Manchester United interim boss Ralf Rangnick has said that the board denied his request to sign a new striker late in the January transfer window despite their lack of options up top.
The Red Devils’ numbers were suddenly reduced when Anthony Martial joined Sevilla on loan and Mason Greenwood was arrested at the end of January.
Rangnick insists he asked the board to sign necessary cover due to these absences, but his plea fell on deaf ears.
“I still believe that we should have tried [to sign a striker] in those 48 hours,” Rangnick said. “The board [at the time] sees it the same way – they agreed – but they also spoke to the scouting department at the same time.
“Maybe we should have tried to sign a player in these 48 hours since we knew Mason wouldn’t be available and Anthony Martial had already left on loan. But we didn’t. Maybe I should have pushed even more in order to get this additional striker.
“The answer at the time was: ‘No, there is no player on the market that can really help us.’”
Listen now to 90min’s brand new podcast, Talking Transfers, with Scott Saunders & Graeme Bailey. On this week’s show they are joined by Toby Cudworth and discuss the interest in Aurelien Tchouameni, as well the contract situations of Sadio Mane, Reece James, Pep Guardiola & Kylian Mbappe, and updates on Marcus Rashford’.
However, Rangnick then reeled off a number of names that were available to United’s rivals in the same window, adding: “There were a few: Diaz who is now at Liverpool, Alvarez who will be at Man City in the summer, Vlahovic who at the time was with Fiorentina.
“So those are just three of them that come across my mind now. The answer was no and that was it. We were still in three competitions: the FA Cup, the Champions League, at the time were fourth in the league.
“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?’ In the end the answer was no.
“Maybe they didn’t want to do any winter [business]. 48 hours is 48 hours. It might have been at least worth to try and internally discuss it. We didn’t.”
