There was a lot of expectation on Memphis Depay’s shoulders when he joined the club for a reported £25m in 2015 but the Dutchman failed to impress in his early years and he was subsequently sold.
Louis van Gaal brought Memphis to the club after a breakthrough season with PSV Eindhoven but Anthony Martial, who arrived on deadline day the same summer, kept him out of the team for large parts of the season.
Marcus Rashford’s emergence later that year certainly didn’t help and when Jose Mourinho arrived a year later, the Dutchman was out of favour at the club and was sold to Lyon.
Manchester United did, however, insist on a buy-back clause in the deal to sell Memphis in case they were ever interested in bringing him back to Old Trafford.
The 27-year-old spent four years in France and despite reports of Solskjaer wanting to trigger the option, it was never exercised and he instead ran his contract down.
It was confirmed on Saturday evening that Barcelona had signed the former Manchester United player on a free transfer and thus, the buy-back clause inserted in the sale four years ago also expires.
Solskjaer’s embarrassment of riches in wide areas is likely one of the reasons behind the decision, but whether Memphis would have been open to a return is unknown.
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