When it was announced that Manchester United would be signing Amad Diallo from Atalanta for a fee that could reach around €40m, many eyebrows were raised.
There was no denying the Ivory Coast international had potential, but he hadn’t exactly shown enough to warrant that fee, at least at first-team level, but the deal went through nonetheless.
Since his arrival at Manchester United, the 19-year-old has only made nine appearances for the Old Trafford side, and is currently on loan at Rangers FC where he has been trying to get more game time.
The deal is still being talked about in Italy, where unemployed technical director Andrea Agostinelli was asked whether the RB Leipzig model could be replicated in Serie A.
His answer was to point out that Atalanta have got quite close to something similar, and he used the deal taking Diallo to Manchester United as an example, with their transfer chief Giovanni Sartori has impressed.
Asked if the 65-year-old could head to a big club in the future, Agostinelli said, relayed by TuttoMercatoWeb: “Absolutely, he managed to sell a 19-year-old boy to Manchester United for €40m after a match and a half in Serie A. We must realise that Atalanta are no longer a provincial team. They did great things and very little wrong. It’s almost impossible not to compliment them, they are the most European team in Italy.”
Only time will tell if the Diallo deal was a waste of money or a stroke of genius by the Red Devils.
For the time being, though, until he starts playing regularly with Manchester United, these kind of comments will keep popping up.
