Manchester United have reportedly been told by Bournemouth that they would need to pay £40 million to sign David Brooks this summer. The 23-year-old Welsh winger is said to be an option for United should they not end up signing Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund this summer. That seems to be the case with a number of players this summer, whether it is true or not we shall have to wait and see. Personally, Brooks is not a player that should be signed instead of Sancho this summer.
According to The Sun, United are long-term admirers of Brooks, 23, and are supposedly ready to make a deal with the Championship club, who were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the season. The former Sheffield United player would have missed the entire 2019/20 season if it was not for the coronavirus pandemic and the three-month delay to the season, which enabled him to return in June after ankle surgery because of an injury that happened during the previous season.
New Bournemouth manager, Jason Tindall, would like to keep Brooks at the club as he feels it might enable them to bounce back to the Premier League after the 2020/21 season, which might be a tough battle for them. That said, it is stated that the club’s Russian owner Maxim Demin would sell the player at the right price to help reduce the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic at the club. During the summer of 2018, Brooks signed for Bournemouth from Sheffield United for £11.5 million.
During the 2018/19 season, Brooks has a breakthrough season at the South Coast club, making a total of 33 appearances, playing in the Premier League, the Carabao Cup and the Emirates FA Cup, scoring seven goals and five assists. He suffered an ankle injury that season and had surgery at the end of July 2019, sitting most of the 2019/20 season on the sidelines. Because of the delay to the season because of the coronavirus pandemic, Brooks made just nine appearances in the Premier League, scoring one goal which came against former club Manchester City.
The Welshman has attracted interest from Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and former club City, who are said to still be owed money from the player’s transfer. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could speak to Wales manager Ryan Giggs, who recommended Daniel James to the manager last summer. However, Brooks might not be a direct fallback for Sancho this summer and should perhaps be considered as a signing to strengthen the squad, should United actually be interested in the player.
United could end up losing the likes of Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira and even Juan Mata this summer, with the Spaniard linked to Fenerbahce in recent weeks. This would leave places in the squad for additional players, which might be an ideal opportunity for Brooks. If a club has been chasing a player like Sancho all summer and ended up signing a player like Brooks, it would be seen as a devastating blow for United, who missed out on their first-choice, signing a player who has just come back from a big injury spell. If anything, it would be seen as Glazernomics, something that United should be steering clear of by now.
Written by John Walker
