David Moyes seems to have been on the hunt for a long-term successor to Patrice Evra ever since his arrival at Old Trafford.
The Frenchman has excelled during his time at Manchester United. As left-backs go, he’s been excellent, with his pace up and down the flanks, his pure crossing ability and his defensive nous. What’s been most impressive, however, is his leadership qualities.
This season aside, he’s lead Manchester United to success after success and deserves bags of credit for all his hard-work, dedication and application.
Still, the club can’t seem to shake the sensation that his stay is coming to an end. Why else did David Moyes pursue Leighton Baines so publicly in the last summer transfer window? Yes, there’s the Everton connection, but it strikes me that there’s more to it than this.
Manchester United have a clear need in this department and it looks like David Moyes has been tasked with finding a long-term replacement.
Apart from Leighton Baines, the player who keeps getting mentioned most appears to be Southampton’s whip-smart full-back, Luke Shaw. The 18-year-old (it’s easy to forget just how young he is!) stirred up a storm in a tea-cup recently when he was shown to have favourited the following tweet:
“Hope you sign for mufc, we are all excited, good luck”.
For more background, check out this article from The Mirror. I’m not sure how much to read into that particular story. It’s easy enough to favourite something by accident on a mobile Twitter app and even if it was intentional, it doesn’t follow that a deal has been sealed, or that one’s even forthcoming.
Then again, The Telegraph did recently run an article suggesting that Manchester United are ‘confident’ of signing Luke Shaw. They even claim that a £30m deal could be agreed before the World Cup.
Intriguing stuff. If these claims are true, then Manchester United are clearly building out a long-term plan. Wouldn’t it be something if David Moyes were already hashing out his transfer plans? It’s not like there’s much else going on at the moment I guess.
£30m is a lot of money, but this could well prove to be a great investment on the part of the club. Fingers crossed it goes ahead.
What’s your take? Could Manchester United be about to sign Luke Shaw?
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