If the summer of 2022 looks right now like a very productive transfer window for Manchester United, the same can’t be said for 2020.
The big deal for Donny van de Beek has blown up badly, while Edinson Cavani and Alex Telles were short-term fixes who have since been moved on.
One intriguing late deal which might eventually pay off is the move for Amad Diallo – but clearly, the youngster was not the game-changing winger United required at the time.
A new report from The Athletic shares some details about the evolution of Manchester United’s scouting process over the past decade, and it does not paint the Amad deal in the most positive light.
READ: Manchester United transfer history from 2013 to present
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confusion at Amad deal
Amad was signed at the end of the October 2020 transfer window, with the paperwork being completed in January 2021.
United hijacked Amad’s move to Parma, the MEN reported, with the Red Devils needing to make a quick decision.
The Athletic report that manager at the time Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had never seen Amad play, when the deal was done, and believed he was being signed for the under-23 side at the time.
The report stated that Amad “will go down as a Solskjaer signing, even though he had never seen the then-Atalanta forward play.
“There was confusion about which level Amad would be entering the United ranks at. Solskjaer believed he was signing the 18-year-old as an academy player until the fee, a deal worth up to £37million, was announced.”
Amad is beginning to kick on
While this shows some of the dysfunction in Manchester United’s scouting department, to be fair, there will always be some opportunistic deals where clubs have to act quickly, and take a gamble.
Even so, it is impossible to imagine that Erik ten Hag would approve of signing a player for the club who he had not seen play.
Nor would there be a lack of communication as to whether a player is being signed for the first team, or the under-21 side.
Solskjaer to be fair did give Amad an opportunity and his first team debut, before later coming to the same conclusion as Ten Hag did this summer, that the youngster would be better served going out on loan.
Amad is currently thriving out on loan at Sunderland, where he has seven goal contributions in his last 10 games, recently receiving praise from Erik ten Hag.
He looks to have a bright future, and may yet go on to validate Manchester United’s decision to sign him.
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