DOUGLAS COSTA & ALEX TEIXEIRA
Written in December prior to Costa’s move to Shakhtar Donetsk, this article outlines the real Douglas Costa. I still feel that this whole notion of dubbing players ‘the new…’ is a bad idea especially in Costa’s case. If he does still infact fancy a move to Old Trafford, we should be very careful in how we go about striking this deal.
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If you read the papers it is more than likely you will have heard of Douglas Costa. The young starlet had been dubbed the ‘Jewel of Brazilian football’ and after just a handful of first team games, his club Gremio slapped a £20m price tag on him to ward off the advances of Manchester United amongst other clubs.
Dubbed the new Ronaldinho, due to his silky skills and the fact both come from the same club it is easy to see why a person could be fooled into believing that he was the second coming. He is the perfect highlight player and I’m sure if you type him into youtube or google you will find a couple hundred videos of him annihilating players with step overs, flicks and drags but this does not paint the whole picture and if United had paid the £20m that Gremio were demanding, I am pretty sure Fergie would have gone on to regret the move.
It is easy to come to conclusion about a player from youtube videos so I decided to have a proper look at Costa in the U20 World Cup this year in Egypt and in all honesty, I was massively underwhelmed. He had a decent tournament but for the hype surrounding him I expected to see a man that not only scored 5 goals a game but set every one of the 5 up himself.
Of his 4 appearances 3 were from the bench but in the game he did start he scored. He was also an unused sub 3 times as well. I personally was more impressed with Alex Teixeira who won the silver ball award and captain Giuliano who won the bronze ball and was at the center of all Brazil’s creative play.
Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that Costa is completely talentless. He is a very direct dribbler and is very pacy. He has shown he can really hit a ball from distance at times and is useful in build up play but for someone who is so inexperienced it would have been foolish to have spent that kind of money.
It does not help that Costa is not a consumate professional off field either having been arrested and fined for driving without a valid license twice as well as reports of him turning up late for training. He is supposedly quite known on the party scene and although he does not drink his other ‘extra curricular’ activities have made the headlines.
These are all things that will only further put people off him and highlight that £20m is an exorbitant fee for the young player.
United have tried to take a closer look at Costa with 20 day loans and trials being mentioned but Gremio have rejected United’s attempts and it was thought United had cooled their interest in Costa but the rumour has failed to die as we have again been linked with him this month.
If Gremio, who are in financial trouble, are willing to drop their fee by 12 or even 10 million then maybe his talent can attract an offer as currently they have rejected offers in the ball park of £7m, which is totally reasonable for an untested and unproved prospect.
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Update: Costa signed for Shakhtar for a fee in the area of £10m, in his 8 appearances for Donetsk he has scored twice and laid on one assist for team mates. He is said to have an £18m buy out clause in his contract but I’m still sceptical about splashing out such an exorbitant fee on an untested talent.
Posted on Sunday, 11th April 2010 by Chudi Onwuazor
Early goals seem to have been the order of the day for United at all levels this past week and the U18s weren’t to be left out, John Cofie’s 2nd minute strike ultimately proving decisive as the Reds beat Wolverhampton Wanderers at Carrington.
When Cofie raced clear and coolly slotted the ball past Wolves keeper Aaron McCarey with just 64 seconds on the clock it looked like an exciting and potentially goal-laden game may be in store, but that never quite materialised. A weary-looking United, coming off five games in Italy at the Memorial Sassi tournament last week, struggled to find any sort of rhythm going forward, while a fresher Wolves outfit arguably shaded possession and territory but were frustrated by a resilient Reds rearguard. Much to the visitors’ chagrin, Paul McGuinness’ side held on to record a hard-earned 1-0 win and seize top spot in Academy League Group C.
