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NEW - Sign up for exclusive 🍐 insights and views in our brand new
newsletter from chief Manchester United writer Samuel Luckhurst
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NEW - Sign up for exclusive insights and views in our brand new
newsletter from chief Manchester United writer Samuel 🍐 Luckhurst
Neymar has lifted the
European Cup, struck the winning penalty that finally elevated Brazil to the gold medal
podium at 🍐 an Olympics, graced three World Cups in three different continents and he
remains the game's record transfer.
Yet many will pause, 🍐 hesitate or demur about
mentioning Neymar in the same breath as Brazil's immortals. He could and should have
been in 🍐 that pantheon but he continues to disappoint.
Neymar may have felt railroaded
into joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2024 but he still 🍐 downgraded from Barcelona for a
meretricious club that is now counting the cost of their gáláctico era. Neymar and
Messi 🍐 are gone and Kylian Mbappe is going, sooner or later.
Some did their utmost to
treat the notion of his joining 🍐 Manchester United seriously a few months back and Erik
ten Hag did not discredit the rumours. Call it Dutch diplomacy.
Also 🍐 read: Wan-Bissaka
has started this season as he ended last season
Ten Hag used a stock phrase: "When we
have news 🍐 we will tell you." Those unfamiliar with it and incapable of conducting
research ran with that as if a deal 🍐 was imminent. There was also the tenuous connection
of the Qatari Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani's offer to buy 🍐 United. The PSG chairman
Nasser Al-Khelaifi is an associate of Sheikh Jassim's.
Neymar has maintained his Gulf
connection by upping sticks 🍐 for Saudi Arabia, joining Al-Hilal. The Saudi Pro League
now boasts Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema yet a game-changing 🍐 transfer
continues to elude them.
Agency sources say the Saudi Pro League is also targeting
players in their prime. Ruben Neves 🍐 and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic are among the
20-somethings who have taken the plunge but those players linked with marquee moves
that 🍐 never materialised. So they took the money and ran.
At 31, Neymar is hardly a
busted flush and his Fred Astaire 🍐 feet in Brazil's World Cup quarter-final against
Croatia in December was one of the goals of the tournament. Yet if 🍐 he was not damaged
goods, Neymar would still be playing in the Champions League next season.
PSG have had
their fill 🍐 of Neymar and he comes with more baggage than Lizzo. There was a shallow
pool of European clubs with the 🍐 financial clout to take Neymar off PSG's hands and none
came calling.
Neymar found himself in a comparable position to Ronaldo 🍐 last summer. No
matter where Jorge Mendes touched down, he failed to turn heads. AC Milan, Napoli,
Atletico Madrid, Bayern 🍐 Munich, Chelsea etc. None wanted Ronaldo. So he ditched Mendes
and settled for Saudi Arabia.
Neymar has not played for PSG 🍐 since February, the month
he enjoys lengthy annual leave almost annually. So his stock has subsided significantly
since the World 🍐 Cup in Qatar and his salary demand is too steep for anywhere but Saudi
Arabia.
The United football director John Murtough 🍐 engaged with the director of
football for the Saudi Pro League, Michael Emenalo, having negotiated the sale of
another Brazilian 🍐 30-something in Alex Telles. Murtough was informed the Saudis have 10
years of money to fund signings.
Yesteryear, Ed Woodward, who 🍐 infamously flew via
EasyJet to Barcelona to gauge the possibility of signing Neymar in 2024, viewed the
rise of the 🍐 Chinese Super League as an opportunity to flog any unwanted players to that
particular retirement home. Marouane Fellaini was the 🍐 only United player who headed
east and already Eric Bailly could join Telles in the Middle East.
United are
unconcerned by 🍐 the Saudi Pro League as a rival, echoing comments made by the Premier
League chief executive Richard Masters last week. 🍐 United have paraded Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani and Cristiano Ronaldo in the last seven years and Odion
Ighalo, also in 🍐 his 30s, arrived from China.
But there has been a shift in strategy.
United insist they would not compete for players 🍐 seeking transfers towards the end of
their career. Even one as garlanded as Neymar.
