Manchester United fans worried about transfer state of…

Manchester United fans worried about transfer state of play for Erik ten Hag rebuild

Manchester United fans are currently unsure what to think of the current transfer window. Erik ten Hag has been appointed the club's new manager and is expected to helm a rebuild at the club, however, the club is now just over a week into the window and no signings have been confirmed.

In isolation, this does not seem like a massive problem as United have till September 1 to complete their summer business. However when you add in the perspective that the club's rivals bar Chelsea are already well underway with securing their own transfers, you can understand why fans are concerned.

I asked the fanbase a number of questions on Twitter on Saturday about the club's summer transfer window. This included their desired signings, their key positions that need upgrading and also what doubts they have going forward. Let's take a look at them in detail (the polls are still running so all statistics are as of the time of writing).

Firstly to add the context; United are in talks with Barcelona for Frenkie de Jong, other than a contract offer to Christian Eriksen, it seems to most fans that it is their only active negotiation. He is Ten Hag's main target, but the club are haggling over the price and have been for a few weeks now.

I asked the fans whether they thought that the club was taking too long - of 235 replies, 47.2% stated that they believed United were but they could understand why it was taking time. 37.9% on the other hand stated that it should be done by now and only 15.3% clicked the 'no' option.

But what about after the De Jong transfer is finalised? What area do United fans think the club should target? Well when I asked this question, the answer was resounding 'Midfield', with 78.3% of 949 replies choosing this option.

In the comments, many fans specified a defensive midfielder, with Ibrahim Sangare from PSV Eindhoven being named on multiple occasions. With the departure of Nemanja Matic, United now have no natural number six at the club and this seems to be part of the fans' reasoning.

So I decided to ask fans about where attention should turn after the midfield. This was a much closer affair with 'Striker' winning out with 34.1% of the 369 fans who replied picking this option. 'Full-Back' was close behind on 33.1% with 'Right-Wing' coming third with 20.6%.

As a follow-up question and because it would likely affect United's pursuit of a forward, I asked the fan base where they saw Jadon Sancho in the long-term. Of 272 votes, 'On the Left' won with 62.9%, though the fans in the comments did clash.

Sancho was bought for £73m by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to play on the right but showed this season that he is much more comfortable on the opposite side. United are therefore overloaded with left-sided forwards and may need to rectify this in the transfer window.

Rather than upgrading, two areas in the squad need backup. That is at striker to support Cristiano Ronaldo and at centre-back to join the rotation of Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof. Nearly 250 fans replied; 81.9% of them thought that backup for Ronaldo was more important.

And then we got to the final question and probably the most important when it comes to a rebuild - how many players do the fans think United are going to sign.

The options were two, three, four or five or more. 349 fans replied and 49.2% of them thought that Ten Hag would only get three signings for his rebuild, which would likely be disastrous. There is still a long way to go till September 1st and a lot can happen but to stop the fans from worrying it would be preferable if United could kick their negotiations up a gear in the coming week.

READ NEXT

Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.

Already a member? Sign in here