Quiet January, busy summer at Man United?
Talk of the Devils: The Athletic FC's Manchester United show
The Athletic
4.6 • 771 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Premier League journalists have been able to put their feet up during January with only 33 'first-team' transfers taking place. For Manchester United that number is zero, with management deciding the squad they have in place is sufficient for the fixture list that lies ahead.
In this TotD Extra podcast, we'll ask how much of a gamble it is to keep the powder dry, how close the club were to securing the signature of Antoine Semenyo, and round up the deals that did happen at youth level.
All this means we're expecting significant activity in the coming summer. Once again, central midfield is the main area of vulnerability, doubly so with Casemiro heading for the exit. Can United afford to lose Bruno and/or Harry Maguire as well, and who are the most likely targets to beef up the squad?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.0 | Hello and welcome to Talk to Devils Extra on this episode. |
| 0:25.4 | We're going to focus in on what was in the end a very quiet January transfer window for United. |
| 0:30.4 | We'll ask the question why that was the case, whether it was the right thing, |
| 0:34.0 | with, of course, Champions League football now at stake in the remainder of this season. And we'll also take a look ahead to the summer to see exactly what will be on Manchester United's agenda then, which promises to be a little bit more busy than this past month has been. We've got critch with us. We've got Carl. We've got Andy. How we doing, lads, be okay? |
| 0:55.0 | Oh, good. |
| 0:56.5 | Relieved that it's over, even though nothing really happened at the same time. |
| 1:00.6 | But I feel like there was enough happening outside of the transfer market at this club |
| 1:04.0 | that we were giving a bit of good grace as journalists on this side, |
| 1:06.8 | not to have to be running right up until the deadline, as usual. |
| 1:11.2 | Yeah, the major outgoing and incoming of January |
| 1:14.5 | was Reuben Amarin leaving and Michael Carrick coming in, wasn't it, to be fair? |
| 1:17.7 | So in that regard, it wasn't a completely quiet January for United, |
| 1:22.5 | just on the transfer front. |
| 1:24.8 | Before we get into the conversation, I've sort of outlined it a little bit. |
| 1:27.7 | Let's hear from Laurie Whitwell. He's missing us. He wants to be part of the podcast again, |
| 1:32.1 | even though he is supposed to be on paternity leave. But anyway, he's sent us this message |
| 1:36.2 | just outlining this episode as he does. Hi guys. Yes, Manchester United did not do any |
| 1:42.6 | business on Deadline Day, which made for a refreshing |
| 1:45.4 | change from a journalistic point of view meant that we weren't up late into the evening, |
| 1:49.7 | trying to figure out if they were going to make any last minute additions. But it does |
| 1:52.7 | mean that they finished the window in January without any new additions, which, yeah, people can |
... |
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