Rafael da Silva believes Manchester United have suffered after making mistakes with their transfer strategy after Sir Alex Ferguson left.
The Brazilian full back won three Premier League titles during his seven years at Old Trafford under Ferguson and United have failed to secure another title since the legendary manager left in 2013.
Rafael, who is now at Lyon, believes one of the reasons his former club have struggled to compete is down to wrong investment.
“It has taken too long to get back on track. Two years should be enough to do that but now it’s been seven years. We did some things wrong. We started signing expensive players and giving them a lot of money. I don’t agree with that,” Rafael told ESPN.
“Just because a player is £150m does not mean he’s good for the team. It depends on the character of the player. We have made some mistakes but I hope now that we can get back on track.”
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s arrival saw a marked change in the way the club want to conduct transfer activity. The Norwegian is targeting primarily young British talent as a way to get United back to the top and his first three signings of Daniel James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire have been a success and the arrival of Bruno Fernandes in January has revitalised United’s midfield.
The club are looking to bring in more additions when the transfer window finally opens again with Jadon Sancho top of Solskjaer’s transfer list and Rafael has some advice for his former club over who they should be targeting.
“They should go for the players who want to play for Manchester United. Not just because Manchester United are going to pay you. Look at Chicharito. How hard did he play for Manchester United? He wanted to play. How much did Manchester United pay for him? Not much. You have to be clever,” the right-back explained.
“You have to see that the player wants to play for Manchester United. You have to be clever.
“Harry Kane is a goalscorer. Jadon Sancho is very, very good, but first of all you have to see the character of the player and see if they really want to do well for United, not just coming for the money.”
