“Surely it can’t be that hard?” This is a recurring question I read in the annals of punditry, and hear from friends, fans and my own inner voice. It is a quandary in response to the seeming ineptitude of the “biggest club in the world” to make one meaningful signing in the rapidly receding summer transfer window of 2008.

Manchester United has somehow conspired, thus far, to make nothing out of the inevitable cache and momentum of being the English Premier League and European Champions. The club ended a successful season with obvious deficiencies in the squad. Foremost was the need for more cutting edge in the final third, someone to score the football. Recent displays against Newcastle and Portsmouth tell the tale.

The prodigious talents of Cristiano Ronaldo last year obscured a gaping hole in the United armour- - a true finisher; the 20 goal a season striker that every great club needs. It’s a testament to Ronaldo that the team never suffered from this lack. But the question need be asked: is hoping for your midfielder to score 30+ goals a season sustainable? Ronaldo’s exploits were phenomenal, but they were also an outlier.

Ronaldo's scoring aside...United is well short of striking options

Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez, while incredibly skilfully and integral to the red devil attack, are not ruthless finishers. Louis “Oh no, My Knee” Saha is firmly ensconced on the training room table and it is no longer reasonable to expect 20+ goals from Scholes and Giggs, ageless as they may be. The club has had no real striker since Van Nistelrooy and its over-reliance on Ronaldo’s finishing is now being revealed.

Add this to the need for a right back and an extra midfielder and the consensus was that Old Trafford would see many new faces this season. Well it’s about 4 days to the end of the transfer window and the only new faces I have seen are Danny Wellbeck, Rodrigo Possebon, Rafael Da Silva and Frazier Campbell. Not exactly the new faces that were expected. Wait...what do you mean they’ve always been United players??

In any case, despite complaints about inactivity, United has actually been one of the most active clubs this transfer season. No, seriously. Take a gander at this, Manchester United’s transfer activity so far:

• Michael Barnes to Shrewsbury Town
• Danny Simpson to Ipswich
• Kieran Lee to Oldham Athletic
• Tom Heaton to Cardiff City
• Gerard Pique to Barcelona
• Febian Brandy to Swansea
• Chris Eagles to Burnley
• Danny Simpson to Blackburn (saw him already)
• Craig Cathcart to Plymouth Argyle
• Lee Martin to Nottingham Forest
• Mikael Silvestre to Arsenal (the coup de grace)

Reads like a club that’s going places. Obviously it is not how active you are in the transfer window, but the quality of your moves that matters. Chelsea, in my opinion, has been masterful. Deco is the signing of the season and will prove so essential to the club’s annual assault on the quadruple. He will prove a fantastic addition not only for his own talents, but for what he does in freeing up Frank Lampard. Add this to the acquisition of Bosingwa, keeping Anelka and unloading the world’s most expensive paper-weight, Shevchenko and you realize the blues are not playing around.

The acquisition of Deco may be the best deal of the summer.

Meanwhile, Manchester has been less than impressive. Sir Alex has continued a very recent habit in his obsession with one target. Last year it was Hargreaves and Carrick, this time it is Dimitar Berbatov. The mercurial Bulgarian is most definitely worth having. His skill and, importantly, finishing acumen is exactly what the club lacks. However this current saga follows a troubling trend that fans of the red devils should be concerned about.

A constant string of long, drawn out transfer sagas have signalled that Sir Alex, and the club in general, is losing his touch in the ever competitive off-season. The cub overpaid for both Carrick and Hargreaves after prolonged highly contentious negotiations; wrangled with Real over Ronaldo and is now involved in another farcical display with Tottenham and their “emotionally distant” striker.

The usual “it’s my dream move” comments followed a reported transfer request by the player and his agent. "I'm now in Tottenham but no-one can disagree with me wanting to follow my dream," the striker said recently. Subsequently, Berbatov has been banished to the nether regions.

Berbatov finds himself grounded at Tottenham for his United "dream" comments

If Manchester United cannot pull off the acquisition of the Bulgarian, they leave themselves in an extremely vulnerable position. In focusing so much on one player (two if you consider Ronaldo-mania), they’ve not only ignored other squad needs, but other possibilities at the striker position (Santa Cruz, Huntelaar, Eto’o). The current squad is not nearly deep enough to challenge Chelsea, on any front. Waiting for the January window sounds like a good idea till you consider that United has gotten off to great starts in the last two seasons and have only barely managed to win the title. Chelsea has the talent and squad that can hold on to any early lead they establish.

Time is running out for the Red Devils. Tick tick tick tick tick..............

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