One signing and three sales - what Manchester United need to do in the transfer window

Ed Woodward once described the January transfer window as driven by the desperation of the seller, rather than the buyer. Manchester United are desperate for a goalscorer.

Anthony Martial has been absent for the last three weeks with illness and the de facto No.9, Rasmus Hojlund, broke his Premier League duck at the 15th go last week. Hojlund has operated above what the brief should be for a callow 20-year-old striker and United need to ease that burden.

The unwell Hojlund was not at the City Ground, where United were devoid of an out-and-out striker in their matchday squad. Amad, trialled as a false nine by Erik ten Hag in friendlies, returned to the matchday squad for the first time since December 2021.

Annually, United downplay expectations as midnight on New Year's Eve looms. Yet three of the most consequential United transfers in the past decade - Juan Mata, Alexis Sanchez and Bruno Fernandes - were all executed in January.

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Yesteryear, Sir Alex Ferguson mulled over Stan Collymore, Les Ferdinand and Andy Cole as the halfway point of the 1994-95 season. United made Newcastle an offer they could not refuse for Cole and did similarly nine years later for another No.9 in Louis Saha, prised from Fulham.

That the best and worst United signings of the post-Ferguson era have come in January typifies their slapdash strategy. United eschewed a move for Fernandes months before he was driven into Carrington and the summer speculation in Portugal was a source of irritation for those in the United communications department.

Ten Hag likened the scheduled mid-January return date of five