When Manchester United announced the signing of Amad Diallo back in October, eyebrows were raised at the teenager’s £19million price tag.
At the time, Diallo was yet to start a senior game of football. Ever. Yet he alone cost more than United’s last seven players to wear the No.19 shirt combined. That’s Marcus Rashford, James Wilson, Danny Welbeck, Gerard Pique, Edwin Van der Sar, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Ricardo.
If the club end up paying all of Diallo’s potential add-ons and bonuses, you can include former record signing Dwight Yorke in that list as well.
But despite the raised eyebrows, there was a sense of optimism around Diallo’s arrival too. For years, United had been mocked for their tendency to overspend on big names, relying on other clubs’ scouting departments and consequently paying a hefty premium on transfers.
To use a metaphor close to home, they were filling up their Panini sticker album by paying 50p for each individual sticker, never indulging in a five-sticker mystery packet for 70p.
With Diallo, less so. United were still writing a cheque with lots of zeroes on it — at a time when virtually no one else was — but at least they were taking something of a gamble. The youngster could turn out to be worth less than £19million, but he could also be worth far more.
The post Man Utd may have unearthed a shiny from a mystery pack of stickers appeared first on Football365.com.