Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos team are not going to fix all of United’s problems in a single summer

It is five years since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer first talked about the need for a ruthless cull at Manchester United but supporters are still waiting for one worthy of that description to materialise and, over time, the scale of the overhaul required has only mushroomed.

Too many substandard players have subsequently been added to the ones the club have habitually failed to move on – often at great expense and without total clarity about the areas that need plugging and the type of football they want to play – and the cumulative effect has been deepening mutation of a Frankenstein squad.

What is clear, then, is that the new Old Trafford hierarchy Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos team are pulling together are not going to fix all of United’s historic problems in a single summer,