Ten Hag Begs Glazers For One-Last Favour Before Potential Summer Club Sale

The Red Devils have been somewhat inactive in the transfer market this January with only the entry of Jack Butland and Wout Weghorst on loan to boast of, with rivals Chelsea having completed seven transfers this January window.

United are understood to lack sufficient financial resources to make any significant permanent additions this month.

The club invested a record £225.4million in Ten Hag’s first summer transfer window and the new financial sustainability regulations have placed pressure on United to sell players in the summer.

Having missed out on Cody Gakpo and Joao Felix to rival English sides, United faithful are already in frustration with no significant addition to Ten Hag’s rebuild project this winter.

United owe £306m in transfer fees and although a new starting striker is their priority for the summer, Ten Hag is understood to be keen to add a dynamic midfielder and a right-back.

Ten Hag is open to a second pursuit of Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong, whom United agreed an €85m fee for in the summer. The club have also not ruled out another attempt to sign Jude Bellingham three years after he opted to join Borussia Dortmund.

“I have an idea, yeah,” Ten Hag said of United’s summer recruitment plans. “But also in the coming days if we had the opportunity I would go for it but that’s not also up to me. That’s also clear.

“I think this club always has to have the approach that every day you have to get better so if there are opportunities to get better then you have to strike. That’s my approach so I’m looking around, to research.

“But I have an idea with which profiles we could strengthen the squad.”

United are the only club in the country competing on four fronts. They are all but in the final of the League Cup after a 3-0 semi-final first-leg win over Nottingham Forest and Championship side Reading are due at Old Trafford in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday.

Fourth in the Premier League after 20 games, United also face Barcelona in a two-legged Europa League play-off next month. With the side well placed to have an unqualified successful season, Ten Hag is pleased with the progress.

“That’s good – that’s why we need all the players we have in the squad here,” he remarked. “To develop them but especially to get the right results out of it.

“And we want to stay in those competitions as long as possible so we have to fight for that. That is good for the development of this squad.

“If we are ahead or not in the process I don’t know. What we do is every day we have to give our maximum, good is not good enough. We have to do better so we keep going with the progress and the progress is about that. It’s never at an end.

“We have to approach it like that. If we’re ahead or not in the progress it’s not that important – it’s where we are now. We want to win every game. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is.”

Reading is the first of what is set to be nine games in 30 days for United, scheduled to play Leeds back-to-back in February if both teams avoid an FA Cup fourth round replay. “It’s tough but I think it’s always better to have games than training,” Ten Hag shrugged. “Players like more games than they train so we are looking forward. There is a good spirit and a good mood in this dressing room to cope with that.”