The on-off Bryan Mbeumo saga and Liam Delap choosing Chelsea are troubling bellwethers of Manchester United’s predicament a month from the start of the season. So, too, is having half an outfield first team in a bomb squad that skulks in for training in the late afternoon when those not in the same club-decreed quasi-shame have left for the day.
As time ticks towards Arsenal’s opening Premier League Sunday visit and, beyond, to the window’s close on 1 September, Ruben Amorim can hardly be ecstatic at how the summer is progressing. The head coach has added only Matheus Cunha from Wolves, for the forward’s £62.5m release clause, a sizeable chunk of a transfer budget constricted by a looming debt mountain and the need to sell to buy a No 9 and, possibly, finally prise Mbeumo from Brentford.
