Manchester United's manager, Michael Carrick, has overhauled the club's long-struggling midfield this summer, signing Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa and Andrey Santos from Chelsea, with a move for Brighton's Carlos Baleba also close. The rebuild addresses an area widely seen as United's weakest since Carrick himself joined as a player in 2006, with the club having failed to sign a genuinely elite midfielder in the two decades since, despite a historic lineage including Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Bryan Robson.

Tielemans arrived for £35m and Santos for £48m plus £2m in add-ons, while Baleba could cost around £70m, joining homegrown talent Kobbie Mainoo and the recovering Mason Mount in a reshaped engine room. The article contrasts this with a string of underwhelming past signings, including Bastian Schweinsteiger, Paul Pogba (a club-record £93.2m) and the recently departed Casemiro, arguing that Carrick, with a squad now stocked with legs, skill and know-how, has no excuses left for continued midfield mediocrity.