Manchester United appear to have found an absolute gem in the form of Alejandro Garnacho this season.
The Argentine sensation has come through their youth ranks and made a huge impact for Erik ten Hag’s side, earning an important place for himself in the gaffer’s squad.
Garnacho proved just how dangerous he can be with a sizzling cameo against Manchester City recently.
After coming off the bench in the second half, the 18-year-old winger made a mockery of Nathan Ake to help set up Marcus Rashford’s winner.
He has made himself a darling among the United fans and every supporter wants him to sign a new contract – with his current one expiring at the end of the season.
But the Red Devils aren’t finding it as easy as they’d ideally have wanted to when it comes to giving him a new contract.
Garnacho looks to be loving life at the club and is even content with playing the role of an impact substitute, as he craves to learn from the plethora of talent around him. But the thing is, his wages are way too low for any quality footballer to be satisfied in 2023.
The Argentine winger is reportedly earning wages of £ 5,000 a week, which is the kind of salary a youth-level footballer gets at Old Trafford.
The thing which is stalling an agreement over a new contract is the Red Devils’ hesitation over giving him a big-money contract.
They still have fears over what happened when they last gave a promising youth academy graduate a bumper contract after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
The player in question to get this was winger Adnan Januzaj, who was labelled as the second-coming of Ryan Giggs by some fans after having a brilliant season in the 2013/14 campaign.
United decided to invest heavily in the Belgian winger and give him a lucrative five-year contract in 2013 in hopes that he will be the next big thing and take them forward.
That ended up failing miserably, as Januzaj failed to improve after an encouraging debut campaign.
A few failed loan spells later, he was sold permanently to Real Sociedad in 2017 after the Red Devils realized that he was nowhere near as good as they thought he was.
United ended up wasting a lot of money on his wages despite not using him in all those years, which has caused them to become more cautious when it comes to giving long-term deals to youngsters since.
What helps their case is that Garnacho seems to be intent on staying with them and becoming the next Cristiano Ronaldo (ironically also his idol) at Old Trafford.
That is why it is being rumoured that they are now close to finalizing a new deal with the young winger, probably on terms that can please all parties.
While the Argentine winger does appear to have the talent to take United to the next level in the future, the Red Devils’ bad luck with ‘promising talents’ in the past has taught them not to invest big in young players before they turn into genuine world-class superstars.
