There are a multitude of problems that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS need to address as they bid to turn around the fortunes of Manchester United.

The club’s struggles on the pitch this season have been well documented, and boss Ruben Amorim, who only arrived back in November, has endured a baptism of fire in the United hot-seat, the issues facing him having become apparent very quickly indeed. That should be seen as a good thing.

January is often a time where clubs who are struggling add new players, with the price of acquiring new talent for clubs who are chasing silverware often inflated, with selling clubs having the leverage and not willing to part ways with their key assets while they chase their own success, or try to stave off failure.

For United, languishing in 12th in the Premier League and 12 points off the top four and Champions League qualification, a gap that seems insurmountable at this stage of the season given their form and the form of those already occupying the top four spots, they have been linked with players this window, but the links have largely been with players who can be impactful into the future, not for the here and now.

Lecce’s Danish full-back Patrick Dorgu, 20, has been heavily linked, while United are reported to be on the cusp of agreeing a fee with Arsenal to sign 18-year-old central defender Ayden Heaven.

A move for Heaven would come a few months on from United swooping to land another Arsenal starlet, 17-year-old striker Chido Obi-Martin, who arrived in the summer of 2024.

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Those type of deals, for young talent that has not yet made an impact, are the kinds of deals that Ratcliffe is likely to want to see United’s technical director Jason Wilcox pursue, with the British billionaire keen to see an end to the era of excess that has ended up creating something of a millstone around the club’s neck when it comes to being able to invest at a time when they require sweeping change.

Last week a graphic was doing the rounds on social media from the BBC. It showed that United had the highest net spend of any Premier League club since 2016, a figure of just north of £1bn. It is a figure that shouldn’t be celebrated, it should be derided, as it isn’t a testament to ambition and willingness to invest, it is the hallmark of a club with poor strategy and recruitment methods, one where continued failure needs to be addressed on a rinse and repeat basis. Liverpool and Manchester City’s net spend over the same period was far lower than Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, and United, and yet they are the only two teams to have claimed a Premier League title since 2018.

Player trading is a vital part of how a football club operates financially. Outside of the revenue streams that come into the club from matchday, commercial and broadcast, profit made from the sale of players points to a football strategy that works, and one that allows for reinvestment into the product on the pitch without continually eating into revenue derived from other areas.

In the four years up to the 2022/23 financial year, United made a profit of £68m from player sales, a figure that placed them 15th. Chelsea made a profit of £357m, while Manchester City’s was £298m. Only West Ham United, Fulham, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace from the current Premier League member clubs delivered a smaller player trading profit than United.

The club booked £37m in player trading profit for 2023/24, their highest since they sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid back in 2009.

Sales of the likes of Scott McTominay, Mason Greenwood, Willy Kambwala and Hannibal Mejbri, all academy products that had no book value and represented pure profit for the club, aided matters, and will continue to do so into the current financial year. But a strategy change was required, and in lowering the age profile of the players they target, the aim will be to turn around those player trading profits to reduce the reliance on the three main pillars of revenue picking up the slack year on year.

In signing Heaven and Obi-Martin, as well as chasing a prospect like Dorgu, United are signing players who they believe have a high ceiling to develop, and even if the heights that they hope for aren’t reached, the club will expect to turn a healthy profit on any subsequent sale. If they do work out as hoped then it means that the club hasn’t had to pay over the odds for players in their late 20s with far less room for growth or a meaningful potential resale value.

There is a clear plan emerging, and it is likely that far more of these deals will be seen at Old Trafford moving forward, and far less of those that push the £100m mark.