So the transfer window has squeaked mercifully shut and Owen Hargreaves remains out in the cold, with his runny nose pressed up to the Old Trafford glass. The double-Glazer effect (Malcolm and Joel, that is), predicted ever since their hostile takeover, is becoming ever more apparent at Manchester United.
In the pre-Glazer days, United would surely have offered Bayern so many readies that they couldn't goal-kick Hargreaves out of the Allianz Arena fast enough - just as they did to force through the transfers of Rio Ferdinand from Leeds (£29m), Wayne Rooney from Everton (up to £31m) and Juan Sebastián Verón from Lazio (£28m). Doubtless they would also have splashed similarly revolution-baiting amounts of loot to prise Fernando Torres from Atlético Madrid.
True, the Glazers did sanction the vastly over-the-odds payment of up to £18.6m for Michael Carrick. But, apart from the loan signing of reserve goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, that was that - and this during a summer in which their rivals Liverpool and Chelsea each made six signings. Arsenal, admittedly, only bought Tomas Rosicky for £7m (most of which - £5m - they recouped on the Willliam Gallas/Ashley Cole swap), but it is no secret that the cost of Emirates Stadium has severely clipped their wings in the transfer department. Besides which, Arsène Wenger appears content to wait for his beloved youngsters to mature. And Júlio Baptista for the erratic José Antonio Reyes looks a good trade.
Cheerleaders will say that United's winning start to the season vindicates the club's lack of close-season signings. But let's not kid ourselves that two easy victories over comically limp opposition (Fulham and Charlton) and one laboured win against the mighty Watford send a particularly loud statement of intent. It is still clear to everyone, surely, that United's once-mighty midfield remains in serious need of reinforcement. You can't go through a season with Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea as the main cover for Carrick and Paul Scholes. Nor can you hope to win a title when your striking options on the bench - even when nobody is injured - are restricted to the ageing and ring-rusty Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the equally ring-rusty and decidedly goal-shy Alan Smith.
But I also doubt that the grasp of the Glazers' fists around the purse strings can entirely account for the deafening silence emanating from Old Trafford during the last week. After all, Marcos Senna's arrival from Villarreal would hardly have broken the bank. Nor would that of Patrick Vieira or even Miroslav Klose.
No, what was striking about this close season was that while managers like Jose Mourinho, Martin Jol and, especially, Rafael Benítez went about carefully identifying weaknesses in their squads and doggedly pursuing the players they thought could rectify them, Alex Ferguson resembled a child in a sweetshop, his hand reaching out towards various brightly coloured lollipops that caught his eye, but never actually grasping them and putting them in his basket.
You could say that he didn't do so because he knew his two dads would never give him enough pocket money to pay for them - even the small ones. But David Trezeguet was potentially available as a loan signings, for heaven's sake, meaning United would only have had to pay his wages.
And then we come to the perplexing case of Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano. United were rumoured to be interested in both, and you can see why. The tough-tackling Mascherano would have been an excellent partner for Carrick, while Tévez would have made the perfect replacement for Ryan Giggs who, good early-season form notwithstanding, is surely nearing the end of his Premiership career. There may have been some unusual forces at work in the transfer of the Argentine pair to West Ham but, still, it almost beggars belief that United did not make more of an effort to entice them north.
Perhaps Ferguson and the Glazers regard loan signings or irregular half-signings as being beneath a club of their stature, although the complicated acquisition of Kuszczak suggests otherwise. Either way, finishing 20 points behind Chelsea is certainly beneath a club of their stature - but that seems highly likely to happen unless the Blues, implausibly, contrive to smash their own windows in an amusing orgy of internal brick-throwing.
