Manchester United should be looking to sell one of their underperforming stars in 2026 as it is now clear that they made a huge recruitment mistake.
Manchester United fell to a 2–1 loss against Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon, with Morgan Rogers netting both goals for the hosts.
Although United dictated play for much of the contest, they failed to make their superiority count in front of goal. Rogers, by contrast, proved clinical, producing two moments of quality that ultimately decided the match.
While Ruben Amorim’s side can take positives from their general performance, their persistent inability to capitalise on periods of control once again proved costly.
There were also some disappointing displays throughout the clash at Villa Park and the club should now be seriously considering the sale of one player.
United must sell “poor” star in 2026 amid seven-game trend
After Casemiro’s suspension, many fans hoped that Kobbie Mainoo would start in the midfield but his surprise injury ahead of the game meant that Manuel Ugarte started for the Reds.
The Uruguayan has fallen out of favour under Amorim due to poor performances when starting and coming off the bench and this felt like an important match for him.
But once again, Ugarte failed to impress and looked ‘poor’ in the middle of the park. Ayden Heaven played a simple pass into midfield early on in the game but Ugarte’s poor touch led to a dangerous attack for Villa.
He was substituted after 73 minutes and with United going onto lose the game, it now means that the Reds have lost all of their last seven Premier League games when Ugarte has started.
While not all of those results are directly on the ex-Sporting midfielder, it has become clear that United are a worse team when he is on the pitch.
United made a mistake but should cut their losses
When INEOS took charge at Old Trafford, one of their main priorities would have been to fix the recruitment after years of failed signings.
There have been positive signs in that area, with players like Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha clear upgrades for the team, but the signing of Ugarte was a mistake.
No one expects a club to have a 100 per cent hit-rate when it comes to signings, however, and that was never going to happen straight away at United.
Read More: Travis Binnion explains controversial Shea Lacey decision after Manchester United promotion
But the most important thing now is seeing how United’s leadership team react to their mistake. We have seen with the hire and fire of Dan Ashworth that they aren’t afraid to cut their losses after realising a mistake.
That has to happen with Ugarte, and he should be sold in either of the transfer windows in 2026, with higher-quality replacements coming in. United cannot allow underperforming players to stay at the club for too long anymore.
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 14:00 pm (GMT) on the United View YouTube channel.