Wout Weghorst's move to Manchester United in January raised almost as many eyebrows among supporters as Cristiano Ronaldo's controversial Piers Morgan interview.
It was a left-field decision which screamed of a club trying to solve an unforeseen problem on the cheap. Weghorst failed to do the business for Burnley in the Premier League so the chances were he would not do it under Erik ten Hag either.
So this proved but it was certainly not for a lack of effort. The Dutchman's commitment to the cause cannot be questioned and the look of pure elation on his face when United won the Carabao Cup will not be forgotten.
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However, for the Reds to push towards the title conversation they need a goalscoring centre forward and sadly Weghorst is not that guy. MEN Sport understands United will not be signing the 30-year-old permanently and this is the right decision.
When dishing out blame for the Weghorst transfer though, it should lie solely with one group and that is not Ten Hag nor the Dutch international. The United board left the club at a disadvantage in January when they insisted Ten Hag looked for a temporary solution.
Gary Neville put it best in April when discussing the target man on Sky Sports. "He was badly let down in January, Erik ten Hag, if you look at it because that Ronaldo interview that was done with Piers Morgan I think was done in November and he was always going to leave at the start of the World Cup, so he left at the start of the World Cup," he explained.
"Manchester United then had six weeks before the transfer window began and they made a conscious decision not to give Erik ten Hag the money, because they haven’t got the money. They made a conscious decision to say you have to bring in someone on loan and he was left then, to be fair, with [few] options – who’s going to loan Manchester United a world-class striker in January? No one’s going to do that, so they ended up with Weghorst.
"I don’t blame Weghorst at all, I think he’s done a really good job, he’s a placeholder for Manchester United and Erik ten Hag and he’s doing everything he can possibly do out there on the pitch. He obviously isn’t good enough to be a Manchester United number nine and a striker, but Erik ten Hag was doing really well for the Manchester United players and they needed supporting in January with a top-class striker.
"They lost Ronaldo, they lost [Edinson] Cavani last summer, Martial was injured – you cannot play without a centre forward. To play football really well your centre forward has to play really well and your goalkeeper – it’s just a rule – and he [Weghorst] doesn’t always play well.
"So for me, Ten Hag was let down badly in January by the club in the sense that they’ve obviously got £900million worth of debt and they couldn’t afford to bring in anybody else. That’s the harsh reality of it."
Going into the summer transfer window, United cannot afford to be cheap when it comes to finally replacing Ronaldo. It has been clear as day the Reds need a striker and it is only thanks to a heroic Marcus Rashford season that Ten Hag's side are not struggling to get into the Champions League.
Weghorst may not have been the right move by Ten Hag but the true blame for that lies squarely with the owners.
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