MANCHESTER UNITED maintain that there’s no shortage of agents approaching them with their top players. Which means that while the club failed last season and didn’t reach the Champions League, the impression given is that for England’s most successful team is still a draw for the best. How true is it? I spoke to a leading agent who represents some of the biggest stars at the biggest clubs in Europe.

“The club will create the impression that everything is hunky dory and that everyone wants to be on the ship, but let’s get this clear: their current players failed, and United’s failure last season hits the club in two ways,” he told me.

“One, there is a drop in money because there’s no Champions League football which was a given for years with Man United. And two, the club has to pay over the odds for the best, the players they’ve traditionally gone after, because you’re asking them not to play in the elite competition and join a club which has looked rudderless. There’s uncertainty about the future direction.”

United might point out that Paul Pogba arrived in 2016 with the prospect of only playing Europa League, but the agent knows the markets well.

“Then you have the current players taking a big cut because there’s no Champions League football. United are right to insert those clauses in their contracts because they’ll have a big drop of earnings and have to adapt accordingly. Failure shouldn’t be rewarded, but players naturally don’t like to lose money. They don’t like to be told there will be cuts. It’s the psychological way that the wages are packaged. United are just not paying out the bonuses which come with the Champions League which would have been taken for granted in previous years.”

The agent compared this with the most successful of all clubs.

“The opposite of United’s current situation with player recruitment is Barcelona in their prime. Players wanted to be there more than at any club in the world since they felt they had the best chance of winning the biggest trophies. They secured players for less than what their rivals were prepared to pay.”

In 2011, Barcelona, United and City all wanted Alexis Sanchez from Udinese. The Chilean chose the Catalans. Barça remain highly attractive, but United?

“If I have a player – and I have players – who have a chance to go to the top clubs, then I’m not going to put him into United at present,” says the agent. “If I have a young player with talent then I’m thinking ‘United are not going to sort themselves any time soon. Two or three years maybe the lifespan before my talented young player’s next move. A good agent should roadmap a player’s career and not just take the money from the next deal. You want your players at the best clubs possible.”

Not every player or their agents think long term. 

“The players who are only in it for the cash will more likely join United as they know United will have to pay more to compensate for their problems and no Champions League football.

“United are in a difficult situation. One way out of it is to have a manager who is attractive to players. That and – or – an experienced sports director who 100% knows his way around the markets. You need people who know the job.

“I’m not convinced by the idea of former legends mouthing off in the media getting the roles. Every club has them. Once you start capitulating to them you are on a slippery slope.”

“That is the only way they can turn this tanker around in the ocean at kind of reasonable speed. If you don’t have that, people in football very quickly pick up on a lack of experience.”

So what else do United do? 

“United should stop harping back to the old days. You cannot recreate an era. A glorious era was just that, a chapter in the book. You have to write a fresh chapter and you can’t do that using some of the elements which worked in the previous success story. Just because someone was a good player doesn’t make them a good coach or sporting director. United was full of players who maxed out on their talent as players, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will be successful in the next stage of the evolution.”

United fans aren’t under any illusions. A title challenge is not expected next season, they know there was a 32 point gap between City and their club. Fans would like to see the club moving in the right direction, be it by buying hungry emerging talents, by playing better football.

“United doesn’t need a plaster, it needs surgery,” says the agent. “It needs the top level experts to sort it out, people in the hierarchy who know what they are doing. You can go around in circles listening to people who think they have the answers when they don’t know the answers themselves.”

With regard to new signings, United remain optimistic and determined. The club have money. They are Manchester United, one of the three biggest clubs in the world. But the club have found it difficult to get their number one targets for nearly a decade and it’s not going to get any easier this summer. Still the club remain confident. The proof will visible on the field next season.