5. Joe Allen
Current club: Swansea City Sir Alex chiefly needs to replace Paul Scholes, and he could do worse than looking to Welsh playmaker Joe Allen, whose phenomenal passing rate drew surprising praise for the player last year and earned him a place in Stuart Pearce's Team GB squad. The 22-year-old put in some eye-catching performances for the Welsh side last season, and has been linked with both Spurs and most notably Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool throughout this summer, with a move to the latter strongly mooted in recent weeks. Allen would likely cost upwards of £15m, especially if his time with Team GB ends successfully, but Allen is a prodigious talent who would be free to play a more creative role for a more forward-thinking team, putting his impressive 91% pass completion rate from last term to good use, and possibly chipping in with more than the 4 goals he managed under Rodgers at Swansea last year. Equally adept in a defensive role as he is as a play-maker, Allen might not appeal as much as someone like Sneijder to United fans, but Sir Alex needs as much industry in his side as he does flair, and should take a leaf out of Mancini's book at Man City in the way he plays more industrious players like Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry alongside a playmaker like David Silva. Allen would certainly suit that objective well.