But if things are being kept quiet, how do we know that there is nothing going on at all. Yes the usually reliable United journos are reporting there is nothing happening, but that's what the club is telling them. It seems that their go-to sources aren't talking, and of course the club is going to say there is nothing going on at all. They COULD say "Yes we're looking at a couple of players and hope to have a couple of deals completed soon" but if they say that, they open themselves up to all kinds of rumors and speculation. PLUS if the deals don't come off, it makes things so much worse than they are already.
If the club gives the official stance of "There is nothing to report" then they've covered their own back sides. If the deals come off, then brilliant. If they don't come off, well, they already said theres nothing to report, so apart from rumours, they can say "Well we did say nothing was happening". It's a win-win for United, so no problems there. I'm pretty sure deals are still being done, and even with 9 days left, deals CAN be done in 24 hours as LvG says, but it'd be panic buying in the final hours that we don't want to be doing... Fellaini for example.