Transfer Centre

Ralf Rangnick blocked from making Diaz, Vlahovic, Alvarez deals

By Ben Knapton, Senior Reporter | 07 May 2022

Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick reveals that he was blocked from making moves for Luis Diaz, Dusan Vlahovic and Julian Alvarez in January.

Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has revealed that the club turned down his wishes to sign a new attacker in the January transfer window.

While Cristiano Ronaldo has continued to impress with 18 Premier League goals this season, the futures of the rest of United's attackers are being called into question.

Edinson Cavani is set to leave as a free agent when his contract expires at the end of the season, while Mason Greenwood remains suspended by the club in the wake of his arrest.

Furthermore, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are both being tipped to head elsewhere this summer, and Rangnick expects "two or three" new strikers to arrive in the coming months.

The German boss has since revealed that Luis Diaz, Dusan Vlahovic and Julian Alvarez were all on the Red Devils' radar in January, but the powers-that-be decided against bolstering their firing line in January.

Dusan Vlahovic in action for Juventus on March 16, 2022 © Reuters

"The answer at the time was no, there was no player on the market that could really help us. [But] there were a few: Diaz who is now at Liverpool, Alvarez who will be at Manchester City in the summer, Vlahovic who at the time still was with Fiorentina," Rangnick told the press.

"Those are just three of them that come across my mind now. We had four days off at the time and on the Sunday I was informed about the issues with Mason Greenwood and obviously Anthony Martial had already left and then I was aware that within four days we had some strikers missing and it might make sense.

"We were still in three competitions - Champions League, FA Cup and fourth in the league, but that's in the past and it doesn't help us anymore.

"I spoke to the board and said 'shouldn't we at least speak and try and analyse if we could get a player either on loan or as a permanent deal', but in the end the answer was no.

"I still believe that we should have at least tried. If we would've found and been able in 48 hours, 48 hours is short notice but it's still 48 hours. It might have been worth to try and internally discuss but we didn't and it was not done."

Argentina's Julian Alvarez celebrates scoring their first goal on March 29, 2022 © Reuters

Since completing a £37.5m move to Liverpool from Porto, Diaz has taken no time at all to settle into life with the Reds and has scored four goals and set up three more in 20 appearances for the quadruple chasers.

Meanwhile, Vlahovic opted to sign for Juventus despite interest from Arsenal over the winter, and the 22-year-old already has seven goals for the club from 18 appearances in all competitions.

Vlahovic's 23 Serie A goals is only bettered by Ciro Immobile's 27, but he failed to contribute and was taken off after 74 minutes in Friday's defeat to Genoa.

Also 22, Alvarez will link up with Man City at the end of the season from River Plate, where he scored 18 goals in 21 league matches last term and already has seven strikes from 10 games in this year's Copa de la Liga.

Man United will aim to keep their top-four hopes alive when they travel to Brighton & Hove Albion for Saturday's Premier League clash, but Arsenal can end the Red Devils' Champions League aspirations with victory over Leeds United on Sunday.