It is common sense that you shouldn’t judge a player based on his performance in pre-season friendlies, but a good preseason performance is responsible for creating a noticeable impression and if possible carving out an identity for a talent like Tiago Manuel Dias Correia known to us as Bébé.
When you look back to the time when Manchester United bought Bebe for a deal reported to be around £7.4 million, Real Madrid were also interested. United wouldn’t have just thrown 7 million at a completely unknown player without seeing something good in him. Sadly, Bebe underachieved and repeatedly since his transfer and is often regarded as one of the worst signings by Sir Alex. In fact I have always wondered why SAF seem to have some faith in him. From what we have seen there is something worthy of him to keep him at United. Mind you he came from the unknown land to the Theater of Dreams. You can imagine the pressure to perform he has been under. Maybe what he needs is confidence and I hope the preseason will do him good.
Bebe has the physical attributes, not the footballing ones mind you, but a horrendous first touch. It’s his speed and powerful shot that are attractive about him. He has the potential, the pace, is a beast of a man and that atrocious shooting power is enough to blow a hole through a wall. But so far in the preseason matches his link up play looked good, and his spacial awareness has improved. Or is it because Macheda abysmal performance is making him look good?
The motto should be ” we have nothing to lose ” to give him a fair chance. After his terrorizing performance, Sir Alex said,
“We’ll see how the season progresses for him, but it gives me a headache in terms of number of strikers we have there. That’s not a bad thing, though. He had his loan at Besiktas and then picked up the bad injury which kept him out for most of the season.”
“That is probably his first game for about eight months, so he will be pleased to be back playing and pleased he scored a goal.”
Signed blindly from Vitória de Guimarães, it was a gamble worth taking, but Bebe has failed miserably so far in United colors. He needs a year of consistent football, either with another English side or with our reserves with the odd league game or some league cup appearances before making another evaluation. What can been drawn from his pre – season appearances are: He was a threat and can be effective in providing that cutting edge in the final third that United so dearly missed in last season’s games. Can the forgotten man be back in the mix?
All transfers are a risk. Investing in a young players is a particularly high risk activity. Maybe United really believed that Bebe could be a rarity, a genuine unknown superstar. Thus, the hype over Moura and the reality behind it is a mystery.
Leaving the current transfer speculations aside, being the world’s 97,612th highest paid footballer – Bebe has lot to prove at United. The fact that his debut season was still better than Downing’s for Liverpool suggests he’s not a wasteful of talent. He isn’t completely awful or rubbish but is unlikely to make the grade at United.
Time will tell if he’ll be able to live up to his ridiculous price tag. In my opinion he just needs a good run of games to see what he is made of. Hope he gets a loan move in England. Could this season be the turning point in his Manchester United career?
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