News broke within the week that former Manchester United defender, Jaap Stam, has returned to Old Trafford to work as a scout for the club.
Whilst watching Gremio play in Brazil, Douglas was one of the players who caught Stam’s eye, who Real Madrid are also reportedly interested in.
“Douglas still has to grow up,” said Cesar Bottega, the player’s agent. “I wouldn’t like him to be transferred to a European team yet because when you start to negotiate with teams from the European market like the Italian, English or Spanish, it is not always possible to make your wishes come true and that puts pressure on.”
United had apparently offered £20million for the player, which his agent recognises would be too hard for Gremio to turn down.
“I think that it is too early to transfer to a team like Manchester United, but if they have offered 80 million Reais (Brazilian currency – £20million) to Gremio then that is important,” he continued. “The Europeans already knew Douglas as they have seen him play in the Brazilian youth national teams but they needed to see him in action for a senior side. Against Santos and Botafogo, Douglas showed that he can play among professional players but that doesn’t mean that he has to be transferred to a European team now. We know about the interest of some teams and that the offers are important but I have the same opinion as that of his mother, in that it isn’t the moment yet to be playing in Europe.”
Brazilian businessman Fernando Cesar, who claims to be an intermediary working with United, claims that it is only natural that United would be interested in Douglas.
“I actually asked him [Stam] to see all the players, among them Douglas Costa – I said he was an interesting player and he could see that for himself, but the interest of Manchester in Douglas is a natural thing,” he told the Brazilian media.
Whilst the agent is keen to insist that bids have been made, the club deny any such thing.
“The story about Manchester and Real Madrid is pure speculation,” said director of football Andre Krieger. “If we want to win the Copa Libetadores, we need Douglas to stay.”
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Does anyone know anything more about Douglas? Maybe I’m behind the times, but I’ve never heard of him.
It will be a different story as soon as United offer to bring the whole family over as well… we did the same for the Da SIlva brothers…
I reckon this could happen… and ive only seen 30 secs footage, but must sommat about the kid for us to be sending our scouts to watch him after only 2 senior starts
He needs to be brought over and integrated into our set up asap!It every players wish to learn from the best in the business,and there’s no one better than our SAF.SAF won’t be here for that much longer and Douglas needs to learn the Manchester United way from the godfather of Old Trafford.It’s the best opportunity for him too,with all our Brazilians on the books already,He should be able to settle in very quickly.Hope we sign him,be a good foil for Petrucci in the reserve team till he breaks through to the senior side.
So, Real Madrid is now starting to look at the young ones, instead of waiting for them to blossom (CRonaldo) and then cook some news in their newspaper. I do hope this Douglas boy comes over and join the Da Silva bros. & Anderson at Utd.
stam – legend
ManchesterMonkey…. don’t think Stam rates as a legend….. not too bad as a defender, strong good hard playerm but he soon fucked off didn’t he….
SAF is a good judge of young talent, get them to the club and let the Red history and playing ethos get into there souls… makes em want to bust a gut playing for thr greatest team in the world.
If he joins MU, where is he gonna play? Isn’t he a striker? If he can play on the flanks, well & good bcoz that’s the area we need to strengthen at the moment taking Ronaldo’s impending move to Real can happen as early as next season. Giggsy’s days as a wing raider is over. Nani puts in a circus performance every now and then. The hardworking Park is defensively excellent but his attacking still leaves much to be desired. There is already too many strength in depth for every other position.
Someone who “claimed” to have watched Douglas said he is a good player, lots of talen, good work rate like Tevez and good at freekicks, but also he’s tiny and would get torn apart in the Prem.
the future realy looks bright for man u. look at these youngstars..amos,evans,anderson,posebon,fabio and rafael da silva,gibson,welbeck,macheda,petrucci and soon costa and yildrim..cant wait
OT Red, he didnt look that small to me when i seen him on a vid… he looks very strong and very fast…with 2 good feet…
All i know is that he is an attacking midfielder, and the clip that i seen was on the left hand wing…where he took on about 4 or 5 players and then the keeper saved his shot…
Looks pretty tidy if you ask me… but there seems to be a lot of scouting missions for wingers recently… and that suggests one pending exit at the end of the season.