[ad_1]
The 33-year-old is not typical of the players Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has sought to bring to Old Trafford, but the Red Devils feel he can play a key role.
When it became clear that Manchester United were going to complete the signing of Edinson Cavani, there were many questions why.
“There is an element of excitement, enthusiasm and intrigue because he has been one of the best forwards in the world for the last 10 years,” said former United defender Gary Neville. Sky sports discussing the deal ahead of Sunday’s embarrassing 6-1 loss to Tottenham.
“But there is also an element of ‘How did you end up here?'”
So how did they do it?
At 33, Cavani does not fit the usual profile of a player that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wishes to incorporate into his squad, with the general consensus at United being that the optimal age for a new signing is 23.
There is also the feeling that there are other areas of the squad that require strengthening more than up front, where Solskjaer has assembled one of the most feared attacking trios in the country.
But there is hope that Cavani, who was a free agent and left Paris Saint-Germain at the end of last season, can bring something to the young Solskjaer team that has been sorely lacking: leadership.
Uruguayan international Cavani has had an illustrious career, scoring 341 goals in 556 club appearances for clubs like Palermo, Napoli and PSG, where he usurped Zlatan Ibrahimovic to become the Parisiens’ record scorer.
With an average of United’s three forwards below 22, there is a belief in the club that Cavani’s experience can help make Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood one of the best attacking trios in Europe.
Solskjaer’s team also faces the prospect of at least two games a week for most of the campaign, and there is hope that Cavani will prove to be an excellent rotation option with experience in Champions League football.
Odion Ighalo, the other surprising option on the United squad who was hired in January to provide backing for the top three, has fallen out of favor after a series of disappointing performances.
While the Nigerian star served a purpose at the beginning of the new year, the 31-year-old has struggled since football was restarted in June and has not been able to join Solskjaer’s squad for either of United’s last two games. in the Premier League.
Some are already comparing Cavani’s arrival to Ighalo’s, and there is certainly a similar air of panic over the transfer.
While Ighalo’s move was tightened half an hour before the deadline, Cavani’s was agreed with just over 48 hours to go. But the question arises why?
Cavani’s agent had offered his client to United earlier last week, but club sources emphasized at the time that all the talk about a transfer was coming from the player’s camp, and there was no suggestion at the time that they were. eager to reach an agreement.
It would be naive to think that the forward was once a prime target for Solskjaer, as if it was a deal, it would have been agreed weeks ago given there is no selling club to negotiate with.
Instead, as a movement by Jadon Sancho continued to stagnate, attentions shifted, the arrival of Cavani having been described objective as more opportunistic than a planned long-term transfer. He is a medium-term signing who has signed a one-year contract, with the option of a second if things go well.
United insists that their strategy has not changed and that they will continue to build their team by combining local talent with high-quality recruits. Cavani, they believe, fits into the latter category.
There is hope that he can have an impact similar to that of Ibrahimovic, who was 34 when he moved to Old Trafford and scored 29 goals in 53 appearances for the Red Devils.
But the failure of Cavani’s South American compatriot Radamel Falcao, who was signed on the day of the 2014 deadline under similar circumstances persists as a warning about what can happen when signing a star forward who is past his prime.
