‘”When I was a youth at Inter I played with great stars and working with a coach like Mourinho allowed me to mature a lot. If Mourinho called me about going to United, if I found myself in that situation, then I would have to think about it.”
These were the words Mattia Destro used when Sky Italia quizzed him about his possibility of joining Manchester United in the summer. The Italian, who was a part of Mourinho’s treble-winning Inter Milan squad in 2009-10, despite not playing a single squad, has a pretty good scoring record both for club and country. However, after the Portuguese left the Milanese giants, Destro joined AS Roma where he enjoyed a prolific goalscoring streak before being sold off to Bologna, where he is currently playing. In the ongoing season, he has scored 8 goals and set up 2 more in 27 appearances, which is a pretty decent return.
Strengths:
The 24-year old has an excellent on-the-ball ability and a natural instinct for being at the right place at the right time. Although he is not technically the best, yet he has great physical strength, and is particularly adept at holding the ball up and bringing others into play. In 2014, Destro spoke to the notorious newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport about his aspirations, that he dreams to play along with the Rossoneri and Viola stars like Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Balotelli.
Cons:
Once upon a time, Destro’s was said to be a mix between Vincenzo Montella, Filippo Inzaghi and Christian Vieri. The former Genoa forward has failed to live up to that hype ofcourse, and that might be an indication of his true ability and temperament. While part of that hype maybe because of the media, yet it is also true that far too many youngsters these days lack the kind of mental strength that is required to make it big these days in the world of football.
Do United actually need him?
Well no, not really. United need a proper no. 9, someone who can play up front and score 20+ goals in a season. To that end, we can go in for strikers like Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku, although both of them will come at a high price. The thing that goes most against Destro’s transfer is that we already have too many mediocre players in the squad, and we must stop adding any more if we are to gun for the title next season.
