Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has suggested that Manchester United may have overspent on Memphis Depay citing the reason that the Netherlands international “won’t play every game.”
Memphis Depay joined Manchester United from PSV Eindhoven on A?31m deal. The winger had offers from other clubs, especially one from Uniteda s fiercest rivals a Liverpool FC that he rejected to join Van Gaala s side . and described Manchester United as an a absolute dream cluba .
Ronaldo Koeman said he tried to bring Depay to Southampton with his arrival at the Premier League club last summer, but said that the A?31 million fee Manchester United paid to take the 21-year-old from PSV Eindhoven to Old Trafford was too much citing that the player would struggle to play week in week out.
“I think they paid a lot of money,” he said as quoted in the Sunday Mirror. “Because it is United, where they already spent A?200m on players like Angel Di Maria, such a big figure is put in perspective.”
“He [Depay] won’t play every game. I have learnt, while I am here in England, that Dutch players can’t make the jump to the top of the Premier League easily. And young players can’t play 38 games anyway.”
“If you pay millions for Di Maria, who hardly plays, if you pay a fortune in wages and rent fee for [on-loan] Radamel Falcao, who never plays, then A?25m is not a lot of money for them.”
Nonetheless, Koeman confirms that he did try to sign Depay last year and indicated that he was keen to sign him this summer had Manchester United not made their move.
“My brother Erwin has the same agent, so we tried to bring him to Southampton, but he wanted to stay for one more year at PSV,” he said.
“When United went in for him, we knew at Saints that we had no chance. When they come, we have no chance.”