Man Utd, Aston Villa, bad maths and Ollie Watkins ‘better than nothing’
Manchester United have come up with a sensible price for Ollie Watkins but that does not please one Villa journalist, who has form.
Fan fiction
The first thing to note before reading the Daily Telegraph‘s Football News Correspondent Matt Law’s column about Manchester United’s interest in Oliver Watkins is that he is a rabid Aston Villa fan. The second thing to note is that he is a Football News Correspondent for a reason; he should never have been allowed (physically restrain him if necessary) to write another opinion piece ever again after this monstrosity.
It’s worth taking a minute to look again at that column – in the Sunday Mirror – from 2012. In no particular order of our three favourite passages in Law’s raging against the scourge of reverse xenophobia we bring you…
The way he juggles selling star players with bringing through youth and picking up bargains makes Moyes the perfect eventual successor to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
United too should look at Moyes when Sir Alex Ferguson calls it a day, but no doubt the likes of Mourinho, Guardiola and Klopp will be at the top of the hit lists.
That’s nothing less than beautiful, even without the knowledge of what happened a literal year later. Next…
Tell a the supporter of a big club that they could do worse than get Grant Holt and they will turn their nose up. But tell a fan that Olivier Giroud might be on his way and they will be seriously excited – even if they only saw the Frenchman for five minutes at Euro 2012.
Holt would have scored the chance Giroud missed for Arsenal on Saturday, as would Southampton’s Rickie Lambert – as he proved against Manchester City.
And then…
Luis Suarez did no better than Emile Heskey would have done when presented with chance after chance for Liverpool against West Brom and yet we are meant to believe the Uruguayan is world class.
Delicious.
Fast-forward to the present day and Law, presumably still fuelled by the belief that all things British are wildly undervalued – and now in his natural home at the Telegraph – is raging against Watkins being valued at just £45m by Manchester United. Indeed, he’s so angry he cannot count.
Man Utd cannot be serious if they think Ollie Watkins is worth £30m less than Bryan Mbeumo
Pesky maths: £45m is not £30m less than £65m.
Maybe United manager Ruben Amorim highly rates Watkins, but the club clearly do not. It will, of course, be argued that his age limits his value. But the fact is that United believe the England international is worth around £30m less than Bryan Mbeumo and £20m less than Matheus Cunha.
Not a ‘fact’ when your maths are wrong, fella. But also it will be ‘argued that his age limits his value’ because his age limits his value.
The biggest fee paid for any 29-year-old this summer is less than £12m; Villa would be very lucky to get anywhere near £50m for Watkins, and we would argue that the pragmatic decision would be to sell at that price.
The most any club has ever paid for a 29-year-old is £57m and that was Diego Costa. He is foreign, though.
That should sound alarm bells ringing in the head of Watkins if it has been turned in the direction of Old Trafford at all. Just as in the case of City and Kane, there is no conviction to United’s supposed interest. It must be assumed that the club are either trying to please Amorim or simply view Watkins as being better than nothing.
Or it could be assumed that Manchester United have looked at the market for 29-year-olds, calculated that Watkins will have diminishing sell-on value, and decided on a value of £45m.
The good news for Villa fan Law is that there are plenty of undervalued British options to replace him; come in Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
So awkward!
‘Ollie Watkins faces awkward Man Utd question if £45m transfer goes ahead’ says the Express. Because of course Watkins is the only footballer in history to join a club other than the one he supports (Arsenal). Presumably he also ‘faced awkward Aston Villa question’ too.
Thankfully he already knows Bryan Mbeumo from his Brentford days and the Mirror are keen to mine that particular cleft, declaring ‘Ollie Watkins’ comments on Bryan Mbeumo speaks volumes ahead of potential Man Utd reunion’.
First, if you really need to use the tired ‘speaks volumes’ trope, then at least get the headline dramatically correct. Comments ‘speak volumes’, or at least they would if that’s what the phrase actually meant.
You will not be surprised to learn that those particular comments are literally five years old. What actually speaks volumes is the Mirror’s desperation to craft a whole story around them.
Especially when there are new quotes. From the Express:
Man Utd transfer news LIVE: Amorim picks two midfield targets as Watkins silence broken
And indeed the ‘Watkins silence’ has been ‘broken’. By Bryan Mbeumo. You will be astounded to learn that he thinks he is rather good. Which speaks volumes.
