RED FLAG

United handcuffed by debt... £200m down the drain on flops... and a decade of mismanagememt to overcome

- BY SIMON MULLOCK

MANCHESTER UNITED chief executive Omar Berrada was hailed as the man who would bring back the glory years to Old Trafford when Sir Jim Ratcliffe lured him away from Manchester City last year.

But the 47-year-old has discovered that if you don’t enter the transfer market in a position of strength then football becomes a cruel business.

Berrada has been working closely with director of football Jason Wilcox to recruit the kind of talent that manager Ruben Amorim is demanding after a nightmare first six months at the club ended with United finishing in their lowest league position for 50 years.

Amorim will be delighted that by the time he touches down in Chicago at the start of United's preseason tour of the United States, he will have Bryan Mbeumo to strengthen an attack that will also include the hugely-talented Mattheus Cunha. But Berrada has had to sanction a £70million outlay to secure Mbeumo