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.