Manchester United's first signing this summer is Joshua Zirkzee. This is a 23-year-old striker from Bologna, a newly emerged team in Serie A.
Zirkzee's nine goals in 32 appearances in Serie A last season came from 7.4 expected goals (xG) not including penalties. On average, the Dutch striker scores 0.24 xG per 90 minutes, just slightly better than Antony - one of Man United's worst signings. However, Zirkzee is a striker with good physique, smart movement and possesses many qualities of a "number 9".
According to Transfermarkt, Man United paid 42.5 million Euros to get Zirkzee. Top young prospects typically need around 10-15% of a club's revenue, but Zirkzee's figure accounts for just 6% of the Red Devils' most recent reported revenue. This refers to a reserve player, not a star.
However, that is not true for Leny Yoro, an 18-year-old centre-back from Lille that Man United bought for €62 million. Up to now, this is still the most expensive contract in the summer of 2024. Yoro will only turn 19 in November, and he has played nearly 3,500 minutes in Ligue 1.
Of the pure centre-backs aged 18 and under, only three have played more minutes than Yoro in Europe's top five leagues this century: Rio Ferdinand, Kurt Zouma and Malang Sarr.
Coincidentally, the three names above will represent different future prospects that Yoro may be about to experience. Ferdinand is one of the best centre-backs of his generation. Zouma is a player on the Champions League bench, while Sarr has just returned to France after a few years of failure at Chelsea.
With all the talk about Yoro as France's next great centre-back, there is still a lot of ambiguity about an 18-year-old player. Yoro's win rates in air disputes are slightly above average. In contrast, his tackles are lower than average.
With the ball, Yoro completed more than 90% of his passes, but still ranked 29th among Ligue 1 centre-backs last season in terms of pass value.
But even with the question mark, Yoro is still like a gamble that Man United are capable of betting on. The 62 million Euros the "Red Devils" invested in Yoro accounted for about 8% of their most recent revenue and were still below the range of 10-15% that a team typically needs to have a top promising talent.
In short, Yoro and Zirkzee are promising talents but have not yet reached their peak. However, the key is that Man United also does not bid much higher than the valuation on the transfer market. For them, this can be considered an important step forward.
