Erik ten Hag's Manchester United reign is beginning to gather pace as he identifies who he wants to bring into the club - and who wants out.
Both of those things have become increasingly clear in the last 24 hours or so, with the Red Devils hijacking Lyon's efforts to sign Feyenoord left-back Tyrell Malacia and seemingly succeeding. The young Netherlands international seemed bound for France after Lyon's third bid had been accepted, but United's pulling power proved too tempting for the 22-year-old.
The Red Devils sent an eleventh hour offer worth £15million plus £2m in add-ons and saw it accepted by the Eredivisie side and are on course to agree personal terms with Malacia in the coming days. If and when the Dutchman puts pen to paper, it could spell the end of another underperforming star at United.
Alex Telles has occasionally appeared as if he was a capable left-back while donning the United shirt, but ever since he arrived in October of 2020 the former Porto defender has struggled to capture form on a consistent basis. For the bulk of his time in Manchester, he has been forced to deputise for Luke Shaw.
For all of Shaw's own defensive frailties, he has for the most part managed to keep Telles at arms length in the battle for the starting left-back role. It is only when the England international has been struck down with injury issues has Telles really had a solid run.
That occurred towards the tail-end of last season, though the former Galatasaray defender hardly seized the chance with both hands. He was present for some of the more humiliating defeats United endured last season - including the 4-0 demolition away at Brighton.
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It is for that reason, one of Telles' recent Instagram post has hardly gone down well with the United faithful. The wing-back made the rather questionable move of publicly pontificating whether last term had actually been a good campaign.
It must be said, he was honest enough to concede it was poor from a collective standpoint - but appeared to suggest he had enjoyed the club's worst season of the Premier League era from an individual perspective.
Telles wrote: "Today I caught myself thinking: was this a good season? Being on a team like United brings great responsibilities. And it wasn't a good season for us, I know, far from it.
"But for the boy who dreamed of being a football player in Brazil, being able to complete the mark of 50 games for this club... Man, I can say that it was something very important for me. Soccer is my life. Let's keep working, always trying to improve. Thank you all."
The opening question has since been answered in rather emphatic fashion by Ten Hag. His efforts to sign Malacia would suggest that he views Telles as a third-choice left-back at best - something the 29-year-old is unlikely to take kindly.
Once the subject of interest from both Inter and AC Milan, Telles' list of potential suitors is no longer quite as long. However, he'll need to up sticks somewhere soon or face spending a season behind not one but two left-backs in the pecking order.
