Three barren years is too long for United.. now they REALLY need a ruthless striker like Kane or Jimenez

Mr Marmite.. Love him, hate him, you can’t ignore him

THREE years without a trophy is too long for a club of Manchester United’s stature.

If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wants to end the famine, he needs ruthlessness in the box and that means going all out to land the striker who will bring home the silverware.

United have already spent more than £500million on new players in the last four years, so it’s imperative that they spend the next transfer pot wisely.

But to take that next step – to the title, to cups, to glory in Europe – they need someone to take their chances... someone like Harry Kane or Raul Jimenez.

United should have won the Europa League.

They were the best team left in the competition at the semi-final stage, and they missed a trick against Sevilla.

United reached three semifinals and finished third in the Premier League. In other words, serious contenders in every competition – but winners in none.

Add two marquee signings to this group and they will turn near-misses into trophies.

Whatever happens in United’s pursuit of England’s rising star Jadon Sancho – and Borussia Dortmund are playing hard-ball over both the £107m asking price and the player’s availability in this window – I believe their top priority is a world-class centre-forward.

Between them, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood (right) scored five goals more than the 57 managed by the Liverpool front three of Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane in all competitions last season. But to ask 18-year-old Greenwood, who was a revelation in his first season, to play the No.9 role would be too much pressure on a young kid.

If I were in the shoes of Solskjaer and executive vicechairman Ed Woodward, I would throw 100 per cent of my efforts into signing a top striker in this window – preferably Kane or Jimenez (below). Sancho is a fantastic talent, and one way or another I suspect he may well end up at Old Trafford.

But right now United’s greatest need is for ruthlessness in both boxes. That means a proven goalscorer who would have buried those chances against Sevilla, and other games where United became too reliant on Bruno Fernandes penalties, to make the difference. And at the other end of the pitch, when I look at Sevilla’s winning goal last week, the whole package does not reflect well on the defensive unit – whether it’s cutting out the cross, allowing it to reach Luuk de Jong in the six-yard box, or switching off at the back post.

I’m not pinning the blame on Harry Maguire personally, but that decisive leadership – to get the job done – was not there.

I would also be looking to get more out of the full-backs in the final third of the pitch.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Brandon Williams have done well for United but, as Liverpool, Manchester City and Sevilla have proved, attacking fullbacks are a huge part of the modern game now. United have gone three seasons in a row without winning a trophy for the first time since the 1980s. Manager Solskjaer has done a fine job to get them back into the Champions League in his first full season in charge, but now he has to be absolutely ruthless in the transfer market, just as his players need to be ruthless at both ends of the pitch to turn promise into silverware. If that means staking the lot on going all out to land Kane or Jimenez, so be it.