A former Manchester United scout has revealed how he implored the club to sign Christian Pulisic before the highly-rated American forward joined Premier League rivals Chelsea.
The £58million deal to take Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund to Stamford Bridge was completed in January 2019, with the player then remaining on loan in the Bundesliga before making the switch to English football last summer.
And the 21-year-old has gone on to earn rave reviews and even favourable comparisons with departed Blues favourite Eden Hazard following an impressive debut season in which he scored 10 goals and provided as many assists in 33 appearances across all competitions for Frank Lampard's side.
However, had United listened to the urgent advice of one of their international scouts, then it seems they could have secured early deals for both Pulisic and Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies.
“When I first got hired one of the people that I recommended right away was Pulisic because I knew him and his background," Chilean Jorge Alvial - who now serves as head of scouting under manager Jaap Staam at Major League Soccer (MLS) side FC Cincinnati - told the Manchester Evening News.
“I knew how well he was developing in Dortmund and he was just going to keep coming up, and become a superstar because he was doing very well.
“It wasn’t a case of ‘look at this kid’, it was ‘sign this kid’.
“For Pulisic, I jumped many levels that we are supposed to do and I went directly to the head scout.
“I said: ‘Listen, this player is extraordinary… we need to make a decision right away because if we don’t someone else is going to see him, and is going to beat us’, which has also happened with Alphonso.”
