The process of selling Alvaro Fernandez was "perfect", according to Erik ten Hag. Palaver would be a more appropriate description.

Manchester United sold a fit left back without playing him who is now playing in the same league Ruben Amorim coached in. Meanwhile, United effectively still have no left back.

Tyrell Malacia has been substituted in three of his four starts and was omitted from the squad against Wolves on Boxing Day. It has been 319 days since Luke Shaw last started a club game.

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And then there is Fernandez, United's first summer sale. He has started in all six of Benfica's Champions League matches and in 13 of their 16 league games.

That United never granted Fernandez a debut was a travesty. Brandon Williams played ahead of him during the 2023 pre-season tour even though he had been informed by then-football director John Murtough he was for sale. United never got a penny for the released Williams.

Fernandez received Preston's young player of the year award during his season on loan at Deepdale in 2022-23. Malacia then suffered the knee injury that kept him sidelined for 550 days. Shaw predictably broke down after two games. Opportunity knocks.

Instead, Fernandez was knocked back. United preferred to recruit the 11th-hour loanee Sergio Reguilon, one of the club's worst left backs in living memory. Fernandez was loaned to Granada on the same day.

Shaw has been available for three games this season while Malacia came back in November. Right backs Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot have been run into the ground and their form has suffered.

Ten Hag's judgement at left back was often awry. Buying Malacia, loaning Reguilon, selling Fernandez, playing Victor Lindelof and Sofyan Amrabat there, starting Harry Amass in pre-season only to then not use him whatsoever when the actual season started.

Amass, 17, was added to the United first team squad on the day of the Community Shield and has since barely been involved with the first team. He was in every predicted XI in newspapers that Saturday morning yet was not even named on the teamsheet against Manchester City.

Ten Hag included Amass among the substitutes for his last two matches in charge and Ruud van Nistelrooy named him on the bench against Chelsea and PAOK. He has not been seen in training under Amorim.

Fernandez, 21 at the time he left United, would have been a shoo-in. People at the club who coached him still cannot grasp how he never got a kick.

During his four years at United, Fernandez's character was as impressive as his quality. He and Marc Jurado touched down in Manchester during the Covid-19 pandemic and had to quarantine for two weeks. Video calls with coaches and compatriots Arnau Puigmal and Mateo Mejia, already in the United academy, helped ease them in without leaving their new home.

After United won the FA Youth Cup in May 2022, Fernandez, sat in the directors' box, hurtled down the gangway and onto the touchline. He was the first to charge onto the pitch at the final shrill.

Fernandez was not even eligible for selection. He was watching and supporting the age group below him but was as delighted as his participating teammates. With the floodlights fading, Fernandez and Alejandro Garnacho posed with their silver shields that recognised their status as the Denzil Haroun Reserve Player of the Year and the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year.

Fernandez would be on the bench for the last game of United's season at Crystal Palace 11 days later. Oddly, he was unused by Ralf Rangnick on a day Garnacho and Shola Shoretire emerged.

The next day, Ten Hag arrived. Fernandez was surprisingly cut from United's pre-season tour squad. He was more involved during the following year's pre-season but the only times he played under Ten Hag were in the first halves against Leeds United in Norway and Lyon in Edinburgh and 64 minutes against Athletic Bilbao in Dublin.

“I think the process is perfect," Ten Hag said when asked about Fernandez. "We loaned him to Preston, he got back, then we loaned him to Granada, but he didn't play so much there and of course, all the time we observed him.

"Now we had the opportunity to sell him, but we have a buy-back, so we have control of the situation. But I think that's what he needed from Preston, then go to La Liga, then the next step Portugal, every time stepping up to a higher club and a better league, so we have to see and assess the situation if he can maybe be an option for us in the future."

Maybe the immediate future. United have a buy-back option for £16million until summer 2026. Only United cannot afford Fernandez this month without shifting Malacia or Shaw. Those two are hard sells.

Hardly a perfect process.