Erik ten Hag is putting a brave face on Manchester United's transfer window so far, but the manager's public comments on Friday also upped the ante as far as John Murtough and Richard Arnold are concerned.
United have so far added Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez and Christian Eriksen to Ten Hag's squad, but negotiations over his top target, Frenkie de Jong, have stalled and there are still no reinforcements in attack.
A fee has been agreed with Juventus for Adrien Rabiot and football director Murtough was in Turin yesterday for a meeting with the player's representatives.
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But United's window is beginning to turn into a farce this week. The chances of De Jong signing appear to be receding with Chelsea now interested while a move for 33-year-old striker Marko Arnautovic collapsed due to predictable outrage.
The club are also blocking Ten Hag's attempts to move for another of his former charges in Hakim Ziyech and the perspective on the outside is that panic is now beginning to set in.
Malacia is offering competition to Luke Shaw and Eriksen is a versatile midfielder forced to play as a false nine last weekend. Martinez started as a left-sided centre-back last week and is earmarked for that role long-term.
United clearly need to do more business before the window shuts and the manner of the opening weekend defeat to Brighton exposed how little improvement there had been this summer.
No matter how good a coach Ten Hag is, this squad is facing an uphill task to finish in the top four and the Dutchman will know he can only succeed this season if he is given more tools to work with.
But speaking in his pre-Brentford press conference, he promised that would be the case. When asked if United would have a better squad on September 1, Ten Hag stressed: "We have to. I am convinced we will have."
When asked if he was on the "same page" as the board regarding recruitment, Ten Hag replied: "Yes.
"I'm happy, I think we're cooperating really well. I cannot tell about any individuals, I cannot talk about players under contract at other clubs."
That working relationship with Murtough might be fine at the moment, but there's no doubt Ten Hag's comments up the ante on the football director and on chief executive Arnold. They have to get deals done in the final 20 days of the window.
Ten Hag had a very good working relationship with his sporting director at Ajax, Marc Overmars, and he's clearly been pulling the strings in terms of targets during his first window at Old Trafford.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of that approach - and it's certainly a risk - he is relying on club figures to get deals done and at the moment that isn't happening.
Ten Hag's insistence that this squad will be better by the end of the window is a challenge to make sure it does happen before September 1. If he still hasn't got what he wants by the time United travel to the King Power Stadium on that Thursday evening, he might have a very different story to tell.
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