As ticked by on 1 September and the suspicion became reality, many Manchester United fans thought the same thing – what about a left-back? Since the 2025-26 season ended, and United's summer transfer strategy started to be debated, it seemed obvious the club would move to address a perceived weakness in Michael Carrick's squad. Luke Shaw is their only senior orthodox left-back.
He started all 38 Premier League games last season, which given his previous injury record was phenomenal. But as back-up Tyrell Malacia had unsurprisingly been allowed to leave when his contract expired at the end of June, and it is widely accepted 31-year-old Shaw will not be able to play repeatedly in a new campaign that could stretch beyond 60 games, a reinforcement was expected. Various targets were identified, including Newcastle's Lewis Hall, Barcelona's Alejandro Balde and Racing Santander's Jorge Salinas.
Finally, it came down to an attempt to get Rayan Ait-Nouri to cross the great Manchester divide by joining on loan, but City said no. For that move to have progressed, United would have had to include an obligation to buy at a later date, but have instead chosen to bide their time for their first-choice targets. Now the deadline has passed and, at least until the winter window opens in January, United and Carrick must stand or fall by what has to be viewed as a calculated gamble.
Man Utd fail in attempt to sign Ait-Nouri from Man City Firstly, it must be acknowledged Manchester United really like Lewis Hall. Had they been able to do a deal with Newcastle for him, they would have done. However, raided by Premier League rivals for their star men this summer, it became obvious in discussions around the highly-rated 22-year-old if Newcastle were to be persuaded to strike a deal, the transfer fee would be huge.
Manchester United's summer transfer budget was finite. Faced with the reality of the situation, they opted to maintain their focus on the 'priority' midfield area and eventually committed £70m to bring in Carlos Baleba from Brighton. Hall, it was concluded, is someone they are prepared to wait until next summer for.
United would have been prepared to take Balde on loan. Barcelona would only sell him. Salinas had a relatively low release clause, but Atletico Madrid were favourites to sign him.
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