Manchester United should know which players are leaving this summer and next

Manchester City have signed Erling Haaland and their chairman has publicly promised two more signings. City, champions in four of the last five years, do not stand still. United appear to be statue still.

Football fans are not renowned for their patience at this time of year and it has not gone unnoticed Borussia Dortmund have recruited seven new players and Aston Villa have agreed two deals. That is a diverse collection of clubs proactive before the transfer window has officially opened.

It leaves United with few excuses after their worst season in living memory. Things can change, but the club are not expecting any major movement before the window's opening date of June 10.

READ MORE: De Jong breaks silence on future

Already, there are obvious flaws to United's strategy. The interest in Kalvin Phillips is fraught with nuance - would a Yorkshireman follow the same path as Eric Cantona and Alan Smith? Would Leeds stay up? - and Erik ten Hag's powers of persuasion are unlikely to convince Frenkie de Jong.

Objectively, why would De Jong, a 25-year-old regular starter for Barcelona tied to the club for four more years, spend his peak years at a club that yo-yos from the Champions League to the Europa League, never challenging for the former and without a domestic championship in almost 10 years? Money, you might say. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, that has been the cause of, and solution to, all of United's problems in the market. Only they have solved little.

United have dispensed with the two scouts with the highest-profile titles, so are their recommendations disregarded? John Murtough is busy, as everyone in his line of work is as June looms, but it remains to be seen if he is as skilful a negotiator as Matt Judge,