Manchester United keep looking to add more youths to their ranks.
The summer transfer window has always been an enjoyable time of year, especially if you belong to the illustrious fanbase of Manchester United. This is the time when people get to see numerous names — known and unknown — being linked with their beloved club. Though, the prospect of whether the deal would ever go over the line always remains the least-favourable factor for the enthusiast in that case.
Since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took charge of Manchester United’s managerial throne, the club has seen improvements in many areas that also include promoting youth from the famed academy to signing talents from other clubs. The club is now seemingly putting more emphasis on building a team for the future over inaugural success.
We could break Solskjaer’s philosophy down in this way: there are clubs who prefer spending huge amount of money and signing marquee players from others to attain success initially and there are some who believe in a long-term project — a project that would provide them with certain longevity in terms of achieving something big — hence the latter seems to be the case for Solskjaer.
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After the acquisitions of Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who would help United build something big in the longer run, last summer, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s eyes are reportedly now on the likes of Jadon Sancho and Filip Stevanović, with the latter’s arrival at Manchester United as the club’s first summer signing this term already being confirmed by the player himself.
And to add more meat to the aforementioned assertion, here we have a stat: Manchester United were the youngest team in the Premier League 2019-20, with the average age of their squad being 25.8 — which is above Brounemoth’s 26.2 and Chelsea’s 26.1. Therefore, the picture is clear now that Solskjaer wants to use the power of youth to bring the club back to the pinnacle of European football.
And the current transfer rumours that have been hovering in the air of Manchester do suggest the exact same theme.
Reports from France Football (via Sportwitness), who were understandably the first to break the story of Manchester United being interested in Sochaux’s talented defender Willy Kambwala and a fee of less than €1m fee from the Manchester-based club for the centre-back being rejected by the French side last July, has now claimed that the club, playing in the 2nd division of France football pyramid, are asking €3m for the 15-year-old centre-half.
Manchester United have had bought several talented starlets from France over the last few years, paying some notable amount of money. However, paying €3m on a 15-year-old amidst the financial conundrum introduced by the coronavirus pandemic would never be a feasible option for the Red Devils. Yet the story suggests that United are currently pondering whether they would go forward and try to negotiate the deal or turn their back and walk away from their interest.
Signing Kambwala, 15, would be a beneficial move for the academy but not for the first team, where people expect the club to add some quality depth in order to close the chasm between them and the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool.
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