Date: 13th March 2010 at 12:54pm
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As we saw last week against Wolves, Paul Scholes still has plenty in the tank but at 35 we should be looking at someone to step into the gap that his departure will eventually leave. Having already looked at Steven Defour, this week’s candidate is Javier Pastore of Palermo.

First coming to the attention of Europe’s elite whilst still playing for Huracan back in Argentina, Pastore’s agent claimed they turned down a €10m bid from United as he wanted to move to a club where he would have a better chance of getting games.

That club would be Palermo where he has continued to make waves and a movement began in Argentina to have him called up to the national team. He was selected for a friendly against a Catalonia XI in December scoring a spectacular long range effort but didn’t make it on field for his first full international call up against Germany.

He is a classy playmaker also capable of playing off the striker (like Scholes did with Van Nistelrooy) or on the wings. Although he is usually involved in spreading the ball around and assisting goals he can also score goals too and again like Scholes has excellent long range shooting. Scholes despite being 5ft 7′ could often be found popping up in the box and nodding goals in and that’s an area where Pastore will need to improve despite being 6ft 1′.

Pastore sees himself as more of a play maker claiming,

“I am getting better slowly and I would like to be compared to [Juan Roman] Riquelme or Kaka .”

United could be put off signing the young Argentine as he is involved in a complex ownership deal like former United player, Carlos Tevez and Palermo seem intent on keeping hold of their young stars (we have also been linked with Simon Kjaer and Abel Hernandez too is attracting attention).

Pastore seems a good player and at just 20 has his best years ahead of him, he could be worth a look for the right price.

 

One response to “Pastore to fill the gap in United’s midfield?”

  1. Jamie Allen says:

    Looks a talented player! We definately need someone like him to add a ‘spark’ to our attacking creative and goalscoring play.