Speaking on ESPN, Craig Burley has been discussing some of Manchester United’s ongoing issues, and he’s claimed that they should’ve signed Harry Kane 18 months ago.
The Red Devils got off to a poor start to the season last week, losing 2-1 to Brighton, and one glaring issue was up front.
Indeed, United’s lack of depth and quality up top saw Christian Eriksen start as their centre-forward against Brighton, and it’s fair to say that didn’t work out too well.
According to Burley, United could’ve avoided these issues by coughing up £150m to sign Harry Kane a year and a half ago.
What’s been said?
Burley was dissecting a few of United’s problems.
“They shouldn’t have put all of their eggs in this basket. In my opinion, Manchester United should’ve gone out and hunted down a Declan Rice or a Kalvin Phillips and 18 months ago they should’ve hunted down Harry Kane. I know it’s big money, but there should’ve been £150m plus on the table to get him out of Tottenham, they sat back and didn’t do it. Rice is still at West Ham, Phillips is now at City and De Jong is at Barcelona,” Burley said.
Hindsight is 20/20
Should United have signed Kane 18 months ago? Well, looking back the answer to that question is obviously yes, but at the time, this wasn’t an obvious move to make.
Let’s not forget, 18 months ago is early 2021, and at that point, United were second in the Premier League, and things were going well.
Marcus Rashford was banging in the goals, Edinson Cavani was scoring almost every single time he came onto the pitch, while Bruno Fernandes was also a reliable source of goals.
Kane, as good as he is, wasn’t really needed at that point, but now, looking back, you would have to say that it would’ve been a smart signing.
Hindsight is 20/20 and unfortunately for United, they didn’t spot this issue earlier.
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