Highlights
- Manchester United are considering signing 21-year-old Ryan Gravenberch, who is seen as a better version of Pogba. The club is exploring the possibility of the deal.
- To sign Gravenberch, United will need to offload players such as McTominay and van de Beek. Bayern Munich is also a potential obstacle in the transfer.
- Despite a lackluster first year in Bavaria, Gravenberch has shown great potential with impressive stats in the Eredivisie. Former players and coaches have praised his talent and compared him to Pogba. United should pursue this deal to help him fulfill his potential.
Manchester United are “exploring” the “possibility” of signing a 21-year-old star hailed as “a better version of Pogba” before the window shuts, per transfers expert Fabrizio Romano.
Manchester United news – What’s the latest?
It’s been a reasonably successful transfer window for the Red Devils this year, and despite struggling to offload several of their unwanted players, the side certainly looks stronger than they did in May.
Mason Mount will give Erik ten Hag more options in the middle of the park, while Andre Onana should make a monumental difference with the ball at his feet, and even the relatively unproven Rasmus Hojlund looks to have the natural ability to be useful this year.
And in even more good news for the United faithful, ten Hag could be about to bring one of his former Ajax players to the Theatre of Dreams as transfers expert Fabrizio Romano has reported that alongside bitter rivals Liverpool, the three-time European Champions are interested in Ryan Gravenberch and are “exploring” the “possibility” of signing him.
However, the club will need to try and shift players such as Scott McTominay and Donny van de Beek before they can add the Bayern Munich midfielder to their ranks.
Romano explained the situation on his YouTube channel, saying:
“Manchester United also called for Ryan Gravenberch because Ten Hag is a big fan of the player, and they wanted to ask for the potential conditions of the deal.
“So, at the moment, Bayern are the big issue because they don’t want to sell the player, but in case Bayern will give the green light in the final days of the window, keep an eye on Liverpool, but especially on my United because I’m told that may United are really exploring this possibility.
“Of course it depends on van de Beek leaving [and] maybe McTominay leaving, so it’s not something easy but contacts took place to be informed on the situation of Ryan Gravenberch.”
How good is Ryan Gravenberch?
There is no escaping from the fact that for such a talented footballer, his first year in Bavaria was utterly underwhelming by almost all metrics.
Despite moving for the not-so-insignificant fee of up to £20m, the Dutch international started just three Bundesliga games for the champions, making an additional 21 appearances off the bench and failing to register a single goal or assist, per WhoScored.
However, in his last two seasons in Amsterdam, he started 57 Eredivisie games, scoring five goals, assisting ten more and averaging a genuinely impressive match rating of 7.31 across both seasons, also per WhoScored.
Additionally, while he may not have started too many games for FC Hollywood, his underlying numbers from the last 12 months are excellent and indicate that he could easily adapt to more game time.
According to FBref, which compares players in a similar position across Europe’s top five leagues, the 6 foot 3 gem sits in the top 7% for shot-creating actions, the top 13% for progressive passes received, the top 14% for non-penalty expected goals the top15% for total shots and the top 20% for non-penalty expected goals plus expected assists, all per 90.
While the raw numbers will be plenty convincing for most fans out there, what have former players and coaches said about the midfield dynamo in the past?
Former Ajax forward Wim Kieft could not have been more complimentary of the 21-year-old, describing him as “the greatest talent in the Netherlands” just a few years ago.
Brian Tevreden, the £152,000-a-week star’s former coach, wasn’t shy about his opinion on the youngster either, boldly proclaiming:
“Technically, I would say he’s a better version of Pogba in his best days at Juventus, in terms of his technique and his presence on the pitch.
“He’s very dominant like Pogba was, and that’s what I see in Ryan.”
Finally, even ten Hag has waxed lyrical about the midfield ace during his time as the Ajax manager, saying:
“He has a lot of capacities, especially in an attacking sense … but he also comes to understand ‘that other work’ better and better.”
Ultimately United should be doing all they can to try and get this deal over the line this summer, as linking back up with his former boss could be precisely what Gravenberch needs to reach the enormous potential so many clearly believe he has.
