I completely understand why people don’t want Greenwood back. That’s fair.
But the constant underrating of his talent and ability is just so off the mark.
Two factors seem to have skewed fans’ perception of him.
-Getafe are a shite team. He hadn’t kicked a ball for 18 months. The way he’s performing for them is pretty commendable. Despite it having taken months for him to reclaim his fitness.
-Yes in his last few displays for United, he had the tendency to be inconsistent and selfish, as any teenage footballer would do.
His ability to finish with both feet is one of the rarest abilities in football.
There are only three players who have ever scored 30+ goals for Manchester United as teenagers in the history of this club. Mason is one. George Best and Norman Whiteside are the others. That’s it. That’s the list. That’s the company he’s in.
He may or may not be worth the trouble bringing him back and reintegrating him back into the team, but he certainly has the potential to score 200+ goals for United and be one of their leading goal scorers in history. We are absolutely talking about an elite level of talent. I cannot understand why that is even up for debate.
That’s the only reason the club is even in a conundrum. Else the decision to let him go is such an easy one.
All fair points. I agree that he's been surrounded by low quality talent at Getafe, which for someone who was out of the game for 18 months, isn't ideal. He's still managed a very good (but not great) season given the circumstances.
As for the Best/Whiteside comparison, I wouldn't put much stock in that given that players aren't guaranteed to improve after fast starts as teenagers. The likes of Kluivert and Owen also had very good starts as teenagers and barely improved their goal output beyond that in their 20s, before spiraling into precipitous decline.
Ultimately, this will be a business decision by SJR of whether he can justify losing a generational talent with his entire career ahead of him when balanced against the controversy of bringing him back to the club during a critical period of transition.