Ruben Amorim's £50m decision has salvaged contentious Manchester United summer transfer call

Erik ten Hag said in public that Manuel Ugarte had been "on my radar a long time", ever since watching him for Ruben Amorim's Sporting against Ajax in December 2021. But the Uruguayan was not the player Ten Hag wanted to strengthen his midfield this summer and his use of him before he was sacked at the end of October didn't suggest he had yet built up trust in him.

The arrival of Ugarte from Paris St-Germain for a fee of £42m, rising to £50.5m with add-ons, was a win for the collaborative nature of recruitment at United now. Ten Hag might have mostly got what he wanted in the summer, but he wasn't entirely sold on Ugarte.

He started only four games under the Dutchman and only one of those was in the Premier League. That was the 3-0 defeat to Tottenham in September when he undoubtedly had a difficult day. But he wasn't alone and it wasn't uncommon for Ten Hag's United teams to be ridden roughshod over.

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That was the week Ten Hag really started to have to fight for his future. In subsequent away days at Porto and Aston Villa, road trips that could have been his final games in charge had they ended in defeat, Ugarte didn't get off the bench. One of the marquee summer signings was already a peripheral figure.

The results ultimately did for Ten Hag, but his recruitment ideas were also questionable. Ugarte's transformation from Ten Hag to Ruud van Nistelrooy and now to Amorim has been eye-catching. From four starts in 10 games, he has now started eight of the last 11.

It helps that the 23-year-old understands Amorim's system from their time together at Sporting,