Manchester United have not made many forays into the loan market in the Premier League era.
The sheer nature of a loan at United, as it is with many other clubs, is signing a stop-gap, a temporary space in the squad that needs filling, solving an issue hopefully for a few months before attempting to tackle it with greater certainty in the summer. This season has been a case in point.
United were left light in the centre-forward department when Cristiano Ronaldo's bombshell interview with Piers Morgan led to the Portuguese superstar's swift exit from Old Trafford for the second time. It was a void which simply had to be filled.
