Manchester United have reportedly decided they will only be offloading players in the January transfer window and not bringing any signings in.
This follows recent discussions at board level, according to Football Insider, and it sounds like a risky approach when things are already going pretty badly at Man Utd.
It could now be that the Red Devils will lose a few players who aren’t currently playing regularly, but will end up failing to replace them and go into the second half of the season with less in the way of squad depth.
There’s also the risk that United will ultimately end up offloading the wrong players, with talents like Jesse Lingard and Donny van de Beek perhaps likely candidates for the exit door even though they arguably deserve more playing time.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would surely do well to at least give some opportunities to some fringe players between now and January.
Solskjaer’s old team-mate Luke Chadwick has suggested the same, telling CaughtOffside that the likes of Van de Beek and Lingard could have something to offer the team.
“Maybe it’s time to try something different and give different players an opportunity,” Chadwick told CaughtOffside. “Donny van de Beek’s been there a season a half nearly and hardly had any playing time.
“He’s shown in the past what a talented player he is, so maybe it’s time to give him a run of games. They’re not going to win a league with the team they’ve been putting out this season so maybe it is time to look at something different.”
He added: “There’ll be a huge amount of suitors for Jesse Lingard. I’m not even sure West Ham would be that much of a step down for him at this moment in time, in terms of the position they’re in and the position United are in.
“I think Lingard’s capable of playing for the upper reaches of European football. But West Ham also seems like a good move for him, he performed so well there in his loan spell. He knows the players and the surroundings, so it could work for him. But you also feel if he was given a run of games for United he could do a job too.”