Ederson and Lewis Hall IN: The Man Utd XI that could have been

Updated: 12 Sept 2026 07:52 BST |
4 min read

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Manchester United’s 2026/27 season could have been transformed had the board been bolder in the transfer market.

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The Red Devils were expected to have a busy summer in the transfer market, yet the volume of signings that had been expected never materialised.

The board adopted a conservative strategy in the window, whereby they absolutely refused to pay above the estimated worth of any of their targets.

It did allow the Red Devils to pick up one of the bargains of the summer in the form of Youri Tielemans, while Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba also arrived in a midfield overhaul, but it has left many areas of their team looking short.

Indeed, Michael Carrick’s squad are going into a European campaign with a similar squad size to the one that played only 40 matches last season across all competitions. Casemiro, after all, departed as a free agent to Inter Miami while Manuel Ugarte has been struck by a serious injury that will likely see him miss much of the season.

There is a definite sense of ‘what might have been’ emanating from Old Trafford after what was a rather frustrating transfer window.

So if owners INEOS had been bolder, how could this team have looked?

How Man Utd could’ve lined up in 2026/27

For a start, there would be left-back competition for Luke Shaw. This would come in the form of Newcastle’s Lewis Hall, who was clearly the Red Devils’ first option for the position. Not only would he have provided another option in that area – he would have arrived as a welcome upgrade.

But even if Newcastle were absolutely solid in their assertion that Hall was going nowhere, other options were available: Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly or, perhaps most realistic of all, Alejandro Balde of Barcelona may have signed.

While there was talk about signing another centre-back, this was surprisingly restrained for much of the summer given that it’s an area that has gone infamously untouched for years.

In midfield, there was a major sliding doors moment as Man Utd backed out of a deal to sign Ederson from Atalanta at the last moment. While the club have said he failed a medical, the player was insistent that he knew nothing about such a problem.

United, meanwhile, had done much work on their attacking sector last summer, so it did not come as a huge shock they did not sign another forward. A deal would have been struck in an alternate universe in which Barcelona had signed Rashford, but the Catalans made clear from early in the market that such a move was never likely.

The England star held out for it – and so too did the Man Utd board, who want to cut the wage bill – but Rashford’s departure was never close, despite apparently extensive interest. This meant that another attacker was never seriously considered.