Almost Done -Manchester United Bid For Argentine Who Is Set To Sign Big Money Contract

In faraway Benfica, another player is being linked to Manchester United. Nicholas Gaitan’s contract with the Portuguese outfit runs out in 2016, and he hitherto had a verbal agreement with his current employers for a contract extension. Several times in the past, the Argentine had been linked to the Old Trafford outfit but they all turned out to be spurious claims. One of such claims was made by Portuguese newspaper Record which reported that towards the end of August, Manchester United made a bid but were unwilling to match the £30m fee that Benfica wanted.

His current employers have a dicey issue on their hands now that they have sold out some of their finest squad members and must now strive to convince Gaitan who doesn’t want to recognise the earlier verbal agreement to stay at the Club. On the player’s part, he is now 26-years and if he pens down a new contract with a high buyout clause, then he might as well choose to remain in Portugal for the remaining years of his career.

However, it appears that the player’s agents are the ones fuelling the rumours of a potential move to Manchester United because Jackson Martinez who they also represent had been heavily linked at one point or the other with the Louis van Gaal side, but do the Red Devils actually need him?

The answer to this question should be a no brainer but to sound objective, an analysis of the current situation at the club would be essential. Nicholas Gaitan plays in an attacking-midfield role and at the moment, Louis van Gaal has at his disposal, at least four players in Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, Marouane Fellaini and Adnan Januzaj who could churn out wonderful performances in the position. More so, the manager’s mercurial formation makes it very difficult to fit in more than one anchor between the midfield and the strikers, as it was evident with Juan Mata’s plight when he had to wait for Wayne Rooney’s ban to get games. Either the manager chooses the diamond style midfield formation, or the conventional 4-4-2, he will still be left with about two midfielders grumbling for lack of game time, so why then will he fork out a whooping £30m to sign a player in a position where he has a surplus?

In the same vein, Manchester United lack a midfield enforcer, someone of Nemanja Matic’s status who can provide the much needed physical presence in the midfield, and unless the Argentine can bring that into the fray, then he has no business at Old Trafford. Louis van Gaal’s headache at the moment should be to wrap his head around the issues affecting his defensive unit and attempt to solve it. With as much as £30m, he could hire the services of Ron Vlaar and Ryan Shawcross both of whom can reduce the rate at which the Red Devils leak goals.