Manchester United

Simon Stone
Manchester United reporter

Image source, Getty Images

It's essentially as you were for Michael Carrick and Manchester United this weekend.

With no ins or outs on deadline day and Carlos Baleba still recovering from an ankle injury, Carrick is likely to have the same squad available as last week for the Premier League trip to Everton.

The Hill Dickinson Stadium was one of the places where Carrick engineered a notable away success after replacing Ruben Amorim last season.

But the game itself was most notable for Everton's salvage mission, which essentially amounted to them repeatedly dropping corners and crosses deep into the Manchester United penalty area in the hope of crowding Senne Lammens into making a mistake.

Even David Moyes said he wasn't keen on the tactic – and it didn't work anyway.

After losing the opening day game at Hull, United will not want to drop any more points ahead of their Champions League return and Manchester derby clash with City at Old Trafford next weekend.

Carrick is due to speak about the Everton trip shortly.

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Former Manchester United striker Fraizer Campbell has had his say on the club's summer transfer window.

He told BBC Radio Manchester: "We just always want more, don't we? Never quite happy with rebuilding the midfield.

"It's one of those things. I think years gone by, United would have gone out and panicked at this stage and spent a fortune, rightly or wrongly, on a player they didn't really want.

"In a sense it's positive, but It's frustrating when you hoped to see another few faces coming through the door, but we didn't see any.

"Top three would be fantastic for us, top four is the bare minimum. With that in mind, the squad should be OK to get us until at least January.

"I'm excited to see how the manager gets the best out of this group of players, because it does have a good feel around the place."

Listen by pressing play below or on BBC Sounds here

Alex Bysouth
BBC Sport Senior Journalist

The 'here we go' is on hold, the 'bombas' are done and dusted and the window panes are reverberating after being forcefully closed on Tuesday night.

Now comes the moment for new arrivals to make their mark on the pitch rather than the balance sheet.

Throughout the Premier League era there have been hordes of transfer hits and misses, but today we're looking at those signings who proved game-changing for their club and the competition, the ones who really moved the needle.

I've ranked my top 10 and here are my Manchester United choices and where they are placed.

Image source, Getty Images

5. Robin van Persie, Arsenal to Manchester United, £22.5m, August 2012

It was a sign of how the Manchester United and Arsenal rivalry had cooled.

Once the key protagonists in Premier League heavyweight contests, the Gunners would seemingly never contemplate allowing their top scorer to join United.

Yet on the back of a season in which he netted 30 goals to finish as the league's top scorer, Robin van Persie left Arsene Wenger's outfit to line up for Sir Alex Ferguson, who was scorned by Manchester City's emergence and desperate to return the title to Old Trafford.

Van Persie went on to score 26 times as United reclaimed the throne in Ferguson's final season - the club's 20th title - while Arsenal slipped to a distant fourth.

Image source, Getty Images

Eric Cantona, Leeds United to Manchester United, £1.6m, November 1992

Where do you start with Eric Cantona? The maverick Frenchman arrived in England having won the title with Marseille, which was followed by a two-month ban for throwing a ball at a referee and a fallout with the hierarchy.

Advised to move to England, he rocked up at Leeds - via a trial at Sheffield Wednesday - in January 1991 and swiftly helped them clinch the First Division title.

A few months into the new season, Cantona's relationship with manager Howard Wilkinson broke down.

Manchester United, languishing in mid-table by late November, without a league title in 26 years and having been dumped out of the Uefa Cup by Torpedo Moscow, came calling - after their bid for Wednesday striker David Hirst was rejected.

Cantona proved a revelation. He scored nine times in 23 games and was influential as United ended up winning the inaugural Premier League title by 10 points.

The forward would win four titles in five years at Old Trafford, including two league and cup doubles, laying the foundations for a generation of success before his shock retirement in 1997.

Read Alex's top 10 game-changing transfers in Premier League history and make your own selections here

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Manchester United striker Chido Obi will join Eredivisie side Willem II on a season-long loan, subject to registration.

The 18-year-old, who scored 15 goals in 31 appearances for the United under-21's last season, has made seven senior appearances for the first team.

Obi made his Reds first-team debut in February 2025 against Tottenham, before becoming United's youngest-ever Premier League starter against Brentford later that season.

On confirming his move, the club said: "Everybody at United wishes Chido the best of luck for the season ahead and looks forward to watching him continue his development."

Manchester United decided against signing a left-back in the final few days of the transfer window because they were unable to identify an option of adequate quality to bolster their squad. (Express, external)

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Steve Sutcliffe, Emlyn Begley and Gary Rose
BBC Sport journalists

Premier League clubs have broke their all-time summer transfer record with spending reaching £3.49bn.

A total of £506.5m was spent on deadline day itself, up from £391m last year.

The total amount spent during the window considerably dwarfs the £1.13bn spent by clubs just five years ago and underlines the power top English clubs have to attract talent, according to figures provided to BBC Sport by Paul Macdonald, founder of FootballTransfers.com.

