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Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Ince says the ‘jury’s still out’ on £50million summer signing Andrey Santos and that he is ‘baffled’ by the club’s move for the former Chelsea man.

While United focused on rebuilding their attack last summer, with the arrivals of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko, the midfield has become the main priority this time around.

Man Utd did show strong interest in the likes of Elliot Anderson, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, while they also pulled back from their proposed deal for Atalanta’s Ederson.

In the end, they spent £50m on Santos and another £35m on Youri Tielemans, but it is fair to say that Ince is not convinced by the business done for the former.

The former United and England star told Oddschecker: “I think when you look at what Manchester United are trying to do, they obviously need to strengthen in that area.

“Whether [Manuel] Ugarte comes back, I don’t know, but they’ve signed the lad Santos from Chelsea for £50m, which is a lot of money for someone like him. I think the jury’s still out on that one.

“So to spend £50m on a young central midfield player when you’ve got [Kobbie] Mainoo coming through the ranks, kind of baffled me a bit.

“Obviously Tielemans I think is a fantastic player. More of a Fernandes type of player, but a very good player. I still think they’re trying to do the Ederson deal from Atalanta.

“So, they’ve got a whole load of midfield players in that position which needed to be strengthened.

“I think he’s [Mainoo] the man who can play that role. I believe that, he’s got a really good head on his shoulders. He’s young, he’s got legs, he can keep hold of the ball.”

While Ince says he is interested to see how Michael Carrick sets up his midfield this coming season, he hopes Kobbie Mainoo can build on a strong finish to the 2025/26 campaign, after being repeatedly overlooked by England boss Thomas Tuchel at the World Cup.

He added: “I like Tielemans, I think Tielemans is more of a [Bruno] Fernandes type of player. I like Casemiro, I think Casemiro was brilliant. And the fact that United are in the Champions League, they need to start building a stronger squad.

“I always thought when Mainoo, when I watched him, he kind of did things easy, got it, passed it. When you play that role, and I’ve played that role for 20 years you’ve got to do more than that.

‘You’ve got to get forward, get into the box, and take shots, he never, never really did that.

“He just did the simple things. Towards the back end of the season, he started to tackle, win balls, set things up, get himself in the box, make things happen. And he looks a completely different player.

“So if he can repeat that form this season, then, you know, I think it’d be great for United. But they’ve got plenty of options in there. So it’ll be interesting to see which way Carrick goes.”