Gab Marcotti goes inside the Angel Di Maria and Mario Balotelli deals - ESPN FC
Angel Di Maria said farewell to his Real Madrid teammates at the weekend and is
apparently on his way to Manchester United. There will be time to evaluate where he might fit in at Old Trafford once the deal is done (if it gets done), but in the interim, there are some basic considerations to be made.
First and foremost, Di Maria's departure has been telegraphed all summer. He was offered a new deal, but asked to be moved on, ostensibly because, with James Rodriguez joining Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale (not to mention Isco and, when he returns, Jese), playing time would be tough to come by.
Players fundamentally want two things: money and playing time. You can satisfy some people by giving them one and not the other. Di Maria evidently isn't like that, and it's to his credit: A new, improved deal wasn't going to be enough to keep him around.
Stop and think about it for a second. He has just had a career-defining season and played a key role in a Champions League win. He could easily have sat on his rear end and counted the cash, while telling the world that he was going to fight for his place in the team.
Instead, he's prepared to move to a foreign country, to a team not involved in the Champions League (or even the Europa League). That shows character and a willingness to challenge yourself.
Meanwhile, once the world found out that Di Maria was hell-bent on going, Real Madrid's negotiating position should have weakened considerably. You had a player they needed to sell who wanted to leave. And as the clock counts down to the final hours of the transfer window, it should -- in theory at least -- have depressed Madrid's asking price.
Weirdly, that's not what's happening. And this is where things get mysterious.
Di Maria was
on the verge of joining Paris Saint-Germain a month ago, but the deal did not go through because PSG, who have been hit with transfer limitations as a result of their settlement for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations, said the asking price (65 million euros) was too steep.
And what is Di Maria's asking price now?
It's reportedly Cristiano Ronaldo-type money.
A base fee of around 75 millions euros, plus another 15 million based on performance.
By all accounts, Manchester United don't want to pay that. They hope to do the deal for a flat fee of around 75 million, with no bonuses.
We will, no doubt, look at whether that kind of money for a 26-year-old makes sense and -- crucially -- whether it makes sense specifically for United.
But in the meantime, you have to ask: Why would his price rise?
What transpired in the past month for the player to suddenly be worth so much more? Since the World Cup quarterfinal against Belgium on July 5, he has played just 14 minutes of competitive football (against Atletico in the Spanish Super Cup first leg). We can safely say, I think, that while he played well, that's not what bumped up the price.
The fact of the matter is that Di Maria could have been signed a month ago for the 65 million euros that PSG deemed "too much" (if not less; remember, that was the asking price). Now, United are on the verge of spending far more than that.
It feels like the Marouane Fellaini deal all over again: sitting on your hands and eventually being forced to pay more than is necessary.
Maybe Louis van Gaal should have brought a director of football with him to help out Ed Woodward.