There are still no official ins and outs at Manchester United but at least Antony has packed his bags.

And so the purging of Erik ten Hag's recruitment commences. The first and last signings of Ten Hag's first summer - Tyrell Malacia and Antony - could both be gone by the end of the month.

Ruben Amorim wants an upgrade at left back, which is hardly a challenge as one is still injured and the other seldom plays. Luke Shaw is set to go more than a year without a start for United.

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Amorim is starting to privately bristle at United's transfer inactivity and he tires of questions about Marcus Rashford. Amorim usually endeavours to provide a lengthy response to any question but queries about Rashford have elicited succinct and cursory responses.

On Thursday evening, Amorim seemed to think the transfer window would close on January 31. Afraid not. It's on February 3. At 11pm. It shuts ten hours earlier in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

That senseless date could leave United prey to the vultures circling overhead. United are vulnerable amid years of financial mismanagement and paying for overpriced duds on the company credit card.

The Ineos cabal have sharpened their blades, ready to take a knife to the club's academy identity. There has been more noise about the possible sale of Alejandron Garnacho, not actively seeking a move, than Rashford, publicly prepared to leave and out of the fold in the past ten games.

United are adamant that they will only be forced into sales to facilitate a signing. Malacia for Patrick Dorgu would appear to be a reasonable trade. Nobody would have any faith in them to recruit an upgrade on Garnacho.

Amorim cannot have a weaker squad at the end of the window than when it started. Recruiting a demonstrably superior attacker to Antony, one-paced, one-dimensional and with one trick, should not be tricky. Antony is heading out on loan, though, and has started three games all season. There is a tenuous debate that a direct replacement is not required.

But one is. United are light up front and their attack is dependent on Amad, Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes. At times, they have been a one-man band with Amad's salvage operations. Fernandes has been influential in big games and big results against Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Rangers.

The prospect of wilfully selling a 20-year-old winger with eight goals and five assists this term when the attack is teeming with misfits would be illogical. The Stretford End hollered Garnacho's name against Rangers, practically an order for United not to sell a homegrown talent they have developed into a potential world-beater since the skinny and shy 16-year-old arrived from Madrid in 2020.

Fernandes literally pointed to Garnacho after his goal at Arsenal in the FA Cup two weeks ago. The pass was not as smooth as it should have been but Fernandes sensed Garnacho needed a boost.

He had previously spoken about Garnacho's narky reaction to scoring against Leicester City, owed to a loudmouth influencer giving him grief outside Old Trafford. There is no way Fernandes, the United captain, would endorse the potential departure of Garnacho.

Nor would he approve of United's reluctant willingness to take a hefty sum for Kobbie Mainoo. The chances of that are more remote than United finishing in the top four and the 19-year-old's contract has a maximum expiry date of 2028. The sudden uncertainty surrounding his future is nevertheless unsettling for United followers.

In three of United's five cup final triumphs in the past decade, the winning goal was scored by an academy graduate. Garnacho and Mainoo were the scorers against City at Wembley in May, United's most celebrated FA Cup triumph since they did the 'double double' against Liverpool in 1996.

Their homegrown quota will drop with the possible retirements of Tom Heaton and Jonny Evans later this year. It was only last summer that United deemed Mainoo and Garnacho to be money-can't-buy talents.

United, a club famed for its wing play, would be on a slippery slope if they jettisoned the majority of their wingers. The fatal flaw of their wretched recruitment under Ten Hag was to sign players for the manager, rather than the club, and there is a risk of repeating that with Amorim wedded to the 3-4-3 formation.

Amorim should not compromise on his style and any players bought on his watch must be capable of functioning in any system. Garnacho demonstrated against Rangers he is willingly adapting to an infield role. Amorim has spoken more and more positively about Garnacho since he ordered him to train at Carrington on the day of the Manchester derby six weeks ago.

The shelf life of a post-Ferguson United manager is roughly two-and-a-half years. The club have to unequivocally back Amorim, but not blindly. That means not stockpiling Portuguese and ex-Sporting players. There has been nothing to suggest that Amorim is as eager to be reunited with players that he has already worked with as Ten Hag was.

United hosted high-profile agents in the teeming directors' box at Old Trafford for the Rangers tie. Their director of transfer negotiations, Matt Hargreaves, was a guest of one agency in their hospitality box for a match last month.

There have been conflicting whispers about Jason Wilcox's involvement in the deal to sign the 17-year-old Paraguayan left back Diego Leon. Wilcox posed with Mali midfielder Sékou Koné, 18, after his deadline day arrival in August, having spent most of his time at Manchester City as the head of academy before his ten-month stint as director of football of Southampton, where he assembled a squad for the Championship.

Wilcox has only been quoted in club-managed statements attached to contract signings. He is only at United through the recommendation of Omar Berrada, his former colleague at City. There is scant evidence of Wilcox's suitability to identify United-worthy talent and he faces a huge final week of the weekend.

Otherwise he and Berrada might be packing their bags.