As the dust settles on the January transfer window, Manchester United supporters are left to reflect on a month where their side, on the whole, sat back and watched.
Despite facing a battle to finish in the Premier League's top four this season, Old Trafford bosses made the decision to not make any signings.
After months of upheaval both on the pitch and off of it, the time was simply not right for United to make a big splash.
January marked the final month of Ed Woodward's ignominious reign in the Manchester United boardroom. From today (February 1) Richard Arnold will take up his role as the club's chief executive.
Football director John Murtough has now taken control of transfer dealings - along with technical director Darren Fletcher and chief negotiator Matt Judge - but changes above him will have hardly helped their plans.
For a full Deadline Day recap click here: Every Premier League deal completed
And on the managerial front, United went into the first month of 2022 in an unstable position. Having sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November, Ralf Rangnick’s tenure as interim boss is still very much in its infancy.
At the end of December, the German suggested that his full focus was still on assessing the squad at Carrington, rather than necessarily bringing in new recruits.
And that assumption proved to be true, as Rangnick’s only moves to shape the United team was with departures.
But the decisions taken by Rangnick still greatly differed from the reported plans put in place by his predecessor just months previous.
According to the Sun, Solskjaer was planning a raft of exits, with seven first-team stars made available to leave.
In the end, Donny van de Beek and Anthony Martial sealed loan moves to Everton and Sevilla respectively, but that would have only been the start of the overhaul had Solskjaer stayed put.
The report claims that along with those two; Jesse Lingard, Phil Jones, Eric Bailly, Diogo Dalot and Alex Telles could have been shipped out.
Lingard’s exit looked a near-certainty for much of the month, only for a late U-turn seeing a potential loan move blocked at the deadline.
As for Phil Jones, he was also linked with a move away, but like Lingard, will remain with the club for the second half of the campaign.
But in Bailly, Dalot and Telles, they were never in the running to leave, having seen an increase in game time since the change of manager.
Dalot in particular has become ‘untouchable’ according to some reports, having usurped £50million signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka at right back.
Alex Telles has also impressed in the absence of Luke Shaw and the idea of him leaving now seems very unlikely.
The string of first-team sales were said to be in order to boost Solskjaer’s transfer kitty, in what would have likely been a desperate dash to save his United tenure.
But with Rangnick now in charge, that clock has been reset, allowing players a fresh start and more detailed summer transfer plans to now be in place.
