“There’s no player that can help us” – Man Utd board told Ralf Rangnick in January when he asked the club to sign of these players including Luis Diaz who later joined Liverpool
Manchester United interim boss Ralf Rangnick has blamed the refusal of the Manchester United board to give him a new striker in the January transfer window for our season falling apart.
Manchester United allowed Anthony Martial to leave on loan despite concerns over Edinson Cavani’s fitness while Mason Greenwood was suspended by the club following allegations of rape.
Rangnick has revealed he asked the club to sign Luis Diaz, Julian Alvarez or Dusan Vlahovic but the Manchester United board insisted there’s no player that can help Manchester United.
Having won six and lost one of his first 10 games as interim manager leading up to the winter break, Rangnick’s next 17 matches since then have produced just five victories.
“The answer at the time was no, there is no player on the market that can help us,” said Rangnick.
“There were a few. Luis Diaz, who is now at Liverpool, Julian Alvarez, who will be at Manchester City in the summer, and Dusan Vlahovic, who at the time was still with Fiorentina. Those are three that come across my mind now.
“I spoke to the board and told them, ‘Shouldn’t we at least speak and analyse and find if we can get a player on loan or a permanent deal?’ But the answer was no and that was it. Maybe they didn’t want to do any winter business. It doesn’t matter, the answer was no.
“I was informed about the issue around Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial had already left. We also were aware that Edinson Cavani might not be available for eight out of 10 games.
“I still believe that we should have tried to sign a player in those 48 hours. The board, meanwhile, also spoke to the scouting department at the same time as me. It would have been short notice but still, 48 hours is 48 hours. It might have been at least worth to try and internally discuss it. We didn’t. It was not done.”
Rangnick believes the decision had an impact on his six-month stint as interim boss as United’s season fell away.
“The first couple of months we were improving,” he added.
“We conceded less goals and our points average was 2.1 after the West Ham game. We were still in three competitions — the FA Cup, the Champions League and at the time we were fourth in the league. Since West Ham, we lost two and a half, almost three, strikers. This had an effect on our goalscoring.”