Tielemans and Santos Weren't Even Second-Tier Targets / Exposé: United Admits They Blew It in the Summer

The Sun reports that Manchester United's executives acknowledge they were badly unsuccessful in their summer signings, and that this failure is now showing in the team's results.

According to Sport Se, the English newspaper Sun, in an exclusive news that caused a lot of noise in this country, claimed that the senior managers of Manchester United admitted in secret meetings that they performed poorly in the summer transfer window and that their purchases were very different from what was in the main list of the club's goals. City had targeted some of the best targets in English football, but in the end they bought some people who were not at all in the first, second and sometimes third priority categories!

Now that the Red Devils have had the worst start to the season in the last 40 years and are in a deep crisis with only one win from the first six matches, the club's summer transfer policies have faced widespread criticism. Manchester United has been eliminated in the League Cup by accepting the defeat against Brighton. More bitterly, they had not lost against Brighton by this margin since September 1976 at Old Trafford. In the 1-1 draw on Saturday against Tottenham, the fans protested at three different times, and the sound of discontented whistles rang out in the stadium.

In such a situation, although the pressures on Michael Carrick have increased, the club's senior managers have admitted in internal discussions that they are not satisfied with the progress of the second phase of the team composition reconstruction. The renovation that should have been done this summer.

United spent £225.2m last year on the likes of Matheus Kenyatta, Brian Mbomo, Benjamin Sesku and Sane Lamance, but that figure has dropped to £155m this summer. £70m midfielder Carlos Balba, who made his debut in the draw against Tottenham, is one of the club's long-term targets, but sources close to the club have revealed that Youri Tillmans and Andre Santos are very low on the club's list of targets, with stars at the bottom of the list. In fact, United's main options for the midfield were: Elliot Anderson, Mateus Fernandez, Orlin Schwameni and Ederson.

But during the summer, Manchester's plans reached a dead end in the transfer market. Tottenham hijacked United with a heavy offer and bought Mateus Fernandez and added 100 million pound Sandro Tonali to his midfield. Elliott Anderson made his final decision to join Manchester City months before his move was finalized in July. The interesting thing is that both Anderson and Tonali played a very key role in getting positive results for City and Tottenham's ten-man teams at Old Trafford. You can imagine what the United sports managers felt in those two matches.

United went to Tillmans after failing in their £35m bid to sign Atalanta defensive midfielder Ederson. Of course, Ederson's transfer was canceled due to the observation of a serious problem in Ederson's knee during medical examinations, leaving a great regret for the club leaders. As a result, United activated the £35m release clause on 29-year-old Tillmans, who is an attacking midfielder and whose age does not match the club's policy of signing new players between 22 and 26.

Tillmans has so far been the only United player to feature in all eight games of the season, although that looks set to stop with the Champions League away game against Atletico Madrid and Sunday's clash with Leeds United.

Andre Santos was signed from Chelsea in a £50m deal but has only played 16 minutes in the Premier League since starting in the opening week defeat to Hull City. The 22-year-old was bought as an accessible and affordable option after United backed away from the exorbitant prices of other midfielders working in the Premier League.

In addition to the midfield, Manchester United's senior officials regret not being able to buy a left back. The managers of the club had conducted initial negotiations to attract the 22-year-old Newcastle defender Lewis Hall, and this player was also very interested in moving to Old Trafford, but the leaders of Newcastle stopped the progress of the negotiations, and the English international signed a new contract last month and stayed.

Veteran United defender Luke Shaw missed three games last month due to injury, and Patrick Durgo will be out for several weeks due to injury in the national team camp. Carrick used Durgo as a winger before the end of the summer window and then deployed him at left-back. The 31-year-old Shaw has reached the final year of his contract and is likely to leave the Red Devils after spending his 13th season at Old Trafford.