There’s no doubt the Paulo Dybala Manchester United transfer saga unfolding needs to be approached with caution, as the circumstances of the signing look far from ideal.
According to the Independent and various others, a swap deal involving Romelu Lukaku moving to Juventus is half done, with the Belgium international accepting a contract from the Serie A giants.
MORE: What could signing Paulo Dybala mean for Manchester United?
Now it’s down to Dybala to decide on joining Man Utd, and just days ago Sky Sports claimed he wanted to stay where he is, which he also hinted at today with some Instagram activity we reported on earlier.
There’s also been this update from Italian journalist Adriano Del Monte, which paints a pretty clear picture…
Clearly, signing a player who seems unsure about you is far from ideal. Dybala is right to be sceptical, with United a shadow of their former selves – out of the Champions League, two years without a trophy, six years without a league title, under a relative rookie as a manager, and with a dysfunctional squad full of the likes of Ashley Young, Phil Jones, and an unsettled Paul Pogba who wants to leave, as his agent Mino Raiola told the Times earlier in the summer.
There’s no doubt this potential deal is a gamble, but what choice do Man Utd have? We’ve put together five reasons signing Dybala is surely still a risk worth taking…
More suited to Solskjaer style than Lukaku
It wasn’t long after Solskjaer’s arrival as MUFC manager that Lukaku was out of the team and Marcus Rashford took the centre-forward spot.
And as we’ve seen from pre-season, the Norwegian tactician clearly favours pacey runners up front, instead of the more target-man-esque Lukaku.
While this is a bit harsh on Lukaku, who has shown throughout his career that he’s more than just a big man up front, he does look to have lost a yard of pace since joining United, looking slow and sluggish and with an increasingly poor first touch.
It’s not clear if Dybala’s arrival would mean replacing the former Everton man at centre-forward, but it is a role he can play, and perhaps one he can fulfil more to Solskjaer’s liking than his predecessor.
The 25-year-old is a small, quick, skilful forward who scores from a variety of angles and distances – a far more complete player and more like the modern forward United need in order to catch up with their rivals.
Youngsters not yet ready to step up
We’ve seen some promising performances from the likes of Mason Greenwood, Tahith Chong and Daniel James in pre-season, but it might be a bit soon for them to step up for United.
United will need more proven players if Lukaku goes and leaves them with still relatively inexperienced stars like Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial as their most senior attackers.
That, of course, is excluding the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Jesse Lingard, both of whom are now surely at the stage where their form for the Red Devils is unlikely to improve much.
Dybala could well be the player Sanchez was supposed to be for United, and he’ll help ease the transition from the academy to the first-team for promising starlets like Greenwood and Chong.
Paul Pogba link-up
Man Utd fans will no doubt be aware that Pogba and Dybala have played together before to good effect, and this partnership could work wonders for Solskjaer’s side.
The troubled Frenchman has arguably lacked that kind of a partner further forward in this United team since he joined, with Sanchez and Lukaku struggling, while Wayne Rooney was past his peak when he arrived.
Pogba’s presence could help Dybala settle, while one imagines a signing of this calibre could also help persuade the 26-year-old to stay at Old Trafford.
Point to prove
It’s a bit of a cliche, perhaps, but, if he does join, Dybala will arrive at United as a player with a point to prove.
The Argentine looked set for stardom not so long ago after emerging at Palermo and earning his big move to Juventus, which many will have seen as a possible stepping stone towards a future move to a Real Madrid or a Barcelona.
It hasn’t quite worked out for him, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s signing last summer no longer making Dybala the focal point of the team – a role in which he thrives.
He would surely not have the same trouble being the main man in this United side, with the club able to give him the platform he needs while he also gives them the type of player they’ve been missing for so long.
If Dybala can find the motivation to join the Red Devils, he should be relishing the opportunity to prove Juve wrong as they seemed to give up on him.
What better stage than the Premier League to prove you do deserve to be regarded as one of the best in the world?
Angel Di Maria comparisons wrong
Picking up an Argentinian cast-off who doesn’t really want to be at the club? Many on Twitter have pointed out the similarities to this potential deal and the one United did for Angel Di Maria back in 2014.
We all know how that one worked out, but we’re not sure it’s actually that useful a comparison to be making, for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, many people forget that Di Maria actually started very brightly for Man Utd before disappearing for the second half of his single season with the club.
The former Real Madrid attacker no doubt struggled playing under Louis van Gaal, who for some bizarre reason failed to settle on one position for one of the finest attacking midfield players in the world, using him as a centre-forward on one occasion.
Di Maria was also the victim of a burglary midway through that season (as reported at the time by the BBC) and a shock like that in one’s personal life is bound to affect confidence and perhaps lead to desire to move away as quickly as possible.
The scare could well have scarred Di Maria and his family and all too often we forget how important sound mental health is to doing our jobs well. Something like that would majorly affect all of us and footballers are no different just because of the huge sums they earn.
Hopefully Dybala could avoid these issues in Manchester, as he would surely get a decent amount of attacking freedom under Solskjaer in comparison to the super-controlling Van Gaal with Di Maria.
Let’s see how this saga develops in the coming days…