Paul Scholes is by no means the first to criticise Manchester United's activity in the transfer market and he won't be the last.
While many were critical of last year's scattergun approach, the way United clearly only signed Cristiano Ronaldo because they were terrified of the prospect of him playing in the blue half of Manchester, Scholes has also questioned the summer just gone. Though it did take a while to get going, the window closed with the club having made six signings that, on paper at least, have significantly strengthened the squad.
Four of the five outfield arrivals have become regular starters in Erik ten Hag's team, with the Dutchman looking back into his past links with Ajax and the Netherlands to bring in familiar faces. Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia and Antony have all had decent starts to life at Old Trafford. However, the one who hasn't started a game in the Premier League yet sticks out like Arctic Monkeys' sixth album: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casemiro.
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United shelled out £60million for the vastly experienced and successful Brazilian but Scholes questions whether he is a signing that Ten Hag even wanted. "Jadon Sancho was a young player who Manchester United spent a lot of money on, who was unproven in the league," he said on The Overlap. "And why would a club like Real Madrid let Varane go? If you looked at him last season, he didn’t look right. I didn’t think it was a great transfer window.
"Nobody at the club is taking responsibility for it. Even this year, Casemiro was done over two days. I wonder if it was the manager’s signing. A lot of money, long contract. I think they need to put someone in charge of recruitment. Eventually, the manager will get blamed for it."
He is right to wonder. Casemiro's four Premier League appearances so far have all come off the bench, late cameos to help see out wins before he got a taste of what United have been through in recent years as he trudged on with his side 4-1 down against Manchester City.
Many said beforehand that Casemiro would be needed from the start against Pep Guardiola's side to help combat their world-class midfield and hindsight proved them correct. Ten Hag justified his selection before the match by pointing out that his side had been playing well, defeating top-of-the-table Arsenal last time out, and they had all earned their starting berths.
There are arguments to be had either way. It shows naivety not to make adjustments on account of an incredibly strong team or it's important to keep consistency and rhythm as well as to show confidence and try to impose your own game on opponents. Either way, changes must be made after yet another humiliating defeat to great rivals.
The most obvious of which is to finally start integrating Casemiro into the side. United have been screaming out for a proper defensive midfielder for years and now they've got their hands on one of the best from the last decade. Scott McTominay had been playing well in recent weeks but he proved once again on Sunday that he has a ceiling and can't be in a United side that has aspirations of greater things.
Ten Hag has decent reasoning for not starting Casemiro so far: coming to a new league after so long in Madrid will take some time to acclimatise and he was a bit rusty in his one and only start against Real Sociedad in the Europa League - even if that match was played in exceptional conditions following the death of the Queen.
But it's hard to justify too much when it seems pretty obvious that if United did manage to sign Frenkie de Jong, who would also have come in from Spain, there's no chance that he would have been benched for his first four games. Just like Antony, who Ten Hag also clearly was desperate to sign, he would have gone straight into the starting XI at the first opportunity.
It already seems pretty clear just by the fact that he wasn't familiar with him from his past, as Scholes suggests, Casemiro wasn't a Ten Hag signing. The extent to which that stretches will prove Scholes even more right or wrong in the coming weeks if the No.18 doesn't start playing when it's obvious that United need his world-class ability.
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