Pranav Nair
Transfer News: Manchester United earmark Pedro Neto as a potential target in the summer
According to English news outlet, The Sun, Manchester United are eyeing Wolverhampton Wanderers star Pedro Neto heading into the summer transfer window.
The 21-year-old joined Wolves from Sporting Braga in 2019. He has since made 77 appearances for the club scoring 10 goals and assisting nine more. (h/t Transfermarkt)
Neto’s statistics may not be the most prolific, but it only explains half the story. The Portuguese star is a handful and often causes opposition defences many problems.
Interestingly, he is a player United are familiar with. Neto arrived in 2016 as a trialist while still at Braga. His performances, however, did not impress Old Trafford chiefs enough to make the deal permanent.
The same cannot be said now where he is a key member of Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad. Rather than for free, we will now have to pay at least £50m to land him.
United believe the 21-year-old is an actual alternative to both Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish. Given the performances the latter two have put up in recent years, it’s a strong statement.
Shaping clay into something useful!
Manchester City have also been linked with Neto but have now shifted their focus to Grealish instead. Whether this gives us a free run at the Wolves star remains to be seen.
Despite being far from the finished product, Neto has much potential that needs to be harnessed. There is clearly a talented player in there and United will do well tod raw him out.
While a long term project is well and good, Untied also need players who can produce from the get-go. Whether Neto can do that remains to be seen.
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As Diogo Jota has shown at Liverpool, some players can raise their game when surrounded by better teammates. Hopefully, Neto too can do that at United if the deal goes through.
The Red Devils are also keeping tabs on Sporting Lisbon’s Pedro Goncalves and Leeds United ace Raphinha. It would appear that we have learned from the Sancho saga to not put all our eggs in one basket.
