A MANCHESTER UNITED fan has turned to a popular fans’ forum to ask one very valid question following Philippe Coutinho’s sale to Barcelona.
Liverpool have made a £134million profit on the player after signing Coutinho for just £8.5m from Inter Milan in 2013.
That comes three-and-a-half years after making £53m on Luis Suarez, who they bought for £22m and sold for £75m.
It prompted one United fan to question why his club couldn’t operate in a similar way in the transfer market on redcafe.net.
He wrote: “Why are we never able to identify players ready to make the step up like Coutinho when he went to Pool? They did it with Suarez too and now Salah. The only one close to that is Martial but he’s not hit rose types of heights… Yet.”
The initial response was a positive one with one pointing the figure of blame at the scouts.
“Our scouting really does seem poor,” responded one fan. “The only real area where we’ve seen actual scouting is with Bailly and Lindelof. The rest of our signings for the most part have been players who anyone could tell you about pretty much.”
While another added: “If we fix this problem we will have solved most of our issues.”
Although other United fans defended their club and couldn’t resist taking a jibe at rivals Liverpool.
One wrote: “Anyone could have told you about Suarez and salah, especially Salah. Coutinho played for inter too, right? Not exactly world class scouting
“Has to be said, in the period of countinho and Salah, and Suarez united have still been more successful than pool, so gotta be doing something right.”
Another said: “We win things because we invest in the squad and finding the next big talent is not our model. We are the team that buys Coutinho or Suarez type players. We promote from the academy, instead of buying lots of young talent, because promoting from the academy is a long standing tradition.
“Finding hidden gems doesn’t make sense; because we are not Atletico Madrid or Dortmund, we are like Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid. We are the biggest club in the league and have lots of money.”
A fellow fan pointed at some of their former players as proof United’s transfer policy was, in fact, the better way of doing things.
They wrote: “Only Ronaldo left us. The rest of them were happy to see out their playing careers at United. Rooney, Van Persie, Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Vidic, Evra, De Gea… safe to say all of those guys could have left for Madrid or Barca if they wanted to. But they stayed put cause they knew being at Manchester United was just as big as being at Real Madrid or Barcelona.
“The ones that did end up leaving were forced out of the club. Tevez, Ruud and Beckham have gone on record saying that they never wanted to leave United.”
While another theory mooted was the fact Coutinho was poor when Liverpool signed him and he only improved because he got so much game-time – something he wouldn’t have been afforded at Old Trafford.
“Coutinho when he came to Liverpool was not good, and he didn’t come good until a few seasons in,” said one supporter. “That would not be acceptable of a player at a top club, and he would be benched for better players and his development would stall.
“There is a reason why Spurs have many players that have developed into good players; because they were given the game time to develop. Most of the players in that Spurs team would flop at United if they came early; because they were not at the top level straight away.”
Source:www.express.co.uk