Nottingham Forest 2-2 Manchester United match reaction and review
Manchester United’s bizarre January transfer window predicted - by Football Manager 2026.
Manchester United might – might – be finally turning a corner under Ruben Amorim. After a poor start to the season they’ve rattled off some impressive results and are in contention for a top four spot once more. Still, there’s work to be done before they start to look like genuine title contenders again.
Having spent most or all of their transfer budget over the summer, it’s unlikely that United are overly busy in January but they may well be on the hunt for budget-friendly ways to improve their squad, so we decided to get some idea of what they might do over the winter by turning to the most accurate simulation of the footballing future available to us – Football Manager 2026.
We launched a fresh save of the newly-released game and span it a year into the future to find out who United bought and sold in January and to see whether it made much of a difference. And there was at least one incredibly bizarre deal in there…
Manchester United make shock Chelsea signing in January – according to Football Manager 2026
Mykhaylo Mudryk – loan fromChelsea: Let’s get the weird one out of the way. Apparently unbanned at some point in the game and with allegations of doping violations seemingly resolved, United decided to borrow £62m Mudryk from Chelsea for the second half of the season on a straight loan deal. It didn’t do much good for anyone. Mudryk made precisely zero appearances for his temporary club and was sent packing back to Stamford Bridge at the end of the season. How strange.
Wojciech Szczesny - £4m from Barcelona: Clearly our virtual Amorim wasn’t much more confident in Altay Bayindir than the real-life manager, so some experienced help was found in the form of former Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny, who ended up making three appearances, whether due to injuries or the form of the first choice. Honestly, probably not that bad of a deal even if £4m is a little steep for a short-term stopgap.
Thiago Fernandez – free from Velez Sarsfield: A bit of bargain hunting that David Dickinson would be proud of here – 21-year-old winger Fernandez was nabbed on a free at the end of his Velez contract, scored twice in 11 appearances for the Red Devils, and was then sold on to Marseille at the end of the season on a loan-to-buy deal worth £25m. Perhaps the computerised Ineos are a little more savvy than their counterparts in reality have been so far.
Bogdan Popov - £8.5m from Empoli: A 19-year-old striker signed for the future, and based on his stats probably not a bad purchase. He didn’t score in his three substitute appearances, but then a quick start doesn’t guarantee long-term productivity. Just ask Federico Macheda.
So, did all that weird wheeling and dealing work? No. Manchester United finished 14th in our save, sacked Ruben Amorim in the spring and appointed Oliver Glasner instead. Which wouldn’t have sounded like an unrealistic prediction a month or so ago, let’s be fair.
£36.5m forward leaves in FM26’s January prediction
There were a few outgoing worth mentioning, as well, and two of the three seem relatively plausible, so let’s see who United got off the books before the end of the 2025/26 campaign…
Joshua Zirkzee – loan with £26m purchase option to Brentford: As in real life, Zirkzee cut a fairly sorry figure at Old Trafford and was loaned out to the Bees, where he scored twice in 10 games. Keith Andrews’ side then activated the £26m permanent option built in to the deal, which is pretty good business even if it does mean that United would have lost more than £10m given that he was reported to cost £36.5m from Bologna in the first place.
Tyrell Malacia – free to Como: Unable to find a willing buyer for a fee, United simply let the injury-addled Malacia walk in our game, with Como taking his wages off the balance sheet. He seems to have played rather well in Serie A so far, not surprising given his stats. We suspect the ‘injury proneness’ value has been dialled up to 21, however.
Senne Lammens – loan to Nottingham Forest: This is the deal which we doubt would take place in real life given that Lammens is doing a solid job of establishing himself as Amorim’s number one so far. In the game, United used him as a back-up behind Bayindir and loaned him out to get some minutes at the City Ground after Matz Sels was injured. Hence the signing of Szczesny, presumably.
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