Daily Mail

United lost their dignity the moment Fergie left

- By CHRIS WHEELER

SO tHIS is the process, as Louis van Gaal likes to call it? this is the result of months of meticulous preparatio­n? Manchester United at the centre of another chaotic deadline-day drama.

Whoever is to blame for the David de Gea shambles, and heaven knows there was enough finger-pointing yesterday, the unseemly end to it all does not reflect well on two of the world’s biggest clubs.

United, for their part, have neglected the goalkeeper situation for far too long. It was a problem waiting to happen.

Instead of being seen to be strong in their dealings with Real Madrid, they are left with a disillusio­ned player who will leave for free next summer, United having failed to secure either a world-record £35million transfer fee or Sergio Ramos in return.

Confirmati­on of the collapse of De Gea’s move came hours before United confirmed the signing of little-known French teenager Anthony Martial from Monaco in a staggering deal that could be worth up to £58m, despite assertions from Van Gaal (right) that they would not panic buy.

No-one saw it coming, least of all captain Wayne Rooney who was credited by his manager at the weekend with having an input into everything from team selection to the players’ dietary requiremen­ts.

On the flight home after United’s defeat at Swansea on Sunday, Rooney went to France internatio­nal Morgan Schneiderl­in. ‘Wayne asked who Martial was, because the English press had started to speak,’ said Schneiderl­in yesterday.

Both issues have left United and their chief executive Ed Woodward facing serious questions — and not for the first time in the two years since he took over the role vacated by David Gill. the folly of allowing Gill to leave at the same time as Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013 has been well documented. Woodward, like David Moyes, was stepping into some very big shoes.

Nor would anybody suggest that United did not make mistakes in the market before then. It is an unpredicta­ble place. But there was a way of doing business, a quiet dignity that reflected the club’s stature. But it is one that seems to have been discarded in the past two years.

‘We try to identify players as quietly as we can and do the deals as quickly as we can,’ Ferguson once said. Quickly and quietly are not words you associate with United these days. ‘ there is no value in the transfer market’ was another Ferguson mantra at Old trafford. Indeed, eyebrows were raised when he eschewed United’s cautious approach to sign Robin van Persie for £24m in 2012.

the summer after he left United took the unusual step of identifyin­g some of their top targets — Cesc Fabregas, thiago Alcantara and Leighton Baines — and ended up with only Everton’s Marouane Fellaini for £27.5m, £4m more than his buyout clause.

then there were the scattergun attempts to sign Fabio Coentrao and Sami Khedira from Real Madrid in the final minutes on deadline day, and the bizarre sight of lawyers turning up at Spanish League HQ to conclude a deal for Ander Herrera even though United had refused to meet his £32m release clause at Athletic Bilbao. Woodward’s response was to shoot for the stars.

Juan Mata arrived the following January for £37.1m. United then spent a British record £59.7m on Angel di Maria last summer, and stole the headlines in another last-day drama by signing Radamel Falcao.

Falcao and Di Maria have since gone along with Van Persie. Van Gaal insisted that he had Javier Hernandez and Adnan Januzaj as back-up for striker Wayne Rooney, but both left in the last 48 hours.

‘I want to go back to feeling important and happy,’ said Hernandez after joining Bayer Leverkusen for £12m, 24 hours after Di Maria admitted to having a difficult relationsh­ip with Van Gaal.

United began this transfer window well. Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinste­iger, Schneiderl­in and Matteo Darmian all look like good signings in key areas. But they have been undermined by the goalkeeper issue and glaring gaps in attack. Woodward flew to Barcelona to sign Pedro but was gazumped by Chelsea. Now he has splashed a world record fee for a teenager to land Martial. It’s a high-stakes game, and one that United can ill afford to lose this time.

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