The best signing Manchester United could make this summer is not Jadon Sancho or Christian Eriksen or Aaron Wan-Bissaka, even if surgery is essential in so many areas, but Edwin van der Sar, their former goalkeeper and Ajax’s current chief executive. United’s 3-0 humbling by Barcelona at the Nou Camp on Tuesday evening did not reveal anything particularly new about a team that has been ill equipped to challenge at the top for too long now.

Yet anyone who thinks new signings alone will provide the solution to United’s troubles has not been paying enough attention. Until United address the structural defects behind the scenes that have contributed to a chaotic recruitment strategy, there is a grave risk that the same questions being posed in the wake of a chastening Champions League quarter-final exit will still be getting asked several years from now.

May is approaching and yet, with United facing a huge rebuilding job and one of their most important summers for years, a technical director has still to be appointed and concerns about the existing management structure is one of the reasons why Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s assistant, Mike Phelan, has still to commit to a long-term contract.