📅 August 17, 2026

Manchester United Transfer Window 2026: Every Signing, Exit and Target

By Mav Jones · Manchester United fan writer

This is the complete record of Manchester United’s 2026 summer transfer window: every player who arrived, every player who left, the deals that fell apart, and the players the club is still chasing with the deadline closing on 1 September. It’s updated as things move.

The short version, if that’s all you came for. United have signed two senior first-team players and spent around £85 million doing it. They’ve lost their two most experienced midfielders, their first-choice striker of the last two seasons, and a goalkeeper. Michael Carrick has said in public that the squad isn’t finished. Two positions are still visibly short, and there are fifteen days left to fix them.

Every signing, in order

Youri Tielemans, midfielder, from Aston Villa, £35m. United activated a release clause and handed him a five-year contract. He’s 29, which makes him the experienced half of the midfield rebuild, and his job is to set a tempo rather than to run. He announced himself in Gothenburg by putting Bruno Fernandes through inside two minutes of coming on.

Andrey Santos, midfielder, from Chelsea, around £50m. The bigger bet, and the younger one. Santos is 22, Brazilian, contracted to 2031, and he carries the ball rather than circulating it. Against PSG he completed 35 of 37 passes. We wrote about what the pair actually looked like together after that game, and the honest answer is that they’ve barely had the chance to be a pair at all.

Karl Darlow, goalkeeper, from Leeds United, free. Two years with the option of a third, and the number 12 shirt. With Andre Onana out on loan again and Altay Bayindir gone, somebody had to sit behind Senne Lammens.

Tynan Thompson, winger, from Tottenham, £4m initially. He’s 18. The fee could roughly double on appearances. This is an academy signing dressed as a first-team one.

Cristian Orozco, midfielder, from Fortaleza CEIF, around £740,000. An 18-year-old Colombian, and the cheapest piece of business of the window. We covered the signing when it was confirmed.

If you want the fuller version of what each arrival brings, we went through all of them in every Manchester United summer signing of 2026.

Every exit

Casemiro, to Inter Miami, free. A contract through the 2027 MLS season. He turned 34 and United let him walk rather than pay him to be a squad player. Whatever you thought of his last two seasons, he was a specialist defensive midfielder and the club has not replaced that specific job.

Rasmus Hojlund, to Napoli, £44m. The loan turned permanent through a clause triggered by Champions League qualification. It’s the largest fee United received all summer, and it means the club has one senior centre-forward under contract in Benjamin Sesko plus a question mark over Joshua Zirkzee.

Jadon Sancho, released, free. A return to Dortmund has been discussed. The saga is over either way.

Tyrell Malacia, released, free. He spent the second half of 2024/25 on loan at PSV and never got back into the picture. His departure is more consequential than it looks, because it left the club with exactly one senior left-back.

Andre Onana, to Trabzonspor, loan extended. A second consecutive loan with a year left on his United contract.

Altay Bayindir, to Celta de Vigo, loan. We wrote about the exit as it was taking shape, and then about the confirmation alongside Radek Vitek’s sale.

Radek Vitek, to Middlesbrough, £7m with the fee able to double. Tyler Fredricson, to Lausanne Sport, undisclosed. Sekou Kone, to Lausanne Sport, loan. Both of the Lausanne moves run through the Ineos club network.

The three deals that got away

This is the part of the window that explains the shape of the squad better than any of the completed business.

Ederson: agreed, then abandoned after the medical

United and Atalanta completed the documents in June for a package worth around €45 million, or roughly £39m. Fabrizio Romano reported all details finalised, with a contract to 2031. Then in July United pulled out after a full medical raised injury concerns, and Ederson signed a new contract in Bergamo instead. We had written about the deal hanging by a thread before it snapped.

He was the specialist holding midfielder. Losing him at the medical stage, in July, is why the midfield still looks the way it does in August.

Mateus Fernandes: Tottenham paid more

West Ham’s 21-year-old was United’s primary midfield target. Sky Sports reported the club preparing an opening bid, with West Ham valuing him at £80m and rating him a potential Declan Rice. Tottenham broke their club record to sign him for £85m. United’s position was that they’d buy at the right valuation and only players who clearly wanted the move, and his preference was never obvious.

Elliot Anderson: missed

The third name on the midfield list, and the third to end up somewhere else.

Three specialist midfielders identified, none signed, and the one player at the club who does that job is injured. That’s the whole story of United’s summer in one paragraph.

