Manchester United's transfer policy has left them with a squad not good enough or deep enough... Louis van Gaal needs stardust

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Seattle back in July and a conversation with a Manchester United official at the start of the club’s pre-season tour of America.

‘Surely you won’t attempt to get through this season with only Wayne Rooney as a frontline striker?’

‘Yes, we will. If he scores 25 goals, as we know he can, then we will be fine.’

Manchester United were prepared to enter the season with Wayne Rooney as their sole frontline striker

‘And what if he gets injured?’

‘Well, he will get fit again and return to the team. The problem with you is that you are too negative.’

Roughly four months on and it’s hard not to return to that conversation, hard not to be negative.

Rooney is injured, United do not have a natural replacement and, as of Tuesday night in Germany, Louis van Gaal’s team are out of the Champions League.

The club's transfer policy has left Louis van Gaal with a squad that is not good enough or deep enough

As United attempt to move forward much of the focus will be on Van Gaal. Rightly so. The Dutchman was not hired to lose to teams like PSV or Wolfsburg.

Nevertheless, while the debate swirls about Van Gaal’s tactics, strategies and the frustrations with these felt by members of his squad, it remains pertinent United’s transfer strategy since David Moyes left in April 2014 has left them with a squad that is not good enough or deep enough.

Last season they spent heavily at the last minute on Radamel Falcao to ensure Van Gaal had three experienced goalscorers to choose from. This summer, after the departure of Falcao, Robin van Persie and Javier Hernandez, they went into the season with one.

Van Gaal had three experienced strikers last season but now Radamel Falcao and Robin van Persie are gone

They spent heavily on Memphis Depay and Anthony Martial. Both are fine players but everybody knows what happens to young footballers in their first season in England: they start brightly and then their lights go out. 

Everybody else knew this would happen so why didn’t United?

We have a United team whose only chance of winning is, on the whole, preventing the opposition from scoring.

Certainly Van Gaal’s tactics can be strange at times. He does not trust Ander Herrera and has reservations about Juan Mata. 

On Tuesday he replaced Mata with Nick Powell. One day that will be written on his United tombstone.

Van Gaal still has reservations about Juan Mata, who was replaced by Nick Powell in defeat by Wolfsburg 

If only to be counter-intuitive here, is it worth considering the only reason he chooses to approach games with the handbrake on is because he knows his team isn’t good enough to play with it off?

On Tuesday, United chased a game they had to win from the outset and came undone at the opposite end. Is this coincidence or does that tell us something?

Missing key players, United suffered from a lack of alternatives. This team is still missing a second-string right back, a central defender who can stay fit and, certainly, a centre forward of true mobility and experience.

Van Gaal can be blamed in part for this. He talks about needing pace in his team. A fast winger, he says. Well last season he had Angel di Maria and he sold him.

Anthony Martial and Memphis Depay are fine players but they struggle with form like any young player

At modern clubs, however, transfer policies are determined not only by the manager. 

It is expected the club has a strategy that fits to an accepted model — one that survives the manager’s departure, for example.

At Old Trafford it is hard to see one. 

When Sir Alex Ferguson left, it was said by insiders there was nothing left behind bar a few notes scribbled metaphorically on the back of cigarette packets.

The signing of Bastian Schweinsteiger has strengthened the spin of the team but not the stardust

Currently it is hard to see what has replaced that. 

Depay and Martial are talented players, while Van Gaal has strengthened the spine of his team sensibly with Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger. 

Without a doubt, those signings have improved the functioning of his team.

Where, however, is the stardust? 

Where are the footballers that will turn a game and take United to the top of a stunningly mediocre Premier League? 

Maybe their names are written on the back of Ferguson’s fag packets. Maybe somebody should take a look. Or maybe that’s just being negative.

When Sir Alex Ferguson insiders there was nothing left behind bar a few notes on the back of cigarette packets