Manchester United & finally something more realistic

arlier in the off-season, the papers were determined to make a story out of Manchester United pursuing Cesc Fabregas and Cristiano Ronaldo.

We had big, bold headlines, guarantees, even percentages estimating how likely we were to see either running out at Old Trafford next season. However, now that Fabregas has publicly denied the existence of any transfer away from Camp Nou, and Ronaldo looks set to sign a new deal at the Bernabeu, the tabloids need a new name du jour.

Thiago Alcantara.

Here’s The Sun:

“MANCHESTER UNITED have emerged as favourites to sign Barcelona’s Spanish wonderkid Thiago Alcantara.

New Red Devils boss David Moyes has been a long-term admirer of the midfielder, 22, yet knew he was out of reach of former club Everton.”

On the positive side, this is far more realistic a target for United – Barcelona’s President Sandro Rosell confirmed last week that Alcantara’s buy-out clause is just €18m, and for anyone who watched his performances at the European U21 Championship, that would certainly seem like extremely good value. As most of you will know by now, the player’s failure to take part in a certain amount of game’s last season has prevented his release clause from rising to €90m – and so, with the player apparently craving more first-team minutes, he’s ripe for the plucking.

If you read his comments, Rosell certainly doesn’t sound that determined to keep the player.

For those who haven’t seen him, Thiago is a delicate player, and fits snugly into the diminutive-Spaniard steroetype – fantastic awareness, the touch of an angel, etc.

Is this realistic? Probably – for €18m, somebody is going to make an attempt to lure him away from Barcelona, and it might as well be Manchester United.