Manchester United should swallow their pride and bring Wilfried Zaha back to the club. He’s exactly what they need on the right wing.
With every day the Premier League’s transfer deadline gets nearer, Jose Mourinho’s brow furrows that little bit deeper. The Manchester United manager has been in a foul mood all summer long. The global game was buoyed by what we all saw at the World Cup, but not Mourinho.
He seemingly anticipated United’s troubles in signing the players they so desperately need this summer. Preseason had only just started when Mourinho admitted to being “worried” about what was unfolding. He directed thinly veiled comments at the Old Trafford club’s vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, regarding a lack of signings and with just two days of the summer window left, the relationship between the two men looks to be at breaking point with no new additions secured.
United’s needs are clear — they require at least one new center-back, a left-back and a right winger. That’s where the holes in their team can be found, but so far they’ve been left frustrated in their efforts to sign targets. Toby Alderweireld and Harry Maguire were identified as candidates to fill the center-back position, with Alex Sandro a target for the left-back role.
On the right wing, though, is where United’s transfer approach has been most intriguing, with Gareth Bale, Willian, Christian Pulisic and Ante Rebic all linked. They’ve been frustrated in their attempts to capture those targets. Meanwhile, Wilfried Zaha, a winger who can play on the right and may well be available this summer, is a target for Chelsea and Spurs.
So why aren’t Manchester United turning their attention to Zaha? After all, Mourinho is desperate for pace on the wing. He wanted Ivan Perisic from Inter Milan last summer, ultimately failing to lure the Croatian to Old Trafford. This summer, he has similarly failed to sign other targets that fit the bill, but Zaha looks to be available.
Indeed, Crystal Palace are reportedly demanding a fee of around £70 million for the winger who has became a true Premier League star over the past few seasons. In this market, a market in which Leicester are supposedly demanding £80 million for Maguire, this certainly wouldn’t be the worst deal for Manchester United.
Of course, a move for Zaha would require the Old Trafford side to swallow their pride. By paying £70 million for the Palace winger, United would effectively be admitting their mistake in hastily allowing Zaha to leave without giving him much of a chance in his first spell at the club. It would be yet another sign of their incoherent transfer strategy.
But at this point, with Mourinho’s mood darkening and time running out to make signings, United might have no other choice. Zaha is a player who can play on the left and through the middle, but he’s also capable of playing on the right and has the pace Mourinho wants to help his team get in behind opposition defenses.
Zaha might not have the positional discipline of someone like Willian, he might not track back as religiously as Mourinho wants his wingers to, but the Ivory Coast international would certainly give United a different dimension in the final third, a dimension that would help them close the gap on Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.
United have made countless blunders in the transfer market in recent years, with the structural issues of the club manifested in their struggles this summer. Paul Pogba, for instance, was allowed to leave for free before the club re-signed him for a world record fee of £89 million. Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Memphis Depay and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have also been expensive flops. The decision to allow Zaha to leave can be classified in the same way. Like Pogba, they can, and should, correct that mistake.