Only thing United spending is time in doldrums

THIS is no time for Manchester United to let the grass grow under their feet in the transfer market.

Despite the financial limitations of Premier League spending during a pandemic, Chelsea have invested £200million-plus on new players and Liverpool clearly mean business if they are signing exciting midfielder Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich.

But so far, United’s only signing – albeit a very good one at £40m - has been Donny van de Beek (left). I thought United would have brought in one or two more new faces. Deals for some of the big names with whom they were linked over the summer seem to be going nowhere fast.

Jack Grealish (below) has signed a new five-year contract at Aston Villa, there is no sign of a deal to bring England forward Jadon Sancho (centre) to Old Trafford, no sign of a prolific, worldclass centreforward, and no sign of a commanding centre-back such as Kalidou Koulibaly (below, right). I’m not sure Van de Beek will transform United from a team who came up just short in three semi-finals last season to trophy winners on his own. How does executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward expect his manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to make that leap from contenders to winners if he is two trump cards short of a full deck?

I tipped United to finish second, and I stand by that if they sign the reinforcements needed to compete with Manchester City and Liverpool. But I expected them to have done more transfer business by now. Where are the new signings?