Louis van Gaal may not be the most talkative of fellows but he is a winner and it has taken him approximately three days to conclude that the current Manchester United squad has seventh place written all over it.

After ordering double training sessions and the installation of sleep pods at Carrington, so his players can escape his hairdryer treatment between their morning and afternoon grillings, the Dutchman has set about cutting the dead wood. The hapless Bébé will be shipped out to Benfica and 10 more United stars, including Ashley Young, Wilfried Zaha, Marouane Fellaini, Anderson, Tom Cleverley, and Nani, will be shown the door.

However, it is the players coming in where things are about to get interesting. With Ed Woodward, the fall guy for last summer’s transfer market failings, keen to prove his worth and boasting about the size of his kitty, Van Gaal is set to launch bids for Juan Cuadrado and Edinson Cavani as he attempts to bring a bit of South American flair to his forward line. United face competition from Bayern Munich for Cuadrado but will start the bidding at £30m, while Wayne Rooney may be offered in a swap deal for the Uruguayan. Arturo Vidal has put his Turin mansion up for sale, so tempted is he to join Van Gaal’s Latin American revolution in a £35m move from Juventus.

Having single-handedly deconstructed the Dutch footballing ethos of total football by converting the national team from 4-3-3 to a counterattacking 5-3-2, Van Gaal now wants to bring Holland’s World Cup defence to Old Trafford. A £10m deal for the Feyenoord centre-back Stefan de Vrij is close to completion, while Daley Blind will be the subject of a £17m bid. The son of Van Gaal’s right-hand man in Brazil would provide competition for Luke Shaw at left-back and an option in central midfield.

The Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers, will turn his attention to Real Madrid’s Isco after sealing deals for Dejan Lovren and Loïc Rémy, while Micah Richards is so desperate for a move from Manchester City he has asked for a loan after Tottenham, Newcastle and Liverpool were put off by his £7m price tag.

Arsenal will finalise a £3.2m deal for the Colombian World Cup goalkeeper David Ospina on Monday and have moved for Catania’s Argentinian right-back Gino Peruzzi after Arsène Wenger finally cottoned on to the fact that big squads win titles.

West Ham want to loan the Internazionale midfielder Saphir Taïder and Málaga’s Portuguese full-back Vitorino Antunes, and hope signing Dnipro defender Ivan Strinic will smooth the path to a £10m transfer for their main target, Yevhen Konoplyanka.

Andy Carroll could be in line for a dream return to the bars of the Bigg Market after Alan Pardew launched a £15m bid to bring the striker back to Newcastle. The Mill would love to see Mike Ashley’s reaction when his manager asks him for £120,000 a week to match Big Andy’s wages.