Manchester United's 2019 summer transfer window started off very well, securing the signings of exciting young talents in Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, but it took another 38 days before fans would see another signing.
United eventually secured their third signing of the summer on August 5, paying a reported £80 million for Leicester City defender Harry Maguire, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer eventually got his key target.
However, it was clear that Solskjaer's squad needed further strengthening this summer, particularly in midfield.
There is also a case that a number of United's out of favour senior players should have been moved on by now, with the likes of Marcos Rojo, Alexis Sanchez and Matteo Darmian still at the club, despite being linked with moves away.
This has only amplified the speculation around United's search for a technical director, with the club yet to appoint anyone for the position.
In recent days, RB Leipzig's sporting director Ralf Rangnick, who has been linked with a move to Old Trafford in the past, has made a few comments about United in a recent interview with The Times , suggesting that they've made a few mistakes in recent transfer windows.
"Since Sir Alex [Ferguson] left they were underperforming," said Rangnick.
"They haven’t won the title since he left. At any club, if you cannot get the right players, then you should at least not sign the wrong ones. You are in trouble if you do that in one or two or three consecutive transfer windows.
"Club building is about building the right squad by transferring the right players away and having more than 50 per cent success rate of bringing in the right players."
So, who would have Rangnick signed if he had have become technical director this summer?
And, who would have sold?
We used the highly respected football management simulation game Football Manager 2019 to find out...
Manchester United's transfers with Ralf Rangnick as technical director
To find out who Rangnick would have signed this summer, we used popular football management simulation game Football Manager 2019 to simulate the 2019/20 summer transfer window.
This is Rangnick's profile, with the most important Technical Director attributes highlighted.
We went into the Football Manager 2019 editor, added in Rangnick in as director of football, which is FM's version of a technical director, and then skipped ahead to the 2019 summer transfer window to see what happened.
We didn't add in the latest transfers, as we wanted to see who Rangnick would have signed this summer, so we've gone back in time to see what would happen.
Here are all the transfers he was involved in for Manchester United, including both incomings and outgoings - according to FM.
Transfers in: £249 million
Harry Maguire (Leicester City) - £71 million
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio) - £55 million
Elseid Hysaj (Napoli) - £45 million
Alex Grimaldo (Benfica) - £34 million rising to £42 million
Marcos Llorente (Real Madrid) - £29 million rising to £35.5 million
Wissam Ben Yedder (Sevilla) - £15 million rising to £18.5 million
Rangnick certainly wasn't scared of spending United's transfer kitty.
Interestingly, he secured the signing of Magure for £71 million, slightly cheaper than his real-life fee this summer. But, there was no move for Aaron Wan-Bissaka or Daniel James.
The German also signed Milinkovic-Savic, Elseid Hysaj and Alex Grimaldo, whilst also buying Marcos Llorente and Wissam Ben Yedder, who were bought by Atletico Madrid and Monaco respectively this summer.
Transfers out: £124 million
Romelu Lukaku (Juventus) - £60 million
Alexis Sanchez (PSG) - £45 million
Marcos Rojo (Shakhtar) - £11 million
Matteo Darmian (AC Milan) - £8 million
Lukaku and Sanchez were shipped out for decent money, to obvious destinations, whilst Rojo and Darmian were also sold.
Manchester United contract renewals
Not only did Rangnick do good work in the market, he also signed two of United's kep players down to extended contracts, including Paul Pogba...
And, David De Gea.
This is what the United XI looked like at the start of the 2019/20 season, with Ralf Rangnick as technical director....
De Gea; Hysaj, Lindelof, Maguire, Grimaldo; Llorente, Milinkovic-Savic, Pogba; Rashford, Martial, Lingard.According to Football Manager 2019, Rangnick would have secure a number of key targets before some of the big European giants pounced this summer, notably, Llorente and Ben Yedder.
He would have also sold both Lukaku and Sanchez for decent money, got rid of Rojo and Darmian, whilst also securing De Gea and Pogba's long-term future at the club.
He would have also signed Maguire anyway, but wouldn't have pursued Wan-Bissaka or James this summer.
