Dan Khan thinks the real story before Manchester United vs Tottenham is not the fixture itself but the two clubs' summer decisions. United committed £163m to their rebuild, while Tottenham's spending has been described as £334m in one source and over £300million in another. Khan's point was that United needed depth, with three midfield additions rather than one marquee arrival.

United's rebuild and the pressure on the hierarchy

Khan said it was "quite clear" United needed to increase the squad size to compete in different competitions, and he added that the focus has shifted upstairs. "There will be a big microscope on Wilcox and Berrada," he said on Sky Sports News, with Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada now carrying more of the scrutiny around the Sir Jim Ratcliffe era.

That scrutiny sits against a league start that has not given the project much cover. Manchester United are 12th in the Premier League with five points from five matches, and their recent run reads DLDWL. They have scored eight and conceded eight, which fits the wider sense that the rebuild is still being judged on what it has not yet fixed.

Spurs' spending and Sherwood's verdict

Tottenham arrive bottom of the Premier League with two points from five matches, and Tim Sherwood is not seeing much return from the summer business. "No, no one," he said when asked if any of the new signings had impressed him. He followed that with a broader swipe at the team's level: "They've underachieved, they really have."

Spurs have 10 new recruits, and Sherwood said the club's track record in the last four or five years has not been fantastic. That is a hard line, but the results make it easy to understand. Spurs have made their worst start to a Premier League season after five games, and the noise around recruitment only gets louder when the table looks like that.

On the fitness side, Benjamin Šeško missed out against Fulham before the international break because of a recurrence of a shin injury, while Micky van de Ven was downplayed by Xavi, who said: "He’s ok, he felt dizzy because he suffered with his finger. It’s not a big injury." United are also dealing with Amad Diallo, who has not played this season because of an ankle injury.

Old Trafford does not decide the argument over the summer windows by itself, but it does put both clubs in the same frame on 10 October. United are trying to show that squad depth was the right call, and Spurs are trying to stop a heavy spend from looking like a fast route to more questions.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →