Manchester United's Alejandro Garnacho stance provides golden opportunity to end bad transfer habit
The Argentine forward could present an opportunity for United to boost their flexibility in the transfer market and fend off any problems from PSR, though his talent remains alluring after shining at Old Trafford since graduating from the academy in 2022
One of the many areas Manchester United have fallen behind noisy neighbours Manchester City in recent years is their ability to sell players at the right time.
While City year after year generate hundreds of millions on player sales, some from their academy, hence their strong PSR position, United cling onto players far too long, reluctant to part ways with talent their have nurtured themselves especially. It was not all that long ago Jesse Lingard, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku all left for nothing in one summer.
The possibility of selling one of their own, Alejandro Garnacho, has angered much of the club’s fanbase. The club have, however, been tempted to part ways, and for good reason. Garnacho is not an ideal fit in Amorim’s system. The new United boss likes the width in his side to come from wing backs, and the Argentine is simply not disciplined enough to fulfil those needs.
The PSR benefits, where selling an academy graduate represents 100 per cent profit on the balance sheet in this warped new world, appeal at a time when, in the transfer market at least, new co-owners Ineos are looking down the back of the sofa for whatever change they can scrape together.
United have rightly said, however, Garnacho would only be sold if interested parties Chelsea and Napoli stumped up a fee upwards of £50m – a figure neither seem keen to meet as we approach the final days of the January transfer window.
Once again, United look set to fail in attempts to generate income from player sales. This time, however, with so many teammates offering little to no attacking threat in yet another season of decay at Old Trafford, Garnacho is not simply going to run down his contract and leave on the cheap like others in the past.
After another limp display in Bucharest on Thursday night as United booked their place in the Europa League last 16 with a rare comfortable victory on the road in Europe, Rasmus Hojlund has now not scored in 24 of 29 games this season, while Joshua Zirkzee, who came off the bench in the National Arena, has failed to net in 31 of his last 33 appearances since scoring on his debut.
With Garnacho and Amad Diallo on the bench, hosts FCSB, previously known as Steaua Bucharest and very much a level below United, were comfortably held off in a poor first half.
The introduction of the lively pair transformed their side’s fortunes, though, setting Amorim on his way to three successive victories for the first time as United manager.
“I’m just happy to have Garnacho here,” Amorim said. “He is improving a lot, he’s a young talented guy. You want to work with these guys with talent.
“We managed to create some chances, in second half you can see the opponent getting tired, more slower, we had more space between the lines with Kobbie [Mainoo], one vs one with Amad and the pace of Garna helped a lot.”
Since both were dropped from the squad for United’s surprise Manchester derby victory in early December, Marcus Rashford and Garnacho have gone on very different trajectories.
Garnacho has deleted his Twitter/X account, got his head down and taken the attack to every opponent he has faced, even off the bench. In Bucharest, nobody completed more dribbles in the match than the teenager, despite him only playing half of it.
It is understood that Garnacho would be open to an Old Trafford exit for the right move for him, but that does not mean he has downed tools. Anything but, in fact.
Even if he may feel like a square peg in a sea of high-pressing round holes in Amorim’s 3-4-3 system, Amorim is flexible enough to try and tweak his formation for the right player.
Mainoo flourished as a No 10 in Romania – a role nobody thought he would ever fulfil – while Bruno Fernandes has remained the effective orchestrator-in-chief he always has been from even deeper in midfield.
Garnacho is useful to United if he stays or goes. And for that the player deserves the utmost credit.
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