COMMENT: Sofyan Amrabat and Manchester United. It’s a coup. It really is a transfer coup. The haggling. The negotiations. It all may’ve been a marathon. But the end result still leaves Erik ten Hag’s team far, far better off…
Familiarity. Contempt. And n’all that. Amrabat’s arrival on deadline day hardly blew the door off it’s hinges. Which you can understand. After all, it was a deal eight months in the making. Brother Nordin let us in on that. A deadline day attempt back in January only just falling short.
But it was always locked in. If United wanted Amrabat. Indeed, if Ten Hag wanted Amrabat. This move from Fiorentina was a sure thing. Their Utrecht past. The pull of United. The influence of brother Nordin and his time in England. There were too many factors in United’s favour to prevent this move from happening. As we say, if Ten Hag wanted this deal, it was always going to be on.
And he did. Just as he did in January. United’s manager had made Amrabat a priority for 2023. The energy. The mobility. The character. The Morocco international offered everything Ten Hag felt his midfield missed last season. He wanted a ball-winner. But more than that, he wanted a player to set the tone. Aggressive. Tenacious. Desperate. Amrabat had those qualities as a 20 year-old playing for Ten Hag at Utrecht. But now, seven years and four clubs on, he is working with the final product.
As a defensive midfielder, United have signed perhaps the best currently on the planet. As we say, this is a coup. Certainly, two men who know a thing or two about ball-winners believe so.
Fabio Capello, the iconic Italian coach, dubbed Amrabat the best midfielder at Qatar 2022, comparing the Moroccan hero with one of his greatest former players.
“With his perseverance, his determination, his focus on regaining the ball and his choosing the right position, he reminds me a lot of Gennaro Gattuso,” said Capello. “But with more technical qualities.”
Gattuso, himself, was quick to respond. The AC Milan great admitting Amrabat had lifted his spirits during the World Cup campaign.
“It has been a long time since I have seen a player comparable to me, but at the World Cup I saw him: Amrabat,” said Gattuso. “That meant a lot to me.
“It was as if I could see myself playing again at 27. I knew that I didn’t have great technique, but I prepared myself so that I could mentally kill the opponent.”
So he has him, does Ten Hag. He has his bulldog. His defensive screen. But as Capello and Gattuso say, there’s more to Amrabat’s game than simply being a mobile destroyer. Certainly, Xavi believes so. If not for Barcelona’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) issues, the Blaugrana would’ve been a serious threat to United’s plans.
“I can’t talk about players who don’t play for us, but he seems like a very good player,” declared Xavi earlier this year as Barca’s coach earmarked Amrabat as the natural replacement for departing captain Sergi Busquets. But is was a move that was never going to happen. Barca’s problems with FFP made the prospect a non-starter.
So it was always going to be United – and more specifically Ten Hag. The pair struck more than the usual manager-player relationship when first together at Utrecht. As we learn more and more about United’s manager, his attention to the individual is something that sets him apart.
Indeed, Amrabat has never hidden how important United’s manager was in those formative years at Utrecht.
“A lot of coaches are generally concerned with the team,” Amrabat recalled last month in the Athletic, “but he put a lot of time into individual work because he knew that if the individual was better, the team would be better. After every game he took me through a video and explained to me everything off.
“I was 18 or 19 years old, so sometimes I was like, ‘Phew, again?’ But looking back now, I know it was so important for my career. I learned so much from him.
“He made a plan for me. He asked me about my strengths and what I wanted to improve. From the first day he was busy with me. Not just with me, with all the players.”
And now they’re reunited. Though it must be said, finding eachother again was never a certainty. As mentioned, between now and their time at Galgenwaard, there’s been four clubs. And it’s only really been in Florence where Amrabat found an environment which allowed his football to flourish.
It’s been a career of ups and downs. A seven-year overnight sensation if ever there was one. It’s now all coming in a rush for Amrabat. First Qatar. And now Old Trafford. But brother Nordin insists for everything he’s experienced, Amrabat deserves this high.
“I knew he had it in him,” says Nordin, now playing in Greece with AEK.
“He is now rewarded for everything he has to do and not do. He also had difficult times at Feyenoord and Club Brugge. His career hasn’t taken off like a rocket.”
Well, that is until now…
