Manchester United are finally listening to Ralf Rangnick in the transfer market

Man United are working at pace in the transfer market and it is encouraging to see.

Ralf Rangnick was not even associated with Manchester United yet and he was able to successfully identify their problems without being privy to inside information.

It was August 2019 and in a wide-ranging interview, the German did his best to summarise where United had wrong since legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson had retired.

He told The Times: "Since Sir Alex left they were underperforming. They haven't won the title since he left. At any club, if you cannot get the right players, then you should at least not sign the wrong ones.

"You are in trouble if you do that in one or two or three consecutive transfer windows. Club building is about building the right squad by transferring the right players away and having more than 50 per cent success rate of bringing in the right players.

"Then you must have the best possible coaches to develop these players."

Once Rangnick had got his feet under the table at Old Trafford in November 2021 after being installed as interim manager, he was able to analyse United's problems up close. His press conferences were more memorable than the football.

"You don't even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are," he said in April 2022. "Now it's about how do we solve them?

"It's not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart.

"If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn't take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year."

United's recruitment strategy over the past decade has attracted plenty of criticism. They have paid over the odds for countless players and have often allowed players to run down their contracts and leave for free when they could have been sold for a fee. Jesse Lingard is a prime example of that particular failing.

However, after Ineos secured a minority stake at the start of 2024, United's recruitment strategy has improved. They were proactive in the seller's market last summer, cashing in on players who did not have long-term futures at the club.

Most of those who left were sold in deals that included sell-on clauses or buy-back clauses. It represented a step in the right direction after years of mismanagement and misunderstanding of the market.

For all of Ineos' faults, United's recruitment policy has improved under their stewardship. They are looking to offload a number of big-name players this summer.

United want to cash-in on Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Antony. United value the trio at somewhere in the region of a collective £97.5million.

With United now operating with a winger-less system, there is no sense in retaining players who do not fit head coach Ruben Amorim's formation. In the past, you would have been unable to guarantee United would be so sensible.

Showing ambition to get the aforementioned trio off the books, United are in the process of moulding the squad to Amorim's needs. He has already been allowed to sign a specialist operator for his system in Matheus Cunha and he now wants to sign Brentford star Bryan Mbeumo.

In those two, should Mbeumo sign, United will have secured the services of ready-made Premier League players. In the past, their recruitment has not been anywhere near as sensible.

In offloading players at the right juncture, they are freeing up space and generating funds to modernise the squad and evolve it. There comes a certain point where clubs have to oversee major rebuilds and United have been in need of one for years.

This summer, however, feels as though it will come to fruition. They have started the window on the front foot and every decision they have made so far has been positive.

In offloading players at the right time, United are giving themselves the best possible chance of bringing the right ones in. They may be halfway towards proving Rangnick's assessment right.