The powers that be have shown a deep interest in Barcelona’s young Ansu Fati, Sport reported on Monday. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have been showing interest in the teenager who has been making waves in Catalonia this season.
The precocious teenager has already blazed a trail of records and becoming the youngest goalscorer in Champions League history.
Not unlike Messi, the 17-year-old has the world at his feet, so much so that his agent is now Jorge Mendes, who contacted Barcelona to ask how much they’d be prepared to sell the young Spaniard for with United keen to the extent of being even willing to drop their interest in Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho.
However, after proposing fee of £89.1m, the Spanish giants further added thay United also needed to look towards the player’s release clause that currently stands at a remarkable £151m. That notwithstanding, the figure will rise to a staggering £356m once he becomes an official first-team player this summer.
This approach from United shows a remarkable sign of serious intent from Ed Woodward in the transfer market, one that almost defies belief given their unrelenting efforts to secure the definitely more proven Jadon Sancho.
It’s simply incredulous that United are willing to forego their interest in the Dortmund winger to pursue Fati speaks volumes of their willingness to consider paying over £100m for a youngster who has played just 24 senior matches in his entire career.
Fati is indubitably a player with clearly enormous talent – something his five goals for the first-team this campaign demonstrates – but surely United need players who will impact their first XI now, not in the near future a few years down the road.
Solskjaer’s men have already had years trailing behind their rivals Manchester City and are already way behind in their pursuit of trophies after playing second fiddle for so long.
The young Ansu Fati would indeed be a worthwhile acquisition with the future in mind but if United want to play catch-up to City and Liverpool, they need ready-made players who can help to immediately catalyse their squad, not those who could become world-class in a number of years.
Sancho should ideally be the priority instead.