Manchester United supporters believe Ed Woodward should sanction three transfers when the transfer window reopens at the end of the season.
It was a quiet January window at Old Trafford, with Anthony Martial’s new, five-and-a-half year contract the headline.
The France international’s agent, Philippe Lamboley, had said as recently as December 17 that he was ‘pessimistic’ about a new deal at Old Trafford, but Ole Gunnar Soslkjaer’s ten-game tenure at the club has sufficiently brightened the mood to convince Martial that his future lies with the 20-time champions.
Marouane Fellaini left the club after four-and-a-half years, with the Belgium international securing a big-money move to Shandong Lueng in China.
But United supporters think wholesale changes could be required at the end of the campaign, with 38% of 7,374 supporters polled stating that three new arrivals should walk through the door at Old Trafford. 34% believed four transfers are required, with 18% of the view that more than four moves are necessary.
Kalidou Koulibaly, the Napoli centre-back, was a popular choice among United fans to bolster the Reds’ defensive line, with Crystal Palace full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka also viewed as having the potential to make the grade at Old Trafford.
United could be bolstered by the introduction of a head of football by the start of the next transfer window.
Club sources confirmed when Jose Mourinho was sacked on December 18 that the role will be created at United as part of a wide-ranging restructure at Old Trafford.
United’s hierarchy and Mourinho were at odds last summer, with executive vice-chairman Woodward overruling the former manager’s view that a world-class centre back was required.
The new position at Old Trafford is thought to have been planned in order to avoid a repeat of the damaging effects that the contrasting approaches between United managers have led to since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
Solskjaer remains unbeaten as Reds boss with nine wins from ten and the Norwegian, who has a contract at United until the end of the season, says he would have been consulted had United done business in January.
“I think it’s quite natural that whoever is in charge and whoever is involved with the players already here has a voice in [transfers],” Solskjaer said ahead of the 1-0 win at Leicester on Sunday.
“I have got to know the players, what potential they have, how far away they are from reaching that potential, and who we can build a team on. So of course I put my views into the club.
“It was just about coming in to work with the players and I knew that if the club had targets for the transfer window, they would have discussed them with me.”