John Murtough: Man Utd football director hints at quiet January transfer window

Manchester United football director John Murtough has hinted that the club is unlikely to be busy in the January transfer window after a busy period of recruitment in the summer.

United eventually secured six new first-team arrivals overall, spending over £140m on Casemiro and Antony in the final 10 days of the summer window alone.

Former interim manager Ralf Rangnick had previously recommended at least 10 new faces as part of what he considered a necessary ‘open heart operation’ on the squad. But new boss Erik ten Hag has already made progress gelling the players that have come in so far, with United putting up their best performance of the season against Tottenham this week.

“We brought in five regular first-team starters on permanent transfers and a high-quality back-up goalkeeper on loan,” Murtough told the club’s latest fans’ forum.

“We ended the summer slightly ahead of where we expected to be in terms of the number of players brought in, so we don’t anticipate the same level of activity in future windows, although we will continue to strengthen,” the senior official added.

“The next step was reshaping the squad and we worked closely with Erik throughout the summer to agree on who to bring in, and who we would allow to leave.

“As always, there was a lot of media noise and speculation to contend with but ultimately by the end of the window we were happy with where we ended up.

“The first step was getting the right staff around him, including Steve McClaren and Mitchell van der Gaag, who have made a notable impact since they arrived, but also many of the existing staff who have stayed on and really bought into Erik’s methods.”

The comments echo what Murtough had already said about being ‘ahead of schedule’ when he sat alongside chief executive Richard Arnold and chief operating officer Collette Roche during the club’s quarterly call to investors following the last set of financial results in September.

The primary recruitment target for United remains the next summer window, although 90min revealed earlier this month that Ten Hag is prepated to let Cristiano Ronaldo leave in January.

Ronaldo has been dropped from United’s first-team squad ahead of the weekend’s Premier League clash with Chelsea after leaving the bench early in frustration during the win over Spurs. He has since offered a sort of apology, admitting the ‘heat of the moment’ got the better of him and pledging his dedication to training and teammates.

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