Manchester United

Mike Phelan: Manchester United's identity "broken"

By Liam Apicella, Features Editor | 02 September 2014

Former assistant manager Mike Phelan believes that Manchester United are losing their identity following the departure of Danny Welbeck.

Former Manchester United player and assistant manager Mike Phelan has insisted that the club's identity has been "broken" by the sale of Danny Welbeck to Arsenal last night.

Manchester-born Welbeck had been deemed surplus to requirements by United boss Louis van Gaal, who bolstered his attacking options on deadline day by signing Colombia international Radamel Falcao on a season-long loan basis from Monaco.

However, Phelan believes that the two deals represent a change in policy at Old Trafford.

"Danny Welbeck has been part of United's identity and that has been broken. What will happen in the future now, nobody knows but that thread has been broken now," he told BBC Sport.

"There is always the start of something and maybe this is the start of a new way of doing things at Manchester United and maybe that is the way football is going.

"Is it better to look at the instant rather than the future? It is a difficult one because youth is always the future, we all have to start somewhere and you just hope that product of youth can develop in the Premier League."

It is believed that United have received £16m from their North London counterparts for 23-year-old Welbeck.