Camavinga & Haaland: Why It's Worth It For United To Go For Them Even If They Will Seek New Moves In A Few Years
Camavinga has eyes for Spain and Erling Haaland is represented by Mino Raiola but even if they'd push for moves after three years, United should still be going for them
It all started when I replied to my buddy Haider’s tweet about Manchester United signing a midfielder.
United have held discussions with both the 18 year old French midfielder and his club, Rennes, earlier in the summer and it is believed United are ready to make a £25 million bid for him. The situation was always going to linger all summer as Rennes were looking for other clubs to join the fray and create a bidding war. Camavinga was open to the idea of moving to Old Trafford but made it clear he wasn’t going to rush into a decision as he hoped either Real Madrid or more so Barcelona would come in for him. He has one year left on his contract at Rennes and he’s not believed to be in a rush to decide upon his future.
It’s been pretty well known all summer - and it’s very very well known now - that Real Madrid, and especially Barcelona, don’t have any money and won’t be able to sign Camavinga this summer1 and frankly United should really work on making Camavinga understand that so they could snatch him up this season.
It’s clear Camavinga wants to play in Spain and Haider’s response was completely logical.
He’s talking about Camavinga here but the same thing applies to Erling Haaland. Next year Haaland has a £75m release clause that makes him extremely attainable. The problem is he’s tied to Mino Raiola and with Haaland already being a superstar it’s not a stretch to think that Raiola is going to be operating with the same plan he had with Paul Pogba; make a big move at 22-23 years old, then look to make another big money move 3-4 years later.
The Paul Pogba saga has been a headache for fans and it’s completely understandable to never want to have to deal with it again. Therefore when looking at a player who may look to force a move to Spain or a player who2 will look to force a move wherever there is money in a few years time is worth signing.
The answer is unequivocally yes.
From a football perspective. Camavinga and Haaland are game changers in exactly the positions United need. Camavinga isn’t a perfect fit *right now* but he’s young enough that he can be molded into exactly what United are looking for. He also gives them depth should Paul Pogba ever get injured which they currently don’t have any of. Edinson Cavani is on the final year of his contract and in all likelihood, won’t be back next season. With a proper midfield in place Erling Haaland slots up front next to Jadon Sancho and gives United one of the most dangerous attacks in Europe.
That team suddenly becomes a heavy contender to win the Champions League. With many of City and Liverpool’s stars being on the wrong side of 30, it makes them legitimate contenders - if not favorites - to win the Premier League as well.
That right there makes it worth it. You can’t be worried about a player wanting to play in Spain.
For European players the allure of Spain is always going to be greater than the allure of Manchester. It doesn’t really matter how much they win, how much history United have. Real Madrid and Barcelona also win and have just as much if not more history than United. They also have much better weather during the winter months and better food.
If you had the option of moving to either place with no previous ties to either of them, you’re picking Spain.
That’s why Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plan when he first arrived was to target British players. Those are the guys who grew up with Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United dominating. When they were growing up the dream was to play for Manchester United.
Now that Solskjaer has re-booted the culture of the club with players who all want to be here, he can go about convincing players who didn’t dream of playing at Old Trafford to sign, knowing that when they join they’ll fall into line. The current group of players isn’t going to let another Alexis Sanchez situation happen.
Even if Camavinga’s dream is to play in Spain you can’t let that stop you. When Sir Alex Ferguson went to sign Cristiano Ronaldo the Portuguese teenager told him in no uncertain terms that his dream was to play for Real Madrid and that’s where he wanted to go. Ferguson convinced Ronaldo that United would be a good stepping stone to get there, and managed to get him for six years and won a Champions League. If you were offered six years of Camavinga and a Champions League wouldn’t you take it?
Most of all, the biggest reason you go ahead and make these deals is because you should not be worried about what might happen three years down the line. Three years is an enormous amount of time where so many things can change. If the last few years have taught us anything it’s “you really never know what’s going to happen.”
Just a few weeks ago they were selling us on the idea that Chelsea were going to move in for Erling Haaland now because next season would be a war between them, United, Real Madrid, and possibly even PSG for his services. They were also saying Paul Pogba was going to be at PSG this season.
Now, Chelsea are closing in on bringing back Romelu Lukaku, while the facade that Real Madrid and Barcelona have put up trying to tell the world they still have money is completely crumbled. Lionel Messi could be on his way to PSG which means two things: United suddenly have a (seemingly) clear run at Haaland next season and no one is coming in for Paul Pogba. That’s how fast things can change.
I mean, we’ve basically already completely forgotten that at the start of this summer there were legitimate talks of Mauricio Pochettino going back to Spurs. Now he may land Messi!
You never know how the landscape is going to change, which is why even before this week I had been saying United shouldn’t sell Pogba. PSG are a notoriously fickle club, who knows if Pochettino will even be the manager next season. Kylian Mbappe has recently said he won’t sign a new contract. Maybe that changes, maybe it doesn’t. But you’ll have a better picture of it next year where there would still be a legitimate chance that United would the ones offering Pogba the most money - even if it’s not exactly what Pogba was looking for.
You just can’t be worried about these things right now. Raiola’s original plan was to move Pogba on after three years and guess what? He’s still here. He made a huge fuss in 2019 and United were ready to sell him but what happened? No one made a bid to sign him!
The landscape could look totally different in three years time. Fans are coming back to stadiums (in England at least) so some matchday revenue will come back3 but that doesn’t necessarily mean Real Madrid will suddenly be back to swimming in cash. The money bubble in football was always about to burst, COVID just made it happen sooner.
Who knows, maybe Camavinga and Haaland form the backbone of a United team that starts dominating Europe and they don’t even want to leave. More likely they’ll end up in similar situations to Pogba. If a specific team were to come in and make the right offer, they’d want to go, but if it's not from that specific team they’ll be perfectly happy staying at Old Trafford.
Yes Mino will probably cause a commotion as he tried to drum up a market for Haaland but I could care less about that. As long as he’s showing up to work and acting professional his teammates won’t care. They know that his agent is just playing the game and they simply tune him out, the same way none of them are bothered by Raiola’s antics in relation to Pogba now.
Right now it’s Camavinga and Haaland, but really it could be anyone. These are young players that are going to continue to grow but also can help you now. And if they can help you now, you should be going for them.
Don’t let fears over what “might” happen in three years time stop you from that.
And possibly next!
Or at the very least his agent
Clubs still won’t be getting those massive Club Megastore revenues from tourists though
Good article again. My thought on Haaland is that it will take an enormous amount of money to move Dortmund’s position to sell. We would also need to deal with Raiola who is craving for a transfer since his Pogba plan is not materializing. On Camavinga, let’s do it, a lot of French players became successful in Englandand he can be the next one. Ole should give him a call.
Absolutely you take them both as soon as you can and thank your lucky stars. And worst case scenario, if they DO want to leave in three years, they should both have considerable resale value, possibly even putting Utd in the unprecedented position of making a transfer profit in a more than merely dubious-accounting sense. Really lovely thing now is that the only other club who were realistically in for Camavinga this summer were PSG - but now that Messi's on his way to Paris we should have a clear run at Camavinga. Might even get him for a bargain price with one year left on his contract.