Prior to Manchester United’s winter acquisition of Patrick Dorgu from Lecce, the club had a handful of left wing-back targets in mind – including a former Red.
Indeed, Alvaro Carreras has come up in conversations regarding United’s transfer targets ever since he started flourishing at Benfica, which was early on in his tenure. ESPN claimed towards the end of January that the club were ‘seriously considering’ pursuing a move for their ex-prospect, who left without making his senior bow at Old Trafford.
The 21-year-old had spent half of the 2023/2024 season with the Portuguese outfit before they opted to activate his £5 million buy option – a fee that’s looking more ludicrous with each passing game he excels in.
Take last night, for example. Benfica locked horns with Monaco in the second leg of their Champions League play-off tie in what ended up being a six-goal thriller in Lisbon. The scoring ended level on the night, but the hosts’ one-goal advantage from the first leg ensured they advanced to the last-16 of the competition, with Carreras ultimately providing the match-winning assist in the 84th minute.
Carreras: The one that got away
Carreras, now valued at a whopping £40m by Benfica, also won three tackles and five duels, made two dribbles and created two chances, making it no surprise he was previously hailed as ‘perfect’ for Ruben Amorim’s system in M16.
Yet, with Dorgu now on the books and Luke Shaw awaiting his return to action, any move for the young Spaniard now looks to be ruled out – at least for the foreseeable future, anyway.
If only Erik ten Hag or the owners had recognised his potential sooner, they’d have saved millions.
Ten Hag is solely responsible for the decision to sell him even when we had no fit left backs and was constantly swapping Dalot and Wan Bissaka over and looking for a loan signing or even using Amrabat at left back and the 2 in charge the Chuckle Brothers of transfers for allowing it to happen