Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
If the business of the final day and hours of the summer transfer market is hectic and filled with last minute surprises, the way in which Manchester United went about conducting its business was bizarre to say the least. The day began with Manchester United finally deciding to go ahead and trigger the 36 million euro release clause in the contract of Ander Herrera, a playmaking central midfielder.
Yet, this deal never materialized because Manchester United ran into an inability to pay because of a series of technical and bureaucratic issues. This along with other rumors surrounding their attempt to sign Herrera highlighted what has been a summer for Manchester United where they have been unable to sign and bring in the necessary playmaking midfielder necessary to better perform in the Champions League and repeat as Premier League champions.
Now, Manchester United were able to rally and were able to acquire midfielder Marouane Fellaini from Everton in a deal that was consummated in the final minutes of the transfer window in a deal worth £27.5 million. This deal was able to come together in the final hours as a result of Fellaini handing in a transfer request with his former club Everton. While in the end of the summer transfer market saw Manchester United were able to get one of their targets in Fellaini, the fact of the matter remains, as a club they need to adjust to a new reality.
It is clear that the new chief executive Ed Woodward gets a failing grade for how he worked his first summer transfer market as the Manchester United chief executive. From the very beginning of him assuming his role and of David Moyes taking over for Sir Alex Ferguson (SAF), Woodward failed Moyes in his inability to land any of the targeted player Moyes wanted, especially with regards to bringing in a playmaking central midfielder, something that was known they needed.
The fact of the matter is that with Sir Alex Ferguson no longer the man there to close deals just because it was him dealing with a targeted transfer target, the job of somebody like Woodward in supporting David Moyes, who is a no name in comparison, becomes even more important. And while yes, they were able to eventually bring in Fellaini, the fact that they did not do so earlier, knowing that he had a £23.5 million release clause that expired at the end of July is not smart business sense. This combined with the weak combined bid they put in for Fellaini and left fullback Leighton Baines made it look like amateurs were in charge now at Old Trafford.
Now, I might be grading and being too harsh on Moyes and Woodward for what they did here in their first summer transfer market as Manchester United coach and chief executive. With that said, they must figure out what they did wrong and how to correct and change for the future because they now work at Manchester United, they need to step up their game and conduct business accordingly.
The fact of the matter remains that with SAF and former chief executive David Gill no longer in charge of operations, Ed Woodward and the rest of the club executives under his watch must recognize figure things out quickly because he and Moyes do not have the clout that SAF and Gill had. Without that clout, it means they must learn how to how to conduct transfer business by being able to sell more than just hey, we represent Manchester United so sign with our team, because that along will no longer suffice.
Lucas Carreras is a contributing Soccer writer for www.RantSports.com. You can follow Lucas on Twitter by following him @maldini3fan and you can add him to your network on Google.
