Impatient and reckless: Di Maria leaving Manchester United will be a Van Gaal failure

“I went to Carlos Queiroz’s house in Portugal to find the boy expressing an urge to go to Real Madrid, and told him: ‘You can’t go this year, not after the way Calderon has approached this issue’. I said: ‘I know you want to go to Real Madrid but I’d rather shoot you than sell you to that guy now. If you perform, don’t mess us about, and someone comes and offers a world record fee, then we will let you go’.” “I said: ‘If I do that, my honour’s gone, everything’s gone for me, and I don’t care if you have to sit in the stands. I know it won’t come to that, but I just have to tell you I will not let you leave this year’.” Those are Alex Ferguson’s words, explaining in his autobiography how he managed to keep Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United for one more season. Ronaldo admitted after his move to Real Madrid that he knew he wanted to play at the Santiago Bernabeau as soon as United had won the Champions League in 2008. But Ferguson coaxed him to stay another year — Ronaldo eventually scored 26 goals and provided another 12 as United reached the Champions League final again and won the Premier League title. [caption id=“attachment_2364934” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Angel di Maria still has a lot to offer Manchester United. Reuters[/caption] Real did come back with a world record fee and Ferguson kept his word. Let’s put Arsene Wenger into the mix here — at the end of the 2009-10 season, after Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas had struck 20 goals and made 19 assists, Barcelona came with two offers in the region of £30 million for their former player. Fabregas had a conversation with Wenger and publicly announced that he would stay. A season later, Barcelona came calling again — and Wenger let him go. The Thierry Henry saga was on similar lines — with Wenger managing to convince him to stay one more season after Arsenal reached the Champions League final in 2006. There will always be situations when players want to leave (and at times are forced out, in the case of Roy Keane) — and while they’re free to demand so, a manager’s mettle is in convincing them to stay back when the move does not make sense. If they sell them after a season anyway, then their choice in the first place was a failure (Juan Sebastian Veron, Fernando Torres to Chelsea, Andy Carroll to Liverpool are examples). Angel di Maria reportedly wants to leave United — and for many, that is reason enough to let a player go. But the move simply doesn’t make sense. Firstly, despite playing fewer times than Eden Hazard or Fabregas (27 times compared to 34 for the Chelsea stars), Di Maria provided 10 goals for United. This is out of 831 passes — Fabregas and Hazard both have more than 2000 passes. The Argentinian has a goal-assist conversion rate once every 102.8 minutes — 20 per cent higher than Hazard’s. He has more shots per match (2.3 to 2.0) and more crosses per match (1.6 to 0.3) than the reigning Premier League Player of the Year. It’s no secret — this is a world class player who has proven himself at the highest level — World Cup, Champions League and La Liga. Also, he was not that bad in his first Premier League season, considering that he was played in five different positions in a season of transition. Under Louis van Gaal, his freedom to run at opponents was curbed — and whenever he was allowed to do so, he thrived. Add to this that his house was burgled while he and his family were in it. The other argument of holding on to a player who doesn’t want to stay at a club is that he will disrupt the dressing room. This again, does not apply to United’s current dressing room where Di Maria’s stature is not that of a divisive leader. United’s dressing room does not have factions like at Real — where the Ramos-Ronaldo-Pepe consensus is very strong. And Di Maria is hardly a leader of players — he will sulk for the first few weeks before the goals and assists start flowing — and football is fickle that way. As soon as performances go up, bad times are forgotten. Just ask every Wayne Rooney fan that. Admittedly, it’s not been a great season for Di Maria — but that is because he was expected to light up Old Trafford like he did Santiago Bernabeau. The Premier League is physically more gruelling, time and space on the ball is less compared to that in the La Liga — and mind you, he didn’t have Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso in on his side — he had an ageing Robin van Persie, a Rooney who was in deep midfield most of the time and an Ashley Young tracking back for him on the left. This is not a player who will wilt and fail for too long — these are the players around which systems are built — and it’s a manager’s responsibility to play him in his best position. Clearly Van Gaal is experienced enough to understand the demands of the Premier League need more than a season to adjust to? Clearly, when he says that United need a player with the creative quality of Neymar or Lionel Messi — he knows he already has one? Also, this is Manchester United’s record signing, he wears their iconic No 7 — and even though Van Gaal cares a hoot for club ethos, this will be a transfer borne of impatience and recklessness. If Van Gaal sees all these factors and still lets go of Di Maria just because Di Maria doesn’t want to stay at United, then he has simply failed as a manager and as a coach to get the best out of a proven winner and convince him to stay at a club which is more popular, historically bigger and plays in a more competitive domestic league than PSG. A player who can bring the fans to their feet. Exactly what United need. The writer tweets @TheFalseNo9