Pundit says Man Utd mistakenly bought Cavani instead of £40m man
Pundit and former player Paul Ince has said that Manchester United made a mistake in buying Edinson Cavani.
The ex-Liverpool midfielder said that a better suitor for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side would have been Wolves’ Raul Jimenez.
He critiqued the fact that the Old Trafford outfit had elected to bring in Cavani, who arrived from Paris Saint-Germain during the last transfer window, when he is unlikely to play many minutes for the Red Devils.
Speaking to Ladbrokes (via Caught Offside), Ince said: “There are so many players out there who could have come into that Man Utd team.
“You look at Thomas Partey, Raul Jimenez. Last season United needed to bring in a striker and they go and get Odion Ighalo from China.
“What was that about? Go and spend £40million on Jimenez. He’s a proven striker, a scorer. You know, and then they go and get Edinson Cavani who will hardly play.
“You’ve got to look at the structure, the recruitment, the scouting system and think ‘what are they looking at?’
“There’s a lot of good players out there, top, top players. Go and get these players. But they haven’t.”
Jimenez has netted four times in seven league games for Wolves so far this season.
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Head-to-head
Both players hold impressive records on the pitch.
Jimenez found the back of the net 27 times in 55 games for his club last season, while Cavani managed just seven in 22 matches for PSG.
One important factor to note is that Jimenez remained injury-free throughout the whole of the elongated 2019/20 season, while Cavani picked up four separate injuries last term.
As a result he missed 17 games during the course of the campaign and was consequently left out of PSG’s Champions League final squad.
Cavani is four years older than Jimenez, with the Uruguayan winning six French league titles across his career compared to his counterpart’s two Portuguese league winner’s medals.
Overall, Cavani has scored 341 goals in 559 club games across his career, while Jimenez has netted 118 times in the 358 club matches he has featured in.
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