Andrey Santos: Concerns Over £50m Manchester United Move
Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt have seen enough midfielders walk through the doors at Carrington to know what an elite one looks like. Right now, they’re not convinced Andrey Santos is it.
The 22-year-old Brazilian is expected to complete a £50m move to Manchester United on Friday, with Fabrizio Romano confirming on Thursday that Santos had passed his medical and that all documents between United and Chelsea had been signed. The deal runs until June 2031 with an option, a long-term commitment and a serious financial outlay for a player who started just 13 Premier League games last season for a side that finished 10th.
United are reshaping their midfield, chasing at least two – and possibly three – new faces in that department. Ederson is closing in on a move from Atalanta, though questions linger over his second medical. Targets such as Elliot Anderson, Matheus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali have been left alone rather than pursued at inflated prices. United, we’re told, are being smarter.
But to two members of the club’s famed Class of ’92, this particular deal feels like a roll of the dice at the wrong time.
Butt: ‘Nothing stands out’
Speaking to Paddy Power, Nicky Butt did not sugar-coat his reaction.
“If he’s brought in at £25-30 million you could understand it, Man United need to build a squad,” he said. “It’s not just about the lads on the pitch, you’ve got to have better players on the bench. But he’s not being signed for £50m to just be sat on the bench, he has to be a starter.”
Butt has watched Santos, but he hasn’t seen the traits that justify that kind of billing.
“I’ve seen him play a few times but nothing stands out that makes you go, ‘Wow, he’s got great ability on the ball or he’s a powerhouse’,” he admitted. “It’s come totally out of the blue. It’s either genius by the recruitment team and they’re saying, ‘This lad is going to be the next big thing, we’ll pay the £50m quick and throw him straight in the deep end’.
“But by virtue of him only starting 13 games for Chelsea last year, who finished 10th, it doesn’t scream out a good signing to me.
“I hope I’m wrong, I hope he turns out to be a great player and blows us away.”
That line – hope mixed with doubt – runs through Butt’s assessment. He is not attacking the player, but the timing and the profile of the signing for a club that, in his eyes, cannot afford another slow-burn project in the centre of the pitch.
‘United haven’t got time’
Butt’s concern sharpens when he compares Santos with midfielders who have already proven they can handle the Premier League.
“You’re looking at other players who have gone to other places – Elliot Anderson, Matheus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali – they’ve been proper players in the Premier League and they look like they’ve played in the division for 10 years,” he said.
“This lad’s barely played 10 games. It’s a strange one, it’s not one I’m jumping around going, ‘What a signing, I’m really happy with it’.
“We need players in midfield that make us a lot better. I really don’t like having a go at young players or new signings before they go and prove themselves, but it’s one where they’re buying potential over someone that’s done it.”
The stakes, as Butt sees them, are unforgiving.
“He could come and blow us away and everyone’s saying, ‘What a signing, he could be the best signing of the last five-ten years at Man United’. But then again he could just end up being another Manuel Ugarte that doesn’t perform at the top level.
“If United shock us all and go out and buy another midfielder for £100million and he’s just one more they’re going to give a bit of time to, then I get it.
“Because we should always buy younger players who have the potential to kick on for the future. But if he’s getting thrown straight in the deep end and he’s got to produce at the highest level… United haven’t got time to let people settle in for a year or two, they have to hit the ground running.”
That is the crux. For Butt, Santos makes sense only as part of a bigger, heavyweight midfield rebuild, not as the centrepiece of it.
Scholes: ‘Why are Chelsea selling him?’
On The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, Paul Scholes echoed the unease.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of excitement about it is there? Put it that way,” he said. His first question cut straight to the heart of the matter. “Why are Chelsea selling him, a 22-year-old kid?”
Scholes knows United’s options are narrowing. Sandro Tonali has gone to Tottenham. Bruno Guimaraes, a player he clearly rates, looks set on Arsenal and, in his view, may not have been the ideal fit for United anyway.
“[Bruno] Guimaraes, who is a really good player, I still don’t think he would have suited Manchester United legs-wise, but it looks like he wants to go to Arsenal,” Scholes said.
Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, he suggested, might be a more realistic name.
“I suppose he could be a possibility. I think he’s still a good player a will be available at the right price. They’ve got to do something.”
That last line speaks to the pressure on United’s new football structure. The club need bodies, but they also need starters who can drag them through a season that now includes Champions League football.
‘We need players for now’
Scholes then turned to the bigger picture, and to what he believes is the club’s misalignment between short-term need and long-term planning.
“Ultimately, with Manchester United especially, it will be the fellas at the top of the club who would be deciding [targets],” he said. “And I think they might see some value in this player [Andrey Santos] as a sellable [asset]. But Manchester United buying players as a sell-on value? We need players for now.
“We’ve got the Champions League next year, we’ve got three games a week. It’s going to be awful without these players.”
United’s hierarchy clearly view Santos as part of the future. Their former midfield generals are asking a simpler question: who is going to run the middle of the pitch when the games start coming every three days?
For £50m, the answer, they fear, cannot be “maybe, in a year or two.”
