Manchester United had eight midfielders on their shortlist ahead of the £150m trio they signed this summer as agents railed against a “complicated” transfer process at Old Trafford.

Michael Carrick has been sacked with United 18th in the table with just eight points from their opening ten games of the season. Mauricio Pochettino is expected to be imminently announced as his replacement.

Carrick has received plenty of sympathy after leading the Red Devils back into the Champions League last season, with fans continuing to support him through the current campaign as the problems at the club are seen as running far deeper.

Protests against the Glazer family, who saddled the club with £600m worth of debt following their leveraged takeover 21 years ago, are nothing new, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe has now joined the American owners as a villain of the piece after promising the “best in class” upon buying a minority stake in February 2024.

Few would agree that Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox represent leaders in their fields on the back of their work as CEO and director of football respectively, and a report from The Athletic giving the inside scoop on Carrick’s sacking would support suggestions that they – like Carrick – are way out of their depth at Old Trafford.

The Man Utd chiefs have been heavily criticised for their poor and limited recruitment in the summer.

Carrick wanted ‘significantly more than was delivered, not least a backup striker and left-back’ and while a midfield rebuild was required following the departure of Casemiro and an acceptance that Manuel Ugarte was never going to come good, the signings they did make ‘were seventh or eighth’ on the shortlist.

Andrey Santos, Carlos Baleba and Youri Tielemans were drafted in for a combined £150m, but Elliot Anderson was their top target, followed by Mateus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali, Aurelien Tchouameni, Alex Scott, Ederson and Ayyoub Bouaddi.

The report also revealed that ‘United gave serious consideration to signing Leon Goretzka as a free agent instead of Tielemans’. Goretzka instead replaced Tielemans at Villa and scored against United in Carrick’s last game in charge.

A report on Thursday claimed Anderson in fact wanted to join Manchester United but the move never got off the ground as Jason Wilcox failed to come close to their valuation before Manchester City swooped to pay £116m for the England international.

And a ‘complicated’ transfer process requiring the sign-off of six different individuals at Man Utd can’t have helped matters.

The Athletic report adds:

‘Agents have reported a complicated process in some cases in getting a clear answer from United, with several executives needing to be looped in or convinced. As well as Berrada and Wilcox, there is Christopher Vivell, director of recruitment, and Matt Hargreaves, director of negotiations. All transfers then require ratification from Ratcliffe and the Glazers.’