A lot can happen in a short period of time in football, and it’s hard to think of a transfer that changed one club’s fortunes more than Bruno Fernandes in recent years.
At the end of last year there were weekly reports suggesting that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could be sacked, while Ed Woodward’s approach to transfers was so popular that fans decided to firebomb his house.
That pressure has relented in recent months due to a turnaround in fortunes, but it also makes you wonder where they would be if they had signed Fernandes last summer instead of waiting until January.
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The Daily Mail have reported on United’s negotiating tactics when it comes to signing Jadon Sancho, and it suggests the fans shouldn’t get their hopes up.
They quote the Manchester Evening News in saying that they plan to take the same approach as they did with Sporting Lisbon – waiting until the last minute and trying to lessen the financial impact by making most of the fee up in bonuses rather than up front payments.
The problem here is that Dortmund don’t have an immediate need to sell, the German teams like to get things done early and the report says they’ve given United a deadline of the 10th of August to agree a deal.
Woodward and Man United have often been criticised for not being decisive enough in their transfer dealings, and those claims will surface again if they lose out on Sancho because of this.