Former Man Utd wonderkid Adnan Januzaj is enduring a season to forget

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To think, Sevilla were once held up as an example of how to get recruitment right.

But if Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves, Ivan Rakitic, Luis Fabiano and more were symptomatic of that glorious Monchi era – the club’s legendary sporting director setting Los Nervionenses on their way to an unprecedented period of continental success – then Adnan Januzaj is typical of modern-day Sevilla.

And we don’t mean that in a good way.

Flirting with relegation throughout much of last season and struggling again this – another Europa League triumph papering over the widening cracks – this Sevilla squad is the antithesis of the Ramos, Alves era, when hungry youngsters brimming with potential called the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan home.

Former Manchester United starlet struggling

Ramos and Rakitic, aged 37 and 35 respectively, are back at Sevilla these days. Past their best and crumbling relics of a bygone era. Janzuaj, at 28, is still a baby by comparison. But his continued presence in La Liga’s third-oldest squad sums up the club’s short-sighted approach to squad building.

Januzaj, a decade on from his explosion onto the scene at Manchester United under David Moyes, is one of countless big name players signed by Sevilla just as their career begins to decline.

A club who once traded in potential and youth are now becoming synonymous with the likes of Januzaj, Mariano Diaz, Erik Lamela and one-time loanee Anthony Martial.

Big names with big wages, but whose reputations dwarf their contribution.

A season to forget

Januzaj has started only one La Liga game for Sevilla since joining on a free transfer following his release by Real Sociedad in 2022. The Man United academy graduate has played a grand total of 42 minutes in the current campaign too, left out of the squad as many times as he’s been included since the season began.

And, at a time in which Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo are giving United fans hope for a brighter future, both could do worse than to look at the travails of Adnan Januzaj and use his Andalusian anonymity as a cautionary tale not to be repeated.