There was one element of pre-planning for this transfer window - Wilfried Zaha, the forgotten acquisition, signed in January and loaned back to Crystal Palace - but the club's entire transfer market work was essentially packed into the 64 days between Moyes taking over at United, on July 1, and the deadline slamming shut. That spells disaster. Manchester City started planning in October.
You wonder why Moyes did not quit Everton the day he was appointed and get six extra weeks of badly needed transfer work under his belt. The summer was half over when he arrived, not knowing his new scouts, so not knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the targets - and certainly not knowing about the new top-level realm he was operating in.
In the excellent section on Moyes' Everton set-up in Michael Calvin's book The Nowhere Men, James Smith, Moyes' head of technical scouting, said Everton targets had to be good but at the same time not so good that they don't want to play for Everton.
If that were not challenging enough, new United chief Woodward is finding his way in a different deal-making environment to the world where he made a name with J P Morgan. Gill was making the necessary introductions for him for months before he took over, but it feels like the learning curve will be steep.
The result has been a humiliating, humbling summer by the standards of such a proud club, in which attempts to sign Cesc Fabregas, Leighton Baines and Ander Herrera went south, the noises about luring Cristiano Ronaldo back evaporated, a late loan bid failed for a left-back - Fabio Coentrao - whom Real Madrid are desperate to get rid of. And Fellaini was signed for £4 million more than his Everton release clause which expired in July, as United engaged in an undignified scramble in the last-chance saloon.
The timing and negotiating of some targets has been different from Manchester United's usual methods. The bid for Fabregas went into Barcelona one day after Thiago Alcantara - whom Moyes didn't fancy - had gone to Bayern Munich, thus increasing the Catalans' need for the former Arsenal midfielder. Herrera had been tracked for a while at Athletic Bilbao, with his performances in the club's 5-3 aggregate Europa League defeat of United last year key to their interest. That was long enough for United to know that the Basque clubs always demand the full asking price for their players, because their Basque-only buying policy severely limits potential replacements. United did not raise the £26 million bid they offered for Herrera late last week, leaving them £4 million adrift.
Only when the dust settled did the full chaos become clear. When a profoundly angered Everton dug their heels in, insulted by the size of the offer for Leighton Baines, United pursued Coentrao, whom Real had been touting all summer with Granada's Guilherme Siqueira lined up to replace him. Siqueira waited and waited for Real but when Coentrao could not be shifted, Granada packed him off to Benfica.
When United made their late move for Coentrao, agent Jorge Mendes went into overdrive, trying to bring Siqueira back from Benfica. Definitely not, said the Portuguese club. So Coentrao had to stay put.
The general rules of engagement in a market like this is that two, three or four active targets will be earmarked for the positions where reinforcements are required. Clubs break rules to get all the groundwork done so there are back-ups if the selling club cuts up rough.
United might have bought out of this mess by paying over the odds.
This might be a very long winter.
- Independent
