Manchester United are doing what Erik ten Hag didn't get to do in the transfer market

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Eric Cantona and Daniel James have nothing in common other than playing for the Uniteds of Leeds and Manchester. The second thing they could share is applause at Old Trafford as a Leeds player.

James had a respectable two years at United, who banked a rare profit with his £25million sale to Leeds in 2021. He is yet to play for his parent club at Old Trafford. When he emerged for Fulham against United in 2022, the rendition of 'We all hate Leeds scum' was not particularly caustic.

Some United fans put their hands together for Cantona on his maiden appearance in M16 in September 1992. In the white of Leeds, Cantona attempted an overhead kick from the edge of the area at the Stretford End. He connected cleanly but it was handled dependably by Peter Schmeichel.

The flurry of applause was for the attempt rather than the save. One United fan recalled another asking him why he was clapping a Leeds player.

Sir Alex Ferguson tells a story about picking Steve Bruce's and Gary Pallister's brains about Cantona as they relaxed in the dressing room bath after that 2-0 win. It was the only time Cantona ever played against United and he was back in Manchester two-and-a-half months later, this time to be introduced by his new club.

Almost all of Ferguson's significant signings in the early years of the Premier League were top-flight players who had caught his eye. He wanted to sign Roy Keane as soon as the United scout Les Kershaw had watched him on his full debut for Nottingham Forest at Anfield in 1990. Andy Cole scored home and away against United in 1993-94 for Newcastle before his British-record move for £7m in 1995.

Henning Berg was a title winner with Blackburn and Teddy Sheringham was United's scourge in a New Year's Day thrashing at White Hart Lane. Dwight Yorke was influential in one of United's most infamous defeats, the grey-kit grey day in the Villa Park sunshine in August 1995.

United did not just dominate the Nineties on the pitch but in the domestic transfer market. When Ferguson decided to move for a striker in 1995, he considered Cole, Les Ferdinand and Stan Collymore. Ferdinand and Collymore moved to Newcastle United and Liverpool later that year.

Back then, United had the pick of the lot. Now, as they have discovered with their opening offer for Bryan Mbeumo, they cannot just prey on top-flight clubs, particularly one as shrewdly run as Brentford.

The list goes on well into the 2000s, from the ridiculous to the sublime: David Bellion, Louis Saha, Alan Smith, Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov and Antonio Valencia.

Chris Coleman attempted to put up a fight when he was Saha's manager at Fulham. "Over my dead body" would Saha be sold. Coleman was very much alive when Saha moved for £12.6m in January 2004.

John Gregory, Yorke's manager at Villa in 1998, was far more incendiary. "If I'd have had a gun, I'd have shot him," he admitted upon learning that Yorke wanted to leave. The quote was referenced in Yorke's chant at United.

"I was rising at Villa, becoming the main man, the only place I'd have left Villa was to go to Manchester United," Yorke said. "I got a phone call from (former manager) Brian Little, who had left the club and John Gregory was in charge.

"I got a phone call from the gaffer himself and Brian Little said, 'I think I might have got you a move.' And that's when the reality kicked in.

"It was really bizarre (with Gregory) and what was so bizarre about it was John Gregory was my go-to coach. Individually, I used to spend a lot of time practicing my touch and finishing and Gregory would be the one with me! He was losing his best player and felt aggrieved at that."

United have largely eschewed Premier League recruits in recent years, before and after the Ineos cabal occupied seats in the Old Trafford directors' box. Erik ten Hag protested during his first pre-season in 2022 that he would rather sign Premier League-proven players but lamented their expense.

Declan Rice and Harry Kane were on the market a year later but both slipped the net. United settled for Mason Mount, an outlier and a mismatch.

After United parted with £80m to make Harry Maguire the most expensive defender in football in 2019, they did not buy a player from a Premier League club until Mount four years later. Cristiano Ronaldo had premium Premier League pedigree but returned after a 13-year absence. Christian Eriksen, a free agent, had demonstrated he could still hold his own during a brief spell with Brentford.

United's prime three targets this summer were all attached to Premier League clubs. Matheus Cunha's release clause made his £62.5million switch from Wolves straightforward, Mbeumo wants to join United but Liam Delap did not.

(Image: 2024 AMA Sports Photo Agency)

All three distinguished themselves against United. "Cunha wowed the crowd with two virtuoso dribbles, the second halted by the booked Fernandes," this correspondent wrote at Molineux on Boxing Day. "Cunha would slot into Amorim's 3-4-3, a formation that too many players already jar with."

In November 2023, yours truly mused, "Ferguson sought a Premier League specialist who was direct and familiar with servicing target men. While the focus is inevitably on Ivan Toney, if United are to telephone Brentford about a player it ought to be Bryan Mbeumo." Delap antagonised a number of United players in the royal blue of Ipswich Town.

A sceptical friend suggested United's transfer strategy is mirroring Everton's under Ronald Koeman. Across the 2016 and 2017 summers, Everton bought Ashley Williams, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Yannick Bolasie, Michael Keane and Jordan Pickford, essentially the best players at mid-to-lower table Premier League clubs Swansea City, Crystal Palace, Burnley and Sunderland.

Between those transfer windows, Everton drew 1-1 at Old Trafford and Koeman casually remarked he was "more comfortable" against United than at Liverpool. Five months later and back at the same stadium, Everton were trounced 4-0 by United.

Jose Mourinho, a colleague of Koeman's from their time as coaches at Barcelona, was in a mischievous mood with his programme notes: "I hope everybody knows today will be a tough game because we're up against a team that has spent £140m."

That got under Koeman's skin at his post-match press conference and he accused Mourinho of not being realistic. Koeman was sacked a month later.

United had bought from Everton that summer. Romelu Lukaku racked up 26 goals for a seventh-placed side that had finished a place below United. He got 28 in his first campaign in Manchester.

Lukaku, of course, once scored a hat-trick against Ferguson's United. It was too late for Ferguson, though. It came in his final match in management at West Brom.

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