NO PANIC BUYS
United ruling out January binge as Solskjaer looks to high-tech future
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER wants Manchester United to use a giant Spanish consultancy service to help with the club’s recruitment drive.
Solskjaer has recommended to United they join the client list of Madrid- based company Driblab which has a detailed database on more than 100,000 players and potential signings.
A dozen clubs in La Liga are already subscribers as are Nottingham Forest who used the available information before making a number of signings in the summer to aid their push for promotion to the Premier League.
Driblab evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of players from the age of 16 in more than a hundred different competitions — down to the detail of how injuries affect their ability to run and kick the ball. They also use an advanced algorithm to draw up an expected-goals formula to see if attackers and goalkeepers are performing above or below standard.
Though United have a worldwide scouting team who feed information to Solskajer (above) and his assistant Mike Phelan, there is a feeling the club should also embrace modern technology to unearth bargains like Liverpool did with Philippe Coutinho.
United are committed to rebuilding a squad who are 12th in the Premier League and have won just three of 11 matches in all competitions this season.
So far, they have relied on the eyes and ears of Solskjaer, Phelan, veteran scout Jim Lawlor and his recruitment staff.
They have given transfer chiefs Ed Woodward and Matt Judge the names of half a dozen targets but United would prefer to wait until the summer to make major signing shaving had their fingers burned on Alexis Sanchez in the January 2018 transfer window. On that occasion, the club backed manager Jose Mourinho by giving Sanchez record wages to gazump Manchester City but the move turned into a disaster with the Chilean scoring just five goals for his £42million salary before joining Inter Milan on loan.
Lyon striker Moussa Dembele, 23, is believed be on United’s wishlist but the club are prepared to wait to sign the former Celtic man rather than pay the French club’s asking price of £ 71m which would smack of a panic buy.
United are also reluctant to rip up their plans and change targets in January as a knee- jerk reaction to alternative players becoming available. Insiders say they have learned how Liverpool waited six months to sign Virgil van Dijk rather than splash their money on an inferior player in the interim to help a leaky defence.
Privately, Solskjaer feels that he will have to finish in the top six as a bare minimum this season to keep his job and would need to win a trophy next year.
The club are prepared to give the under- fire manager some time given the rebuilding job needed but significantly the new transfer policy, which began last summer with the acquisitions of Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan- Bissaka and Daniel James, is now the blueprint for future windows regardless of who is in the hot seat.