Michael Carrick has urged his Manchester United hierarchy to "keep pushing for more" during the transfer window, revealing his desire for additional quality and depth heading into the new campaign.
United have invested £85 million ($114.6 million) in securing Karl Darlow, Andrey Santos, and Youri Tielemans this summer, yet it has now been a month since their last completed deal, with fewer than three weeks remaining in the transfer window.
Carrick is keen to bring in further reinforcements, with a left-back and central midfielder among his priorities, and he is well aware his squad will face greater demands this season, as a return to UEFA Champions League soccer adds extra pressure to an already packed schedule.
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While he is satisfied with the signings made to date, he believes additional work is required to build a squad capable of competing on four fronts this season.
"I think for us we're delighted with the players we've brought in, first and foremost," he said, as per the Manchester Evening News. "I think we've improved the group, we've improved the squad in different ways, balance, quality and the direction we want to go in.
"We always want to improve, we want more, we need more, we keep looking for how we can do that, so that never stops. We're conscious of that and we've got to keep pushing."
United have spent less than Ipswich Town and Coventry City so far this summer and have been outpaced by their rivals. They remain the only 'big six' club yet to splash £100 million ($134.8 million) on a single player, with Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur all crossing that threshold this summer.
Liverpool managed it twice in 2025 and could do so again should they secure Bradley Barcola.
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At Old Trafford, the club-record fee of £89 million ($116 million) paid for Paul Pogba has stood unchallenged for a decade, and another restrained summer appears to be on the horizon.
That poses a significant challenge for Carrick, who harbors title-winning ambitions yet must go toe-to-toe with free-spending rivals, and the United head coach acknowledged there may come a point where the club is compelled to shatter its own transfer record.
"A little bit depends on what position that is and what you've got and what dynamics you need at certain points," he said. "Sometimes you do need that if it's the right player.
"Again, it's not purely on money, the money doesn't guarantee you, it needs to be the right player and a better player for what we've got. It's something [that] over time we need to be pushing to look to enhance the squad all the time in different ways."
Carrick urged United to "keep pushing" on the recruitment front on four separate occasions during a 25-minute discussion at the club's training camp at Carton House this week, while emphasizing that his working relationship with director of football Jason Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada remained strong.
-Credit:Charles McQuillan, Getty Images"It's constant communication of where, what work we need to do, where we want to improve," he said. "We're pretty clear in the messages that we need to keep pushing and there's certain things that we want to try and do, but it needs to be right as well."
While United have been relatively quiet in the transfer market, Carrick is thrilled with the acquisitions they have secured and was full of praise for the influence Santos has brought following his £50 million ($66.3 million) move from Chelsea.
"Andrey, for such a young man to come in the way he's came in, his character, his personality is a dream. Literally, he's a dream," he said.
"He's so positive, so mature, so switched on; he wants to learn. He comes in straight away and he's trying to help other players and talk in games and communicate in games, and has that personality where he's got a real substance to him, and delighted to have him, delighted to have him when he came in."
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