Manchester United have identified a new target to play out wide for next season, but it may well be a difficult business decision to pursue.
With the club hoping to reunite Ruben Amorim with the highly-rated youngster Giovani Quenda, they were beaten to the punch by Chelsea, who wrapped up a £42million deal ahead of the summer window last month.
Quenda would have been the perfect addition to play in Amorim’s wing-back system which he has only been able to add one player to since arriving at the club. Given there is set to be a mass exodus of players, he will have to ensure that his squad is built in his image ahead of next season.
One player they have since identified as a replacement for Quenda is Como’s Assane Diao. The 19-year-old has shone since joining Cesc Fabregas’ side and he has scored seven times and provided three assists for both Real Betis and Como this season.
He found the net five times in his first eight Serie A appearances and is a talented player who recently made his debut for the Senegal national team and looks to be on upwards trajectory.
Italian journalist Nicolo Schira reports that the club has started looking at Diao and has claimed that a United scout was in the stands when Como drew 1-1 with Empoli.
It remains unclear whether Como would be open to selling Diao at this stage having just signed him, and both Fabregas and club president Mirwan Suwarso have been vocal about maintaining the club’s current course.
“We have no intention of selling any of our players, at least not in the near future,” Suwarso told Calcio e Finanza last month. “Maybe in three or four years – because it would be naive to say that player sales aren’t part of the business. And we’re not short on money – we are well-backed.”
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Amorim’s wide options
Wide players only exist in Amorim’s system as wing-backs, tasked with joining attacks but also requiring great pace and energy to help the team in a defensive shape. It is one reason why a player like Alejandro Garnacho, a typical attacking winger in a 4-3-3 setup, has struggled as he was forced into an inside forward role in the 3-4-3 formation.
Jadon Sancho, Antony and Marcus Rashford will all likely be sold this summer and one of Joshua Zirkzee and Ramsus Hojlund are speculated to exit as well leaving plenty of room for new recruits.
As it stands, there haven’t been many links to players in those positions, but they have been linked with striker reinforcements such as Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike, who has 19 goals this season.
They still have Luke Shaw to eventually return to the fray but they are lacking true, natural players to feature in this system.
