EPL News 24/7There are lots of rumours around today about Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and a proposed move to the Premier League.
A couple of papers, including the Daily Mail this morning, were obviously listening when Schalke’s General Manager Horst Heldt confirmed that the Dutch forward does have a buy-out clause in his contract. The usual ‘two-plus-two’ logic applied, and apparently he’s off to Manchester United for £17m.
Huntelaar just isn’t the kind of player Sir Alex Ferguson goes for though, so it’s hard to buy that. And It’s hard to believe that United are about to spend that kind of money on that specific area of their team.
The striker is a statistician’s dream, because his goal-per-game ratio is outstanding: 29 in 32 in the Bundesliga last season. That being said, can anybody who’s ever watched him – properly, not in the YouTube sense – really claim that he’s a top-tier player? Regardless of his obvious economy in front of goal, the commodity you associate most with Huntelaar is profligacy – for all the goals he scores, he squanders an awful lot of chances.
Look at his career history, he doesn’t survive at big clubs. Blink, and you would have missed his solitary season at Real Madrid, and AC Milan had seen enough of him after just 25 appearances.
He’s a Dutch Darren Bent. Not in style, because there aren’t a lot of similarities, but in the sense that they’re both better suited to playing for mid-level clubs and regardless of the amount of goals they score, neither fits the description of a ‘great goalscorer’.
There’s no way he goes to Manchester United. Liverpool maybe, Tottenham maybe, but he doesn’t belong at Old Trafford.
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