Five reasons why Manchester United have fired blanks so far in the transfer window

David Moyes still awaits the first major signing under his stewardship

Reigning Barclays Premier League champion Manchester United have completed one signing so far this summer – that of 20-year old Uruguayan fullback Guillermo Varela from Penarol.

New manager David Moyes along with new Executive Vice-Chairman Ed Woodward are still in the hunt for a marquee signing to usher in the new season without Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm. Here, we examine the top five reasons why that marquee signing has proven elusive so far.

Thiago Alcantara

New Manager

When a manager has served at a club for over 26 years and you are in line to take over, the task can be quite daunting. David Moyes finds himself in that position with the retirement of the erstwhile gaffer Ferguson.

As we have already seen with Thiago Alcantara, the manager at the helm of a club can be quite a deciding factor in where a footballer chooses to go.

This is Moyes’ first big club managerial experience and quite a few of United’s targets may be circumspect in working with him as they would not know much about his ways and methods. The lure of working with Alex Ferguson no longer exists at Old Trafford.

Ed Woodward

A Quiet Summer – Ed Woodward

In an interview in early May, Mr Woodward mentioned that he did not expect a “major retooling” of the squad in the close season. “I wouldn’t expect there to be a major retooling of the squad,” said Woodward, who went on to add: “There is incredible depth. We could put two first teams out with 11 internationals in each. We have a young squad and each of those are a year older. We are very comfortable with the makeup of team and squad.”

Pointers perhaps that it is indeed going to be a quiet summer for the Red Devils. Inspite of record profits, there remains a huge pile of debt to be paid off and furthermore, United are now a business outfit listed in one of the world’s leading stock exchanges.

Woodward is primarily a businessman who has been instrumental in developing United’s commercial strategy, especially sponsorship, since he joined. The appointment of Moyes and the choice of Woodward to head the club could well mean ‘caution’ will be the keyword going forward even on transfers.

Kevin Strootman

The added attraction of capital cities and England’s tax structure

Apart from wages, titles and managers, the location of a club has come to play a huge part in the last decade or so. London, Paris, Madrid and even Rome, being capital cities are an added attraction for players, especially youngsters.

Lucas Moura chose Paris over Manchester, Strootman has gone to Rome, Ronaldo (Cristiano) fancies Madrid more, even if he is in love with the Manchester club.

The 50% tax rate in England is also a dissuader as footballers in Spain and Paris end up paying much less tax. And if you’re going to Monaco, you don’t even pay that!

David Gill

Retirement of the Holy Trinity – The Fergusons and Gill

While Ferguson’s departure was obviously the big talking point, not much importance has been given to the departures of former Chief Executive David Gill and Martin Ferguson, Sir Alex’s brother and top scout.

The holy trinity of Ferguson, Gill and his brother Martin, were the driving force behind most of United’s past dealings. One wonders how much of the scouting information has been passed on to the new team and also how keen the new unit is in pursuing those targets.

Kevin Strootman in particular, was a top target of the previous regime. The fact that United lost him to AS Roma without even fighting for him is cause for worry.

Manchester City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak

The Monetary Muscle men lie elsewhere

Manchester United are not bankrolled, like Real Madrid or Barcelona, or for that matter owned by middle-Eastern or Russian billionaires.

Paris Saint Germain, Monaco and Manchester City are the new muscle men in town whose Euros can dictate where a player lands up. Even Chelsea under Roman Abramovich have been forced to take a backseat with a few of their targets lapped up by these clubs too.

The Ligue 1 has dominated much of the transfer business in the last two years with big money deals for Thiago Silva, Lucas Moura, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Radamel Falcao, Joao Moutinho and Edinson Cavani. If you had told the average French football fan three years ago that they would have three of the top five strikers in world football plying their trade in the French league, they wouldn’t believe you.

United still have the funds to make perhaps, the one big signing each season, like they did with Robin Van Persie last year. The total spending was in the range of £40 million last year with the added acquisition of Shinji Kagawa. One can safely take that amount to be the figure that United would play ball with when it comes to transfers.

Anything higher, like the Ronaldo deal, would involve a lot of hand-wringing from their various sponsors and associates.