Let’s dare to draw a parallel with what we see in Ligue 1 on the Olympique Lyonnais side. Many supporters were surprised to see the management sell Mamadou Sarr for €10 million to Strasbourg, a player trained at the club and with certain potential, to recruit Moussa Niakhaté to Nottingham Forest for €32 million. This is what is happening on the Manchester United side with the double transaction that is in the process of being finalized.
Club kid Scott McTominay, thrown into the deep end by José Mourinho in 2017, is about to be sold to Naples for €30 million, to make way for Uruguayan Manuel Ugarte, for whom an agreement has been reached with PSG (€50 million + €10 million in bonuses). And this is causing a reaction from Rio Ferdinand, the former MU central defender, who spoke his mind on his YouTube channel.
Ferdinand already regrets McTominay
“I look at Scott McTominay and not every player can be a star, an exceptional player. But to win the championship you need players like John O’Shea, Wes Brown, Darren Fletcher…”he said, recalling other former Manchester United soldiers. “They might not start every game but they’ve been massive, you need those players and most of them know the DNA of the club, especially the ones who have come through the academy, there’s a lot to be said for that.”
“I don’t really like him going. To replace him, we’re going to have to spend £30m or £40m and probably offer a salary of £150,000 a week. It’s not going to be cheap and it’s a gamble, we don’t know what we’re going to get.”he continued. That was before the news of the Ugarte deal came out, and the price tag exceeds the assumption made by Ferdinand. Are Manchester United making the right choice in parting ways with McTominay to land Ugarte? Scepticism is already rife among Manchester fans.