The Ugarte problem, which is bigger than it looks

Manuel Ugarte, the specialist holding midfielder signed in 2024 to succeed Casemiro, suffered a knee ligament injury at the end of June and has had surgery. He faces an extended absence. We covered the injury when it happened at the World Cup.

The sporting cost is obvious. The financial one is not. The budget for a third midfielder was expected to come from selling Ugarte, and selling a midfielder with confirmed knee ligament damage is a much harder job than selling a fit one. So the money that was supposed to fund the fix has been squeezed by the thing that created the need for it.

Mason Mount then limped off against PSG in Gothenburg, and although he was seen walking freely afterwards, the midfield problem got a good deal louder that night.

Who United still want

Lewis Hall, left-back, Newcastle

The priority, and the best-corroborated target of the window. United have internally approved a £60m opening bid, which would make him their most expensive signing of the summer. Newcastle have told them he isn’t for sale at any price, describe him as a cornerstone of Matthias Jaissle’s project, and hold him to a contract running to 2029. TeamTalk report privately that it would take north of £62m before Newcastle would even discuss it, a figure that would break the Premier League record for a left-back set when Chelsea paid Brighton £62m for Marc Cucurella in 2022.

Hall is 21, turning 22 a week after the window shuts. He has 30 Premier League appearances and four England caps, the first won at 20 against Greece. In 2025/26 he made 54 tackles and 28 interceptions in 2,179 minutes, though he scored once and assisted once, which is not a £60m return on any reading. Transfermarkt values him around €40m.

Eduardo Camavinga, midfield and left-back, Real Madrid

The most elegant idea of United’s summer, because he fills both problem positions with one fee. He’s a left-footed central midfielder who has played left-back for Madrid in Champions League knockout football as a selected option, not an emergency.

It isn’t happening, and it’s worth saying so plainly rather than leaving him on a list. United contacted his agents in July. On 11 August, Romano reported that Camavinga wants to stay, is not changing his mind, and is more motivated than ever after Madrid missed out on Rodri to Barcelona, which cleared his own path to minutes under Jose Mourinho.

Jack Hinshelwood, defensive midfielder, Brighton

The one United can realistically buy, and arguably the position they need most. He’s 21, a natural six who Brighton also use further forward, and he managed four goals and four assists in the Premier League last season. The Sun report Brighton could be persuaded between £43m and £51m. United have made an official enquiry, but Arsenal have held direct talks with his camp and are preparing a formal bid, and Manchester City have done their own homework.

A striker, if Zirkzee goes

Zirkzee’s departure is understood to be close, and Carrick wants competition for Sesko. Reporting splits on the name. Sports Mole has Club Brugge’s Nicolo Tresoldi at around £42.5m, a 21-year-old with 23 goals and nine assists in 58 games last season, with Barcelona also interested. GiveMeSport and Football FanCast instead name Ollie Watkins at around £40m. Nobody has confirmed which is real, so treat both as live rather than picking one.

Carlos Baleba, midfielder, Brighton

Fading rather than live. Brighton have come down to £65m, a substantial cut on previous demands, but United’s long-standing interest has cooled since signing Santos and Tielemans, Newcastle have moved ahead as they look to replace Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, and Baleba is carrying an ankle ligament injury into the season.

We looked at where Hall, Camavinga and Hinshelwood would each improve this squad in detail, including why only one of the three is actually available.

The two holes, plainly stated

Left-back

Luke Shaw is 31 and out of contract in June 2027. Behind him there is nobody. Patrick Dorgu arrived as a wing-back and the club now views him as an attacking player. Harry Amass and Diego Leon are both 19. That’s the entire depth chart, and it means Shaw plays a full Premier League and Champions League season or United improvise.

The Milan defeat in Wroclaw showed what happens under pressure. Samuel Chukwueze played right wing-back, spent the afternoon attacking that side, and finished with a goal and two assists. Three of Milan’s four goals came down that flank.

There’s one obvious alternative to Hall. Arsenal have been offering Myles Lewis-Skelly around, and FootballTransfers report he has been put to both Chelsea and United. He’s 19, plays left-back and midfield, and is valued around €45m on a contract to 2030. Arsenal are reluctant to sell to a rival. We made the case for picking up the phone when the story broke.

Defensive midfield

Casemiro left free. Ugarte has had knee surgery. Ederson failed a medical. Fernandes went to Spurs. Anderson was missed. Santos carries the ball and Tielemans sets the tempo, and neither is a screen in front of the back four.

