Manchester United should refuse to bow to Borussia Dortmund’s demands for a huge transfer fee for Jadon Sancho and instead make a move for Gareth Bale, says club legend Paul Parker.
Despite the German club’s willingness to sell, they have priced Sancho at over £100m, and have refused United’s offer to pay in instalments.
Parker, speaking exclusively on this week’s Talking Devils podcast, believes that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should walk away from the transfer and look elsewhere.
“Sancho is potential, there’s no other way to say it,” Parker said. “He’s done well for the second best team in Germany but he had twenty minutes against Iceland and was flat apart from that, and then he never did anything against Denmark. He’s done okay but United have players like that. They need an out and out centre-forward, someone who wants to score goals. Anthony Martial did okay but he disappears. When it doesn’t go well for him he just disappears.”
Despite that, acknowledging that Solskjaer wants a right-sided attacker, Parker feels there is a suitable alternative on the market. Real Madrid are known to be keen to offload Gareth Bale, so much so that they are offering to pay a large percentage of his wage, and Parker believes that it would be a sensible solution in the short term.
“German clubs are brilliant in the transfer market,” he says. “And fair play to them for that. They want to make a huge profit on what they paid for Sancho, they want United to be the mugs who will pay it.
“So if you can go and get Bale, who has played in numerous Champions League finals and has the pedigree, he’s going to cost £300,000 a week… all you have to do is get a smile back on his face, get him oiled and get the dust out of him. On a short term basis he could be fantastic, and you might find Sancho is 40% cheaper next year. Be the big club that you are, put Sancho to bed, tell Dortmund you’re not dealing with them anymore.”
Talking Devils is brought to you in association with Classic Football Shirts. Listen to the show to get an exclusive discount code of 10%. Review the podcast and post that review to @TalkOfTheDevils on Twitter for a chance to win prizes.
