United Need A Savvy Summer To Build Depth

United's lack of depth still looks like the biggest threat to sustaining form across four competitions. With key departures possible, the summer window needs smart value alongside a couple of headline signings.

Carrick may or may not ultimately be the right man for the long term job at United. But despite a poor performance and result against Newcastle he is still doing a great job for us right now, and we should appreciate that.

Personally I feel that the performance and result against Newcastle probably tells us more about the weaknesses within our squad, mainly a lack of depth, than it does about Carrick's credentials.

Why Champions League football matters

We still look a strong bet to get UCL football next season, unless our form drops off a cliff. We need UCL football both for the money and for the scheduling. Our biggest weakness is a lack of quality in depth. If everyone is fit then we have a good first 11 and 2 or 3 good options off the bench and that's about it.

The worst thing we can have happen is to finish in the Europa League places, as that competition tends to stretch squads harder than the UCL due to the schedule and the increased travelling for teams further afield in Europe that typically play in that competition.

With us losing one or two players this summer along with the existing lack of depth, we would likely need 8-10 players to come in to give us the kind of depth we'd need to be able to maintain our form in the league and play in the Europa League. Which just isn't realistic. Even in the UCL we will need 5-7 players to give us the kind of quality in depth we need.

Using the market properly

That is why I think the club needs to be savvy this summer. Sure, spend big on the primary targets where needed, but we should also be looking at the free transfers and those players with just a year left on their deal, so they could be available for a fairer price.

If we let Zirkzee leave then we will ideally need someone else who can rotate with Sesko. We could look at someone like Dusan Vlahovic on a free transfer, who stylistically at least has a more similar profile to Sesko, meaning we wouldn't have to totally change how we play when we rotate. Another option who might be available for a lower fee due to only having a year left on their deal could be Jean Philippe Mateta.

Goalkeeper and centre-back depth

We have learned this season that Bayindir isn't good enough, Onana needs to be sold and Heaton is nearly 40 and will likely hang up his gloves this summer. Vitek has done well at Bristol City and could come back to challenge Lammens, but that would leave us with two younger, less experienced keepers. We could do with someone with a little more experience, and both Nick Pope and Stefan Ortega are out of contract in the summer.

Likewise we have a less pressing but still clear issue at centre-back. On paper we have some really good options: MdL, Martinez, Yoro, Maguire, and Heaven. Yet two of them struggle with staying fit, Maguire is out of contract, and the other two are very young and lack experience. If Maguire leaves, we could end up in a situation where we are playing a UCL knockout game against a major European side with Yoro and Heaven as our starting centre-backs and an academy lad on the bench just in case.

Yet with us needing to spend money on several other positions we probably cannot afford to spend heavily at centre-back, if at all. Marcos Senesi could be a very clever option brought in on a free transfer this summer. Other options if we wanted to spend money but didn't want to break the bank could be Nico Schlotterbeck, or Jan Paul van Hecke.

Midfield rebuild and a bigger picture

Finally, I expect us to spend heavily on at least two midfielders this summer. But with Casemiro leaving and Ugarte not being good enough that would still leave us with three midfielders who are at the required level, the two signings assuming they hit the ground running, and Mainoo. We could probably do with a third midfield signing this summer, otherwise we are one injury away from having no quality to rotate the starting options with.

My pick of the free transfers would be Arthur Avom at Lorient. Or we could look at Carrick's old favourite at Middlesbrough, Hayden Hackney, who will have just a year left on his deal in the summer.

Personally I'd love to see deals for players like Nick Pope, Marcos Senesi, Dusan Vlahovic all on a free contract, along with Hayden Hackney for around 20m. Them four players for a total outlay of 20m would massively improve our options off the bench while hardly impacting the transfer kitty.

Imagine a squad looking like this: Lammens, Pope, Vitek. Dalot, Mazraoui, MdL, Martinez, Maguire, Senesi, Yoro, Heaven, Shaw, Dorgu, Amass. Anderson, Baleba, Mainoo, Hackney, Bruno, Mount. Mbeumo, Amad, Cunha, Diomande, Sesko, and Vlahovic.

The fullbacks could still do with some work, but we will not be able to fix every problem in one window even with some clever free or cheaper signings. But suddenly that starts to look like a squad that can compete for major honours, and to get there sooner we need to be savvy this summer.

Given how this season has played out I think there is a real chance to jump ahead of the queue next season. Arsenal are unconvincing, City seem like they are waiting for Pep to leave, Liverpool spent big but I'm not convinced by either Slot or their spending strategy, and Chelsea are maybe the dark horses. Whoever has the best summer between ourselves, Liverpool, Chelsea and City will be the team that pushes Artetadyce and his London Stoke side for the title next season.

Written by Shappy March 7 2026 14:10:17