Ten Hag appears to change mind on selling Man Utd duo as transfer plan collapses

Erik ten Hag's first transfer window as manager of Manchester United has thrown up a few surprises in terms of arrivals - but there has also been notably few departures.

As things stand, the Dutchman has overseen the arrival of three new additions, but it was arguably equally important to trim what is an undeniably bloated squad packed with underperforming stars, many of whom are surplus to requirements.

Two players who certainly fall into that bracket are Eric Bailly and Axel Tuanzebe, both of whom were expected to leave the club this summer. However, with just two weeks of the window left to go neither are the subject of intense interest from elsewhere and, as a result, could remain at Old Trafford.

Ten Hag is rumoured to have made it clear to both players that they did not feature in his plans for the season and that they were free to leave, yet they are still United players.

Bailly stands very little chance of getting many minutes considering the club forked out more than £50million on a new central defender in Lisandro Martinez.

The 28-year-old still has two years left to run on his current contract, but it reflects poorly on United's transfer team and Ten Hag himself that the club seem to have been unable to find a buyer for an established international that has plenty of experience.

While that isn't quite the case for the far more inexperienced Tuanzebe, numerous loan spells away from the club have failed to put the defender in the shop window with limited potential suitors.

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After joining Aston Villa on loan at the start of last season but struggling for playing time, Tuanzebe was recalled and then subsequently joined Serie A outfit, Napoli. The 24-year-old was only starved even further of game time in Italy, making only two appearances for the club.

Much like Bailly, Tuanzebe also has two years left on his United contract, which could actually be acting as a deterrent for some clubs who fear the Red Devils' asking price.

In truth, Ten Hag is not in a position where he can be commanding a huge fee considering the priority should be to simply get them off the books and free up space for more arrivals.

The initial plan was to sell both Bailly and Tuanzebe to fund the transfer of Martinez from Ajax, but United simply went ahead with a deal for the Argentine anyway. As a result, Ten Hag now still has an excessive eight central defenders to choose from.