It has always felt like Memphis Depay has unfinished business to take care of at Manchester United. In a week that saw PSV's latest Dutch star move to the north west of England, it's hard not to recall United signing Depay seven-and-a-half years ago.
There are certainly a fair share of similarities between Depay and Cody Gakpo. Depay, then 21, arrived at Old Trafford as the Dutch league’s top scorer in the previous season with 22 goals in 30 games, though he preferred to play on the left wing rather than through the middle.
He had also recently impressed for the Netherlands at a World Cup, and expectations were high for him to make the step-up in his career and take the Premier League by storm.
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It didn't quite work out that way. Louis van Gaal was sacked at the end of Depay's debut season, he only made eight appearances under Jose Mourinho and was sold after just 18 months at Old Trafford.
One of the reasons behind his sale is that Mourinho saw him more as a winger, an area in which they were overstocked, than a striker - a glaring similarity with United's dilemma heading into next month.
Depay himself felt let down by United and tasked sports analytics company SciSports with helping him find a new club where he could 'play more freely, be important for the team, play in a top European league and for a manager with a clear style of play'. Lyon ticked all those boxes.
In hindsight, the move to United came a little too early for the Dutch winger, though upon his exit, Mourinho confirmed his faith in the forward by insisting on a buy-back clause should he find his feet at Lyon and make United regret letting him go.
The Portuguese would be proved right with Depay's revival in France, though United had long since sacked Mourinho by the time Depay enjoyed his best season, with the Dutch forward ending his final campaign as the joint-second top scorer behind Kylian Mbappe and the assist leader in Ligue 1 in 2020-21.
By the time he signed for Barcelona as a free agent last year, Depay had finally made the transition from a winger into a proven striker and had showcased his maturity to lead the line, exactly what United are in need of next month.
Once again, Mourinho is proving to be a valuable voice, and last year he explained exactly why the Dutch forward is now worth taking a risk on again.
"He is a really good professional. People can look at him and probably think he’s a party boy. I think he got this maturity in Lyon which is sometimes what players need," Mourinho told talkSPORT.
"Sometimes they can go too early to the biggest clubs where they are not ready to cope with it. Where they are not ready to understand that in the biggest clubs there are internal competition, that you can not play all the time.
"That there are fantastic players to fight with you for a position. They can lose a little sense of reality and become a bit childish. Which is what happened. So when he decided to go to Lyon it was a great move for him."
The 28-year-old had a lot of growing up to do and did it with style. He is now a more-rounded forward, and certainly fits into the mould of a central striker more comfortably than other names being linked with Old Trafford.
Even amid his struggles at Barcelona he has still enjoyed a decent return of 14 goals from 41 appearances, and with his contract expiring at the end of the season, there is a compelling reason to secure him on a loan deal with no obligation to make it permanent.
Having originally been signed with great expectation and pressure on his shoulders, Depay could get his chance at redemption as a low-risk signing next month.
Depay might not be the superstar they hoped he would have been at Old Trafford at 2015, but this time he doesn't need to be.
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