It was a summer of change at Manchester United, but one thing remained the same. Erik ten Hag was backed with a record budget of £225.4m on six new signings, such was the club's faith in him and commitment to giving him what he deemed necessary.
The Dutchman was given the authority to pursue whoever he wanted, with the club interjecting where necessary to veto certain requests. Antony, Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martinez and Tyrell Malacia were all specifically endorsed by the manager over other targets and were supplemented by the recruitment department's recommendations of Casemiro and Martin Dubravka.
United's resurgent run of form in recent weeks has endorsed Ten Hag's eye as a talent spotter and given how predominantly his summer signings have featured, it could well give him even more power to pursue whoever he wants next year.
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But there is one problem: Ten Hag can't expect to ever spend as much as he did this summer, certainly not until they start to make serious progress in regards to the money they bring in from player sales.
"During the summer, we made significant investment in the first team squad with the permanent addition of five regular starters, including a balance of experienced international players and younger, emerging talent," John Murtough told investors last week.
"We also saw a higher-than-usual number of departures, and this was an equally important part of refreshing the squad after the disappointing 2021/22 season. Overall, we are ahead of schedule in our recruitment plans as envisaged at the start of the summer, and we do not anticipate the same level of activity in future windows. As always, our planning focuses on the summer window."
The problem for United, that Murtough avoided to mention, is that those departures were taken out of their hands, rather made by their own choice. United's need for reinforcement was amplified by the fact that they lost six players for free at the end of last season, though that did mean their summer expenditure was at least offset by the huge wage savings they were making having lost the likes of Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, and Edinson Cavani.
When it came to actively getting rid of players they no longer wanted it was a different story. Figures from SwissRamble dissect just how much of a reoccurring issue this has been since Sir Alex Ferguson left, with United having averaged just £13m-a-year in player sales over the past decade.
United's failure to shift players is so bad that last year, Ed Woodward even boasted the sale of Daniel James to Leeds for £25m as one of the key success points in their following quarterly results call with shareholders. The fact that the Welsh forward was the fourth-highest sale in the history of the club itself pointed to another clear issue with their inability to move players on.
This summer, United only managed to bring in £10m from permanent player sales, with Andreas Pereira moving to Fulham and Tahith Chong joining Birmingham, while a loan fee was also received to take Eric Bailly to Marseille.
The Ligue 1 club would be obligated to sign Bailly for €6m next summer if they qualify for the Champions League and if the defender makes a certain number of appearances. United sources have even boasted what an impressive fee they feel to have agreed, despite it being a modest amount and being subject to two very big ifs.
A year ago, James was the only permanent player sale, and the year prior to that, it was just Chris Smalling who left the club. You have to go back three years for the last time United managed to sell two senior players in the same window, with Romelu Lukaku and Matteo Darmian both leaving for Serie A.
Those measly figures are even more startling when compared with their Premier League rivals. United made £81m from player sales between 2017 and 2021, the 13th-best among their domestic rivals.
In the same period, Chelsea made £413m, Liverpool £274m and Man City £221m. Even the likes of Southampton doubled United's profit with £162m and Arsenal made over £200m.
It is hugely unsustainable for United to remain so inefficient at moving players on and if they want to keep backing Ten Hag handsomely in the transfer market then they will need to learn to sell before they can buy again.
The new manager has proven that he has an eye for signing the right type of player at Old Trafford, but in order to keep doing it, United need to solve their reoccurring problem first.
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