Our Manchester United fans here in the Transfer Tavern are wondering how many more chances Luke Shaw is going to have before being shown the exit door.
But some of our punters believe that letting the 22-year-old go would be a mistake, life at United hasn’t been the best for Shaw after a £27m move made him the most expensive teenager at the time. Ex-boss Louis Van Gaal questioned Shaw’s weight, Mourinho is questioning his commitment and ability, Shaw has yet to really answer any of those.
Having let the likes of Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and previously Romelu Lukaku depart, the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ certainly has previous in making transfer blunders.
Our landlord thinks if he can get himself fit and injury free, Mourinho may benefit in the long run although reports suggest the Portuguese is quickly losing patience with the England man and he may look to offload him as quick as January, with the United boss very short on left back options we take a look at if this decision could be a major transfer blunder…
Potential
Luke Shaw has the potential to be a first-class left-back for both club and country, United obviously saw something in him to splash close to 30 million on him a few years ago.
If it wasn’t for his injury setbacks it could be a different story, Shaw really has to knuckle down and work hard to prove to everyone that he has what it takes. We’ve seen how important full-backs are to top teams these days, so letting one of immense potential depart would be a mistake.
Attacking options
Alongside Antonio Valencia, United could have two fullbacks who offer a lot of pace and overlapping runs to create a different option going forward.
United have always had overlapping fullbacks to assist the wingers as they bomb forward in search of goals and Shaw is in the exact same mould as the United players before him.
The left-hand side is perhaps the most imbalanced area of United’s squad and Shaw, at his best, running up and down the flanks would be a huge boost.
Money
If Mourinho was to sell Shaw in January and with his contract running out in the summer, United may not even get a third back of what they paid out for the former Southampton man.
In today’s market it could cost £40-50m to bring in a decent left back in, looking across the town where City splashed out 50 million on bringing Kyle Walker to the club, would you say on his day Walker is better than Shaw for the price?
Too big an investment just to discard with such ease.
