Why Erik ten Hag will have to wait to build his perfect Manchester United squad

Erik ten Hag’s first summer at Manchester United was always billed as a rebuild job, following on from a truly disastrous campaign.

United had barely scraped into Europe, their experiment with Ralf Rangnick failed, their most expensive signing was about to leave, and practically every position was in need of some new additions. In fact, Rangnick summed it up when he suggested United would need 10 new signings in the transfer window.

Of course, that was always going to be easier said than done. While there’s no doubt United need something of an overhaul, it was always unlikely Ten Hag would make that amount of signings.

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To his credit, the Dutchman has so far identified six players he wants to bring to Old Trafford. Two of those look as though they’ll be walking through the door soon, with fees agreed for both Frenkie de Jong and Tyrell Malacia.

Others though might take a bit more work. In all likelihood, we won’t see Ten Hag’s true vision until next year.

His efforts this summer haven’t been helped by the unique position United – and everyone else for that matter – find themselves in this summer. The World Cup being played in the winter rather than the summer already looks to have scuppered Ten Hag’s chances of landing one of his targets.

Jurrien Timber looks to have been scared off by Louis van Gaal’s stern warning that he’d be risking his place in the Netherlands squad were he to not nail down a regular spot at Old Trafford. It’s now looking increasingly likely that Ten Hag will have to wait until January (at the earliest) to get his man.

That problem though could rear its head for any number of players this summer.