It’s no secret Manchester United follow players from all over the world, keeping scouts in specific countries.
That’s the reason the Red Devils are often linked to players in Brazil, as even though they’re not used to signing youngsters from the South American country, it’s known they keep a close watch over them.
As outlet Premier League Brasil featured a story with former Manchester United scout Sandro Orlandelli, he told a few interesting stories about his time working for the Old Trafford side.
The Brazilian had first worked at Arsenal, and started by detailing the changes he saw when joining the Red Devils in 2016.
“A much more technological project, with more reporting and data production. Manchester United taught me that you can’t just coldly analyse data and make a decision,” Orlandelli told Premier League Brasil.
“It’s important to combine the experience of experts. One thing is analysing data and another is the qualitative analysis that only an expert has. This unification takes time and takes us to another dimension.”
Speaking of the players he had indicated to Manchester United, he recalled that the likes of Eder Militão and Vinícius Junior had both been scouted by him. Those were two different situations, and it’s the defender who could have been signed by the English club on a cheaper deal.
“Militão, for example, was a wonderful opportunity. He was finalising his contract with São Paulo. Then people realise. Because I remember that he was very undervalued by Porto, with his contract coming to an end.”
Porto spent €7m to sign Militão from São Paulo in 2018. One year later, they got him sold to Real Madrid for €50m. He’s now valued by Transfermarkt at €70m.
