The first rule of poker – don’t let them know what cards you’re holding.
We imagine it’s the same for football managers wheeling and dealing in the transfer market.
Do some bluffing, throw out a few red herrings and then bang! Land the transfer that nobody saw coming. Sir Alex Ferguson played the game like a boss.
But the transfer dealings of Louis van Gaal and Ed Woodward this summer at United have been impossible to read.
They were linked with almost every one of Europe’s biggest name players, then ended up signing a relatively unknown teenage striker in Anthony Martial for £36million on deadline day.
The season-long loan of Adnan Januzaj to Borussia Dortmund muddied the waters even further with rumours of a deal for Marco Reus (which failed to materialise).
Either Manchester United are playing the long game, and playing it so well that nobody has a clue what their next move will be – until they pull an absolute masterstroke – or maybe they’re just utterly clueless.
Even this football agent can’t work it out, but we think it might be the latter…
Interesting from @JNorthcroft – agent says #mufc are 'so scattergun that when they call you don't know how serious they are.'
— Simon Austin (@sport_simon) September 6, 2015
