A former Manchester United scout has given his scathing verdict on Ruben Amorim’s first signing at Old Trafford. The Portuguese manager oversaw two transfer windows in his first year in charge, signing five senior players for a total of nearly £250m.
Benjamin Sesco, Matheus Cunha, Brian Mbeumo and Senne Lamence arrived this summer, and each of the new recruits showed varying degrees of promise. Patrick Dorg became Amorim’s first signing after completing his £29.2m move from Lecce in the January transfer window.
The Denmark international looked ideally suited to Amorim’s wing-back formation, but he has found it difficult to get consistent starting opportunities this season, especially when Amad is featured in the opposition team. Piotr Sadowski, who served as United’s central European scout for seven and a half years, has since expressed serious doubts about Dorg, with particular criticism towards the transfer fee.
“Honestly, having recently worked at Blackburn Rovers and operating with a much lower transfer budget, it would have been no problem for United to find some players of Dorg’s level, but for £25m you could get four,” he said in an interview with Polish publication Przeglad Sportowy.
“At the moment, United are cautious about signing young players. Amorim was supposed to be in charge of this, but results have not been good, so he prefers to buy players who can start immediately.”
Sadowski was similarly frank in his assessment of Alvaro Carreras, who is currently at Real Madrid after joining Benfica from United for just over £5 million. Within 12 months, the Portuguese club had sold him for around eight times that amount.
“He (Carreras) probably came to Manchester United when he was 16 (in 2020),” Sadowski added. “A very hard-working and ambitious boy, he quickly learned languages. I know this because I met him in person.” Initially, his career path was very good. He was loaned to Preston and received good reviews, but United (at the time) gave up on him and sold him to Benfica for a small fee.
“Carreras is a real top-class player. He could very well be the best, or one of the best, left-backs in the world. He recently scored a beautiful goal against Valencia in La Liga. It was a big mistake for United to let him go. I think there is something missing here and United lack the courage to invest in young players.”
