Falcao & Di Maria can spark Manchester United title challenge

The new season began in disarray at Old Trafford but following a £150m spending spree Louis van Gaal has finally been given the tools to revive the Premier League's fallen giant COMMENT By Peter Staunton By the time the transfer window closed at the start of this month Manchester United promised to be a very different team to the one which had started the season so ineffectually. Their opening few matches had been pitiful. For those few hours before their players left on international duty, however, the stars briefly aligned. Radamel Falcao posed at Carrington with his new Manchester United No. 9 shirt before departing immediately for a friendly match in Miami. Daley Blind and Marcos Rojo were added but have not yet played while Angel di Maria has, only once, in a hotch-potch team beset by concerns over form and injury. The excitement and the challenge now lie ahead. The arrivals have been offset by the departures of a number of fringe players proven to be expendable by ineffective recent displays. Last month's 4-0 loss to MK Dons brought shame on the club. It may have come in like an avalanche but Louis van Gaal now has something resembling the squad he would have liked in the first place. It is one capable of delivering the title - provided it delivers on its potential. "It's a case of getting the club back to where it needs to be," United coach Nicky Butt said of the £150 million transfer splurge this week at SoccerEx. "They've brought a manager who's a proven winner. He's signed a three-year deal and he's going to be here for that length of time and get the club where it needs to be - winning." The fact that this group has been assembled in haste - and play their first match after international week - might count against Van Gaal and his players in the short term. But there is now an abundance of talent at Old Trafford and a manager who is well capable of stitching them all together and giving Manchester City and Chelsea plenty to worry about at the sharp end of the table. The 'dilemma' of where Van Gaal is to put all these new signings and what he might do with Juan Mata and Adnan Januzaj is a false one. Nobody seems to ask those questions of City or Chelsea who have two internationals in every position. It takes a squad to win the league, not only a team, and Van Gaal is well adept at rotating his options.