Man Utd legend Scholes still can’t believe Ten Hag spent £200m on rubbish over England pair

Jason Soutar
Declan Rice and Harry Kane
England pair Declan Rice and Harry Kane chat during a match

Paul Scholes believes Man Utd messed up by spending £200million on players he wasn’t “quite sure about” instead of Declan Rice and Harry Kane.

Man Utd were strongly linked with Kane before his move from Tottenham to Bayern Munich.

They did not make a real attempt to sign him and ended up bringing in Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta.

Rice joined Arsenal in the same summer as Kane left Spurs and he was also linked with the Red Devils, but there was no effort from the Old Trafford hierarchy to win the race for his signature.

Man Utd’s transfer business has been a shambles over the last decade but the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe as co-owner saw a shift in the summer transfer window, with younger players signed.

None of the new faces have impressed since arriving but at least there appears to be more thought behind the purchases made.

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Regardless of this, club legend Scholes is not impressed and is still upset that Man Utd gone with quantity over quality, with Rice and Kane obviously open to joining because the Red Devils are “the biggest club in the world”.

Not only that, but the former midfielder believes recruitment is very difficult with Erik ten Hag as manager, as his style of play is a mystery, or non-existent.

“The manager makes recruitment difficult because we don’t know how they want to play,” Scholes told Mail Sport. “Recruiting players for a style of play you know nothing about becomes virtually impossible.

“They had Hojlund – a very young centre forward who has been injured. It could take another 12 months to get the best out of him. There was good potential last year.

“[Joshua] Zirkzee came from nowhere – not many people had seen him or heard of him when other strikers were available.

“The numbers that were quoted to most teams for Ivan Toney were ridiculous which is probably why he didn’t go to Chelsea or Arsenal and ended up in Saudi Arabia.

“The big ones are a couple of years ago when you could have signed Harry Kane or Declan Rice. They might have cost £100million each but you know their qualities and character, their belief in the dressing room and on the football pitch, would have been better than going and spending £200million on four or five players that you’re not quite sure about.

“I’m not sure what market United are in anymore. They’re still the biggest club in the world and people will want to sign for them, but not as much as they would have wanted to in a time gone by.”

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