Manchester United blocked Ralf Rangnick's attempt to sign a striker on transfer deadline day in January because the scouting department claimed no one was available on the market.
Rangnick pushed for United to reinforce their attack after allegations emerged against Mason Greenwood on January 30. United confirmed later that day they had suspended Greenwood, 20, indefinitely.
Rangnick sanctioned Anthony Martial's loan to Sevilla until the end of the season, which went through on January 26, and had Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Elanga available in attack, with Bruno Fernandes, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard options in the No.10 role.
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Rashford and Cavani have not scored since Greenwood last played for United in their 1-0 victory over West Ham on January 22, which lifted them to fourth in the Premier League table. United are now sixth and resigned to playing in the Europa League next season.
Greenwood contributed six goals this season before he was withdrawn from the United squad; Rashford is on five goals, Elanga three, Cavani two and Martial one.
The January transfer window closed at 11pm on Monday 31, leaving United with the best part of 48 hours to offset Greenwood's absence with an 11th-hour replacement.
United had no plans to enhance a bloated squad when they entered the January window under an interim manager and Rangnick admitted at his introductory press conference on December 2 that January was not the best time for 'sustainable' signings.
When Rangnick advised United to recruit a forward, he was informed the scouting department felt there was no one attainable. United confirmed last month head of global scouting, Marcel Bout, and chief scout, Jim Lawlor, are to leave the club.
"Obviously, there were some problems the team had at the end of November and as we all know, in the first couple of months, at least until end of January, we were improving," Rangnick explained, "we were conceding fewer goals, we had a points average of 2.1 after the West Ham game.
"But then in that international break we lost, including Edinson Cavani, three players - long-term players - we lost three strikers and we had problems to score goals and find our balance, this is what happened.
"Maybe - I still believe - we should have tried, in those 48 hours, and I think the board meanwhile sees it the same way - they agreed with me - but they also spoke to the scouting department at the time, maybe we should have signed, tried to sign, a player in those 48 hours once we knew Mason wouldn't be available, once we knew that Anthony Martial had already left on loan.
"We were at least already aware Edinson Cavani might not be available for eight out of 10 games but, as I said, we didn't. Maybe I should have pushed even more in order to get this additional striker. But, as I said, we didn't."
When asked why United did not move for a striker, Rangnick replied: "Because the answer at the time was no, there is no player on the market who would really help us."
United signed the 31-year-old former Watford striker Odion Ighalo from Shanghai Shenhua on loan on January deadline day in 2020, initially until the end of the season. Sir Alex Ferguson recruited Henrik Larsson on a three-month mid-season loan from Helsingborgs in 2007.
In January, Liverpool gazumped Tottenham to sign Luis Diaz for an initial £37million, Dusan Vlahovic completed a £62.8m move to Juventus and Argentina international Julian Alvarez is due to join Manchester City's squad next season.
Rangnick, who specialised in recruitment as sporting director of the Red Bull group for eight years, highlighted those three major attacking transfers in the winter window: "There were a few! [Luis] Diaz, who is now at Liverpool, [Julian] Alvarez, who will be at Manchester City in the summer, [Dusan] Vlahovic, who at the time was still with Fiorentina. So those are just three of them that come across my mind now.
"I came back after the fourth day [off in January]. We had four days off at the time. I think it was a Sunday. I was informed about the issues around Mason Greenwood and obviously Anthony Martial had already left, and then I was aware that within four days we had some strikers missing and that it might make sense [to buy].
"We were still in three competitions: the FA Cup, the Champions League, at the time were fourth in the league. I spoke to the board and told them, ‘shouldn’t we at least speak and analyse and find if we can at least get a player, on loan or a permanent deal?' In the end, the answer was no. Maybe they didn’t want to do any winter [business]. It doesn’t matter, the answer was no. I spoke to the board."
Rangnick suggested United should have at least explored the possibility of hijacking one of the aforementioned three deals. "I don’t know [if we could have signed one of them]. But as I said, maybe we should have at least internally discussed it. It might be necessary and important.
"I still believe we should have at least tried. If we would have found and been able within 48 hours [to sign a player], it would have been short notice anyway. But still, 48 hours is 48 hours, it might have been at least worth to try and internally discuss it. But we didn’t. It was not done.
"In the end, since West Ham we lost, including Edinson, two-and-a-half, almost three players since then, three strikers. This also had an affect on our goalscoring ratio."
United sources claim Cavani's subsequent lay-offs were unforeseeable, yet his tendency to declare himself unavailable for games was an issue under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Cavani stayed in Uruguay for two extra days rather than participate in United's first match back after the January internationals against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fourth round on February 4. United lost 9-8 in a penalty shootout.
United drew 1-1 with Boro in regulation time and were also held to 1-1 draws in their next two Premier League games against Burnley and Southampton. United won six of Rangnick's first 10 games in charge with Greenwood and won five games out of 17 since Greenwood was suspended.
Cavani, who turned 35 on February 14, has missed every United game after international duty with Uruguay, having had eight weeks off after Uruguay's final Copa America tie on July 3. He has been available for 18 of United's 47 matches this season.
The former Paris Saint-Germain goalscorer was out injured between November 2 and December 27 and sidelined again between February 8 and March 12. Cavani returned from a seven-week lay-off in the 3-0 win against Brentford on Monday night.
