A week is a long time in politics, well it seems like a life time in football. Last Friday evening, Manchester United recorded their second win of the season over Aston Villa and kept a second clean sheet in the process.
Most observers felt United were still lacking in certain areas, but two 1-0 wins represented a perfect start with a lot of room for improvement.
Memphis gives United European victory but transfer story getting worse
One week on, and despite a Champions League Qualifying victory over Club Brugge in midweek, where Memphis Depay announced himself in style, United find themselves at the centre of a media storm as alleged long term targets Pedro and Nicolas Otamendi signed for bitter rivals. The Otamendi deal to Manchester City went through without too much fuss, but when Pedro seemingly was swayed at the last moment by Jose Mourinho, journalists and fans started to have a field day.
From the journalists stand point, the suggestion was that the Pedro deal was mis-managed as Ed Woodward had reportedly travelled to Barcelona on Monday to seal the deal. Payement terms were cited as the reason the deal never got over the line and this allowed Chelsea to steal a march. On the face of it, if Woodward was in Barcelona, then it is hard to argue with the assumption.
United deny Pedro snub, but story seems odd
The club's stance was that van Gaal decided after initital performances that Pedro was not a necessity. In today's press conference he bristled at any Pedro question and seemed to go further and suggest that it was the press themselves that made up the United interest in the forward. He did insist that there was no problem between him and Woodward, and does seem relaxed about the transfer situation.
So is he happy with his squad, or is he really moving onto other targets? Thomas Muller came back to the surface on Wednesday. German newspaper, Sport Bild, reported that United had made an 85 million euro bid for the World Cup winner. Next up came one from leftfield, with reports that United had failed with a £15m bid to sign Sadio Mane from Southampton. The never ending Gareth Bale rumours fail to go away.
The current situation has echoes of the David Moyes era, when United were looking at pulling of extremely difficult marquee signings - Bale included - and ultimately ended up with Marouane Fellaini. The feeling then was complete disappointment, but after signing a number of players in his first summer, van Gaal has made five signings already during this window, and all of them have showed up well so far.
If there is a position that looks weak it is up front, where Wayne Rooney has been asked to lead the line. So far, he has not had the best of starts, but on many occasions he has gone through barren spells. However, even if he does pick up form, he will need resting at some point and this is where United don't seem to have the back up. Javier Hernandez and James Wilson are the only true strikers that van Gaal can call upon, but again this week van Gaal has been dismissive when questioned about it.
For all other positions, there is cover in abundance though whether there is the quality is the conundrum. Van Gaal does not seem to do the individual. Angel Di Maria was probably that player, an individual whose unpredictability could win matches but also cause problems with van Gaal's 'philosophy'. It is all about the team, and having a squad of closely matched abilities. Take one out, and another fits in seemlessly.
Van Gaal lacks World Class quality that predecessor had
If you look back at Sir Alex's reign, he produced some special teams, with World Class players at every turn. However, he also won many a trophy with squads that were mostly comprised of quality but not quite top tier players. Wes Brown has won 14 trophies in his career - the same as John Terry. Brown was an excellent player, but he wasn't at the level of Terry, although injuries always hindered Brown.
The point is, van Gaal is not averse to signing a megastar, but he is also trying to produce a balanced collective that enables United to challenge on all fronts. There is time left in the transfer window for van Gaal to pull a rabbit out of the hat, but if he doesn't then he seems contended. Time will tell whether his vision, coaching and tactical abilites will enable him to emulate Sir Alex Ferguson.