Manchester United missed an opportunity to empower Mason Greenwood after Erling Haaland saga
The 18-year-old, whose ‘natural abilities are frightening’, has the tools to be even better than Erling Haaland. Now he just needs to be regularly exposed to the same kind of opportunities
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Your support makes all the difference.When the inevitable happened and Erling Haaland decided his development was best served in the Bundesliga right now rather than at Manchester United, there was no feeling of fatalism around Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s failed pursuit of his former protege.
And with Mason Greenwood embarrassing markers and maximising his opportunities just as those at the club’s academy predicted he would, why should there be?
The 18-year-old, who has evolved from a visionary playmaker to a composed, clinical forward that can operate on the right or through the middle has long been considered the cream of United’s gifted youngsters.
Despite being eligible for their Under-16s in 2017-18, he closed off the campaign as the supreme marksman for the U18s, delivering 17 goals from 17 starts as the club were crowned Premier League North champions.
When the U19s beat Real Madrid 1-0 to triumph during ICGT competition hosted in the Netherlands last May, Greenwood was the youngest member of the squad and the Player of the Tournament.
No matter how much United attempted to control expectation and hype around the teenager, he’d dismantle opposition defences with such efficiency and surety that even the senior side would huddle around a smartphone to watch the latest compilation videos of his exploits. Left foot, right foot, free-kicks, penalties, precision or power… whatever the game ordered, Greenwood would serve it with ease.
“His natural abilities are frightening,” as Marcus Rashford succinctly put it, but too often, a kid that extraordinary at youth level can still get smothered by the pressures and the skyrocketing demands of professional football.
The maturity of Greenwood’s first-team performances thus far, with a return of eight goals and three assists in under 1000 minutes across all competitions, has only enhanced his big billing.
Equally adept with both feet, he can do simple, he can do flamboyant, he can resemble Robin van Persie at times and Solskjaer at others.
“He knows what he wants to do,” his manager explained. “If you open your legs, he shoots through you,” hie If you close your legs, he shoots round you. He can go on his right or left.
“Too many chances are missed in football from strikers rushing the finish, or stressing. The best ones, they have that extra half a second and he does.
“It doesn't matter who is in goal or who is he playing against.”
Ian Wright echoed the belief that Greenwood’s self-assurance in front of the sticks is of greater significance than his age, stating “once he gets the ball, there is no rushing, he’s calm, bang.”
Given all this then, it was a shame that when United where asked to explain why they lost out on Haaland, who swapped Red Bull Salzburg for Borussia Dortmund, they did not point to their own young finishing machine.
Instead, it was briefed that the club pulled the plug on negotiations due to the Norwegian’s father, Alf-Inge, and advisor Mino Raiola, insisting on a buy-out clause in the contract and a share of potential future sale profits.
It seemed odd that United did not already know the terms of agreement when Ed Woodward and Solksjaer flew to Salzburg in early December for a lengthy meeting with the player and his representatives.
By the 15th of the month, United’s manager revealed he already knew his countryman’s decision.
Haaland is not the first teenager to swerve the Premier League in order to further his immediate progress in Germany’s top-flight. Julian Brandt rejected Liverpool’s advances in the summer of 2017, because he was understandably scared of a lack of regular starts, opting to eventually move from Bayer Leverkusen to Dortmund.
Jadon Sancho famously rejected a £30,000-a-week offer from City two years ago to bank game time at BVB.
United missing out on Haaland was understandable, but it was a misstep not to underscore their own developing superstar instead of threading a throughball for Raiola to dismiss their claims.
Greenwood was born 437 days after the Norway international and there is one mega difference between them. Haaland has been afforded more professional experience, including in the Champions League, under a club with sizably less scrutiny. He will be essential and not an accessory at Dortmund, which is why they were his destination of choice.
United should be in for the best emerging talent on the market, but not if it stifles the trajectory of one of their own gems and not when they are more pressing issues to address like the midfield.
They have managed Greenwood very well and should be empowering him even further. After all, if he’d spent the first half of this season at Salzburg, imagine the amount of suitors that would be lining up for him and the amounts they’d be willing to pay.
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