Why Man Utd Should Bid For Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge This Summer
Scott Patterson |
May 4, 2016 |
1 Comment
Football News 24/7
When the transfer window opens, Manchester United should be in the market for a new striker. Having signed Anthony Martial last summer and seeing Marcus Rashford emerge as a great talent as the season has gone on, United potentially have a great strikeforce.
Neither of these players came through the conventional route though, with Martial signing for a fortune despite the fact most of the fans had never heard of him before on the final day of the transfer window. A quick glance over his Wikipedia page told us that he had scored 12 goals in 48 games the season before. While that wasn’t a dreadful return, it was hard to see how that made him worth £35 million for those who had never seen him play. Yet he’s scored 15 goals for United this season, and they have largely come from playing out on the left, and not as the main striker.
Rashford, who started the season as a 17-year-old, probably had the aim of nailing down a place in the Under-21 team. Being named on the bench for the first team, let alone getting on to the pitch, was probably his aspiration for a season or two ahead. Scoring twice on his debut, scoring twice against Arsenal in the 3-2 win a few days later, scoring the only goal in United’s 1-0 win over local rivals Manchester City, as well as a fantastic goal against West Ham away to help book United’s place in the FA Cup semi-final, is like dreamland for him.
Still, the Frenchman is just 20, while Rashford is only 18, so with the goals they’ve scored already, and the impression they’ve made, you can only imagine what they might be capable of next season, and the ones to follow.
United could still do with another goalscorer in the squad, though, with Wayne Rooney being used in a deeper position after contributing only a few league goals to this campaign. He isn’t the player he was, he hasn’t been for years, and he may not even be at the club next season regardless.
After two out-of-the-ordinary strikers making a success of themselves, maybe it would be asking for too much good fortune to expect another striker to do the same. Maybe it’s time for United to go for a safe bet and sign a striker who has a proven track record in the Premier League.
Maybe this summer United should put in a bid for Daniel Sturridge.
OK, so signing a player for United from Liverpool isn’t the conventional route, particularly one that has also played for rivals Manchester City and Chelsea, but United would be mad to overlook him when the transfer window opens.
For whatever reason, Jurgen Klopp hasn’t taken to the striker, and made the bizarre decision not to use him in Liverpool’s recent 1-0 defeat away to Villarreal. Christian Benteke was preferred as an 89th-minute substitute, with the opposition scoring the winner in injury time, and Sturridge left on the bench.
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The striker had scored four goals in the previous five games, and despite his injuries, he’s scored eight goals in the 12 league matches he’s played in. Last season was ruined by injury, but the year before it was 21 goals in 29 games. When you consider that Sturridge is only 26, his best years should be ahead of him—if he can shake these injuries.
But would he make the move from Liverpool to hated rivals United? Judging by his recent comments, Sturridge doesn’t seem too bothered who pays his wages, as long as he gets to play week in week out. “Maybe people don’t see this, but I am someone who wants to play every minute of every match, so maybe when I’m not starting or when I’m taken off, it’s hard to take,” Sturridge said.
“You want to be on the pitch every single match, every single minute. There are things I want to achieve with Liverpool. I would never say I am Liverpool until I die, because I would be lying. I think any player who says, ‘Oh yeah, this is the only team I will play for, for the rest of my life’, they are deluded. So for myself all I can do every weekend is go out there, perform as well as I can, perform to the best of my abilities, and then come the end of the season hopefully have the European Championship to look forward to.”
Another question is whether United fans would accept a player who had worn the shirt of three of their rivals. Brad Friedel, known for his time at Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur, would be the target of chants of “you scouse b*stard” whenever he came to Old Trafford. Why? He played 35 games for Liverpool in the 1990s, and was therefore tarred forever.
Michael Owen, who came up through the ranks at Liverpool, was greeted with ironic/not ironic chants of “you scouse b*stard” whenever he scored for United, after signing for Sir Alex Ferguson’s team in 2009. He scored a 96th-minute winner for United against Manchester City, yet there were still plenty of fans who didn’t like him.
So Sturridge may not be the most obvious or popular choice, but he would be a good signing, presuming he could stay fit. He is a goalscorer, with Premier League experience, at just the right age, and hungry to prove himself. He might celebrate the goals he scores like a clown, but I imagine United supporters would even be able to get past that if he was banging them in every week!
Is this a joke!? Is the author a Liverpool fan attempting to troll???
Sturridge is the last think Manchester United need right now!