Can they be disastrous? They both seem like short term fixes to plug holes in the squad because we can’t make the long term signings we want to.
So instead we are making low cost squad filler signings so that we can pursue those long term targets next summer (when hopefully we’ve made progress).
Arnautovic in particular seems like a low cost option to offer backup to Ronaldo, Martial, Sancho and Rashford while allowing us to keep the funds for Antony & Sesko down the line. I’d rather that than buying some random ones their player for £30-40m and then not going back for the long term targets.
Liverpool waited on VVD remember.
Nah.
Firstly, I hugely doubt either of them are signing for one year. Rabiot certainly isn't going to.
Secondly, they will both be expensive players in terms of salary. Rabiot makes 9m in Juventus, and would presumably expect a raise, as everyone does and gets when they arrive at United from a league abroad. So whatever this is, it's not low cost immediate squad filler. You could argue that we can always sell them again, but then again you could consider the likelihood of that for two seconds and then abstain from making that argument.
Thirdly, how often do you see top clubs make cheap immediate squad filler signings when they can't get their "long term targets"? Never mind the fairly high cost squad filler signings these would be?
Fourthly, considering the overall picture this window (what's been said, what's been done, what hasn't been done), it's getting increasingly difficult to believe United really have any long term targets. If they do, it can't be a very long list, if they think it's a better option to bring in these two.
Fifthly, this is where the penny unmistakably drops concerning what the club learnt from last season's disaster. Or at least we know that whatever they took from that, they think a part of the answer is signing Marko Arnautovic.