United laughed off a £50 million offer for a striker in the summer, but ultimately paid £72 million for Anthony Martial. Instead of Harry Kane, Rasmus Hojlund was selected.

This season, Manchester United spent £72 million on Rasmus Hojlund, an unproven and somewhat inexperienced striker, after failing to sign Harry Kane. Hojlund was not Manchester United’s only failed striker target, however.

Man United spent a whopping £191.2m on five new players this summer to bolster their squad: Andre Onana, Mason Mount, Altan Deyimir, Sofyan Amrabat, and Victor Hojlund.

It happened during a summer in which three of the top players in the world—Kane, Declan Rice, and Jude Bellingham—all left, with United appearing never near to signing any of them despite their lengthy ties with Kane.

As a result, they are probably no longer among the most desirable places in Europe for professional English players.

A £50 million deal for another Premier League player was reportedly ‘laughed off’ by their club, but ESPN sources suggest Harry Kane was not the only striker target that they failed to snare.

The Red Devils were rumored to have had Evan Ferguson as a target, but their alleged approach was so far off the mark that the Seagulls were likely to have laughed at them.

The Republic of Ireland forward has established himself as one of the Premier League’s most exciting young attackers in recent years.

After breаking into the first team at Europa League qualifiers Brighton last season, at the tender age of 18, he has been linked to the likes of United and Arsenal.

This season, though, he has gotten off to a flying start, scoring a hat trιck against Newcastle in a 3-1 rout of the Magpies and scoring once on opening day against Luton.

Given his talent and the state of the transfer market, £50 million might not even cover half of his price at Brighton, a club that has had several of its promising young players sold for astronomical sums in recent years.

He was injured for most of the match, but Ferguson’s Brighton won 3-1 at Old Trafford to drive home the idea that while United may have stalled, teams further down the pecking order have made up ground.

United seemed to be in the running for the biggest major deals of the window whenever Sir Alex Ferguson was at the helm, but this response shows how far the club has gone.

Despite making it to the tournament several times since then, they haven’t won the Champions League since 2008. In fact, in the last 11 years, they’ve only done it twice.

Without a Premier League title in a decade and with only one FA Cup and two League Cups to show for it, their domestic dominance has decreased significantly as well.

Bayern Munich, who Bayern will face in the Champions League on Wednesday night and who paid £100 million for Harry Kane, have won the tournament twice in that time and have built up 11 Bundesliga crowns.

While United have only managed to win two of their own knockout ties in Europe, the Bavarians have won 16. The Bavarians have also established their supremacy in the region by qualifying for all but four of the previous nine tournaments.

The match in southern Germany will serve as a striking contrast between the quality of club that United once was and how far they have gone.