In today’s football industry fans have to come to terms with the fact that if a player really wants to leave a club then it usually has to happen.
The club can of course dig their heels in and try to keep the player for another year. But having an unhappy footballer on your books is pretty counter-productive and if he’s not playing at the top of his form his value plummets anyway. So perhaps it’s better to get rid of the star when he wants to leave and while his value is high.
This could well turn out to be the case with Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea this summer.
He’s been a wonderful servant to Manchester United and the top player at the club for the last few years. But at 26 years of age he may feel that the time is right to move back to his home town of Madrid. With Real Madrid supposedly interested Manchester United manager José Mourinho is said to have given his blessing to a swap deal for Alvara Morata.
This would mean De Gea going the other way and Manchester United receiving around £22 million according to the report.
That’s according to Sky Sports pundit Guillem Balague:
Jose Mourinho ‘willing to sell David de Gea for £22m in Alvaro Morata swap with Real Madrid’
“Mourinho (strangely) willing to sell De Gea for €25m and Morata. Chelsea divided between Lukaku & Morata. He would like to play in the PL.”
The big question for TFF is whether Morata is the sort of player that can change games at the top level. He is a decent striker and will probably score 15 to 20 goals for Manchester United in each season.
But has he got the speed and penetration to breach top defences in the semi-final of the Champions League for example. This is the sort of question that Jose should surely be asking because he doesn’t just want players who are going to perform domestically.
If he’s going to create a proper legacy at the club then Manchester United need to buy top level players and we aren’t completely convinced that Morata is in that category.
Manchester United fans – would you be happy with this deal?