Back in the season of 2013/14, Adnan Januzaj was one of Manchester United’s bright spots in an ultimately dire campaign that set the club back a few years.

But the young Belgian international winger hasn’t made much of an impact since that inspiring first season at Old Trafford.

He was rushed into the 2014 World Cup and looked out of his depth. His erratic play and his real unwillingness to adapt cost him starting places at Man Utd during Louis van Gaal’s tenure in charge of the Red Devils.

Last August eye-brows were raised as United decided to loan him out for the season to German side Borussia Dortmund, many thought that the Manchester side may end up ruing that decision. But alas Januzaj didn’t deliver at Dortmund, where he make only six substitute appearances in the Bundesliga. United recalled him back in January due to his lack of appearances but then only made five appearances for Van Gaal’s side and he was missing from the FA Cup final match day squad.

If Adnan was hoping for better things under new boss Jose Mourinho then his hopes were quickly dashed as the Portuguese gaffer gave the Belgian’s much coveted number eleven jersey to Anthony Martial and also demoted Januzaj to train with the reserves. A quick return to the United first team looks unlikely with players like Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Memphis Depay, Henrik Mkhitaryan and Martial all ahead of him in the pecking order.

The youngster has supposedly described himself as being ‘Humiliated’ after Jose’s treatment of him.

But in all truthfulness he has to look at himself and wonder if his career has stalled due to his own failures to learn and evolve as a player. He hasn’t managed to convince at international level, he wasn’t deemed good enough at Dortmund and now a second Man Utd boss feels he’s better off leaving on loan rather than have him at Old Trafford fighting for his place in the first team squad. At twenty-one years of age and after two disappointing years, a place in United’s reserve squad isn’t beneath him!

But in fairness to him, it seems as though Januzaj knows his time at Man Utd is near its end and he wants to leave on a permanent deal. While it seems that the hierarchy would prefer him to join Sunderland for a year.

Going to the Stadium of Light would see him reunite with David Moyes, the boss who got the best out of I’m in 2013/14. The former United boss has already just completed the permanent transfers of Man Utd kids Paddy McNair and Donald Love in a £5.5m swoop.

Those familiar faces and playing for boss who believes in him could indeed get the best out of the twenty-one year old but would the fear of going back to Old Trafford prove to be a distraction? Especially if he feels unloved there.

There’s a belief that the United board are scared that they could sell the promising winger and then regret it like they did with Paul Pogba, who has just returned to the club in an £89m world record move. But people forget that Pogba chose to leave and left because his contract ran out and he decided against signing a new one.

With Adnan, they could sell him for a decent fee and then include a few favourable clauses in the deal that would give them first refusal, a buy back clause and a percentage of the next transfer fee if they chose not to re-sign him. Again I should point out hey couldn’t do those things with Pogba because of the way he left. At least if they choose to sell Januzaj they’d then be able to do a better deal that would benefit themselves in the future.

I honestly believe that it’s best for all concerned that Adnan Januzaj leaves Manchester United permanently this summer. It gives the player a clean slate and probably a reality check that he needs. It would also benefit him to have his future sorted out and he can just concentrate on doing his best for his new club. Going out on loan continuously can hamper a lot of younger stars who become disillusioned with football as they feel unwanted by their parent club.

Adnan Januzaj is currently not the future of Man United, others have come in and taken his spot and have preformed better. He may have a case to suggest he was slightly mismanaged by Van Gaal but he also has to look at himself and question whether or not he made things worse with certain personal decisions and his inability to change.

But none of that changes the fact that he isn’t wanted at Man Utd and it really looks like he doesn’t want to be there now either.

Posted on August 11th, 2016 by scott
Filed under: Article