Manchester United pre-season defeat exposes transfer priorities

There were hugely positive first summers for Louis van Gaal and Erik ten Hag, only for disaster to strike as soon as a competitive ball was kicked in anger.

The general rule, though, appears to be that a difficult warm-up can plant the seeds of a turbulent autumn.

David Moyes oversaw a defeat to a team sponsored by a beer in his first-ever unofficial match as United manager, shortly before Ed Woodward flew back from the Far East for what the club’s Twitter account declared was ‘urgent transfer business’. Fast forward six weeks, and the club had signed nobody, and were left scrabbling around on transfer deadline day to pay £6m more than they would have done for Marouane Fellaini had they signed him four weeks earlier.