'I'd arrest the directors!' — Former Premier League star left astonished by Man United transfer decision

Manchester United have been lambasted for one of the big decisions of the most recent transfer window by a former Premier League star.

The Red Devils had a busy time from June to the end of August this year as Erik ten Hag's playing squad underwent an overhaul under the auspices of the INEOS regime.

New sporting director Dan Ashworth and CEO Omar Berrada began work at Old Trafford after the largely miserable 2023/24 campaign had concluded , and the new senior figures helped to oversee a summer of upheaval in which new signings were balanced by several outgoings in an effort to keep the club within spending rules .

Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte were signed for a combined sum of approximately £179 million ($234m). To balance the books, United saw 13 senior players leave the club — plus Sofyan Amrabat, whose loan deal expired — with the 20-time English champions recouping around £86m ($112m) in sales.

The biggest fee they received for a player was the £25.5m ($33.4m) Napoli paid to sign midfielder Scott McTominay, yet that piece of business left ex-West Ham striker Paolo Di Canio calling for the United directors to be "arrested".

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McTominay has started his Serie A career strongly, with two goals and one assist in eight appearances in all competitions. Antonio Conte's side are top of the standings in Italy after seven games , while United lie 14th in the Premier League and are already 10 points behind leaders Liverpool.

Speaking of the McTominay deal, Di Canio, who spent the 1993/94 season at Napoli, told Il Mattino : "I'd go to Manchester United to arrest all directors.

"How can you give away McTominay? Napoli also have a player like [David] Neres, who is a back-up, and [Billy] Gilmour proved at Brighton that he has the same quality as [Stanislav] Lobotka with the ball at his feet."