Redknapp: Depay Is Just The Start

Memphis Depay is just the start of Manchester United’s transfer business this summer.

It’s going to be a revolving door there at the end of this season, with an awful lot of comings and goings.

Depay is a good start for them. He’s had a really good season for PSV and can play across the front, particularly starting from the left and cutting in on his favoured right foot.

Louis van Gaal knows him well – he gave him his debut for Holland – and he’s an exciting talent. We’ve seen plenty of highly-rated players come from Eredivisie, some have been hits, some have been misses, so it will be interesting to see how he adapts.

I’m not quite sure what his arrival means for Angel di Maria, though. I said a while ago that he doesn’t look like a happy player and it will be interesting to see if he stays because there are an awful lot of players in that frontline now.

Whatever system Van Gaal wants to play, they’ll have too many forwards for them all to get a game.

You would expect Radamel Falcao won’t be signed on a permanent basis and there’s talk about Robin van Persie going as well. But I’m sure they’ll get someone else in. Van Gaal has had a year to look at what he wants and I’m sure he’ll have targets lined up.

With all this activity in the forward areas, I’d expect young James Wilson to go out on loan, perhaps to one of the teams that come up, to try to get some Premier League experience and score some goals. He’s a real player and is a star of the future but it’s not ideal at 19 years old to not be playing first-team football.

If he has a great pre-season he could force his way into the first-team squad. That’s happened before – it happened to me at Liverpool – but he’s got a lot of competition in those forward areas and he might just need to go and score loads of goals somewhere else and then come back.

But it’s not just about the attackers - I can see United making signings all over the pitch in this next transfer window.

For instance, will the goalkeeper stay in the summer? I don’t know – but imagine if they could do a deal where David de Gea goes to Real Madrid and they get Gareth Bale in return. De Gea is a brilliant goalkeeper but that would be a no-brainer!

United could get someone like Petr Cech in for a couple of seasons and have Bale in their team – what an addition that would be!

Meanwhile, some cover for Michael Carrick would be useful. This season United have won 71 per cent of the games he’s started but just 42 per cent of the games he hasn’t. Carrick has shown his importance to the team in that holding role, just like Nemanja Matic at Chelsea and Sergio Busquets at Barcelona.

However, he is perhaps too important to the team. Their results without him are a concern and something Van Gaal will have to address.

Then, at right-back, they have Antonio Valencia. I think he’s done ok and he fits the attacking role Van Gaal wants from his full-backs. He’s strong and he’s fit most weeks. But if they think they can find someone better, I’m sure they will go for them. We saw them bring in Luke Shaw on the other side last summer.

I just wonder where Marouane Fellaini fits in next season, though. A lot of their best play has come from going direct to him this year, but will he have a starting spot if there are a lot of new arrivals?

One thing’s for sure – it’s going to be a fascinating summer at United.

As long as they get in the top four, which was probably the least of their ambitions with the money they’ve spent, I think they’ll be relatively happy with how things have worked out.

I’m predicting they’ll get a narrow 2-1 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday Night Football to take a step closer to that goal and I expect them to stumble over the line.

But fourth place won’t be good enough for them next year. With Depay and other new arrivals, they’ll be aiming a lot higher…

Credit: Skysports.com