Pedro Leon: An exciting prospect

If reports are to be believed, the utterly hopeless Amantino Mancini is expected to secure a permanent deal with the Rossoneri. How and why such a deal can be made is beyond belief. It makes no rational sense. After all, it is not like Mancini impressed in the seven games that he played for Milan last season. On the contrary, he was absolutely pathetic.

A few years back, Mancini did enjoy a rather impressive spell with Roma. At one point he was one of Europe’s hottest players. However, ever since he signed for Inter for the 2008-09 season, Mancini’s career has been on a downward spiral. He failed to impress then Inter coach Jose Mourinho after a number of poor displays and he was consequently cast aside. Mourinho instead opted for Samuel Eto’o to play on Inter’s right wing, not a natural wide player by any means but it seemed to work out for Mourinho’s team in the end.

A key feature of Mancini’s game during his prime was his speed. But he has now lost this speed, that change of pace that can make wide players so effective is no longer a feature of his game. This is why he has been so poor in recent times and at the age of 30, he is not getting any younger, or faster.

At a time when Milan need to be investing in young quality players, a permanent deal by the Milan hierarchy is offered to a player who by all accounts is past his prime and is on the wrong side of 30.

Regardless of who becomes Milan’s next coach, though it is rather inevitable that it will be Massimiliano Allegri, Milan do need a right winger. The board are right on this point, but only on this point. For Amantino Mancini is not the solution.

Instead, there is one player who has been linked to Milan and who is a much more suitable alternative. This player is Pedro Leon of Getafe. At the age of 23 years old, Pedro Leon is an exciting and promising prospect. He is fast, has great technical ability, can run with the ball at speed and is a danger from the set piece. More importantly he is a young player with a big future. This is not the kind of player Milan should buy. This is the kind of player Milan need to buy. Additionally, it is rumoured that he would only cost Milan 10 million Euros. Not a hefty price tag even for a financially prudent Milan.

But, it seems more likely that instead of buying such a player like Pedro Leon, once again Milan are settling for an old and washed up player, this time in the shape of Amantino Mancini.

Recently Galliani was quoted as saying that Milan will sign one world class player this summer along with some youthful prospects. But, not for the first time it seems Galliani is more talk than substance. If Uncle Fester secures Mancini on a permanent deal, it will be a direct contradiction to what he has promised. It will show that Milan’s transfer policy has not altered at all this summer. Rather, it is the same old tricks again.

It is not clear exactly what the current board’s intentions for Milan are. But it does seem that they are none to concerned in ensuring Milan remains a power in European football. Signing players such as Mancini, Yepes and Oneywu does not indicate that the board has any great ambitions for Milan.

For now, the deal has still yet to be made. There is still a chance that Mancini will not sign. However, it does seem likely that a deal will be done as reports continue to indicate. What is most unfortunate is that if and when this deal is made, then Milan will most likely cool their interest in Pedro Leon.

To see what we may well miss out on seeing, take a look at this video.