Transfer Deadline Day

Transfer Deadline Day always brings with it fear and trepidation. Who will we sign, who will be a shock departure? Will Harry Redknapp grab himself a bargain? (seriously he has re-signed Niko Kranjcar for like the 17th time in his career)

Mexico striker Javier Hernandez is on his way to Real Madrid on loan for the season. Interestingly, it tells you something of the players calibre when he is loaned out to arguably a higher placed team. Let’s be honest, Real Madrid are amongst footballing royalty… so why did United let him go?

Was Hernandez first choice for the Spaniards?  Unlikely, in fact, it smacks of a panic purchase and the Mexican will be acutely aware that he will be at Madrid to make up the numbers on the bench. If he is hoping it will re-launch his career then he is in for a disappointing ride.  Clearly, he was surplus to requirements and they will need to sign a striker to replace him.

Queue the arrival of Monaco striker Radamel Falcao who will apparently wear the number 9 shirt. That said, we have another striker on his way out of the club. Disappointingly, Danny Welbeck is heading to Arsenal, which is somewhat of a shock as only last week he was (allegedly) told he could only leave the club if he joined a team outside of the top seven.

Questions have been asked about Van Gaals transfer policy recently because he has bought in a lot of attacking talent, even the defenders are attack mined. Of recent, United’s problems have been defensive yet the transfer policy of the club appears to be dedicated to singing big name attacking players.

Di Maria, Rojo, Herrera and Shaw are soon to be joined by new team mates. However, after a 4-nil drubbing by MK Dons and a draw with lowly Swansea the Dutch master will need his new players to gel pretty rapidly. He will be looking for impact over the next few games otherwise he will start to draw to many comparisons to David Moyes tenure in charge of the Red Devils.

In hindsight, David Moyes had the same difficulty at this stage last season and it probably gives us a good indication as to how long Van Gaal will be given to turn things around. It is interesting to hear fans discussing the disappointing start the team is having to the season and yet they give the Dutch man more hope than they gave to David Moyes. Perhaps the new signings have given them hope.

One thing is for sure, the team sheet has certainly changed since Moyes departed, even Tom Cleverley is on his way to Aston Villa on loan for the season. The next few games will be really nerve racking for fans as we look towards getting our first victory.

With so many signings making their Manchester United debuts we can expect a lot of talk about ‘gelling as a team’ and ‘learning to play together’. Quite frankly we don’t have the time to worry about ‘gelling’ with team mates… we need to win games!  As it was for David Moyes our current league position is unacceptable for such a big club with a recent history of wining the league.