As the window closed on Monday evening, there were only a few clubs - maybe Manchester City and Aston Villa - who were in any way satisfied with their business. One of the major issues with January signings was instead illustrated by two of England’s biggest clubs. Both Arsenal and Manchester United wanted to bring in forwards, and were still discussing options in the final 24 hours. A huge problem was that the extra costs required in this window would almost certainly have affected better business later.
In other words, they chose long-term ideals for the summer over short-term pragmatism now. Both clubs know from recent experience how ruinous the latter can be. United’s severe PSR difficulties were shaped by the extreme over-expenditure of the Erik ten Hag era, with Ruben Amorim repeatedly speaking of “trying everything to improve the team without doing the mistakes of the past”. That might previously have entailed a rush to just get in a striker now, despite a growing belief that United will secure Sporting’s Viktor Gyokeres in the summer. One would have stopped the other.
