Prominent Twitter account @ManUtdStuff on Radamel Falcao.
On 31st August 2012, the day Radamel Falcao scored a half-time hat-trick to demolish then European Champions Chelsea 4-1 in the UEFA Super Cup at the Stade Louis II arena in Monaco, was when Premier League fans truly started lusting about Colombia’s most lethal striker. That day had I told you or any United fan that in a couple of years from now, Falcao would be a Manchester United player, you would have probably laughed it off.
Skip two years and United did end up signing El Tigre in an exciting deadline day deal, filling everyone supporting the club with excitement and hope. He shortly made his debut for the club coming off the bench in a 4-0 win over QPR but unfortunately couldn’t cap the day off with a goal. His debut was marked with rapturous applause from the Old Trafford faithful; the fans were continuously chanting his name even when he was just warming up on the sidelines. This was a player the United fans were desperate for, to be successful at Old Trafford. Because they knew if Radamel Falcao was at his best while at United, success and silverware would soon follow.
He finally managed his first goal for the club against Everton and since then he has only managed two more goals at Villa Park & the Britannia Stadium, again in the league. That makes it just three goals in fourteen appearances for the club in all competitions.
So what went wrong for Radamel Falcao at Old Trafford? Did he not return intact from his long-term injury at Monaco? Will he kick on from here and score bucket load of goals between now and end of the season? Or is it just a case of Fernando Torres – an unexplainable transformation of a once lethal striker into something very timid? And the most important question of them all: Does Falcao still have a future at Old Trafford beyond this season?
There is every possibility he can kick on from now and end of the season and score a dozen goals in the league and secure Champions League qualification for the club, or probably score a couple of important goals to lead the club to an FA Cup triumph.
Falcao is getting into goal scoring positions, but most of the time the midfielders behind him are not able to thread that crucial final ball and when they do manage to find him, his lethal finishing seems to be deserting him.
The service from behind him is something I do not see improving drastically in the near future but there is every possibility he scores a couple of important goals for United probably in the FA Cup.
The last time a South American forward was on loan at United, it did not end very well to say the least. That is not to say he cannot go to another club from United and be very successful, as Tevez has managed to do.
Personally there are only a few scenarios I can see where Radamel Falcao can still be at United next season. He goes on a goal-scoring spree in the league and secures top three for the club. United manage to make it to the semi-final & final of the FA Cup and he scores a couple of important goals to secure some much needed silverware for the club. Even after these scenarios, Monaco will have to seriously come down from their €43.5 million valuation of the player if they are to complete a permanent transfer.
Or, what I sense as the most plausible scenario from a United perspective, the club renew his loan deal with Monaco for another year by paying the £7 million loan fee, he would be almost 30 years old by the summer of 2016.
Either ways there have to be some extraordinary performances from the player or some financially demanding sacrifices from his parent club, if he is to still stay at Old Trafford next season. But Falcao shouldn’t be too worried for himself, whether it is at United or not, something tells me he will end up at a big club by the start of next season. He is after all a Jorge Mendes client, and Mr. Mendes has a nack of sorting his clients out with a good deal.
