It\u2019s already a given that clubs have been known to make big mistakes in the transfer market, but Manchester United undoubtedly take the cake for their profligacy and extravagant spending.<\/p>\n
To illustrate this, even by modern standards, the numbers around the Casemiro deal are stupefying. A \u00a370million transfer over four years on \u00a31.2million a month \u2013 in short, a total outlay of almost \u00a3150million.<\/p>\n
Then there have been others over the years like Angel di Maria, Alexis Sanchez, Anthony Martial and numerous others who turned out to be misfits.<\/p>\n
This then is the culture of shoddily-planned, injudicious spending that must be chopped off from the United arterial spending bloodstream once and for all with Omar\u00a0Berrada riding shotgun as the new chief executive under the watchful eyes of Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old French-Moroccan\u2019s appointment is invariably a \u2018coup\u2019 for the Red half of Manchester, apparently, as the man is incredibly highly-thought of at the Etihad Stadium with the reputation of being a good individual who has contributed enormously to the club\u2019s success over recent years.<\/p>\n
However, Berrada wasn\u2019t the one doing the recruitment at City. That has always been under the purview of director of football Txiki Begiristain and coach Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n
Berrada\u2019s role, among many other things, has been to juggle the numbers and all assorted nuts and bolts of contract arrangements for new signings. Yes, he can stop United\u2019s errant spending with a pounding of his gavel, but ultimately the role of scouting for talent around the football globe will be down to whoever Ratcliffe, presumably with Berrada\u2019s input, decides to hire as director of football.<\/p>\n
United seem to have figured out an important piece in their jigsaw by hiring Berrada as he\u2019s indubitably a big talent. However, it takes more than a new chief executive to incinerate a culture of waste, inadequate short-term planning and poor judgment overnight.<\/p>\n
United have defended their extravagant spending on Casemiro, claiming he was always in their sights and had long been on a wishlist. Should that be true, why then was he snapped up only when he was too expensive and, to be brutally candid, too old?<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen if their new chief executive would be able to step up to whack the ball out of the park to put an end to spend-first-at-any-cost approach to transfers that has contributed in part to the United locomotive coming to a standstill for a decade.<\/p>\n
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