For Manchester United, the two years since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement have brought some hard lessons, nowhere more so than in the transfer market.
Last-minute deals, over-priced deals, collapsed deals and scrapped deals; the Barclays Premier League’s foremost club have made hard work of something that used to be quite simple in the 24 months since Ferguson stepped aside this very week in 2012.
What use lessons, though, if nothing is learned from them?
For some time now, United have been talking quietly about doing this summer’s business early.
With the announcement of an agreement to sign the young Holland forward Memphis Depay from PSV Eindhoven, it seems they have finally found a way of fulfilling some promises.
This is the way it was going to be last year, of course.
Then, however, they made the decision to sack David Moyes. The hiring of a manager committed to the World Cup campaign with Holland meant that players such as Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao didn’t arrive until after the current league season had started.
No danger of that this time, it seems. United moved decisively over Depay this week to gazump Paris Saint-Germain and bring in the first player of maybe five or six who could arrive at Old Trafford this summer.
‘If you had asked me two days ago where Memphis was going to go I would have said PSG,’ said PSV sporting director Marcel Brands last night. ‘The British were very late with a concrete offer. Actually, only in the last 48 hours there is a transfer to Manchester United.
‘It has become a whirlwind transition. But ultimately the player decides where he wants to go and that’s become Manchester.’
This is the way that United used to behave.
As long ago as 1973, the club hijacked Lou Macari’s move from Celtic to Liverpool when Tommy Docherty’s assistant manager Pat Crerand found himself sitting next to the young Scot in Anfield’s Main Stand the night before he was due to sign.
Thirty years later, meanwhile, Ferguson rushed though the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon by a whole year after learning of growing interest from Arsenal.
This, of course, is how big clubs work and, just a week after suggesting privately that the Depay situation was merely being ‘monitored’, United have agreed a £25million fee with PSV.
Manager Louis van Gaal believes Depay can bring some much-needed pace and direction to his team’s attack.
Only 21, Depay was part of Van Gaal’s team at last summer’s World Cup in Brazil, scoring two goals as Holland reached the last four.
Close to United’s other Dutch players Daley Blind and Robin van Persie — with whom he shares an agent — Depay will bring some instinctive flair to Van Gaal’s squad, even if the statement he posted on social media yesterday read like it had been clumsily cut and pasted from an awful public relations textbook.
‘I always say; Dream, Believe, Achieve,’ tweeted Depay, who has the phrase tattooed on his torso.
‘I was dreaming and believing of becoming the champions of the Eredivisie with PSV and we achieved it.
‘I’m extremely grateful towards @PSV, all the fans, (sponsors) @UnderArmour and (agents) @SEG-Football for believing in me. Now it’s time to set my goals again on winning trophies with @ManUtd.
‘It was an exciting and pretty hectic period and to have a choice between so many top clubs doesn’t make it any easier.
‘For me, Manchester United is an absolute dream club, so I didn’t need any convincing from the guys who already play at Manchester United.
‘They told me only positive things though, and I’m looking forward to playing with my Dutch team-mates next to all the other great players of Manchester United. And working with Louis van Gaal again is also a bonus.’
Depay can expect to play on the left side of United’s attack next season but his versatility — he can play right across the front three — will be invaluable.
Van Gaal, meanwhile, has already stated that he wants to bring other targets in before the start of the club’s summer tour in mid-July.
It is beginning to sound like a promise he may actually be able to keep. – Daily Mail