Ineos’ £5m mistake might be about to make Manchester United’s problems even worse

However, since his medical was already finished, it turned out to be too little, too late even if they gave the Saints a higher offer. That summer, United would instead sign Harry Maguire for a reported £80 million, a deal that hasn’t gone as planned.

Austin feels that the transfer never would have happened, so it gives their supporters some comfort. “I think he had his heart set on going to Liverpool,” Van Dijk said in response to the question of whether he would have chosen to play for United.

It is reasonable to argue that Erik ten Hag, the manager of Manchester United, hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to switch up the full-back positions thus far this season.

This season, Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot have performed nearly all of the heavy lifting on either side of the center-back positions while Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia have not been available. Mazraoui, who joined the team in August after being signed from Bayern Munich, has started nine of the ten games in which he has been available, and Dalot has started every one of United’s eleven home games this season.

Mazraoui was brought in to challenge Dalot at right-back and replace Aaron Wan-Bissaka, but due to Shaw and Malacia’s persistent absences, the Moroccan has been given the opportunity to establish himself at the position, with Dalot filling in on the left.

Last month’s 7-0 victory against Barnsley in the League Cup’s third round seemed like the perfect chance for Ten Hag to rotate at full back at least once and give Harry Amass his senior debut. Instead, in a less than successful experiment, Toby Collyer played as an emergency left-back.

Malacia’s recovery is progressing well, and Shaw is reportedly very close to making his eagerly anticipated comeback, but neither player’s injury history will inspire confidence in any United supporter. It appears more and more that the summer transfer ban of a left-back was a mistake.

The choice to cash in on Alvaro Fernandez, who originally signed a contract worth €6 million (£5 million) to join Benfica, might also be viewed in the same light. After spending the second half of the previous season on loan at the Estadio da Luz, he signed a permanent agreement with the Portuguese club in June.

This season, Fernandez has established himself as Benfica’s left back, starting their first two Champions League games. He played a fantastic role in their 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid the previous week.

United has the opportunity to exercise a repurchase provision to re-sign Fernandez, and in recent days, rumors have appeared suggesting they may do so. Another of his previous clubs, Real Madrid, has reportedly expressed interest.

Given that Fernandez, 21, has had a successful year thus far in 2019, United’s decision to cash in on him makes sense. Since he was the first permanent sale of the Ineos era, the power brokers at United knew they needed to improve the club’s performance during the summer in the seller’s market.

But United was aware that Shaw was unreliable and that Malacia was a chronic absentee. The Spaniard was never given the chance to establish himself at Old Trafford, so paying £5 million up front with an additional £2.5 million in add-ons for a player who never played in the first team seemed like wise investment at the time. However, it has aged poorly for United because they were unable to use a natural left-back in their first 11 games of the season.

Fernandez would have been pushed down the hierarchy until Shaw gets back up to speed, but at least he would have provided competition and rotation. Shaw will retake the left-back position. Fernandez was prepared for the next level, as seen by his performances for Benfica thus far this season, both at home and in Europe.

Dalot is expected to return to right back due to Mazraoui’s impending injury, but if Shaw is still out, there could be a serious void at left back. A potentially dangerous deficiency could soon get much worse.