A lot of Manchester United supporters are frustrated by the club’s apparent refusal to sign a left-back.
Newcastle’s Lewis Hall appears to be the desired choice by consensus and there is no indication that United will make a push for the 21-year-old.
But do United actually need a left-back?
First of all, Hall is obviously a talented player, and reports are that United admire him. As they well should, and as most top clubs would.
But it is not uncommon for clubs the size of United to keep a player on a watchlist. It does not mean they will actually go ahead and sign him, certainly not if they don’t feel it is a signing they absolutely have to make.
And any move to sign Hall would require full steam ahead. The 21-year-old is under contract with Newcastle until 2029, which even taken alone would mean they have all the cards in their hands and would make a deal tough for United.
Yet there are further complications, given Newcastle have recently sold Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes to clubs they look at with envy.
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It is no secret the Toon want to be up there competing for the biggest prizes. The Saudi takeover was supposed to make that possible, but after five years Newcastle are hardly any closer than they were. Selling yet another first teamer to yet another top club is difficult to countenance, and difficult to explain.
It is tough to explain to fans and certainly tough to explain to other quality players they will be asking to wear white and black in the next couple of seasons. If these quality players are leaving, then why should they stay, or even come to the club in the first place.
Newcastle are desperate to show ambition, so unless Hall specifically makes noise about leaving, like Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes did, Newcastle would have no reason to entertain offers from United.
But what are the compelling reasons for United to make such a move for Hall? How big a hole is in their squad?
The big idea is that they need to avoid a reliance on Luke Shaw. The 31-year-old started all 38 Premier League games last season, his first at the club, and observers believe he cannot be relied on to do so again next season with more games.
That part is true. There is also the sense that neither Diogo Dalot nor Noussair Mazraoui can do a job at the expected level at left-back. Also a fair shout.
But in addition to Shaw, United have Patrick Dorgu. The Dane has shown he is brilliant going forward and has been used mostly as a left winger by Michael Carrick.
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However, going into next season United are stacked at left wing. In addition, to Matheus Cunha, Marcus Rashford will wear the red shirt again after 18 months. Both of them will be rotating them on the left.
Dorgu may play there too, but he is looking like such a promising player and will get more minutes for his development if he starts as a left-back. He could then be given the license by Carrick to bomb forward into attacking positions.
Nico O’Reilly played a similar role for Manchester City under Pep Guardiola last season and became one of their most important players.
In that case, signing Hall, while good for the future when Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw will have left, seems superfluous now. Given the difficulty of the deal, there is no reason they cannot sit back and just watch the market, as far as left-back is concerned at least.
