9 key things Radamel Falcao brings to Manchester United

#7 Reinforces the strength of the Manchester United brand

Falcao with his agent, Jorge Mendes (extreme right) at United’s AON Training Complex

Most clubs in need of a striker would have earmarked Falcao as a potential marquee signing. We know there were big English clubs chasing him, but at some point or the other Real Madrid had also reportedly sought to re-unite him with his compatriot and fellow superstar James Rodriguez as Florentino Perez went on one of his ‘Galactico’ collecting rampages.

The fact that a club without any sort of European competition this season has managed to snare one of the world’s top forwards is on its own stunning enough, but add to this the calibre and potential of the prospective customers that were sniffing around for his signature, and it becomes an epochal move.

The deal also signified the coming of age of Edward Woodward as he attempts to walk in the larger-than-life shoes of the genius that was David Gill at the top of the United management food chain. Reports suggest that the £6 million loan comes with a buy-out option, where United reserves the right to sign Falcao on a permanent basis at the end of the season for a reported fee of £45 million. This appears to be a brilliantly engineered strategy to get him on board immediately without falling foul of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.

Of course, it helps that Woodward seems to be on first name basis with football’s greatest business mind, Jorge Mendes (the Portuguese super-agent, who is on the board of Doyen Sports Investments – the hedge fund that as a part of third party ownership owns a majority portion of Falcao’s economic rights).

All said and done, the deal indicates the robust health that United finds themselves in at the moment after decades of unprecedented sporting and commercial success, and the clout that the name ‘Manchester United’ wields in the world of football, temporary setbacks notwithstanding.

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