(Football news) Manchester United used to be the club of dreams for the longest time under Sir Alex Ferguson. Now at this moment in time they have been ‘under transition’ for almost 10 years. The main reason for that is said to be the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson and the club’s failure to get an appropriate replacement. Recently the blame has shifted towards the Glazer family who are owners of the club. However the biggest problem of the club is the way they conduct buying and selling of the players. Manchester United were linked with Cody Gakpo for the past 6 months but now the player has joined arch rivals Liverpool.

Everything was in Manchester United’s favour because Erik ten Hag wanted Gakpo, the player wanted to join the club and he also shared an agent with the manager. PSV were ready to sell him but United took too long to move and Liverpool took advantage of the situation. Manchester United terminated Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract on 22nd November and the club has known since then that they have to replace him. Last season, Manchester United didn’t sign any players in January even when they were struggling in the league. It could be said that the Red Devils have decided to focus on other targets but the likelihood is that they missed out on Gakpo because they didn’t move quick enough.

The Gakpo situation isn’t a first time occurance and the opposite of that is when Manchester United end up overpaying for someone or panic buying a player. According to Erik ten Hag, Antony had informed Ajax in January that he wanted to leave in the summer. In the summer the player made it pretty clear that he wanted to join Manchester United but they still ended up paying £86 million for him despite not having any competition.

To draw a comparison, Real Madrid had severe competition to sign Aurélien Tchouaméni but when it became clear that the player only wanted a move to Los Blancos they sealed the deal for €80 million which was less than what PSG and Liverpool were willing to pay.

Manchester United were linked with Jadon Sancho for way too long before the signing was made. They ended up paying €87M to Leicester City for Harry Maguire. Players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani were proper panic buys. Manchester United spent the whole summer trying to get Frenkie De Jong but when that didn’t happen they shifted focus on Casemiro. United spent £70m on a 30 year old defensive midfielder which can be counted as a panic buy. Manchester United need to sort out their transfer business because they have made far too many errors in that department which has ended up costing them.

Also read: Chelsea host Bournemouth to try and get back on track