“We should have tried to sign a player in the 48 hours we had, since we knew Mason [Greenwood] wouldn’t be available and Anthony [Martial] had already left on loan,” Rangnick told reporters.
“We were also aware Edinson [Cavani] might not be available for eight out of 10 games, but we didn’t do it.
“There were a few: Diaz, who is now at Liverpool; Alvarez, who will be at Manchester City in the summer; and Vlahovic, who at the time was still with Fiorentina.
“The answer was ‘no’ and that was it. I spoke to the board and told them ‘shouldn’t we at least speak and analyse and find if we can at least get a player, on loan or a permanent deal?’
That’s taken out of context. Ralf wanted a striker, apparently the scouting department vetoed it saying no, not Luiz or the others. Ralf goes on to say that part of that was motivated by a move in Jan taking away from a new manager who would not necessarily want whoever they found.
Full article on the Beeb. TIA is just looking for clicks.
Very definitely, given their striker situation it’s not a stretch to say it’s a dereliction but it’s more of a move not being made than people turning them down.
I think this is the story here - it is a really telling sign that their new post-woodward structure is still pretty aimless. Any transfer can miss, but with this structure they have put in place it shouldn’t miss because they dont know what the new manager would want. They should be aligned with where the gaps are and what the profile of the player is that should be pursued to fill that, and so sitting on your hands to wait for a manager to give input when the gaps are so glaring suggests they are still thinking about this being manager driven.