Three of the 10 most expensive signings in the history of football have happened this summer – with all of them being Premier League signings. In fact, this summer window featured four of the top flight's five most expensive ever deals.

So maybe it is not surprising then that of the 20 most expensive transfers completed, only six were not to clubs in the English top flight.

Indeed, newly-promoted Ipswich have spent more on new signings than the likes of Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus and reigning European champions PSG.

Premier League clubs as a whole were willing to dip deep into their pockets this summer, as 11 of the 20 clubs broke their transfer records, six of them on more than one occasion.

Coventry, promoted to the Premier League alongside Ipswich and Hull, have done so four times over.

Read more on the Premier League's record-breaking transfer spending

Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter

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Manchester United youngster Jack Moorhouse has joined Dundee on loan for the remainder of the season.

Moorhouse was on the brink of joining Everton last month but the Merseysiders pulled out at the 11th hour.

The 20-year-old midfielder, who made 24 appearances on loan at Leyton Orient in the first half of last season, subsequently received a number of offers in League One, plus abroad.

However, he believes the Scottish Premiership offers the best chance to develop, having noted the impact made by United Premier League 2 squad team-mate Jacob Devaney at St Mirren last term.

We asked for your views on Manchester United's transfer business.

Here are some of your thoughts:

Emmanuel: Not very impressive, especially with the club's participation in the Champions League. Our defence needs to be strengthened. Good players are there, but we ain't signing them.

Ron: Interestingly, Manchester United's best signing of the summer is not a transfer signing at all, given that it is Marcus Rashford!

Carl: A disappointing window. We needed a left-back and, in my opinion, another striker to be more competitive. An option open to us would be Oleksandr Zinchenko, who is a free agent and could provide cover for Luke Shaw. And why not give Karim Benzema a short-term deal?

Tom: It was obvious what was going to happen a long time ago. Last year, concentrate on the attack. This year, concentrate on the midfield. Next year, concentrate on the defence. Within all of the above, if an opportunity arises, such as Senne Lammens, then they will go for it. Once all areas have been addressed, every year after that can be based on replacing players from any of the areas. We needed the initial focused approach.

George: You do not look at other teams spending fortunes and say, 'We should have done that.' United have an incredible amount of talent in the academy. Maybe it's time for the Class of '27.

Arsenal have started the new Premier League season with two wins as the transfer window closes, looking in ominous shape to retain the crown they won for the first time in 22 years last season.

Have their main rivals done enough to prevent Mikel Arteta's side winning a second successive title?

And what are the other big issues as the Premier League's transfer business was concluded until January?

After addressing their attack last summer when they brought in Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, United's window this time has been about midfield renewal as Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba were signed.

Is it enough to make United serious contenders after Michael Carrick took them to third place and back into the Champions League last season after succeeding Ruben Amorim in a caretaker capacity?

Unlikely.

Carrick is now in permanent charge, but this has been a mixed start to the season with defeat at newly-promoted Hull City before a 5-2 win against other Premier League newcomers Ipswich Town.

United decided not to make any late moves, leaving Carrick's squad looking more like one who will realistically challenge for the top four once more but will be nowhere near the title.

As 23:00 BST ticked by on 1 September and the suspicion became reality, many Manchester United fans thought the same thing – what about a left-back?

Since the 2025-26 season ended, and United's summer transfer strategy started to be debated, it seemed obvious the club would move to address a perceived weakness in Michael Carrick's squad.

Luke Shaw is their only senior orthodox left-back. He started all 38 Premier League games last season, which given his previous injury record was phenomenal.

Firstly, it must be acknowledged Manchester United really like Lewis Hall.

Had they been able to do a deal with Newcastle for him, they would have done.

However, raided by Premier League rivals for their star men this summer, it became obvious in discussions around the highly-rated 22-year-old if Newcastle were to be persuaded to strike a deal, the transfer fee would be huge.

Manchester United's summer transfer budget was finite.

Faced with the reality of the situation, they opted to maintain their focus on the 'priority' midfield area and eventually committed £70m to bring in Carlos Baleba from Brighton.

Hall, it was concluded, is someone they are prepared to wait until next summer for.

United would have been prepared to take Balde on loan. Barcelona would only sell him. Salinas had a relatively low release clause, but Atletico Madrid were favourites to sign him. By the time they moved on to Argentina defender Nicolas Tagliafico, who they missed out on anyway, United had moved on themselves.

Their decision to belatedly act on an initial approach made by an agent around Ait-Nouri was an admission they are not totally certain of the path they have chosen.

Effectively that is Shaw as first-choice left-back, with Noussair Mazraoui as back-up, in a position he admittedly plays in for Morocco, supported by Diogo Dalot, who has switched flanks before, and Harry Amass.

• Read more on Man Utd's left-back issue

The team on The Devils' Advocate podcast are digging into Manchester United's left-back situation this week in the aftermath of transfer deadline day.

