Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hints that Manchester United will not be targeting big names in future transfer windows

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has suggested that Manchester United will not return to a Galactico-style approach in the transfer market.

United have acquired several big names since Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013, including Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez.

The club changed their recruitment strategy in the summer, though, focusing on younger, hungrier British talent in the form of Daniel James, Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

And Solskjaer has hinted that United will once again shun high-profile stars in January and next summer.

“We keep on going in the direction we’re going,” he replied when asked how the Red Devils can catch up with Saturday's opponents Manchester City.

“We know that we need to strengthen the squad in depth and in quality. We’ve signed three good ’uns, for sure.

"We’ve got some young ones through but still the depth of the squad, especially when you think about all the injuries we’ve had, we haven’t been able to have that consistency. But when we get those [new] players in I’m sure that gap is going to be closed.

“Do I look like I’m going to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on players we’re not sure of? As I said, we need to rebuild, we need to change the culture.

“You want the culture with that hunger and selflessness that most of these players are showing. You’ve got the [Scott] McTominays and [Marcus] Rashfords and [Jesse] Lingards, the players that know what Man United is.

Despite Wednesday's 2-1 victory over Tottenham, United remain eight points adrift of the top four and a further three adrift of Manchester City.

But Solskjaer insists his team should not be written off when they travel to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

“We might not want them to be scared of us," he added. "We might want them to be arrogant and confident because you don’t have to shout the loudest to throw the sucker punch.

"It’s not about shouting the loudest, it’s about doing the talking on the pitch.”

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).