Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United after the 2012/13 season. The Red Devils' free fall in status and sporting success has been pronounced.

So has the blunder when it comes to making signings and the performance of those signings, especially in the centre of defence. They have invested a lot, but have not found the expected return: 356 million euros spent on eight centre-backs.

The search for a team to put United back on top has left the club with a significant outlay along the way. The latest arrival was Leny Yoro, who was wanted by Real Madrid. It is another big bid to find security and stability in the centre of defence. At 18 years of age, he will have that responsibility, but also room to grow.

The precedents are not in his favour. United have brought in nine centre-backs since Ferguson left. The most notable has been Harry Maguire. The Englishman is still in the squad, but has lost importance over the seasons.

Lisandro Martinez's height does not make it easy to play centre-back in a league like the Premier League but the Argentine has been United's best-performing centre-back in recent years. Manchester United paid 57.37 million euros for the former Ajax man.

They tried to sign Raphael Varane when he left Real Madrid for 40 million euros, but the Frenchman has failed to be an undisputed starter or perform at his best. Previously, United had paid €38m for Eric Bailly, €35m for Victor Lindelof, €20m for Marcos Rojo and €17.5m for Daley Blind.

In the process of trying to find centre-backs, United have spent more on them (356.87 million) than on forwards (288.7 million) despite the fact that they are more highly rated and have brought in Falcao, Martial, Lukaku, Cristiano, Depay, Hojlund and Zirkzee.

Daley Blind

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