MAN UTD STAFF 'MESSED UP' PEDRO NETO DEAL AND SIGNED RESERVE PLAYER OVER BENJAMIN SESKO
Manchester United botched a deal to sign Arsenal target Pedro Neto and then recruited a reserve player over promising Slovenian striker Benjamin Sesko.
Two players that most clubs would love to have on their books, Wolves' Neto and RB Leipzig's Sesko could have been Manchester United players were it not for poor recruitment, according to a report by The Athletic.
Neto joined Wolves from Braga in 2019 after a loan spell in Serie A with Lazio, a club he would not have been at were it not for the Red Devils' failure to offer the young Portugal international a contract.
Sesko, too, was within touching distance for United, but the refusal to match the €2million offer being levied by Red Bull Salzburg again meant that United reportedly missed out.
Having recognised the potential within Neto in 2017 while he was still plying his trade in Braga's academy, United are said to have allowed a prospective deal to fall through after leaving the matter to simmer for weeks.
Neto eventually chose to sign a professional deal with Braga and was loaned out to Lazio before blooming into one of the Premier League's trickiest wingers at Molineux.
The Sesko deal also reportedly collapsed because United refused to budge on the fee it would take to secure his signature from Domzale in his native Slovenia.
The report states that Matt Judge, former director of football negotiations at Old Trafford, offered just €1.2million for the forward and would not match the eventual €2million RB Salzburg parted with.
Now the subject of big money interest from Arsenal and Chelsea, Sesko was allegedly passed up on in favour of another forward who has recently departed the club having failed to make a first-team appearance.
United’s former assistant head of academy recruitment Lyndon Tomlinson said: “It was the same time we signed Dillon Hoogewerf. We were saying, ‘Dillon will cost us €130,000 from Ajax, Sesko will cost us €2million. But we think if we spread the risk over the two players, at least one of them should make it’. And they were different profiles.
"Sesko was athletic, tall, and strong, whereas Dillon was smaller and more explosive. So we felt we had the bases covered if we got both. Then you end up getting the one that doesn’t quite do it. You always think, ‘What if?’.”
Dillon Hoogewerf never really hit the ground running at United despite rejecting a contract to stay with Ajax and is now a reserve for Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany.
United missed out on two players who would undoubtedly improve their starting XI. They may regret their decisions should either player haunt them in seasons to come.
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2024-07-03T14:43:40Z dg43tfdfdgfd