Five Man Utd transfer mistakes that could HAUNT Louis van Gaal, with Pedro Chelsea deal & De Gea Real Madrid saga

Edward Bennett

9 years ago

Five biggest LVG errors this summer, featuring Pedro and De Gea.

Despite some initial excitement as Memphis Depay was joined by a flurry of big-name signings in Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin, it’s looking like being a failed transfer window for Manchester United.

The Red Devils are still not looking complete enough in key areas to mount a serious title challenge, despite a decent start of two wins and one draw from their opening three games.

Louis van Gaal has to be under scrutiny for what could end up being another hugely disappointing performance in the transfer market, with these his five main mistakes that will surely come back to haunt him this season…

1) The David de Gea saga

Manchester United’s handling of the David de Gea situation has been desperately poor. Despite not including the Spanish goalkeeper in their team for the first four games of the season, the club now look set to hold on to him for the rest of the season before inevitably losing him for free to Real Madrid next summer. All hopes of him signing a new contract are surely gone after LVG snubbing him and ruining their relationship, and the Reds are now without the £30m they surely could have got for him if they’d sold him earlier in the transfer window, allowing more time to bring in a top class replacement and to be done with this unwanted distraction.

2) Letting Pedro join Chelsea

How United messed this up is beyond almost everyone, with Ed Woodward mainly to blame, it would seem, though Van Gaal also needing to take some responsibility for supposedly going back and forth on whether or not he really wanted Pedro. Now at Chelsea, and impressing tremendously on his debut, it’s painfully clear that the former Barcelona man could have been a real hit at Old Trafford, bringing exactly what the team needs out wide after the sale of Angel Di Maria to Paris Saint-Germain. Now with just over a week to go, United risk hugely overpaying for a player like Neymar, Gareth Bale or Thomas Muller when Pedro could have been theirs for just £21m – an absolute bargain they for some reason felt was too expensive.

3) Robin van Persie’s exit

As time goes on, it looks increasingly like letting Robin van Persie go so soon was a mistake by United. Yes, the Dutchman is certainly past his peak now, but he still has the quality to play a backup role at Old Trafford, especially with Wayne Rooney now the only option up front and playing so poorly so far this season. RVP, meanwhile, has got off to a scoring start in Turkey and must have at least a year or two left at the top level.

4) No striker signing

With or without Van Persie’s exit, it’s clear a new striker has been badly needed at United, but many top targets have now got away from the club. Pedro, although mainly a winger, could have played there, while Christian Benteke would have been a good option, only for him to end up at rivals Liverpool. Perhaps none of us could really have predicted how bad Rooney has been so far, but to start the season with the ageing England international as the ONLY recognised centre-forward in the squad is madness, and it’ll be much harder now to persuade the likes of Real Madrid and PSG to sell Karim Benzema or Edinson Cavani for anything but hugely inflated prices as there’ll be no time for them to replace their departing stars.

5) No centre-back signing

Letting Sergio Ramos and Nicolas Otamendi slip away is another major LVG gaff from this summer, with both looking exactly what United needed in defence. Time is ticking away now and it looks again like the Red Devils could struggle to bring in an established world class star in that position, relying instead on Chris Smalling continuing an admittedly improved run of form, whilst also hoping that Daley Blind will adapt to a new role in the centre this season – two things that are far from guaranteed.

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