The point at which Manchester United knew they were making progress in the summer transfer window -- the club's first under the new leadership team put together by Sir Jim Ratcliffe -- came in mid-July. With Matt Hargreaves, director of football negotiations, locked in complicated talks with Marseille over a deal for Mason Greenwood, United were also pushing ahead with an agreement to bring in Leny Yoro, the highly rated young French defender, from Lille.
In previous years, according to club sources, United would have focused on reaching one agreement before beginning work on another. But with Omar Berrada in place as CEO, Dan Ashworth as sporting director and Jason Wilcox as technical director -- dubbed by some United fans as the footballing equivalent of The Avengers -- an "expanded capacity" to complete deals began to pay off. It also led to United formally announcing agreements for both Greenwood and Yoro on the same day.
Instead of relying on a small group of key personnel, sources have told ESPN that a larger team of senior figures, which also includes director of scouting Steve Brown and director of recruitment Christopher Vivell, meant United were able move more quickly in the market. It meant that of the five senior players signed this summer -- Yoro, defenders Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich, forward Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna and midfielder Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain -- only Ugarte arrived after the start of the Premier League season. Yoro and Zirkzee were signed before the start of the U.S tour.
With the deadline now passed, Ashworth says he "likes the squad" he's helped to assemble. There's an acceptance that the window didn't go perfectly, but after worries at Old Trafford in late-May and early-June that the summer could turn into a disaster, it's being viewed internally as a considerable win.
According to sources with knowledge of the meeting, Ratcliffe addressed staff in the run-up to the FA Cup final, where he admitted to frustrations that the recruitment operation was not "up to full speed." Part of that, according to Ratcliffe, was down to the difficulty United faced in trying to get Ashworth released from his contract at Newcastle United, but staff left the meeting with the sense that Man United were well behind in preparations for what was a crucial window. A number of agents and intermediaries felt the same, and calls into the club were often met with the same response: "We're waiting for feedback from Ineos."
Sources close to Ineos have since told ESPN that it was a deliberate stalling tactic because there were a number of issues up in the air in the weeks after the FA Cup final. It wasn't until June 10 -- 16 days after the final -- that Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford decided to keep Ten Hag as manager after a lengthy end-of-season review. It was another 18 days before lawyers working on behalf of United and Newcastle were able to agree an out-of-court settlement for Ashworth's release.
Ashworth officially started work on July 1, while Berrada formally took up his new role two weeks later after fulfilling a period of gardening leave following his departure from Manchester City. By that point, work on the summer recruitment drive had already kicked into gear.
Sources have told ESPN that Brown started detailed conversations with agents in mid-June to lay the groundwork on potential deals for a number of different targets. Agents were told that a centre-back to replace Raphaël Varane was the priority, followed by a striker to replace Anthony Martial. Zirkzee was identified as the top target to replace Martial with Ivan Toney (Brentford) and Jonathan David (Lille) also on the shortlist. It was eventually decided that Toney was too expensive, but David -- who would have cost a maximum of £25.3m -- remained a live option right up until Zirkzee was signed.
"We'd already lost two or three key players; Varane, Martial and [Sofyan] Amrabat had all gone, so there was a centre-back, a central midfielder player and a centre-forward were the key, and we felt we probably would need another centre-back as well," said Ashworth.
"They were the four key positions we really wanted to strengthen in this window and we've done that. By bringing in Zirkzee, bringing in Ugarte, bringing in Yoro and bringing in De Ligt, so that was the fundamentally, as I walked in, the preagreed positions, partly because of the exits and partly because of the view they were areas we wanted to strengthen our depth and quality."
United's firm stance on price -- something Berrada insisted upon -- ended the interest in Toney early on. It also meant walking away from a deal for Jarrad Branthwaite. The club's price-point analysis had Branthwaite's value at between £50m and £60m. Everton quoted £75m, citing Josko Gvardiol -- another left-footed centre-back of similar age -- as their marker.
Gvardiol moved to Manchester City for £77m in 2023, but Berrada saw Branthwaite at a level below when factoring in the England international's relative lack of experience. For example, Gvardiol had already played in the Champions League with RB Leipzig and was one of the standout young players at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Sources told ESPN that Branthwaite would have been signed if Everton had reduced their demands, but United were not prepared for negotiations to drag and so decided to move on.
Of the five senior signings made this summer, United paid the full asking price only for Yoro.
