‘Manchester United put all their eggs in Sancho basket’ – Red Devils accused of reactionary recruitment by Chadwick

Manchester United are paying the price for having put “all their eggs in the Jadon Sancho basket”, says Luke Chadwick, saying the Red Devils are being reactionary in their recruitment having failed to plan ahead.

The Red Devils believed that they could pull off a transfer coup in luring the England international winger away from Borussia Dortmund. However they faced fierce resistance from Germany and the summer window is about to close with no big-money deal in place.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his board are now on a rescue mission, with late deals being sought before the latest market closes for business.

Edinson Cavani and Alex Telles are among those said to be in their sights, with Donny van de Beek already acquired, but the Red Devils find themselves operating well down their initial shopping list.

Chadwick says United are paying the price for mismanagement, with last resort moves not ticking the boxes most in need of addressing.

The former Red Devils midfielder told Sports Mole: “It does seem from the outside looking in that maybe all the eggs have been put in the Jadon Sancho basket and that’s going to keep people happy for a certain period of time.

“I think it’s been glaringly obvious since the start of the season that there needs to be another central defender to come in and offer more competition, someone who plays every game really, with the back four that’s playing at the moment.

“It does seem to be a little bit reactive in terms of there doesn’t seem to be a huge recruitment plan there of what happens.

“It seems to be someone might become available and United go and try and get them. Obviously Van de Beek is a hugely talented football player but you wonder where he’s going to play because I assume Bruno [Fernandes] is going to play every game, I assume [Paul] Pogba is going to play every game.

“We talk about the issues in the back four – if it’s a Van de Beek, Bruno, Pogba (midfield) in front of them it doesn’t offer a huge amount of protection to the back four so you look at the likes of [Nemanja] Matic and [Scott] McTominay who surely have to play at the moment to protect the back four to a certain extent.”

United suffered a 6-1 defeat to Tottenham in their last Premier League outing and will have the international break to stew on that and draw up plans for offering a positive response – potentially with a couple of fresh faces on board.