"There were a few" - Ralf Rangnick reveals Manchester United board blocked move for a forward in January and says Liverpool star was one of his targets
Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has revealed that he asked the club to sign a forward in January, including a now Liverpool player as a target. However, the move was blocked by the club's board and they ended up without any signings in the winter transfer window.
Rangnick shared that Dusan Vlahovic, Luis Diaz and Julian Alvarez were available and United should've perhaps attempted to sign at least one of them.
Manchester United have suffered due to a dearth of in-form forwards this season. Anthony Martial joined Sevilla on loan in January while Mason Greenwood was suspended for alleged sexual assault. Edinson Cavani has had to deal with injury issues while Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford have been out of form.
United's only saving grace in the attacking department has been Cristiano Ronaldo. The forward has hit top gear in recent weeks and has climbed up the goalscoring charts. The Portuguese forward has notched up 18 goals in the Premier League.
Hence, Manchester United should've perhaps looked at signing a forward in January but failed to do so. Speaking about the situation in January, Rangnick said (via Metro):
"The answer at the time was no there was no player on the market that could really help us – there were a few, Diaz who is now at Liverpool, Alvarez who will be at Manchester City in the summer, Vlahovic who at the time still was with Fiorentina those are just three of them that come across my mind now."
He added:
"We had four days off at the time and on the Sunday I was informed about the issues with Mason Greenwood and obviously Anthony Martial had already left and then I was aware that within four days we had some strikers missing and it might make sense, we were still in three competitions – Champions League, FA Cup and fourth in the league but that’s the past and it doesn’t help us anymore."
Ralf Rangnick has once again called out the Glazers and exposed the running of Manchester United.
He’s the change we needed
Rangnick then stated that even though there was less time, he believed that Manchester United should've tried to sign a forward. He added:
"I spoke to the board and said shouldn’t we at least speak and try and analyse if we could get a player either on loan or as a permanent deal but in the end the answer was no. I still believe that we should have at least tried, if we would’ve found and been able in 48 hours, 48 hours is short notice but it’s still 48 hours, it might have been worth to try and internally discuss but we didn’t and it was not done."
Manchester United's missed signings Diaz and Vlahovic have exceled for Liverpool and Juventus respectively
Luis Diaz and Dusan Vlahovic have been impactful at Liverpool and Juventus respectively since joining them in January from Porto and Fiorentina respectively.
The Colombian has four goals and three assists in all competitions for the Reds. He helped Liverpool win the Carabao Cup and reach the finals of the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League, adding necessary depth to the side's attack.
A game-changing impact ✨
Take a bow, @LuisFDiaz19 👏 https://t.co/uRS7Qm0NJU
Vlahovic, meanwhile, has helped Juventus solidify their fourth spot in the Serie A table. He has scored seven goals and made two assists in 18 appearances for the Bianconeri across competitions.
Meanwhile, Julian Alvarez has joined Manchester City but is currently on loan at River Plate. He has scored eight goals and made four assists in 15 games across competitions for the club.
Manchester United are more or less out of the top-four race in the Premier League and will finish the season without a trophy. Hence, fans will wonder what could've been if they had signed either one of the forwards Rangnick mentioned.