Ten Hag must solve £120m problem that was created by Solskjaer

Erik ten Hag will need several note pads to jot down the problems he must solve as Manchester United manager and many of them involve him footing astonishing financial bills. A busy summer awaits for the Dutchman yet – as he continues to put his own plans in place – most of those issues could and should have been avoided.

Hindsight, as they say, is a wonderful thing. Right at the top of his lengthy shopping list is (finally) finding a solution to long-standing and well-documented issues in central midfield – something United would have addressed even if they had not opted for a direction change in the dugout and upstairs.

However, with speculation mounting over a 50-50 decision at centre-back, between Jurrien Timber and Pau Torres from Villarreal, that is not the only area which Ten Hag must patch up when his predecessors made such big-money and high-profile recent investment; old cracks have appeared through the thinly-layered paper.

READ MORE: Jadon Sancho holds the key to Manchester United summer window bargain

United settled on Raphael Varane for £34million last summer as a longer-term partner for £80million captain Harry Maguire. Such is the concern there, though, key figures in the much-changed boardroom are willing to hand over a cheque between those two amounts for Timber or Torres.

Before continuing, it has to be said this is not purely down to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and a fresh start in how United approach their transfer business will be every bit as important as how Ten Hag settles in on the training ground – or as a Premier League manager. Perhaps more so.

In that sense, one positional oversight might be tolerable. However, as every United supporter will understand too well, mistakes were repeated across the board and that is why Ten Hag picks up the baton with no place at the top table in Europe and, alarmingly, more dead-wood than alive!

Although the job eventually proved a hurdle too far for him, there is no doubt Solskjaer gave it his best shot and as such his legacy as a player – including conjuring up THAT moment at the Nou Camp – will be forever preserved. Fans continue to prove that by serenading the ever-popular Norwegian as part of the impressive back-catalog.

Despite those efforts, though, he and the board have left one glaring £120million issue to iron out.

A move four years in the making, Jadon Sancho finally became a United player last summer and, while the England forward was only able to show odd glimpses of what made him such a huge hit at Borussia Dortmund, his time has yet to come and the club’s £72.9million outlay can, no doubt, still be vindicated.

The same can be said for Facundo Pellistri and Amad moving forwards. However, while their investment – standing at £9million and a fee potentially rising to £37million respectively – might well be preserved or justified there is little evidence to back up those suggestions, right now anyway, as underlined by challenging loan spells last season.

Solskjaer, who also signed Daniel James, was forced to admit defeat there when cashing-in on the player before he completed a sensational return move for Cristiano Ronaldo. Although the club made a tidy profit, there is some way to go before they can prove that was an isolated mistake.

Discounting the fee made and recouped for James – between 2019 and 2021 – key figures and Solskjaer laid down a further £118.9million on the table for Pellistri, Amad and Sancho within the space of ten months. Sancho in particular should come good, but that too might be on the opposite flank than what he was brought in to occupy.

Pellistri and Amad might, also, be destined for bright futures. However, the fact Ten Hag wants to sign a forward in his first window speaks volumes for those two and their (initial) part in his masterplan.

Ajax winger Antony, Darwin Nunez and Christopher Nkunku are the names currently circulating – to various degrees – and each of them will cost a pretty penny. Add those would-be fees to the list as Ten Hag, depending on his view over where Sancho might fit into the team, looks to address a problem United have struck out on several times over the last 36 months alone.