The grass is often said to be greener on the other side, and this is the case for some Manchester United signings and alternative options who were considered.
When a player is signed by a club, rarely is he the sole option in a position.
Instead, a club will have options A, B, and C, with Manchester United also following this strategy in recruitment. Notably, before signing Rasmus Hojlund, Harry Kane was considered, as was Benjamin Sesko.
Elsewhere, before Antony was signed, United considered Barcelona star Raphinha, and Erik ten Hag’s side were also offered the chance to sign Marco Asensio, who has enjoyed an impressive few months on loan at Aston Villa this season.
This will likely be the case for United and Ruben Amorim’s summer rebuild plans this summer, with Matheus Cunha and Liam Delap the first-choice options for Ineos.
Back in 2021, United signed Jadon Sancho, and this decision to sign him over an alternative looks like a particularly poor recruitment failure.
Manchester United chose Jadon Sancho over Ousmane Dembele
When signed, Sancho to United was a match made in heaven, and he arrived as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dream signing, which had been years in the making.
However, as we all know, this deal ended up as a disaster, and Sancho’s time at Old Trafford went up in flames following a conflict with Ten Hag.
Prior to United signing Sancho, one alternative option was Ousmane Dembele, who was at the time playing for Barcelona, as ESPN reported back in 2020.
At the time, Dembele was an unwanted figure in Spain with regular injury struggles, seeing him fail to live up to his incredible potential. But now, under Luis Enrique at PSG after a £42m move, Dembele has finally reached the heights expected.
Ousmane Dembele is having an incredible season for PSG
While he has always been an incredible talent, this has been the season in which Ousmane Dembele truly exploded as a world-class star, and this rise continued on Tuesday night as he scored at the Emirates to hand PSG a huge win in the Champions League semi-final.
This goal took Dembele’s tally to 33 goals and 10 assists in all competitions, as data from SofaScore showcases, which dwarfs Sancho’s tally of three goals and eight assists.
Dembele has averaged a goal or an assist every 70 minutes this season, which is truly world-class, and his big chance conversion rate of 48.9% demonstrates his excellent finishing ability.
The Frenchman is two-footed, but his heat map showcases just how prevalent he is on the right for PSG.
If PSG win the Champions League, Dembele will surely be a Ballon d’Or contender at this rate, and those who decided to sign Sancho instead for United will be left embarrassed by the decision.
This being said, knowing United’s transfer history, if Dembele were signed, he would have been awful.
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