The Stretford Paddock's Jay Motty joined the podcast to discuss the lack of a left-back signing.

"Now it's up to Michael Carrick to make it work," he said.

"All I hope is we sort of take this into consideration when we judge Michael Carrick this season. If we are having difficulties at left-back, it's not his fault. There's no way he went to the board and said 'don't get me a left-back'.

"I hope that if United are struggling in that department, we can understand it's not necessarily Carrick's fault, it's those above him."

Listen below or on BBC Sounds here - and don't forget to subscribe to get each episode into your My Sounds feed.

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Simon Stone
Manchester United reporter

Image source, Getty Images

To pinch a Michael Carrick news conference answer, there are two ways of looking at Manchester United's transfer business this summer as a whole.

There is an argument to say there is a lot to like about what they have done.

They targeted midfield as a priority area and brought in three internationals, all well known to the Premier League. Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba have plenty of development in them and most Aston Villa fans were sad to see Youri Tielemans leave, which is usually a sign of good business for the buying club.

In addition, United stuck to chief executive Omar Berrada's summer pledge not to be held to ransom by agents, not to overpay and not to get sucked into bidding wars.

They also seem to have adopted a long-term strategy of letting younger players leave for relatively small initial fees, while loading up the sell-on and buy-back clauses. It means moves have been completed that should ensure the players get games, thus increasing their chances of doing well, which would lead to potentially higher transfer fees, where the sell-on aspect would kick on - or, if they did really well, a return as part of a buy-back.

These measures are all worthy of praise.

But for some, it is not enough. They see the lavish spending of Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea, and Arsenal being linked with Vinicius Jr, and wonder why United, one of the biggest clubs in the world, cannot follow suit.

Old Trafford officials argue they are having to deal with years of poor recruitment and no-one could dispute the validity of this.

However, it is also true they are having to deal with debt – both the size of it, in excess of £1bn, and the amount it costs to service it.

That sum will increase because of a summer refinancing of £317m worth of bonds, which not only led to a further $125m (£92.5m) debt being taken on, but also the interest to pay it rising from 3.79% to 5.36%.

In the next few weeks, United will announce financial results to 30 June 2026. In the third quarter accounts, to 31 March 2026, United confirmed net finance costs of £20.3m for the previous three months, and £55.7m for the previous nine months, although that was put down to an "unfavourable swing in foreign exchange rates".

In September 2025, respected football finance blogger Swiss Ramble estimated United had paid £852m in interest alone since the Glazer family completed their leveraged buyout in 2005.

That money, fans critical of United's transfer business this summer say, would be a game-changer if it was added to the overall pot.

What do you make over the overall transfer business at Old Trafford this summer?

Get in touch with your views here

Simon Stone
Manchester United reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester United striker Chido Obi is in talks over a loan move with Eredivisie outfit Willem II.

The 18-year-old has struggled since breaking into the first team under Ruben Amorim at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.

He only made the bench once last term, when his appearances were restricted to the under-21 side and around United's run to the FA Youth Cup final. He did feature in the pre-season match against Rosenborg in Trondheim in July.

He scored 22 goals, four of them in one match against Leicester, although he did net four in five FA Youth Cup matches.

Chido was not involved in either of United's Premier League 2 victories so far this season.

There had been an expectation he would move to Bundesliga outfit Cologne in the summer but that deal failed to materialise as Manchester City's Reigan Heskey signed for them permanently instead.

The Eredivisie transfer window does not close until Wednesday evening.

Manchester United striker Chido Obi is keen for a loan move to the Netherlands or his native Denmark - both countries where the transfer window only closes on Wednesday - with Feyenoord among interested clubs. (Mirror), external

Meanwhile, United are planning to make three defensive signings next summer, with Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt "on trial" this season. (Sun), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

I am told despite the late interest from Everton, Joshua Zirkzee will remain at Manchester United.

I am not entirely clear what the issue was but the Netherlands forward will stay with the Old Trafford outfit.

Everton have launched a late bid for Manchester United's outcast striker Joshua Zirkzee amid questions over their £40m move for AS Monaco's Folarin Balogun.

A report in France suggested Balogun had failed his medical, although the word at the Everton end is that the deal is still being worked on.

Everton will now be racing against the clock to seal a deal for the 25-year-old Netherlands striker, who saw proposed moves to Juventus and Fiorentina fall through.

Whether he is in addition to, or instead of, Balogun remains to be seen.

Simon Stone
Manchester United reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester United have suffered a shock departure from their academy ranks.

Striker Louie Bradbury has joined Stoke on a three-year contract.

Bradbury only signed his professional contract with United on 12 August and scored in a Premier League Under-18 victory at Everton on Saturday.

However, he had already decided to leave the club at that point.

The 17-year-old, who was part of the Wales squad for this summer's Under-19 European Championships, has chosen Stoke from multiple options, believing the pathway to senior football is clearer.