What does Radamel Falcao's signing say about Manchester United?

Radamel Falcao is Old Trafford bound

Manchester United are bringing in one of the best strikers around is Radamel Falcao but what does this signing do for the Old Trafford club?

Manchester United have agreed to the signing of striker Radamel Falcao.

The impressive forward arrives on a season-long loan from Monaco as United staved off interest from Arsenal and Manchester City to land one of the purest goal scorers in the world.

And yet the move also signals that the unique Sir Alex Ferguson way of crafting a balanced squad is well and truly over at Old Trafford and that United have fallen back into the ways of the rest of the Premier League, without a clear strategy or purpose.

Falcao arrives in Manchester after one injury-plagued season at the Stade Louis II in Monaco, having torn his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in January. The injury caused the Colombian to miss the World Cup in Brazil, effectively ending any realistic chance that the national side had to make a deep run in the tournament.

Even without Falcao, Colombia, led by his then Monaco teammate James Rodriguez, made it to the quarter-finals before falling to the host nation. Given the ultimate frailty of Brazil, and their destruction at the hands of Germany, the question of what might have been had the Monaco duo were available is one that is likely to be asked for a long time.

A goal scoring prodigy at an early age, Falcao made his debut for Lanceros Boyaca before his 14th birthday in the Colombian second tier before moving on to famed Argentinian side River Plate, where he was first managed by Diego Simeone.

The two would reunite at Atletico Madrid a few years later when Falcao made the move from Porto following a couple of successful years with the Portuguese club.

That the Colombian would end up in Europe was inevitable although it was somewhat surprising that his first step had been to the Primeira Liga side rather than to the Premier League or Serie A, with reports at the time linking Falcao with clubs in both leagues.

Unsurprisingly, the Colombian dominated while playing for Porto and maintained an impressive strike rate. It was therefore no shock when Atletico Madrid came calling in 2011, with the forward drafted in as a replacement for Sergio Aguero, who had left for Manchester City three weeks earlier.

Who plays when United is at full strength is an interesting question. Louis van Gaal may have only adopted his 3-5-2 formation in the run up to the World Cup, but even in a standard 4-4-2, a diamond 4-4-2 or the Dutchman's preferred 4-4-2-cum-4-5-1, three into two doesn't go.

Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney are nominally the front two for the club and while speculation is high that Van Persie's latest injury could see the former Arsenal man sidelined for months, three world-class strikers at a club is not a healthy situation.

United, of course, have been through this before in one of the few missteps of Ferguson's reign. Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov, ironically the latter now plying his trade at Monaco, showed a wonderfully predatory instinct in front of goal, but only two could play at any one time.

Tevez was often the odd man out and was not reluctant to suggest that he should have been starting. Players making waves was not how Ferguson ran the club, the selling on of Jaap Stam following controversial comments in a book being a perfect example, and Tevez was duly dispatched to Manchester City to restore the balance.

Moreover, while players can and do return within six months of an ACL injury, it normally takes 18 months to fully recover their form. So what version of Falcao have United actually loaned?

On his day, Radamel Falcao might just be the best striker in the world. But will United see any of those days this season?