Carrick says Man United needs more signings and describes Rashford’s return as ‘exciting’

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United manager Michael Carrick has called for more signings in a summer when the club’s spending on new players has been below all of its main Premier League rivals.

United has spent around 85 million pounds ($115 million) combined on three players — midfielders Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans and goalkeeper Karl Darlow — during the offseason, while also welcoming back Marcus Rashford from his loan spell at Barcelona.

For Carrick, who is heading into his first full season as United manager and will be leading his team in the Champions League, it’s not enough.

“I think we’ve done really good business and we’ve got really some top, top, top players. We’re delighted with that. We always want to improve,” Carrick said.

“We want more, we need more, we keep looking for how we can do that.”

Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham have each splashed out more than 100 million pounds on a single player, in Morgan Rogers, Elliot Anderson and Sandro Tonali, respectively.

Chelsea’s expenditure on new players, in fact, has exceeded $450 million.

“Certainly the situation is what it is as well, whether that’s finances or whatever,” Carrick added on United’s situation. “For now, we’ve got to make the most of it, but we’ve got to keep pushing and push everything and every boundary that we can to be able to win again.”

Rashford returned to United this week after the World Cup, as Barcelona declined an option to buy the England winger following his loan spell.

Asked directly if Rashford was for sale, Carrick said: “He’s our player, and he’s a good player and he gives us something a little bit different in the group.

“Marcus can offer us so much. He has done, and he can do again, so in that respect it’s quite exciting.”

United, which has a record-tying 20 English league titles, last won the Premier League in 2013.

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