In numbers: 11 years since Manchester United did such superb transfer business

Manchester United have had some wretched transfer windows over the last few years.

TFF is a firm believer that Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw will become Manchester United greats in time.

But they came in different windows and they were both joined by several other questionable signings in their respective periods of business.

But let’s not vilify David Moyes and Louis van Gaal too much.

Even Fergie got it wrong at times and TFF believes that you would have to go all the way back to the season of 2005/2006 to find a period where Manchester United bought so well.

You could argue that 2007/2008 was equally good. Because while only Carlos Tevez really made an impact, the squad which won The Champions League that season was deep due to the arrivals of Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson the Da Silva brothers (then just 16 but they did make an impact later).

But in 2005/2006 United signed four players who formed the backbone of the vintage which beat Chelsea in Moscow and went on to contest two of the three finals immediately after 2008 – namely Edwin Van Der Saar, Park Ji Sung, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra – all of whom went on to become United titans.

In his very first transfer window Jose has brought in Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba and he may well dip in for another defender in January. On paper they look as if they could eclipse the 2005 vintage. But there is a huge amount of work to do before we can say that with any confidence.

And, even if they simply match the achievements of the greats of 2005, then United fans can sit back and enjoy another protracted period of dominance.