Manchester United had planned to put together a strong strategy with their January loanees, but the results have been disappointing thus far.
(Photo courtesy of CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP/Getty Images)
Manchester United had a plan in place for their January departures in order to help their summer window.
A few weeks later, though, the approach appears to be backfiring already.
Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, and Amad were all loaned out to teams in Spain, England, and Scotland, respectively, to help United achieve various objectives.
Martial's mission was to reclaim his form in the hopes of returning to the first team in the summer or generating interest in a potential transfer away from Old Trafford.
He has failed to find his feet in Sevilla. He's appeared in four LaLiga games so far, starting three of them and was benched for the Spanish side's most recent match against Rayo Vallecano. He has only had one top-flight assist in this period.
Martial appears to be battling to overcome the flaws that have plagued him during his time at United. His decision-making is still bad, and his dribbling lacks the crispness that made him such a productive winger early in his Old Trafford career.
Sevilla is unlikely to try to make the trade permanent in the summer, and no club will be willing to sign him and take on his massive £250,000 per week salary.
Van de Beek, on the other hand, was loaned out with the intention of returning to United in the future. The aim was that he would join a stable team and provide them the opportunity to link up their attacks.
If he had joined Crystal Palace, where Patrick Vieira has them comfortably in mid-table, he would have played this role. Instead, he joined Everton, who are currently in a state of disarray.
Frank Lampard has been unable to keep the ship afloat, and the club is facing the prospect of relegation. While Van de Beek has performed admirably, he appears to be more concerned with cleaning up the messes of his colleagues than with growing as a player.
Finally, there's Amad, who United was likely looking to use as a right-side rotation option next season. All he needed to do was work on his physical game.
On paper, a loan to Scotland seemed ideal, with Rangers possessing the technical ability to provide Amad with a firm basis on which to build.
Rangers, however, have determined that spending time on Amad's development is not top of their priority list because they are in a title race. After a start and a goal in his first game, he has only appeared in one additional league game since the start of the season, out of a total of four appearances.
In all four of his Europa League games with the Scottish club, he has been a substitute.
While the intentions and ideals were good, the implementation of these loans was poor, and it could leave the future manager with a squad-related dilemma, whether it is Mauricio Pochettino, Erik ten Hag, or someone else.
These loans appear to be another evidence of United's wider footballing operation's lack of planning - or lack of planning at all.
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