EPL 2021-22: Rangnick reveals Man United board denied him from signing a striker in January

Ralf Rangnick was appointed Manchester United caretaker manager in December. However, he reveals that the board denied him to sign a striker in January.

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Manchester United has not been in its best of forms this season. While it is finishing trophyless, it is also struggling for a top-four finish in the English Premier League (EPL) 2021-22. Meanwhile, caretaker manager Ralf Rangnick has made a revelation that the club board did not allow him to sign a striker during the January transfer window.

While United sent Anthony Martial on loan to Sevilla, Mason Greenwood was suspended just three days before the window closed. Rangnick hoped to sign either Luis Diaz, Dusan Vlahovic or Julian Alvarez. However, the club chose to rely on talisman Cristiano Ronaldo's services, while injury restricted Edinson Cavani's appearance to just six games.

Speaking during the pre-match press conference ahead of United's tie against Brighton and Hove Albion, Rangnick said, "The answer at the time was no there was no player on the market that could really help us. There were a few, Diaz who is now at Liverpool, Alvarez who will be at Manchester City in the summer, Vlahovic who at the time still was with Fiorentina those are just three of them that come across my mind now."

"I spoke to the board and said shouldn't we at least speak and try and analyse if we could get a player either on loan or as a permanent deal, but in the end, the answer was no. I still believe that we should have at least tried, if we would've found and been able in 48 hours, 48 hours is short notice, but it's still 48 hours, it might have been worth trying and internally discussing, but we didn't and it was not done," added Rangnick.

Meanwhile, it could have been possible that United was unsure to allow Rangnick to sign a player that his successor might not want to have come next season. Instead, it could have chosen to preserve the resources and help incoming manager Erik ten Hag with signings. However, the German yet again clarified that the Dutchman will have a task at hand, improving the team in all aspects before standing a chance of success.

"Now, it's time to look ahead, now we have two games to play try to play as well as we possibly can, get as many points as we possibly can out of those two games and then together with Erik, together with the board, together with the scouting department, hopefully, find and also convince the players, it's not only about finding them, scouting them you also have to convince them to come to Manchester United," concluded Rangnick.