Rio Ferdinand makes brilliant point about Manchester United signing Patrick Dorgu, there is one “key” thing

Manchester United are set to sign Patrick Dorgu from Serie A side Lecce in a deal worth a reported £25 million.

Dorgu arrives as Rúben Amorim’s preferred choice for the left wing-back role after several players struggled to make the position their own.

The 20-year-old arrives in Manchester on Saturday to undergo his medical before a potential debut in the FA Cup against Leicester City next week.

Diogo Dalot and Tyrell Malacia have both had spells on the left flank, while Noussair Mazraoui was recently given an opportunity in the role.

However, none of those players have excelled in the position and Dorgu appears to be the clear solution moving forward.

Ferdinand makes brilliant point about Dorgu signing

It must also be considered that Dorgu is a young player with a lot of improvement needed. That is the same story for a lot of United players.

In recent years, young talents at Old Trafford have been unable to develop as initially expected, which has caused problems for the club.

Now, with this new approach focused around younger players, ex-Red Rio Ferdinand believes that there must be a focus around development for this squad.

Speaking about Dorgu on his podcast, Ferdinand said: “I don’t think Man United are buying him for the finished article yet, they will be hoping to develop him and I think that is the key point: development.

“I think that the club need to show now that they can develop players, we’re recruiting players and I think the trend [of signing young players], we’re seeing it.

“Chido [Obi Martin], Leny Yoro, now we’ve got Patrick Dorgu and Ayden Heaven from Arsenal – so there’s four young players who we’ve brought in.

“And you’ve got Rasmus Højlund in there, Kobbie Mainoo, Toby Collyer. These are young players who need developing.

“I think we’ve seen over the last 12 to 15 years, since Sir Alex Ferguson’s time, we haven’t really developed players and seen them really go on and get to the top level and sustain it.

“And that’s players coming through or players that we’ve actually bought in, so I think that’s something that has really got to be looked at and I think the club are going to focus on that.”

United have the talent in their ranks

It is a brilliant point that needs to be recognised at Old Trafford in order for any success to be made.

Spending your time signing and bringing through young talent is only worthwhile if you can help them develop into top players.

United’s track record is poor but Amorim has shown to be able to develop players at Sporting, while the expertise of someone like Jason Wilcox, formally the Academy chief at Manchester City, is also useful.

In the end, United have enough talent at their disposal to be in a good position if they can be moulded correctly in the coming years. Let’s see what happens.

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