Art of defence can be extremely costly
THE one word recently used by a United employee to describe the upcoming summer transfer window was ‘crazy’ – and that term has applied to certain centre-back signings in recent years.
City spent £47.5m on John Stones just two years after they shelled out an eye-watering £40m for Eliaquim Mangala, with Nicolas Otamendi sandwiched in between at £31.5m. That’s £119m overall.
Buying an assured central defender has become one of the trickiest tasks for the elite European clubs and City, who brought Vincent Kompany to Eastlands for just £6m in 2008, had the misfortune of paying the aforementioned fees after the watershed moment in defensive signings.
David Luiz made an exorbitant £50m move from Chelsea to Paris Saint-Germain and since that transfer Bayern Munich paid Borussia Dortmund a risk-free £30m for their academy product Mats Hummels after the £23.9m Medhi Benatia proved to be insufficient.
Former Bayern and now City coach Pep Guardiola has a dismal track record of signing central defenders, with Gerard Pique at the top of a list made up of Martin Caceres, Dmytro Chygrynskiy, Henrique, Benatia, Stones and the like.
City seem to be the only club who have refused to be cowed by the inflated fees for defenders, which is remarkable when United have thrown money at problem after problem and solved very few of them.
Marcos Rojo joined for £16.5m from Sporting Lisbon two months after Luiz’s transfer, and Eric Bailly was Jose Mourinho’s first recruitment for £30m almost a year ago.
There were qualms over Bailly’s fee in that he arrived from an unfashionable club in Villarreal, had enjoyed little exposure outside of La Liga and was only 22.
Most United supporters felt a more established defender was needed and the club had to pay their obligatory premium. Bailly has already made his fee look frugal.
His start was the best by a newlysigned United centre-half since Henning Berg in 1997. By the campaign’s conclusion, the extrovert Bailly was United’s cheerleader in Stockholm.
United will struggle to replicate their Bailly business. Southampton are understood to be unwilling to accept anything less than £60m for Virgil van Dijk and the Portuguese press have claimed Victor Lindelof valued at £52m by Benfica.
Mourinho and Ed Woodward are trying to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to reinforcing United’s central defence.
Their buys last year were, with the exception of the Paul Pogba saga, savvier and the intention is to clinch deals early again, ideally before is United fly to the United States for their pre-season tour on July 9. Moves for Lindelof and Atletico Madrid’s Uruguay international Jose Gimenez never materialised in January. It is easy to see why United are eager to re-sign another Class of 2011 member in Michael Keane. Keane is only 24, United-schooled, experienced in the Premier League. He is also out of contract at Burnley next year. United stand to earn 25 per cent of his sell-on clause, so could effectively pay £20m for an England international. Keane could be a bargain. The understanding is United want another centre-back, though. A Keane-Bailly axis has potential but Mourinho is believed to want a more senior addition to underpin his new rearguard.