What The Tyrell Malacia Transfer Tells Us About The New Style Of Recruitment At Manchester United

As Tyrell Malacia’s signing with Manchester United is completed, this piece will take a look at what this tells us about United’s change of style in their recruitment.

For weeks, it seemed that Frenkie de Jong was set to be the first signing under the new tenure of Erik ten Hag, John Murtough and Richard Arnold.

The new head coach, football director and chief executive came into Old Trafford at a challenging time for the club.

Reports were circling that De Jong was on the move from Barcelona, with Manchester United the only realistic suitors for Ten Hag’s former star whilst at Ajax.

However, an alleged string of rejected bids and lack of progressive action in the way of securing the Dutchman’s services pointed towards little change at Old Trafford, with the fear that errors made in previous windows relating to high profile signings had not been sufficiently addressed.

Echoes of the Jadon Sancho saga rang around the United fanbase, as speculation began to amount that suggested the process to get de Jong could follow a similarly stagnant nature.

However, parallels between the attempts to secure De Jong and the eventually successful attempts to land Jadon Sancho began to unravel as it becomes abundantly clear that a major issue with the Sancho pursuit was not apparent in the pursuit for de Jong: Tunnel Vision.

Tunnel vision restricted Manchester United’s effectiveness in both the 20/21 and 21/22 summer windows, as the club failed to address the need for recruitment in other crucial positions such as defensive midfielder until after Sancho was signed.

While there were a number of signings in these positions over the period, many of these signings proved to be ineffective, something which could be pinned on poor scouting and a lack of attention on the potential player.

Alex Telles and Donny van de Beek are two examples of this, with neither player so far performing to the standard expected at the club.

The arrival of Malacia paves the way for an exit from the club for Telles, while van de Beek suffered a generally poor loan spell at Everton for the second half of the 21/22 season.

While there is excitement surrounding Van de Beek due to the reuniting with Erik ten Hag pointing towards potential redemption for the player, Telles’ career at United looks to be very much at its end.

The tunnel vision assessed here could be a thing of the past at Old Trafford however, as the successful move for Malacia at Feyenoord demonstrates an ability amongst the new high-ranking officials to pursue several players simultaneously.

By signing Malacia, Murtough and Arnold will have shown to the United fanbase that they are able to conduct effective action on multiple fronts to secure the targets of their head coach.

This is made to be even more impressive, given the progression in talks with Barcelona for Frenkie de Jong, showing that not only are they able to conduct multiple deals at the same time, none of these deals are subject to a level of neglect which could compromise the likelihood of the players being brought to Old Trafford.

A second aspect of United’s recruitment style which the Malacia deal shows has been the subject of change is the nature in which they negotiate with other clubs.

The nature in which the Reds hijacked a transfer deal between Lyon and Feyenoord for Malacia shows a level of aggression that United’s pursuit of players in previous windows had been missing.

Once it became clear that Lyon and Feyenoord had agreed a fee for Malacia, the recruitment team at Old Trafford were able to move swiftly in order to submit their own proposal which they confident would be accepted by Feyenoord, having waited for Lyon to effectively conduct the negotiations for them.

This, combined with using their pull as one of the world’s biggest clubs in order to secure the player himself, worked extremely effectively, allowing the deal to be quickly completed without the need for huge media speculation which can often disrupt the efficiency of deals.

A change from what had become commonplace in negotiations with Manchester United was therefore evident, as the club weren’t afraid to throw around their reputation and size in order to secure deals on their terms, not on the terms of the selling club.

Fans of the club should be excited about this as, if the club maintains this style of transfer activity, they should find themselves back in command of their transfer process, meaning more targets can be secured in an efficient and effective nature.

While some may point to the Frenkie de Jong deal and argue that unfavourable transfer sagas are evident in the club’s activity, this is yet another example of the club forcing their counterpart to negotiate on United’s terms.

The pursuit of De Jong may not display the efficiency of the Malacia deal, but it has proven that Arnold and Murtough can bring some of Europe’s biggest clubs to the table in a way which favours Manchester United.

Initially, Barcelona were adamant they were retaining de Jong for the 22/23 season, before this quickly turned into demands for at least an £80m upfront fee paid in one large sum rather than in instalments.

This demand has been progressively whittled down to what it has been reported is about a £65m close to agreed fee between the clubs, with add-ons a part of the agreement.

The reported agreed fee is one which favours Manchester United far more than the initial fee from Barcelona and is the result of effective negotiation that was absent from the Jadon Sancho deal of the previous season and the £80m Harry Maguire transfer in the 19/20 window.

It can clearly be seen that the new staff at the head of Manchester United are able to display a far greater ability to negotiate surrounding transfers than their predecessors, with this ability being built on the back of a more aggressive style of recruitment.

Manchester United fans and staff alike will be hoping that this efficiency in the transfer market and ability to negotiate on their terms is a theme which remains present at the club through this window and any subsequent periods of negotiation.

Tyrell Malacia has now been announced as a Manchester United player ahead of the club flying out on their pre-season tour, with deals for Lisandro Martinez of Ajax, Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen and the aforementioned Frenkie de Jong getting closer and closer to completion.