manchester derby 19 points behind their neighbours. The interim manager drew an unflattering comparison between United’s recruitment and that of Manchester City and Liverpool.

As director of football for Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig, Rangnick helped each earn reputations for signing and planning well and he believes United have lacked the long-term thinking to buy to suit a blueprint in the way their rivals have.

“It’s a question of continuity and consistency, knowing exactly how I want to play as a club and a manager,” he said, “of having a clear transfer strategy and signing players who fit into that system. That’s what both clubs have been doing in the last five or six years.

“If I look at their transfer policy and their transfer success, they haven’t had many players who after one or two years people would have said maybe that wasn’t the right signing. Both clubs have been pretty successful and this is where Manchester United have to go again.

“Under Sir Alex they were there, but since then there have been quite a few different managers and to close the gap to those two clubs, you have to make sure … that the recruitment is right. You have to be quick enough in the transfer market, knowing the market and signing the right players in the right moment.”

Rangnick believes that a failure to qualify for next season’s