Carrick can ask Santos to do it. He’d be asking a 22-year-old ball-carrier to play a destroyer’s role for an entire Champions League season, which is a different request from the one the club made when it bought Ugarte for exactly this.

The World Cup made this window harder

The 2026 World Cup ran through the middle of the summer, and it distorted everything about how clubs did business.

Players came back late, which compressed pre-season and meant United were assessing a squad that hadn’t trained together. Some came back injured, and Ugarte’s knee was the most damaging example of that anywhere in the league. Others came back with their price inflated by six good weeks in front of a global audience, which is a poor time to be a buyer.

Marcus Rashford’s involvement is the clearest illustration. He finished third with England, was granted an extended rest, and consequently rejoined the group at Carrington three days before the Milan match having not trained with United in 18 months. A player’s reintegration being decided by tournament scheduling rather than by football reasons is what a World Cup summer does to a club.

The money

A net spend near £39m in a summer returning to the Champions League. Carrick’s own summary, given publicly last week, was blunt: “We want more, we need more, we keep looking for how we can do that.” He has also indicated the club would move for a £100m player if the right one appeared.

What happens next

The Premier League season opens away at Hull City on Saturday 22 August, 12:30 UK time and 7:30 in the morning Eastern. The official squad number list gets published in the week before that game, which also settles the question of whether Marcus Rashford ends up in 14 or the 9 he wore against Milan.

The window then shuts on 1 September, ten days into the season. On the current evidence United need a left-back and a defensive midfielder, have been told no by the clubs holding the two players they want most, and are third in a three-horse race for the one target who is genuinely for sale.

What a good deadline day looks like

Fifteen days is enough time to sign two players if the club decides it wants to. Here’s what each outcome would mean.

The best realistic version. Hinshelwood at somewhere near £45m, plus any competent senior left-back. That fills the two holes, keeps the net spend under £100m, and gives Carrick a genuine six for the first time since Casemiro’s last good season. It requires beating Arsenal to a player Arsenal are ahead on.

The version that costs more but solves more. Hall at £62m plus a midfielder. That’s a record fee for a left-back and it needs Newcastle to reverse a position they’ve stated flatly. It also gives United a left-back for the next decade rather than for the next two seasons.

The version nobody wants. Nothing arrives, Shaw plays 50 games at 31, and Santos spends a Champions League campaign doing a job he wasn’t bought for. That is the current default if the club doesn’t move.

There’s a fourth possibility that gets less attention. United could sign a left-back nobody is currently talking about. Recruitment lists are longer than the reported ones, and clubs that miss on three midfielders in a row tend to end up somewhere other than where the reporting had them.

How this window compares

Two senior signings is a thin window by United’s standards, and it looks thinner against the context. This is a squad returning to the Champions League, which means more fixtures, more rotation and more injuries across a longer season. It’s also a first full campaign for a manager appointed in May, and managers in that position normally get backed.

The counter-argument is real, though. The £85m spent on Santos and Tielemans is not nothing, both look like good players, and United have been criticised for years for spending badly rather than for spending little. A club that buys two useful midfielders and declines to panic-buy a third at an inflated fee is behaving more sensibly than one that spends £115m because the deadline is close.

Both things are true. The squad is better in central midfield than it was in May and worse in depth almost everywhere else.

Common questions

When does the 2026 summer transfer window close?

1 September 2026. That’s ten days after the Premier League season starts, so United will have played at least one league match before it shuts.

How much have Manchester United spent this summer?

Around £90m gross on five players, against roughly £51m recouped, for a net spend near £39m.

Who is Manchester United’s biggest signing of 2026?

Andrey Santos from Chelsea at around £50m. If the Lewis Hall deal ever happened at £60m or more, Hall would take that title.

Do Manchester United still need a left-back?

Yes, and it’s the clearest gap in the squad. Luke Shaw is the only senior specialist at the club, he’s 31, and his contract expires in June 2027.

Why did the Ederson transfer collapse?

United pulled out in July after a full medical raised injury concerns, despite the deal having been fully agreed in June at around £39m. He signed a new contract with Atalanta instead.

Is Marcus Rashford staying at Manchester United?

He’s a contracted United player who returned to training in August, and Carrick has said publicly that he’s part of the squad. Nothing beyond that is settled until the window shuts.

This page gets updated whenever something happens rather than whenever something is claimed.

Source: TeamTalk — Every completed Man Utd transfer of summer 2026