THE news emerged over the weekend that Manchester United were on the verge of landing Real Madrid midfielder Angel Di Maria for a reported record British transfer fee ranging from 55 million pounds to 75 million pounds depending on your source.

But whatever the figure, recruiting the Argentine midfielder will be the boldest and the most positive statement from this ailing giants of British football. I said at the beginning of the season that United would need about four marquee signings to be able to return to EPL Top 4.

With Marco Rojo signing last week and Di Maria’s fee agreed (64 million quid plus add-ons as reflected on our Cover page lead story), the Red Devils have made two of the four signings I recommended. To complete the quartet, they need at least one marquee central defender (I’d prefer two) and one marquee defensive midfielder. With Sami Khedira’s future yet to be resolved at Santiago Bernabeu, I’d expect United to plunge for him straight away.

Add four or five big name signings in the right departments plus LvG and I’d be ready to wager that United will finish in the Top 4; and you may also wish to remember that they don’t have Euro distractions.

Beyond his undoubted prowess on the pitch, signing Di Maria will send positive signals to other high profile targets that United mean business. Let’s face it, every employee or potential employee wants to work with the best hands and colleagues. That’s the way to make you shine.

One thing is sure, if van Gaal didn’t know the enormity of the task before him, he knows now especially after that insipid display in opening day home defeat to Swansea. And he is determined to right all the wrongs with the club. It will take time and surely United will be and should be patient with him.

As for Real, I’m scared of their prospects as President Florentino Perez seems hell bent on destroying a functional team all in the name of making marquee signings irrespective of the need. Real during Perez’s first stint threaded this path before without success. Just why he thinks this will end differently beats me. I can only see a direct road to perdition.

BALO-SCORER OR BALO-TROUBLE?

LIVERPOOL boss Brendan Rogers completed a bizarre u-turn over the weekend when he concluded the little business of signing Italian football enfant terrible Mario Balotelli just three weeks after having categorically ruled out a move for the troubled striker.

While there’s no denying Super Mario’s impressive talent and huge promise, it’s his well documented baggage of troubles that makes managers and clubs flee from the Ghanaian born Italy international. For his talent and proficiency in the final third, 16 million quid is a steal for a 24-year-old hitman who guarantees you around 20 goals a season – he netted 16 for Milan last season. But how many club managers can withstand his litany of on and off-pitch misdemeanors?

And the magnitude of Rogers’ gamble is brought sharply home when you remember that Jose Mourinho and Roberto Mancini were on the list of eminent managers who tried hard before eventually giving up on the bulky ebony striker. Mou is a renowned man-manager who can make his players run through concrete walls. But Balotelli is a different homo sapiens, a difficult breed, if you like, making the Special One to dismiss him as unmanageable.

Mancini may not be so talented in man management. But to his credit he tried hard to be a cuddling father figure for Super Mario during his Man City days which were fraught with palavers. Eventually, player and belligerent “father” manager came to training ground fisticuffs before City decided to cut their losses and ship him back to Italy, accepting in the process nine million pounds loss on the 25 million quid they paid Inter 18 months earlier.

AC Milan were happy to have him at the time. But after 12 torrid months and underwhelming return to the San Siro, it was their turn to accept defeat and monetary loss in Balo-trouble saga as they are now on the cusp of casting him off to Anfield for three million quid less than they paid City.

Three questions arise from here, especially for Liverpool faithful. First is what made Rogers to go back on his words on Balo-trouble? Second is why are Liverpool not scared of a player whose market value has consistently continued to nosedive? And finally but perhaps most crucially, how does BR hope to succeed where many more accomplished and more experienced managers had failed?
In response to the first two posers, Liverpool were very short on strikers even when they had Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan departure for Barca only exacerbated that situation. And as the ongoing summer window rapidly approaches its conclusion, the situation becomes very desperate, especially after their fanciful chase to land a truly marquee hitman Monaco’s Radamel Falcao has expectedly hit the rock.
Falcao has made it clear he will only be swapping Monaco’s tax-free haven for the opulence of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu. He remains unyielding even when Liverpool proposed a world record one year loan deal of 10 million pounds. And as the Reds know they cannot rely sole on Daniel Sturridge for their goals in a grueling 9-month season campaign, the need to bring in a striker far better than returnee homeboy Ricky Lambert became an emergency. In this light Balotelli will appear a convenient solution if not a perfect one.

As for his dwindling marketability, BR will hope he can improve that remarkably. The important things are that the striker is talented and young. And having turned errant and underperforming boys Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho to superstars in less than two years, the Reds boss will feel very confident he could straighten Balo-trouble and make him even more marketable in the forceable future.

Each of the three players I mentioned above now commands more than thrice the fees Liverpool paid for their services few years ago. Make it 30 times in the case of Sterling. And need I mention Suarez?

As for the third question, only time will tell. It’s true Balotelli is a big risk, a big gamble, but one which I think is worth taking considering Liverpool’s dire need for quality personnel in his position. BR has decided to thread where angels fear and this new challenge will undoubtedly test his managerial nous to its foundations.
Balotelli plays will scowls on his face. But should Rogers succeed in turning those scowls to genuine smiles he could well have turned Balo-trouble to Balo-scorer, turned the scorn of every manager to the poacher everybody wants in his team. Then maybe, Mancini’s prediction will eventually come to pass. The former City boss said Balo-trouble can become one of the best players in the world if he wanted. He said he could be in the same class as Lionel Messi and CR7 if he cut out his baggage.
Rogers is the latest and probably the last to help the flawed player realize Mancini’s dreams. The challenge is for BR and the player. And I can only wish them Godspeed in this new sojourn.

DROGBA’S ROUSING WELCOME AT THE BRIDGE!

I WATCHED with some pleasure as Stamford Bridge rose in unison to welcome returnee legend Didier Drogba who came on in place of new icon Diego Costa in Chelsea’s 2-0 win against newly promoted Leicester City.

The tumultuous applause included the eminent club owner Roman Abramovich who clapped for what seemed an eternity, broad smile of satisfaction pasted on his face even as he bore armpits soaked in perspirations probably from the occasional tensions created by the visiting minnows before the game was made safe by Costa and Edin Hazard’s goals.

The applause could in fact be for both the old and the emerging heroes. But it was good to see, actually a rarity at Stamford Bridge for a long while. As Drogba and Costa continued to milk the ovation, my mind flicked briefly to another illustrious African son at Manchester City Yaya Toure who has all but damaged any goodwill his club might have for him because of stupid greed. I don’t know if Toure would get such a rousing welcome to the Etihad should he return in future either as a foe or as a friend.

I’m not a City fan but I applaud the way they put errant players in their rightful place. Yes, they have silly money and sometimes spend silly. But one thing is clear with this City hierarchy, they won’t be taken for a ride. They made a big statement with Carlos Tevez who had to eventually admit defeat and bow to the club.

Now it’s the turn of the reigning Africa Player of the year. How you may well ask? Well City have been rewarding other key players with long term and possibly improved deals irrespective of their ages, Aguero, Kompany, Dzeko, Nasri and the list goes on. Is it any coincidence that they have not mentioned their best player of the past two seasons or tabled any new deal before their prized 31-year-old African jewel?

You may be in a better position to answer that question.